How to install OS Ventura on an external SSD from a new Mac Studio M2 Ultra. I'm losing my mind: cannot do it..

moebius7 wrote:

Hello,genius. I failed nothing. I copied and pasted it from Apple. How did I FAIL?

You didn't copy and paste if from Apple. You changed the name of the volume and failed to enter the full name correctly.

That's why it told you it couldn't find "External," not "External SSD." Spaces mean stuff in Unix.

You CATEGORICALLY said that it could not be done. It's there, in print. You WROTE IT. You're an A-list loser. Wow, this is a crazy, disgusting place to come.

I stated that it could not be done if your Mac was unable to run Ventura as you alluded in one of your diatribes. The fact that you were able to download Ventura means your Mac is capable of running Ventura. You obviously have a reading comprehension problem.

moebius7 wrote:

I cannot get this infernal new, Sonoma-shipped Mac Studio to allow me to make a simple bootable external SSD of Ventura.

If the computer shipped with Sonoma, then it may not boot with anything earlier. Sometimes you can get lucky, but you can't count on luck.

I posted on another forum

Can't help with that.

Is there anyone who can coherently and simply provide a step-by-step, idiot-proof instruction on how to do what I want, please?

How about this? Create a bootable installer - Apple Support

Those instructions are mostly about setting up a USB stick, but you should be able to do that and target the external. And if you set it up for Ventura and it won't boot, then you know you can't do it.

I have similar issues with Sonoma. Recently Apple forcibly updated me to Sonoma. I had to do that procedure to get back to Monterey, so it definitely does work on Apple Silicon.

I think your only issue might be then format of the external. I would recommend formatting it as MacOS Extended - the standard format. The installer will convert it to APFS.

Barney-15E wrote:

Everymac.com states that model originally shipped with Ventura. I don't think it was until M3 models that they originally shipped with Sonoma.

But there is no way of knowing if Apple's "activation" will reject the installation because the OP hacked it instead of properly escaping the space. I saw someone else make the exact same error: Making Bootable USB Installer (Monterey) … - Apple Community.

I've seen the same kind of behaviour in other places and it's infuriating. Over in the developer forums, it was always people who couldn't manage to notarize their apps. Because they pressed the enter key and didn't get an immediate failure message on the console, they would be absolutely convinced that they had notarized their app. Then they would be totally mystified at why their app wouldn't run. I would try to explain that it wasn't notarized. But they categorically rejected that because they had pressed the enter key in the Terminal. Therefore, the app was notarized.

This is the same kind of thing. "I typed it on the command line like Apple said. It didn't work. Therefore, Apple's instructions are WRONG!" The idea that they actually did it wrong is flat-out impossible.

Thank you kindly for taking the time. I will check out the link. Well, "it" may not boot, but people are saying one can create an external bootable OS that will.

What people? You can only create a startup drive (internal or external) with an OS that is actually supported on the Mac.

Why are so many people assuring others that it's actually "easy" to create a bootable external OS, of a different version to the present one? In this case, Sonoma.

It is, but details matter. Your Mac cannot run Ventura, so you can’t do it on that Mac. You can only make a Sonoma external startup drive.

In fact, someone on Reddit asserted is was possible to actually downgrade an internal drive that was shipped with OS "X" to an earlier version. He gave detailed instructions and links (actually from Apple) and an ex Apple Genius Bar person (of five years experience) categorically concurred that it is possible.

It is possible in very specific circumstances. The exact model Mac must have originally shipped with the previous OS. OnCe Apple releases a new OS, they load that OS on unshipped models. Since that model actually shipped with the previous OS, it will run that previous OS. It is also possible that Apple slightly changes the hardware in that model after initial release. That different hardware may require the new OS.

All I can tell you for certain is that the internet is full of incorrect information, casual lies, and malicious disinformation.

Every Mac computer has a certain, minimum required operating system required to boot. Usually that is the version of the operating system that was released before the computer was assembled at the factory. In rare cases, you can find older stock that has been sitting on a shelf somewhere that still has the previous OS version. At the other extreme, if you buy a brand new computer, it may come with a specific version of the operating installed that you can't get anywhere else.

In other rare cases you can find some computer that has shipped with the current operating system, but it actually identical to the same computers that were assembled the month before. You may be able to install the previous OS version on these computers. Note my use of the word "may". You can interpret that to mean "probably not". One thing I noticed during my little Sonoma experience is that Apple Silicon has to be "activated" with an internet connection. It is safe to assume that this activation process consists of sending the serial number back to Apple and confirming that you aren't trying to do what you are trying to do. In short, you have a 90% chance of wasting your time on this experiment.

Don't worry about those lies being told on Reddit. In addition to being false, you would need a Sonoma computer to run Apple Configurator to do that DFU restore (the official name of that process). If your older computer doesn't have USB-C, then it probably can't run Sonoma. I don't know if an older version of Apple Configurator would work.

I'm certainly no fan of Sonoma, but I recommend just living with it. I was no fan of Ventura either until I bought my new MacBook Air. I'm still no fan of Ventura but I'm not going to make it worse by upgrading to Sonoma!

Sonoma should settle down sometime in June and stop getting so many updates. The bugs it still has at that point will be the bugs it will always have. Hopefully they will be better understood by then and people will have figured out how to work around them or live with them. As bad as Sonoma might ever get, it'll be better than macOS 15. If I'm somehow wrong and Apple starts writing decent software, I'm sure you'll hear about it. Just ignore what people say on the internet, especially if they are telling you to upgrade for some "security" reason. Those are 100% lies.

It keeps telling me that the OS (Ventura) is not supported on this computer. Well, yes, I kind of know that much.

It doesn’t matter why you want to create an external startup drive. Since that Mac cannot startup from Ventura, there is no way you can create any Ventura startup drive with that Mac. It doesn’t matter if it is internal or external. It doesn’t matter if it is on the moon. You cannot create a Ventura startup drive with that Mac.

Is there anyone who can coherently and simply provide a step-by-step, idiot-proof instruction on how to do what I want, please?

No, there is not as it is impossible.

It doesn’t matter if it was Intel or Apple Silicon. You cannot create a startup drive for an OS that cannot start up that Mac.

Barney-15E wrote:

The fact that you were able to download Ventura means your Mac is capable of running Ventura.

Several messages in this thread have been deleted. You were right the first time. That computer shipped with Sonoma and almost certainly can't run Ventura. The OP used a notorious internet hack to run Ventura.

I got curious and played around a little myself. I discovered that you actually can create a bootable USB of an older OS version on a newer one. I created a Monterey boot drive using Ventura. The same worked in Sonoma but my Sonoma VM doesn't support real USB devices. Sonoma thinks it created a bootable disk image.

But I also had to cheat a little bit in order to get the Monterey installer. The App Store won't download it but there are alternative methods. This is only a minor cheat since I could download it if I had a computer that can run it, which I do.

You were right the first time. That computer shipped with Sonoma and almost certainly can't run Ventura. The OP used a notorious internet hack to run Ventura.

Everymac.com states that model originally shipped with Ventura. I don't think it was until M3 models that they originally shipped with Sonoma.

It sounds like you've a victim of the internet: If it's on the internet it must. be true.