MacOS problems with start up

Hi!

A few years ago my friend gave me his old laptop. I believe he did some upgrades to it, but I am not sure what. There were no issues until the loading screen kept getting stuck as I was trying to login after entering the password.

I have tried a few reset options and now it is my understanding that I don't have a compatible OS somehow.

I have tried reinstalling it in recovery mode. And get an error. operation couldn't be completed. (com.apple.Buildinfo.preflight.error error 21)

error log -

Lersetupd [502]: IFJS: Package Authoring Error: access to path "/tmp/. com.apple.dt. CommandLineTools, installondemand.in-progress" requires <options allow-external-scr lersetupd [502):

IFJS: Package Authoring Error: access to path "/tmp/.com.apple.dt. CommandLineTools. installondemand. in-progress" requires «options allow-external-scr:

lersetupd [502]: 05ISPredicateUpdateProduct: Incompatible Apps List: No product found lersetupd [502): Failed to find incompatible apps list on software update catalog lersetupd [502]: Predicate update product fetch succeeded!

lersetupd [502]: OSISMobileSoftwareUpdateProduct: Update bundle archive doesn't exist: /var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/UpdateBundle.zip Ilersetupd [502]: OSISMobileSoftwareUpdateProduct: SFR update bundle archive doesn't exist: /var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/SFR/UpdateBundle.zip

My understanding is that I will need to get a compatible OS on to a USB and then install it that way - is this correct?

upon startup, I get a restricted symbol with ‘http://apple.com/mac/startup’

Thank you