MBP 1,1-10,2 Cannot Reinstall High Sierra on an "ancient" MacBook Pro - fixes?

[exi]

Question in title. Short take: have a late 2011 MBP which I'm needing for specific old software specialty use. Prohibited sign on attempted boot as machine was wiped from recovery/disk utility years ago. Recovery mode boot errors out on attempted reinstall (El Capitan, machine supports up to High Sierra). Had been without charge for years. Used Terminal to reset date. Attempted reinstall now works, but requests Apple ID login -- upon attempting to do so, I receive an error message stating my Apple ID only supports software back to certain versions, excluding these old OSs. Does not seem I can reinstall from Recovery Mode, either using cmd-R or opt-cmd-R, without Apple ID login?

Apple Silicon MBP: downloaded High Sierra installer from archive.org. zsh kill error on attempted Terminal use to create a bootable USB installer per Apple instructions. Found codesign terminal fix here on MR. Can now create bootable USB.

However, on the 2011 MBP, attempted boots from that USB as if to clean install, regardless of state of "ignore ownership" option on USB on the Apple Silicon machine, also return a prohibited / "no entry" sign.

What am I missing / any thoughts?

 

[Bigwaff]

Attempted reinstall now works, but requests Apple ID login -- upon attempting to do so, I receive an error message stating my Apple ID only supports software back to certain versions, excluding these old OSs.

Must you login to Apple ID? It is not required.

 

[exi]

Must you login to Apple ID? It is not required.

Appears unable to install without logging in.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Question in title. Short take: have a late 2011 MBP which I'm needing for specific old software specialty use. Prohibited sign on attempted boot as machine was wiped from recovery/disk utility years ago. Recovery mode boot errors out on attempted reinstall (El Capitan, machine supports up to High Sierra). Had been without charge for years. Used Terminal to reset date. Attempted reinstall now works, but requests Apple ID login -- upon attempting to do so, I receive an error message stating my Apple ID only supports software back to certain versions, excluding these old OSs. Does not seem I can reinstall from Recovery Mode, either using cmd-R or opt-cmd-R, without Apple ID login?

Apple Silicon MBP: downloaded High Sierra installer from archive.org. zsh kill error on attempted Terminal use to create a bootable USB installer per Apple instructions. Found codesign terminal fix here on MR. Can now create bootable USB.

However, on the 2011 MBP, attempted boots from that USB as if to clean install, regardless of state of "ignore ownership" option on USB on the Apple Silicon machine, also return a prohibited / "no entry" sign.

What am I missing / any thoughts?

Firmware password?
Could you do a PRAM reset on the MBP 2011?
Or when doing Internet Recovery, stop at the menu and disable SIP, check whether a firmware password was set?
I purchase an iMac 2011 with a firmware password. Only boot from the default internal drive. PRAM reset will result in a password box. It took me a great deal to remove the firmware password. Afterward, I check the firmware password firsthand on every 2nd hand Mac I buy.

 

[rampancy]

What am I missing / any thoughts?

I ran into a similar situation with a pair of Late-2010 MacBook Airs that I got recently.

First, due to neglect (what apparently is expired certificates) the servers required by Internet Recovery for anything older than Mojave (or at least, High Sierra) no longer work.

Second, for reasons I don't understand the High Sierra installer from archive.org doesn't work for either installing directly on a computer, or creating a bootable USB drive (for that matter, neither did the High Sierra installer I downloaded from the Mac App Store).

Third, the High Sierra installer on macinstallers.tech worked perfectly for creating a bootable USB install drive for 10.13; it's through this USB drive that I was able to do a clean install on both of my MacBook Airs.

 

[exi]

I ran into a similar situation with a pair of Late-2010 MacBook Airs that I got recently.

First, due to neglect (what apparently is expired certificates) the servers required by Internet Recovery for anything older than Mojave (or at least, High Sierra) no longer work.

Second, for reasons I don't understand the High Sierra installer from archive.org doesn't work for either installing directly on a computer, or creating a bootable USB drive (for that matter, neither did the High Sierra installer I downloaded from the Mac App Store).

Third, the High Sierra installer on macinstallers.tech worked perfectly for creating a bootable USB install drive for 10.13; it's through this USB drive that I was able to do a clean install on both of my MacBook Airs.

Interesting; thanks for sharing. Not familiar with that last site. Any issues / security concerns from a third party OS installer / etc?

 

[natus.w]

Interesting; thanks for sharing. Not familiar with that last site. Any issues / security concerns from a third party OS installer / etc?

Some of the drive links posted to that site do not seem to be updated or working (from my brief check)

Given the date of those ripped installers is unknown, I cannot say if they will work of (they will expire after a certain period of time (Apple does update the certificates for their old installers periodically, which you should be able to download here)

 

[rampancy]

Interesting; thanks for sharing. Not familiar with that last site. Any issues / security concerns from a third party OS installer / etc?

In terms of issues/security concerns, they'd be about as risky as getting the .ISO or installer files from a place like archive.org, the Macintosh Repository or the Macintosh Garden.

Some of the drive links posted to that site do not seem to be updated or working (from my brief check)

Given the date of those ripped installers is unknown, I cannot say if they will work of (they will expire after a certain period of time (Apple does update the certificates for their old installers periodically, which you should be able to download here)

I've recommended that site because it's saved me when I needed an installer for Snow Leopard and Lion, and (a) the download for Apple's installers wasn't working, and (b) the installers I was getting from plaes like archive.org weren't working.

And furthermore, there are plenty of cases (such as mine) where for whatever reason, Apple's Mac App Store-based macOS installers either aren't accessible or simply don't work.

 

[bobesch]

- Get HighSierra-Patcher.App from @dosdude1
- Download HighSierra through the HS-Patcher.App.
- Create a tiny 12GB Partition (HFS+/Journaled) at the very end of the hard drive.
- Build the HS-Installer onto that 12GB partition.
- Reboot and boot from the 12GB HS-Installer-Partition
- Install HS
- only if your MBP is officially not supported by HS, reboot from the 12GB-Installer-Partition and run "Post Install"
(for supported Macs, that 2nd reboot & PostInstall-procedure must be left out)

 

[exi]

Appreciate everyone's input. For whatever reason, I could never get past the "forbidden" / "no" icon when booting from a USB installer created from the High Sierra.app from either archive.org (two separate files) or macinstallers.tech and using the codesign fix.

For anyone finding this later: in my case, the dosdude1 patcher and instructions, here, worked.