Cannot create installer for Sonoma

[antoine23]

I need to create a USB installer, or at least get the full .app installer (not the 43MB silly one) for Sonoma.

Here's what I tried:
- I tried Recovery but the internet download breaks because my connection is not good.
- I therefore downloaded (after lots of hours and retries) InstallAssistant.pkg from Apple CDN via direct link, it is over 13GB.
- I launched it, and it creates a silly 43MB "Install macOS Sonoma.app"
- I then tried the instructions here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...s-using-terminal-failed.2395335/post-32305379 to create a USB bootable, but that fails with

Install macOS Sonoma.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application.

I also tried adding "--downloadassets", even though I don't understand why would it download something if InstallAssistant.pkg is over 13GB!

1) Any suggestions ? What am I doing wrong ?

2) Why can't I convert InstallAssistant.pkg into a full .app installer ? It does not makes any sense to download 13GB .pkg that then creates a 43MB .app that redownloads everything...

 

[kitKAC]

Get the installer from here: https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-sonoma-full-installer-database-download-directly-from-apple/

I have no idea why a 13Gb installer turns into a 43Mb app, it's never happened to me. You've got enough disk space to create the full installer once unpacked?

Edit: Are you using an Intel or Apple Silicon machine?

 

[Fishrrman]

Try "Mist":

Release 0.10 · ninxsoft/Mist

Mist now ships logs to the unified logging system! You can view the Mist Log window via the: ⌘ + L keyboard shortcut Mist > Window app menu Show Mist Log toolbar button Logs can also be monitor...

github.com

(download the "dmg" file)

Here's a post I put up with some instructions:

Rolling back to prior OS on M2 chip mac

Re the reply 9 above. I simply can't explain as to what you might be doing wrong. I tried Mist to create a bootable USB flashdrive and it was "as easy as pie". Hmmm... going to get out my MacBook Pro and retry the process right now. PRINT OUT this reply (or you may not remember it) OK...

forums.macrumors.com

One proviso:
Mist is relatively new, and may not run on older Macs or on older OS's.
But TRY IT first to see if it will work for you.

 

[antoine23]

Get the installer from here: https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-sonoma-full-installer-database-download-directly-from-apple/

I have no idea why a 13Gb installer turns into a 43Mb app, it's never happened to me. You've got enough disk space to create the full installer once unpacked?

Edit: Are you using an Intel or Apple Silicon machine?

I tried with both Intel and ARM (Apple Silicon)

I think there's a bug on the installer .pkg scripts.

If I select the boot drive it will install properly to /Applications with 13GB size.
If I select another drive (which I needed) it will create an /Applications folder in it but the file will be 43MB

 

[antoine23]

Try "Mist":

Release 0.10 · ninxsoft/Mist

Mist now ships logs to the unified logging system! You can view the Mist Log window via the: ⌘ + L keyboard shortcut Mist > Window app menu Show Mist Log toolbar button Logs can also be monitor...

github.com

(download the "dmg" file)

Here's a post I put up with some instructions:

Rolling back to prior OS on M2 chip mac

Re the reply 9 above. I simply can't explain as to what you might be doing wrong. I tried Mist to create a bootable USB flashdrive and it was "as easy as pie". Hmmm... going to get out my MacBook Pro and retry the process right now. PRINT OUT this reply (or you may not remember it) OK...

forums.macrumors.com

One proviso:
Mist is relatively new, and may not run on older Macs or on older OS's.
But TRY IT first to see if it will work for you.

Thanks! Will give Mist a try later, I solved the issue by selecting the boot drive for installation, then the installer would have the right size and thus would allow me to create a boot drive from it.
If I selected a drive that was not a boot drive, it would not work (installer would be 43MB)