App store links do not work for OS updates

[TiredTechnique]

I have a mid 2012 unibody macbook Pro, I'm replacing the hard drive so I had to go through and do the entire sequence of OS updates. It starts on Mountain Lion, which I updated to El Capitan using the DMG download links on here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683. The link for Catalina appears to do absolutely nothing, though. I'm on fully updated Safari, with the app store closed, and when I click on the link for Catalina that is supposed to open up the app store and give me a download link, it takes me to a new safari tab for the operating system, and then does absolutely nothing else. Completely worthless and frustrating.

Is there a way to force this to work? Or a good alternative to this process?

Thanks

 

[anshuvorty]

I have a mid 2012 unibody macbook Pro, I'm replacing the hard drive so I had to go through and do the entire sequence of OS updates. It starts on Mountain Lion, which I updated to El Capitan using the DMG download links on here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683. The link for Catalina appears to do absolutely nothing, though. I'm on fully updated Safari, with the app store closed, and when I click on the link for Catalina that is supposed to open up the app store and give me a download link, it takes me to a new safari tab for the operating system, and then does absolutely nothing else. Completely worthless and frustrating.

Is there a way to force this to work? Or a good alternative to this process?

Thanks

Try terminal commands, possible?

Download macOS Installers with Terminal

Most of the time, you can re-download the current version of macOS via the Mac App Store, and older ones via these links: macOS Catalina macOS Mojave macOS High Sierra macOS Sierra OS X El Capitan OS X Yosemite However, I've run into a situation several times where the Software Update mechanism...

512pixels.net

 

[TiredTechnique]

Try terminal commands, possible?

Download macOS Installers with Terminal

Most of the time, you can re-download the current version of macOS via the Mac App Store, and older ones via these links: macOS Catalina macOS Mojave macOS High Sierra macOS Sierra OS X El Capitan OS X Yosemite However, I've run into a situation several times where the Software Update mechanism...

512pixels.net

"unrecognized option '--fetch-full-installer'. Doesn't work.

 

[TiredTechnique]

Dosdude patcher also does not work, it gets the installer successfully but then spits out a "missing firmware partition" error.