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I can't install anything from El capitan
- Thread starter cool11
- Start date
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You likely have read this before (and - it should fix your issue 
)
Buy an 8GB USB flash drive. Erase it using Disk Utility, so the format is OS X Extended (journaled), and the Scheme is GUID.
Download the El Capitan installer from the App Store. It's 6.2 GB, so a large download, that may take some time if your internet connection is not particularly fast.
When the download finishes, it will automatically launch. Quit the installer.
Get the current version of DiskmakerX. Run it. Choose your El Cap installer when asked. Choose the flash drive as the destination. DiskmakerX will erase the flash drive, copy all the installer files, and leave the flash drive with the name of the installer, and a fancy icon, when done. A slow USB flash drive might take most of an hour to finish making the installer.
Boot your Mac to your new flash drive, and continue with a reinstall of OS X.
And - wait. Let it finish on its own. It might take a couple of hours or more, given your previous issues.
You can see there are a few steps involved, but most of the time you will just be waiting. Get some coffee. Wrap some gifts, etc.
)Buy an 8GB USB flash drive. Erase it using Disk Utility, so the format is OS X Extended (journaled), and the Scheme is GUID.
Download the El Capitan installer from the App Store. It's 6.2 GB, so a large download, that may take some time if your internet connection is not particularly fast.
When the download finishes, it will automatically launch. Quit the installer.
Get the current version of DiskmakerX. Run it. Choose your El Cap installer when asked. Choose the flash drive as the destination. DiskmakerX will erase the flash drive, copy all the installer files, and leave the flash drive with the name of the installer, and a fancy icon, when done. A slow USB flash drive might take most of an hour to finish making the installer.
Boot your Mac to your new flash drive, and continue with a reinstall of OS X.
And - wait. Let it finish on its own. It might take a couple of hours or more, given your previous issues.
You can see there are a few steps involved, but most of the time you will just be waiting. Get some coffee. Wrap some gifts, etc.
I had no time for new experiments.
So, I downloaded combo update dmg, and installed it to the cloned external hard disk. Successful install, no problem appeared during installation.
Guess what.
I boot with external hard disk and....it stuck!
Exactly like in 10.11 and 10.11.1 !!!!
Why I can't update my mac as a normal human being?
Why?
I have not ever heard a single windows user to tell he cant do windows update.
Going on el capitan, I cannot make any updates.
Is it something wrong with my system?
Why should I have such issues?
I am really desperate.
So, I downloaded combo update dmg, and installed it to the cloned external hard disk. Successful install, no problem appeared during installation.
Guess what.
I boot with external hard disk and....it stuck!
Exactly like in 10.11 and 10.11.1 !!!!
Why I can't update my mac as a normal human being?
Why?
I have not ever heard a single windows user to tell he cant do windows update.
Going on el capitan, I cannot make any updates.
Is it something wrong with my system?
Why should I have such issues?
I am really desperate.
I'm guessing that "It stuck!" means that you didn't wait very long to see if it recovers.
I just upgraded (also using the combo updater) this morning. First boot stuck, including the spinning wheel, for several minutes. It recovered after about 10 minutes. I restarted, which completed normally. I felt it was because of the hard drive, which is a good one, but an El Cap install is not well optimized for a spinning hard drive now.
I can't tell you what else you may have installed on your system, but I would expect a better result on my own system with an upgrade to an SSD. In the meantime, I have a spinning hard drive, so minor install glitches are something that I expect since Mavericks.
You should try the external drive, which could be a USB flash drive, or just a partition on an external hard drive.
The "DiskmakerX app" is NOT experimental. It works, and does the job as advertised: It makes a USB flash, or external hard drive partion bootable, with the OS X installer. If you have a problem with the USB flash drive that DiskmakerX creates, then I suspect you would have a similar problem with any other method for making a bootable installer for OS X.
Try a different flash drive. The OS X install CAN take a considerable amount of time - sometimes more than an hour - and CAN appear to freeze up at times. You have to be patient, particularly on an older Mac that should support El Capitan.
Next time, try leaving it for 2 hours before you decide to give up.
Maybe you have a failing hard drive? Or, maybe a problem with your RAM memory?
Did you ever post which Mac you have?
How much RAM is installed?
I just upgraded (also using the combo updater) this morning. First boot stuck, including the spinning wheel, for several minutes. It recovered after about 10 minutes. I restarted, which completed normally. I felt it was because of the hard drive, which is a good one, but an El Cap install is not well optimized for a spinning hard drive now.
I can't tell you what else you may have installed on your system, but I would expect a better result on my own system with an upgrade to an SSD. In the meantime, I have a spinning hard drive, so minor install glitches are something that I expect since Mavericks.
You should try the external drive, which could be a USB flash drive, or just a partition on an external hard drive.
The "DiskmakerX app" is NOT experimental. It works, and does the job as advertised: It makes a USB flash, or external hard drive partion bootable, with the OS X installer. If you have a problem with the USB flash drive that DiskmakerX creates, then I suspect you would have a similar problem with any other method for making a bootable installer for OS X.
Try a different flash drive. The OS X install CAN take a considerable amount of time - sometimes more than an hour - and CAN appear to freeze up at times. You have to be patient, particularly on an older Mac that should support El Capitan.
Next time, try leaving it for 2 hours before you decide to give up.
Maybe you have a failing hard drive? Or, maybe a problem with your RAM memory?
Did you ever post which Mac you have?
How much RAM is installed?
Too many variables to say for sure. You can try what DeltaMac suggested, if it doesn't work its probably best to ask a friend (who knows what they are doing) to help you. Alternatively you could take it for service.
I have mbp 15 late '13, 512 ssd, 16gb ram.
No other problems. Only this one.
I am experienced computer user, I mean, not an amateur.
As I said, I downloaded the combo package. So, there is no time delay for any downloading at all.
It is all about installation.
When I boot from external hard disk (10.11-cloned), it takes about 5-7 minutes to boot up.
10.11.2, will have any difference if it was successfully installed?
I waited 10 minutes.
Should I have waited an hour to boot?
Is it ever possible to wait an hour and then boot normally?
No other problems. Only this one.
I am experienced computer user, I mean, not an amateur.
As I said, I downloaded the combo package. So, there is no time delay for any downloading at all.
It is all about installation.
When I boot from external hard disk (10.11-cloned), it takes about 5-7 minutes to boot up.
10.11.2, will have any difference if it was successfully installed?
I waited 10 minutes.
Should I have waited an hour to boot?
Is it ever possible to wait an hour and then boot normally?
You know, if you are very experienced then you should start the trouble shooting process. You could have a marginal piece of hardware (read ram/video) that is being revealed. I don't know what if any devices you have connected externally.
Since you are experienced, start basic trouble shooting. Oh, and about the Windows comment... Yes, I've had similar issues over the years with upgrading Windows, UNIX, Linux, OS/2, BSD, etc... Get my drift...? Problems like this can occur on any platform. Basic trouble shooting will either resolve your issue, or at least reveal what the problem is.
If you just won't try the DiskmakerX as a possible way to help, then you can also use the terminal method - easy to find the steps if you haven't tried that before, but here they are anyway.
From Apple's support pages - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
From MacWorld web site with terminal commands: http://www.macworld.com/article/298...le-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-installer-drive.html
And, 10 minutes is not a long time to wait. Patience is a virtue, but there is a limit. For me, that would be an hour or so. The updater is doing a lot. If you can have the installer log open, you will see that it is doing thousands of steps.
The reason that I continue to put this in front for you - if the combo updater seems to stop, then the next step is a reinstall. The downloaded installer may not install, if the basic installed system is having problems. Best is a bootable installer. The best of those is a bootable partition, just for the installer, on an external SSD. You will find the installer is multiple steps, and can be different on different Macs, depending on what the installer finds as it begins the install.
I have had a couple of systems that took multiple attempts, using different media. Yosemite, and now El Capitan, might not install smoothly the first time you try. At least, in my limited experience - on maybe 2 dozen different Macs.
From Apple's support pages - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
From MacWorld web site with terminal commands: http://www.macworld.com/article/298...le-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-installer-drive.html
And, 10 minutes is not a long time to wait. Patience is a virtue, but there is a limit. For me, that would be an hour or so. The updater is doing a lot. If you can have the installer log open, you will see that it is doing thousands of steps.
The reason that I continue to put this in front for you - if the combo updater seems to stop, then the next step is a reinstall. The downloaded installer may not install, if the basic installed system is having problems. Best is a bootable installer. The best of those is a bootable partition, just for the installer, on an external SSD. You will find the installer is multiple steps, and can be different on different Macs, depending on what the installer finds as it begins the install.
I have had a couple of systems that took multiple attempts, using different media. Yosemite, and now El Capitan, might not install smoothly the first time you try. At least, in my limited experience - on maybe 2 dozen different Macs.
Dear Deltamac,
El capitan is the first osx system installation for years, that I was forced to do, instead of just upgrading from yosemite.
I was not able to upgrade from yosemite.
So, I did clean install.
At least, I was able to retrieve all my personal settings etc, with migration assistant, from external hard disk-yosemite.
Then, after going to el capitan with clean install, I hoped I had the right as an apple user, to have my smooth updates.
No. 10.11.1, did not installed, never booted. I waited for 10.11.2, to see if the problem is solve. No again. 10.11.2 combo update, also installs, but never boot.
So, what is the way to go?
Clean install in every major and minor update?
This is unforgivable.
It could not be 'diskmakerx', which is good tool and helped me to install el capitan 10.11 first version, the way to make any future updates.
I hoped after posting screenshots, or if somebody could take a look at log files I could post somewhere, to be able to guide me to solve the problem.
It is not easy for me to leave my mac to an apple center, it is almost impossible. I have an apple care coverage, I am thinking to call them, but I don't know if there will be a solution.
I can't believe I am the only one mac user in the world,
that has problems with el capitan updates.
El capitan is the first osx system installation for years, that I was forced to do, instead of just upgrading from yosemite.
I was not able to upgrade from yosemite.
So, I did clean install.
At least, I was able to retrieve all my personal settings etc, with migration assistant, from external hard disk-yosemite.
Then, after going to el capitan with clean install, I hoped I had the right as an apple user, to have my smooth updates.
No. 10.11.1, did not installed, never booted. I waited for 10.11.2, to see if the problem is solve. No again. 10.11.2 combo update, also installs, but never boot.
So, what is the way to go?
Clean install in every major and minor update?
This is unforgivable.
It could not be 'diskmakerx', which is good tool and helped me to install el capitan 10.11 first version, the way to make any future updates.
I hoped after posting screenshots, or if somebody could take a look at log files I could post somewhere, to be able to guide me to solve the problem.
It is not easy for me to leave my mac to an apple center, it is almost impossible. I have an apple care coverage, I am thinking to call them, but I don't know if there will be a solution.
I can't believe I am the only one mac user in the world,
that has problems with el capitan updates.
?
If you download El Capitan NOW from the App Store, you will receive 10.11.2
You would use that more recent full install with DiskmakerX to redo your El Capitan bootable installer.
You may ask "why would that make a difference to me?"
As you are already struggling with almost any update that you try, then reinstalling from the full install may work better than the smaller updaters.
Yes, I know that shouldn't make a difference - but there is something wrong with your OS X install - as you have pointed out several times. I also agree that you shouldn't be having problems with simple update installs - but, in fact, you are having those problems. You say that you don't have any other problems, but when the updates don't successfully install, that, IMHO, means problems with the system, either software or hardware. A full reinstall would be, again IMHO, a reasonable next step.
Have you run your built-in diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are reported?
If you download El Capitan NOW from the App Store, you will receive 10.11.2
You would use that more recent full install with DiskmakerX to redo your El Capitan bootable installer.
You may ask "why would that make a difference to me?"
As you are already struggling with almost any update that you try, then reinstalling from the full install may work better than the smaller updaters.
Yes, I know that shouldn't make a difference - but there is something wrong with your OS X install - as you have pointed out several times. I also agree that you shouldn't be having problems with simple update installs - but, in fact, you are having those problems. You say that you don't have any other problems, but when the updates don't successfully install, that, IMHO, means problems with the system, either software or hardware. A full reinstall would be, again IMHO, a reasonable next step.
Have you run your built-in diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are reported?
Apple Diagnostics is built-in to your Mac. It's the same level of diagnostics as the older Apple Hardware Test, which used to come on a disk included with new iMacs. Each model of Mac has its own version of that diagnostics.
It tests your hardware, but does nothing to test the system software, or any apps that you might have installed. Its only purpose is to give you a method to test the hardware. It tests the RAM memory, the graphics card (in a limited way), and some of the chips on the logic board. It may also test the temp sensors for valid output. It checks the hard drive (to see if one exists) but doesn't perform any kind of scan on the hard drive.
The Apple Service Diagnostics is a higher level diagnostics for authorized service shops. Apple does not officially provide it to customers or computer users. It boots in two different ways (both as an EFI boot, and an OS X boot) to give the user a more comprehensive test of the hardware. It CAN show how your hardware responds to an OS X boot, but doesn't test any of YOUR software, nor does it test the file system on your hard drive/SSD.
Apple Service Diagnostics (ASD) is no longer provided for newer models of Macs. That probably stopped before Apple changed the name of the Hardware Test, to Diagnostics, 2 or 3 years ago. The service level of diagnostics, called MEI (?) is now provided only within Apple authorized service shops. Also not available to individual Mac owners.
If you have a Mac that is supported by the Apple Service Diagnostics, you can search for that. There are sites (not Apple), where the ASD can be downloaded, if you know exactly which Mac model you need to test.
It tests your hardware, but does nothing to test the system software, or any apps that you might have installed. Its only purpose is to give you a method to test the hardware. It tests the RAM memory, the graphics card (in a limited way), and some of the chips on the logic board. It may also test the temp sensors for valid output. It checks the hard drive (to see if one exists) but doesn't perform any kind of scan on the hard drive.
The Apple Service Diagnostics is a higher level diagnostics for authorized service shops. Apple does not officially provide it to customers or computer users. It boots in two different ways (both as an EFI boot, and an OS X boot) to give the user a more comprehensive test of the hardware. It CAN show how your hardware responds to an OS X boot, but doesn't test any of YOUR software, nor does it test the file system on your hard drive/SSD.
Apple Service Diagnostics (ASD) is no longer provided for newer models of Macs. That probably stopped before Apple changed the name of the Hardware Test, to Diagnostics, 2 or 3 years ago. The service level of diagnostics, called MEI (?) is now provided only within Apple authorized service shops. Also not available to individual Mac owners.
If you have a Mac that is supported by the Apple Service Diagnostics, you can search for that. There are sites (not Apple), where the ASD can be downloaded, if you know exactly which Mac model you need to test.
After trying a reinstall from recovery mode, I am now having 10.11.2 !
I am not sure what the problem was.
I saw some messages for kernel extensions problems, after updating.
I guess they are in something like a quarantine from osx?
But, even if there was such problem, why preventing the proper installation? It seems extreme to me, even though I am sure that somebody can give a kind of explanation.
I don't there could be something, anything, that should prevent an os update, in any case.
Maybe apple finally fixed something in 10.11.2 from its initial update, and now I manage to update my mac too.
I am not sure what the problem was.
I saw some messages for kernel extensions problems, after updating.
I guess they are in something like a quarantine from osx?
But, even if there was such problem, why preventing the proper installation? It seems extreme to me, even though I am sure that somebody can give a kind of explanation.
I don't there could be something, anything, that should prevent an os update, in any case.
Maybe apple finally fixed something in 10.11.2 from its initial update, and now I manage to update my mac too.
When OS X installs on top of an existing system, it will check for certain kinds of compatibility issues. If the installer finds problem files or apps, those may be, in effect, quarantined, or at least disabled. They might be in a folder at the root level of the boot drive, that the installer will create for that purpose. Might be named "Lost & Found", or maybe "incompatible files", or something similar. You can look at the root level of your drive, and check for folders that you haven't seen before.
Those issues might have been affecting your ability to install updates, or maybe just something corrupted in the system files. Now that you have successfully reinstalled/updated - that issue may have been fixed as a result.
I think you should be able to have more confidence in your system now.
Those issues might have been affecting your ability to install updates, or maybe just something corrupted in the system files. Now that you have successfully reinstalled/updated - that issue may have been fixed as a result.
I think you should be able to have more confidence in your system now.