Terminal Command missing

[Big Ron]

Im hoping for some help please.

I am trying to use the temporary disable sip by using the terminal command 'csrutil disable'.

When I restart my iMac using the CMD+R command my iMac launches internet recovery mode. When I finally get to the recovery desktop, if I try to enter 'csrutil disable' it doesn't recognise the command. If I type 'help' the command isn't listed!

My question is: Does the internet recovery desktop have a smaller set of terminal commands than the one that loads with CMD+R?

If thats the case how can I boot to a recovery desktop version of terminal that includes csrutil disable?

Thanks in advance.

I'm running the latest version of Sierra on a iMac as listed below.

 

[DeltaMac]

Is your recovery partition missing?
Or, do you have File Vault enabled?

Command + r SHOULD boot to your recovery system, not internet recovery.
Internet Recovery ALSO would boot to a spinning globe, and NOT an Apple icon.
Is that what you see?

 

[Big Ron]

Thanks for the reply DeltaMac.

Post this recent unsuccessful attempt, I thought my recovery partition was there, I don't remember doing anything to remove it, how can I easily check?

CMD+R doesn't boot into recovery mode, it does on my MacBook pro, but all I see is the spinning globe and not the apple icon.

Do you know if the internet recovery desktop has a smaller set of terminal commands than the one that loads with CMD+R?

 

[DeltaMac]

Just tried terminal from the boot system, then from the recovery partition, and yet again from Internet Recovery.
The terminal in each recognizes the csrutil command.
Of course, you can't disable SIP while booted to the normal system.

Check to see if you have a recovery system partition:
Open your terminal, then type the command

diskutil list

This will list all the partitions that your system sees. You should see the name of your boot drive, with the approximate size of your boot drive. You should see at least 2 more partitions on your drive. One will be about 650MB, which should be your recovery system.
Something like this page: http://osxdaily.com/2016/08/09/find-disk-id-device-node-identifier-mac/

 

[Big Ron]

Good Morning DeltaMac (well it is in England)

Please see below results as requested. It appears that I have a recovery partition.

Chyryn-Imac:~ ronthompson$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Imac_HD 997.9 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Apple_Boot 650.0 MB disk0s4

I have file vault off on this drive

I'm not sure what to do next?

 

[DeltaMac]

No - I don't see a recovery partition.
I DO see two partitions that are the correct type, but neither appear to have the correct name, such as a sample line from my own diskutil list

0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk0
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS TheAbyss                200.2 GB   disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

I checked on a 10.7.5 boot drive that I have, and the name of the recovery partition is the same as my 10.12.5 boot drive: Recovery HD
I suspect that you have simply done updates to your drive, and that you have never done a full install of macOS, and the recovery partition did not update properly.
Now you have two partitions, and you apparently can't boot to either one (even though that is the recovery partition's purpose for existing in the first place!)
(You can compare with the same diskutil list on your rMB system, too!)

Delete both of those faulty partitions, and reinstall macOS, which should then install a working recovery partition.

But, I think your best choice for doing that is:
Make a full backup of your Imac_HD on an external drive (if you don't already have one)
Boot to a USB macOS installer - create one if you don't have that already, it is a simple task.
So, booted to the installer, Disk Utility, erase your hard drive, so all partitions are gone,
Name the new partition whatever you like. Could be the same name Imac_HD.
AND - reinstall macOS.
That will take most of an hour, and you will reboot to a new user setup. One of the first screens will ask if you want to restore from your backup, and --- you will choose to do that.
That's you best method to get it all to work again - and you will have a properly configured recovery system to boot, and you will then be able to disable SIP (your original question

 

[Big Ron]

Thanks for a comprehensive reply, I now know exactly what to do. Respect

 

[dyn]

Internet recovery will only use the macOS/MacOS X version that originally came with the machine. SIP is only a part of macOS Sierra so if the internet recovery uses an older version than that it is quite normal to not have the csrutil tool as it does not have SIP.

 

[Big Ron]

That is so obvious when you think about it dyn, I feel foolish as to why it didn't occur to me. Thanks a lot, that explains why the csrutil command is 'missing'. My Imac originally came with ML, so I guess that when it does the internet recovery, it finds Mountail Lion.

 

[dyn]

You may be able to check that at the commandline of the recovery part. Check what the sw_vers command returns.