Problem creating bootable installer for El Capitan

Question

Problem creating bootable installer for El Capitan

Hi,

When I try to create a bootable installer for El Capitan on a new MacBook Pro (A1278) in Nov. 2015 using the SUDO string included in

HT201372: Create a bootable installer for OS X, I get an immediate fail with the response "sudo: unable to initialize PAM: No such file or directory." Diskmaker X runs into the same problem response and loops on it. Is there a workaround or solution to this problem?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), Model A1278 bought November 2015

Posted on Nov 27, 2015 11:29 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Nov 30, 2015 7:22 AM in response to martin b.fromann arbor

If you don't already have a current backup, please back up all data, then reinstall the OS.* You don't need to erase the startup volume, and you won't need the backup unless something goes wrong. If the system was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you may need the Apple ID and password you used.

There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.

If you installed the Java runtime distributed by Apple and still need it, you'll have to reinstall it. The same goes for Xcode. All other data will be preserved.

*The linked support article refers to OS X 10.11 ("El Capitan"), but the procedure is the same for OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later.

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 27, 2015 6:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for the suggestions. Does it matter that this is a brand-new MacBook Pro, bought from the Apple Store and delivered to me 3 days ago on Nov. 24? All I've done is update the system from 10.11 to 10.11.1, transfer in the files from my previous Mac, and do a bit of web browsing.

Reply

Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Nov 27, 2015 6:12 PM in response to martin b.fromann arbor

The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.

If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

Reply

Answer 4

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Nov 27, 2015 6:58 PM in response to martin b.fromann arbor

IN the link that you gave for the bootable of El Capitan did you use the example for El Capitan or the path . The example is the one you use. Under (My Volume) the name has to be exactly the same as whatever you named it or it will not work and you will get the message you got. The path is to create a disc image for the bootable volume. Here is a link to do it as one complete command.http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/how-to-make-your-own-bootable-os-x-10-11-el -capitan-usb-install-d

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 27, 2015 8:00 PM in response to my ginger

my ginger, I used the exact text in the example. I renamed my thumb drive "MyVolume" so I could just copy and paste the text of the El Capitan SUDO string into Terminal. That's how I got the response I got: "sudo: unable to initialize PAM: No such file or directory."

After I got your reply, I clicked through to the arstechnica.com web site, selected and copied the command there, re-erased my thumb drive and named it "Untitled", pasted the command in Terminal, and got the same response I got before.

Reply

Answer 6

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Nov 27, 2015 10:30 PM in response to martin b.fromann arbor

I did this for yosemite and it was some while ago so I had to remember how. One of the things I forgot is that the drive that you want to install the bootable El Capital download to has to be formatted. You must do it the same way you would if you are installing onto a new internal drive. In disk utilities you have to erase the full drive then go to partitions. Select 1 partition and set it as a GUID partition then click apply. Then I think if you go back into terminal an do what you did before it should work. The only thing I did maybe different was I copied and pasted the commands I found on the web page. I opened on my desktop and changed the(my volume) name to the name of the volume I had for the drive. Then copied it into terminal. I named the target disk untitled, but I don' remember if I used a capital letter or not . there was something about it working one way but not the other. That worked for me. The usb or flash drive has to be at least 8 GB to work.After the install I changed the name on the disk to Yosemite install disk. Thats why I can't find what I named it to install on.

Reply

Answer 7

Nov 30, 2015 8:16 AM in response to Linc Davis

Linc,

It was hard for me to believe that the original, factory system on my new machine and/or the 10.11.1 updater were causing the problem, but I took your advice and reinstalled the OS. I'm not sure whether the on-board recovery disk was working or not because the screen that came up after I chose to reinstall at noon on Saturday said "Downloading additional components. Your computer will restart automatically. About 36 hours and 6 minutes remaining." When I went to bed at 1 AM on Sunday morning, the time remaining was 22 hours. However, when I got up at 6 AM, the installer was running and said installation would be complete in about 7 minutes.

Ten minutes later, I opened Terminal, inserted the thumb drive I wanted to be my El Cap Installer, pasted in the appropriate SUDO command, and got the following "mom message" before the Password prompt: "We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things: #1) Respect the privacy of others. #2) Think before you type. #3) With great power comes great responsibility." That's very different from the message Terminal used to display the first time a user invoked SUDO. My recollection of that old boilerplate is that it said (in essence) "Are you sure you know what you're doing? Go here to read more about SUDO. Type [this] to abort."

Anyway, after entering my admin password and hitting return, I got the following response: "Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application." I quit Terminal, double-clicked Install OS X El Capitan.app in my Applications folder, and got what appeared to be a normal start screen, so I chose to install OS X El Capitan on my thumb drive to see if there would be problems with the installation. I had set up the 16 GB thumb drive with an 8 GB partition, but the Installer said it needed an additional 2.97 GB to install El Cap, so I used Disk Utility to change the thumb drive to one, 16 GB partition, and proceeded to install. A little over an hour later, I had a start-up thumb drive that worked, so I felt confident there was no problem with my Install OS X El Capitan.app program.

I went back to Terminal, inserted a new thumb drive to be my El Cap Installer, pasted in the appropriate SUDO command again, and everything proceeded just fine. After entering my admin password, I got a prompt for consent to erase the thumb drive, which took only a few seconds after I said "Yes," and then, in less than 13 minutes, the job was done and I had an El Cap installer thumb drive.

Thanks for your help.

Reply

Answer 8

Nov 30, 2015 8:23 AM in response to my ginger

my ginger,

Thanks for your additional suggestions on the 27th. I had formatted the thumb drive appropriately using GUID, so that wasn't the problem. Following Linc's suggestion to reinstall the OS eventually solved my problem, but it took 18 hours to do the reinstall, and that delayed my responses to you and him.

Reply