Q: Install OS X El Capitan.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application.
-
Oct 7, 2015 9:23 PMby babowa,Maybe I am not understanding something correctly, but if the installer starts normally, why do you need to do it via a command line? FWIW, the installer should be located in your Applications folder - that is the default location where it is downloaded to and you can simply launch it from there. If you copy it to another location for safekeeping, you will have a copy of it as the installer self destructs after the install is complete.
-
Oct 7, 2015 9:38 PMby Linc Davis,Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES â–¹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View â–¹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take an action that isn't working the way you expect. Select any lines that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
-
Oct 7, 2015 9:48 PMby Mark Cohen6,Thanks, Linc.
The log is not particularly revealing l It just echoes my command:
==========
10/7/15 9:41:36.642 PM sudo[32046]: mscohen : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Users/mscohen ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Install --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app --nointeraction
==========
The error still appears in the terminal window.
As was noted above by CKYUN, my intention is to create a bootable recovery flash drive with the latest OS. It is a form of security that leaves me much more comfortable when I have to travel, for example.
FWIW: Typing in the command line manually did not change the results.
I appreciate everyone's quick comments.
-
Oct 7, 2015 10:03 PMby Mark Cohen6,For the record, I created a GUID partitioned 16 Gb thumb drive (currently named, "Install") for this purpose prior to running the command line. If there is no mounted thumb drive with the correct name, the error is different:
/Volumes/Install is not a valid volume mount point.
-
Oct 7, 2015 10:15 PMby Linc Davis,HelpfulThe name has to match the command argument. Does it?
By the way, I tried out this procedure myself, and although I didn't get an error, the resulting installer didn't work. I only tried once, but there is at least that much evidence that the procedure doesn't work. I wouldn't trust it in an emergency.
What I would do in your place is bring with me a larger flash drive, or maybe more than one, with a complete installation of OS X and all my essential data and software.
-
Oct 7, 2015 10:19 PMby Mark Cohen6,Thanks Linc.
I am very sure that I have entered the command line arguments correctly. It is also the Apple-recommended procedure for this purpose (see: Create a bootable installer for OS X - Apple Support).
While creating a bootable volume with the OS installed is one alternative, it could not be used to repair a damaged system file. This is to be a recovery device, not an emergency workaround.
At the moment, I think it likely that the error may be pointing me in the right direction. Perhaps the copy of the El Cap installer that I downloaded is actually invalid for some reason.
-
Oct 8, 2015 12:50 PMby Mark Cohen6,Resolved. The problem was that the downloaded version of the El Capitan installer was incomplete. Specifically, AppStore stalled out on download and only 1.99 GB of the 6.08 GB installer was present. It was enough that double-clicking the app allowed it to open, but it was, indeed, not a valid installer.
I was able to re-do the download and got the entire file. NOTE: To complete the download, I needed to disable Sophos anti-virus. This may be a problem for others as well.
Good luck, and thanks to the folks who tried to help.
