High Sierra installer error: "The recovery server could not be contacted."

Just like many other people, I too am getting the error "The recovery server could not be contacted" from the High Sierra installer. I have read several suggestions, here and in other places, and none of them have helped me.

Some people are saying that the two-step installer that was initially released has been replaced with the one-step installer used with previous upgrades. (The two-step installer downloads a small installer that then downloads the needed installation files once you start the process. The one-step installer downloads the whole set of installation files up front.) I am not finding this to be the case, as every attempt I make to redownload the installer from the MAS just results in getting the same two-step installer, which just produces the same error.

Some are suggesting that it's just because the servers are busy due to the recent release. I initially thought this as well, but some additional investigation suggests otherwise. The Sierra installer contacts the same server at the start (swscan.apple.com), and gets an immediate response. If it was simply heavy traffic, I should be seeing the same trouble contacting the server regardless of which OS version's installer is running. Likewise, a ping of swscan.apple.com brings an immediate return from Akamai, suggesting that server load in and of itself is not the problem (and also confirming that my issue is not a problem with my net connection or DNS resolution).

One response I saw found that replacing /private/etc/hosts with the default file helped that person. I did this and had no improvement. Another suggested that because the installer log contains a line saying, "Target is not convertible to APFS: This volume is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)," this was the source of the problem. I don't buy that, for two reasons. First, other entries in my log provide the error message about the server and do not have anything in them to indicate that the disk format was an issue for that error. Second, diskutil in the Terminal returns in the info on that disk that it is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). (The attempted conversion itself is the expected behavior, as this disk is an aftermarket internal SSD.)

So at this point, I think there's more than enough evidence to suggest that there's an underlying issue in this installer that's causing this problem for multiple people. I don't know what the particular trigger is, but I don't think it can simply be written off to network traffic or user error. There's something funky about how this installer is trying to operate that's causing certain systems to be unable to begin the installation.

In the hopes of someone finding a solution, here's the relevant portion of install.log for my most recent attempt:

Sep 27 14:11:50 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_springboard[2423]: Springboarding to: /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/MacOS/InstallAssistant_plain

Sep 27 14:11:50 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_springboard[2423]: argv[0]: InstallAssistant_plain

Sep 27 14:11:50 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_springboard[2423]: argv[1]: -psn_0_663714

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Hardware: MacBookPro6,1 @ 2.53 GHz (x 4), 8192 MB RAM

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Running OS Build: Mac OS X 10.10.5 (14F2511)

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING=0x1F5:0x0:0x0

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: TMPDIR=/var/folders/_v/rkpr5z4j7y93fkchh5038lnr0000gn/T/

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: HOME=/Users/qpanda

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: SHELL=/bin/bash

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.XSDRinLiDX/Listeners

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.BWkh4XDlnk/Render

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: DISPLAY=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.WQPogyO8Ua/org.macosforge.xquartz:0

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: LOGNAME=qpanda

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: XPC_SERVICE_NAME=com.apple.xpc.launchd.oneshot.0x10000019.InstallAssistant_spri ngboard

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: COMMAND_MODE=unix2003

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: USER=qpanda

Sep 27 14:11:51 PandaBookII.local InstallAssistant_plain[2423]: Env: XPC_FLAGS=0x0

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: OSISChunkedDownload loaded...

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: OSISSoftwareUpdateController: Using catalog (source: GM Default): https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-1 0.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Using product <OSISSharedSupportProduct: 0x7fce43620e50> at distance 10

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: osinstallersetupd registered client

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Failed to load BridgeOSInstall.framework: dlopen(/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BridgeOSInstall.framework/BridgeOSInst all, 1): image not found

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Current version of BridgeOSInstall.framework doesn't have the latest API, assuming machine does not have bridgeOS

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Is solid state disk returned: -69808

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: isConvertableToAPFS: was called on a APFS disk.

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Target is not convertible to APFS: This volume is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Is solid state disk returned: -69808

Sep 27 14:11:52 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: isConvertableToAPFS: was called on a APFS disk.

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Target is not convertible to APFS: This volume is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Is solid state disk returned: -69808

Sep 27 14:11:52 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Sep 27 14:11:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: OSISSoftwareUpdateController: Failed to load catalog https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-1 0.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog: Error Domain=MSUProductManagerErrorDomain Code=51 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (MSUProductManagerErrorDomain error 51.)" UserInfo=0x7fce4363e160 {NSURL=https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-1 0.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fce4363eee0 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (MSUURLAuthenticationErrorDomain error 4.)"}

Sep 27 14:12:26 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Using product <OSISPredicateUpdateInstallerProduct: 0x7fce43740980> at distance 20

Sep 27 14:12:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: OSISPredicateUpdateProduct: Timed out loading catalog

Sep 27 14:12:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: OSISPredicateUpdateProduct: No products found.

Sep 27 14:12:52 PandaBookII.local osinstallersetupplaind[2437]: Predicate update product fetch failed with error: Error Domain=com.apple.OSInstallerSetup.error Code=300 "The recovery server could not be contacted." UserInfo=0x7fce43545930 {NSLocalizedDescription=The recovery server could not be contacted.}

The part of this that caught my eye is the entry:

OSISSoftwareUpdateController: Failed to load catalog https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-1 0.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog: Error Domain=MSUProductManagerErrorDomain Code=51 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (MSUProductManagerErrorDomain error 51.)" UserInfo=0x7fce4363e160 {NSURL=https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-1 0.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fce4363eee0 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (MSUURLAuthenticationErrorDomain error 4.)"}

If I run the Sierra installer, the equivalent entry reads:

Checking Software Update catalog URL https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.12customerseed-10.12-1 0.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz

This appears to be the point where the install is failing. Other than the specific file being targeted, I don't see any relevant difference between the two URLs, so I don't think a malformed URL is the problem. That still leaves numerous other possibilities, though. What I know is that the former is failing and the latter is succeeding.

So, any ideas?