Issues with Patcher

[startergo]

Well, I said they're identical because the SHA-1 signatures of the two downloads are identical. The odds against them being different are quite literally astronomical. Still, I could've made a mistake so I'll try again, but it might be a while - I'm actually packing to move and most of the computers have to be boxed up. But I'll do my best to get to it.

Here is a little deeper explanation on the subject. It is about mavericks but all the old installers are like that:

I can't create a bootable OSX Mavericks Install USB Drive

I've downloaded Mavericks from the App Store, repartitioned a 32GB USB key, and followed the instructions. Specifically, I ran: sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/

apple.stackexchange.com

They changed at some point.

 

[Grumpus]

Here is a little deeper explanation on the subject. It is about mavericks but all the old installers are like that:

Like what?

If you hover your mouse pointer over the download links for ML here and here you'll see that they're identical. The SHA-1 signature is:

$ shasum -a 1 ~/Downloads/InstallMacOSX.dmg
4b9bc933f50abe824b93ba9eebd8f57f1609ccdb  /Users/grumpus/Downloads/InstallMacOSX.dmg

Please run the same command on the dmg that you've been using. If the signature is different, the files are different.

 

[Grumpus]

When I change the date to 2013, disconnect the network, and use your script to create the ML installer in /Applications, it fails as in my previous screenshot. If I double-click the InstallMacOSX.dmg, then double-click the pkg, the ML installer in /Applications works. We've been here before, the only difference is that now I'm using real hardware instead of a VM.

Obviously the ML installers in /Applications are different. If you look at the results after the 'pkgutil --expand' you'll see that there are several scripts, including one called Distribution. Those script are run by the package installer when you double-click the pkg file, but they are not run with your method. I'm sure that explains the difference.

 

[startergo]

These installers are actually pretty new from June 2021 and both have the same http link
Mountain Lion 10.
I was talking about old installers from 2013:

The Apple link installs in the Application folder and starts upgrading right from within Snow Leopard. No errors, no certificate issues. Everything works fine. The old installer's InstallESD.dmg does not mount because it is not a DMG:

But even that started the upgrade of SL to ML.
My conclusion for the Upgrade of SL to ML:
Any installer works on fully updated SL system.

System Software Overview:

  System Version:    Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
  Kernel Version:    Darwin 10.8.0
  Boot Volume:    Snow Leopard HD
  Boot Mode:    Normal
  Computer Name:    SL’s Mac
  User Name:    SL (sl)
  Secure Virtual Memory:    Enabled
  64-bit Kernel and Extensions:    Yes

 

[Grumpus]

My conclusion for the Upgrade of SL to ML:
Any installer works on fully updated SL system.

Nonsense.

 

[startergo]

The problem must be specific to the MacBook in question. I will test on my Mac mini 3.1.

 

[startergo]

Nonsense.

I take that back. You are correct it comes with an error on a real machine, but it works in Parallels. I found a solution for the real machine:

open /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mountain\ Lion.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

Double click:

And proceed with the upgrade.

 

[Grumpus]

I take that back. You are correct it comes with an error on a real machine, but it works in Parallels. I found a solution for the real machine:

Good catch, and interesting that it works in Parallels. It consistently failed in VirtualBox for me, on two different hosts, just the same as on real hardware.

I can confirm that mounting the dmg in SharedSupport and running the installer app there works to upgrade from SL to ML, and without having to reset the date and disconnect the network. Also, after converting the dmg in SharedSupport to an iso, it also seems to be working for a clean install of ML onto a blank virtual drive.

 

[startergo]

Good catch, and interesting that it works in Parallels

I installed Snow Leopard in Parallels using a hack:

sl_disk_setup.applescript - Pastebin.com

Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

pastebin.com

And the installer works fine there.
Then I installed Snow Leopard Server in Parallels without any hacks and it comes with the same error. Go figure.

 

[Grumpus]

I installed Snow Leopard in Parallels using a hack:

Well, it's still a mystery to me sl_disk_setup.applescript is somewhat opaque, being one runon line, and the blog post that google turned up doesn't clearly state what's going on. But, as near as I can tell after glancing at things, the purpose of the script is to fool Parallels into thinking that Snow Leopard is Snow Leopard Server at boot time. This is accomplished by creating /etc/rc.local containing this

/bin/rm /System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist

and by creating /etc/rc.shutdown.local containing this

cd /System/Library/CoreServices
cp SystemVersion.plist ServerVersion.plist

So at shutdown time, SystemVersion.plist is copied to ServerVersion.plist, and at boot time ServerVersion.plist is deleted. I suppose that prior to the boot Parallels sees the ServerVersion.plist and thinks it's about to boot the Server version (which is supported) and during the boot /etc/rc.local deletes ServerVersion.plist turning it back into the regular Snow Leopard.

I don't know how this could affect the installation of ML, but maybe I missed something.

BTW, if you log on to Snow Leopard, manually copy SystemVersion.plist to ServerVersion.plist, then after a reboot you get a Snow Leopard Server login prompt and the desktop background is changed to solid blue. I don't know if any functionality is really changed though. The ML installer still fails as before. Oh well.

 

[startergo]

I don't know how this could affect the installation of ML, but maybe I missed something.

You and me both. So I tried Yosemite installer- no problem. Tried Lion on SL server, but it waits for server components download.

 

[startergo]

So at shutdown time, SystemVersion.plist is copied to ServerVersion.plist, and at boot time ServerVersion.plist is deleted. I suppose that prior to the boot Parallels sees the ServerVersion.plist and thinks it's about to boot the Server version (which is supported) and during the boot /etc/rc.local deletes ServerVersion.plist turning it back into the regular Snow Leopard.

That is what happens yes. The version of the SL I installed is a free version in the paid developer's account.

 

[startergo]

Both Lion and ML come with an error, but the installer from within InstallESD.dmg woks fine.

 

[Grumpus]

Well, I'm glad we figured out that neither one of us is crazy. Much

I guess the answer to @VirtuallyInsane is to use your commands to get a ML installer put into /Applications, then use something like NexPostFacto to build a ML installer USB for his MacBook4,1.

Cheers.

 

[startergo]

Like I said @Dayo created a script for making a USB installer:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/making-bootable-mac-os-x-lion-usb-through-m1-mbp.2355618/page-2?post=31936001#post-31936001

 

[Grumpus]

Like I said @Dayo created a script for making a USB installer:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...bp.2355618/page-2?post=31936001#post-31936001

Ok, but @VirtuallyInsane needs a ML installer for his unsupported early-2008 MacBook, so patching is required. I don't really know anything much about it, but I believe NexPostFacto will create a patched USB from a ML installer in /Applications.

 

[VirtuallyInsane]

Ok, but @VirtuallyInsane needs a ML installer for his unsupported early-2008 MacBook, so patching is required. I don't really know anything much about it, but I believe NexPostFacto will create a patched USB from a ML installer in /Applications.

Yes, I can download the patcher fine but I need to extract the ML file and turn it into an installer.

There is a video about how to make the patched USB and it seems simple enough, but the part I was/am struggling with it is extracting the ML installer into my downloads without an error message coming up.

I made a partition and upgraded that partition to 10.7.5 (the other one is 10.6.8). I can still use both when I want to, but I was thinking that it might be smoother from Lion > 10.8 (Maybe I am wrong).

Maybe if I try using the code from this thread to put the ML installer to Applications (on Lion), then it might work from there, yeah? Thank you for sorting this issue out. I really appreciate it.

 

[Grumpus]

Yes, I can download the patcher fine but I need to extract the ML file and turn it into an installer.

You can download a ML installation dmg from here. With the dmg in ~/Downloads, you can run the commands that @startergo posted up-thread. I've made one small change here to add a -W flag to the open command, which makes it wait until the mount of the InstallMacOSX.dmg is complete. That's not needed if you type these commands into a terminal one-at-a-time, but if you run them in a script it can fail because open immediately returns control to the shell.

open -W ~/Downloads/InstallMacOSX.dmg
pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Install\ Mac\ OS\ X/InstallMacOSX.pkg ~/Mountain\ Lion
cd ~/Mountain\ Lion/InstallMacOSX.pkg
tar -xvf Payload
mv ~/Mountain\ Lion/InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg ~/Mountain\ Lion/InstallMacOSX.pkg/Install\ OS\ X\ Mountain\ Lion.app/Contents/SharedSupport
mv ~/Mountain\ Lion/InstallMacOSX.pkg/Install\ OS\ X\ Mountain\ Lion.app /Applications

You should end up with a ML installer in /Applications. There will also be a ~/Mountain\ Lion directory left over which you should remove with

rm -rf ~/Mountain\ Lion

You won't be able to run the ML installer once it's in /Applications, but hopefully NexPostFacto can use it to create a USB installer for your unsupported MB. I don't have hardware to try that on, so you're on your own, but nothing ventured nothing gained

 

[Grumpus]

I installed ML on a MacBook5,1. There were a number of updates to be installed, but the updates failed due to a problem installing iTunes 12.4.3. If that happens to you, download iTunes from here and install it, then try installing the system updates again. Something I saw regarding NexPostFacto said that you have to be completely updated before installing the video driver patches, so I just thought I'd mention it.

 

[Dayo]

@VirtuallyInsane ... Download this script and follow the instructions:

Creates Bootable USB for Mac OS Lion to Monterey (Excluding Mavericks)

Creates Bootable USB for Mac OS Lion to Monterey (Excluding Mavericks) - Install_USB_Maker.sh

gist.github.com

In summary, for Mountain Lion:

1. Create an 8GB or larger USB volume and call it Install_USB_Maker
2. Mount the Mountain Lion InstallMacOSX.dmg
3. Run the script and follow the prompts
4. Install Mountain Lion with the bootable USB Installer created

 

[Grumpus]

... Download this script and follow the instructions:

@Dayo does your script apply patches which would allow the OP's unsupported MacBook4,1 to install ML?

 

[Dayo]

Ah! No, it doesn't ... didn't read the whole thread to note that requirement.

The bootable installer has to be run on a supported machine.

On an unsupported unit, it has to be run via OpenCore or the dist etc files (where supported units are set out) manually patched BEFORE creating the installer.

I wrote the script to install Leopard to Monterey on my MP31 recently. Leopard and Snow Leopard were installed via other means, Lion to El Capitan are supported and the USB installers could be run directly. For LoSierra onwards, USB installers were run via OpenCore.