MBP 2008 / 4.1 can’t reinstall El Capitan OS from recovery mode

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Level 1

7 points

MBP 2008 / 4.1 can’t reinstall El Capitan OS from recovery mode

Greetings,

The question is regarding a MBP 2008 model A1260 / MBP4.1 / order MB133LL/A .

Here’s the troubleshooting steps done. The main question can be resumed at point #6.

That model by default can run MacOS up to Yosemite (10.10), but I previously installed El Capitain on it which I think overwrote the firmware. I did a zero format of the HDD with Ubuntu, and the MBP would boot to a flashing folder icon with a question mark forcing to boot into recovery mode. In recovery mode the software offers to install El Capitain.

After setting the clock correctly with ntpdate -u time.apple.com , since the battery is dead, I managed to reach the point where the installation would try to download the updates, but I get the error message: “An unexpected error occurred while signing in. The server gave an error during the download: 403 Forbidden.”

1. Why am I getting this error message? Could it be that Apple server won’t allow to reinstall straight El Capitain on a MBP set to stop updating to Yosemite?

2. Is there any way to reinstall the OS from recovery mode at this point? I don’t think the firmware can be downgraded (to Yosemite) right?

I managed to reinstall an OS via an official Apple DVD of Leopard. I successfully updated Leopard to 10.5.8, but I am noticing that unfortunately, the “App Store” did not exist back then on that OS! Thus, I downloaded both El Capitan and Lion from: How to download and install macOS - Apple Support via the section named “Use a web browser”, but when I open the .dmg both .pkg gives the same error message: “operation could not be completed com.apple.installer.pagecontroller error -1 couldn’t open installmacosx.pkg” (even in safe mode).

3. Is there a way to overcome that error message?

I also tried creating an USB bootable version of El Capitain on Windows from the .dmg offered by Apple on the URL I mentionned above, both with TransMac and DMG2IMG (with the USB key having its partition table set to GPT), but the MBP won’t detect the USB key even though the firmware under recovery mode has no password set under “Startup Security Utility” (which shows that “Firmware password protection is off”). I can only think of the .dmg file being corrupted…

4. Why the MBP won’t detect the USB bootable keys when holding alt / option at startup?

5. In recovery mode, disk utility can detect the .dmg or .pkg; is there some trick that can be done in recovery mode via disk utility to create a bootable USB key?

Via Mac OS 10.5.8, through Safari, I downloaded El Capitain and Lion from the URL mentionned above and via Disk Utility, I successfully did restore the .dmg (or .pkg) to the USB key, but still the MBP won’t detect the USB key when holding alt / option at startup. At this point, I am also wondering if the firmware could be corrupted and simply prevents from booting from USB key (even thought the MBP did boot from the original Apple Leopard DVD).

6. Is there a way to update from Leopard 10.5.8 to a newer OS considering that: 1. .pkg of newer OS gives the error message “operation could not be completed com.apple.installer.pagecontroller error -1 couldn’t open installmacosx.pkg”; 2. bootable USB key aren’t detected when created under Windows or Mac; and 3. recovery mode gives the error message “An unexpected error occurred while signing in. The server gave an error during the download: 403 Forbidden” (when trying to reinstall the OS)?

I haven’t tried archive.org files as I can’t be sure they aren’t edited. Is the last solution to bring in the MBP to an Apple store as Apple representative kindly offered me?

Thanks much in advance,

Best regards,

B

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 19, 2023 9:17 AM

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Answer 1

Burialfaith Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 21, 2023 10:53 AM in response to BDAqua

Greetings BDAqua,

I forgot to add that I already had tried to do alt+cmd+p+r before inserting the bootable USB key created from TransMac or DMG2ISO, but that did not make the USB key appear when holding alt at startup.

I had to format the MBP which had Leopard installed as it would not boot into recovery mode as I did not care much about having that OS installed by deleting admin password via terminal commands in order to restore access to the recovery mode.

This being said, I tried both alt+cmd+p+r and shift+ctrl+alt+power button (for 10 sec), but still the USB key would not be detected. I don’t have an external Apple keyboard.

I managed to solve the issue from creating a working bootable USB key of El Capitan from a MBP2012 with the help you provided on the other thread I created for the MBP2012. Since I downloaded the very same El Capitan .dmg file from the Apple website on the MBP2012 as I did on Windows and that the USB key created on Windows with TransMac or DMG2ISO are not working/detected by the MBP2008, I can only speculate that TransMac and DMG2ISO are not working at all to create a bootable USB key or El Capitan or Sierra on Windows (which should answer one of the three questions listed in question #6 in my original post).

Now that I zeroed the HDD with the official DVD of leopard from Apple (via disk utility erase option in recovery mode), none of the following three commands lead to the recovery mode: cmd+r, alt+cmd+r and alt (via internet recovery). The MBP appears to be a brick without a bootable USB key of El Capitan that I successfully created.

Thus, regarding one of the three questions of question #6, namely the .pgk of El Capitan producing the “operation could not be completed com.apple.installer.pagecontroller error -1 couldn’t open installmacosx.pkg”, I can only guess that Leopard has not all the components needed deal with newer .dmg/.pgk files that allows to update to newer OS from. Is that the explanation?

Lastly, regarding the last of the three questions of question #6, why would recovery mode gives the error message “An unexpected error occurred while signing in. The server gave an error during the download: 403 Forbidden” (when trying to reinstall the OS)? Would the MBP connect to the wrong and now unexisting server to download a copy of MacOS or is that error actually on the Apple server side?

Again, thanks a lot for helping and thanks in advance for helping me clearing things out!

Best regards,

Take care,

B

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

251,379 points

Nov 19, 2023 10:49 PM in response to Burialfaith

Can you try a wired USB Keyboard?

Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)...

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

251,379 points

Nov 21, 2023 1:54 PM in response to Burialfaith

I've not heard of anyone successfully using Windows® to make bootable Mac USB sticks... by design I believe.

With Leopard installed can that download El Capitan installer?

See if you can upgrade to 10.11, see sys requirements...

Hhttp://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg

http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg

Or maybe Lion?

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Answer 4

Burialfaith Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 21, 2023 2:28 PM in response to BDAqua

Greetings DBAqua,

Thanks for the reply.

In my original post, I said:”

”I managed to reinstall an OS via an official Apple DVD of Leopard. I successfully updated Leopard to 10.5.8, but I am noticing that unfortunately, the “App Store” did not exist back then on that OS! Thus, I downloaded both El Capitan and Lion from: How to download and install macOS - Apple Support via the section named “Use a web browser”, …”

To clarify, yes I did try to download El Capitan via Safari from Apple website.

Thanks for sharing the links.

Best regards,

B

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Answer 5

Burialfaith Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 21, 2023 2:59 PM in response to BDAqua

Greetings BDAqua,

I hope that I can help one day with that!

I do have external HDDs, but I’m not quite interrested in installing the MacOS on external devices for convenience purposes.

Thanks for the suggestion.

B

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

251,379 points

Nov 21, 2023 12:22 PM in response to Burialfaith

Apple error codes have been terribly un-useful the last few years.

Did I hear you say you have the original CD/DBD & t bots from that?

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Answer 7

Burialfaith Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 21, 2023 12:37 PM in response to BDAqua

Correct. The MBP2008 lists and allows to boot from the Apple DVD of Leopard when holding alt at startup, but won’t list USB key created from Windows via TransMac or DMG2ISO.

B

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