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tywebb13

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Apr 21, 2012
2,939
1,618
Here is how to make a bootable usb of the yosemite public beta installers. It is much easier than for yosemite DP1 and similar to how you do it for mavericks (but obviously the installer name has changed).

Format an 8 GB USB drive which should be called Untitled and formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The installer should be called Install OS X Yosemite Beta.app and should be in your Applications folder.

Run this in terminal and wait about 20 minutes:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite\ Beta.app --nointeraction

You can boot up from it by selecting it from the startup manager you get when starting your computer and holding down the option key.

EDIT: This code was first used for PB1 but also works for PB2, PB3 and PB4.
 
Last edited:

tywebb13

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Apr 21, 2012
2,939
1,618
Yeah it works pretty good. But this is build 14A299l for a public beta which won't necessarily give access to future developer previews and so I caution developers with DP4 (build 14A298i) not to install this over the top of DP4.

It would be better to install it on a separate partition or virtual machine.
 

dmckinneysr

macrumors newbie
Apr 19, 2009
8
0
Help

When I paste given link into terminal it asks for password and then when I try to click an type password I can't type anything...Did I miss something?
 

JKarnsy

macrumors member
Aug 19, 2013
45
57
When I paste given link into terminal it asks for password and then when I try to click an type password I can't type anything...Did I miss something?

Just type your password and click enter. It is in fact inputing the password even though you don't see it.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
Here is how to make a bootable usb of the yosemite beta 1 installer. It is much easier than for yosemite DP1 and similar to how you do it for mavericks (but obviously the installer name has changed).

Format an 8 GB USB drive which should be called Untitled and formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The installer should be called Install OS X Yosemite Beta.app and should be in your Applications folder.

Run this in terminal and wait about 20 minutes:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite\ Beta.app --nointeraction

You can boot up from it by selecting it from the startup manager you get when starting your computer and holding down the option key.

This worked great! Thanks for posting it.

I'm about 15 minutes from finishing the install on my external SSD right now.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,936
New Zealand
--nointeraction

I used to see people suggesting this switch with earlier versions as well, and I never understood:

a) Where it comes from (it's not listed in createinstallmedia's documentation).
b) Why you'd want to use it - It presumably removes the confirmation step, therefore making the command potentially unsafe, and it takes longer to type than pressing Y at the prompt.

Why do you suggest it? I've been wondering for some time and finally got around to asking :)
 

g35

macrumors 6502a
Dec 13, 2007
664
151
Thanks for the info. Will this also create a recovery partition if I do a clean install with this USB stick?
 

lolkthxbai

macrumors 65816
May 7, 2011
1,426
489
I used to see people suggesting this switch with earlier versions as well, and I never understood:

a) Where it comes from (it's not listed in createinstallmedia's documentation).
b) Why you'd want to use it - It presumably removes the confirmation step, therefore making the command potentially unsafe, and it takes longer to type than pressing Y at the prompt.

Why do you suggest it? I've been wondering for some time and finally got around to asking :)

You pretty much answered your own question. ;-)
 

dmckinneysr

macrumors newbie
Apr 19, 2009
8
0
Help again

ok so i followed the instruction given, now when I put password I get:

Password: (I ENTER PASSWORD HERE)
sudo: /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found

ANY SUGGESTIONS???
 

coolfactor

macrumors 604
Jul 29, 2002
6,997
9,594
Vancouver, BC
I tried installing onto a partition of an external Firewire 400 drive connected to my 2007 MacBook Pro, which was running Mavericks. After several attempts, it's failing to start up. I get a progress bar during the startup that never gets past the half way point, and the fan is blasting.

Because my first attempt was to do a normal install onto the external from the downloaded Yosemite installer, it changed the boot sequence for my primary internal boot disk, so it will no longer boot into Mavericks.

Thankfully, I do have a rescue boot disk that loads up fine, but I'm at a loss why this is being so troublesome.
 

jg321

macrumors 6502
Aug 29, 2012
313
10
UK
Thanks for posting this. Incidentally, I used the "other" method, which relies on copying over the Packages directory and two other files.

Clean install on my rMBP, upgrade on my iMac just for good measure. Running lovely so far.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
I thought USB installations did not create recovery partitions or did I miss something.

Well it did. I installed it last night on an external Samsung 830 SSD from a USB drive following the OP's instructions in this thread.
 

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maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,308
Well it did. I installed it last night on an external Samsung 830 SSD from a USB drive following the OP's instructions in this thread.

At some point in creating USB installers in the past it was reported that the recovery partition would not be created. I guess things have changed. I'm one of the few folks who have not installed Yosemite on their Macs.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
At some point in creating USB installers in the past it was reported that the recovery partition would not be created. I guess things have changed. I'm one of the few folks who have not installed Yosemite on their Macs.

This is my first time ever installing a beta and the first time ever installing an OS from a USB drive. The whole process went quite smoothly.
 

tywebb13

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Apr 21, 2012
2,939
1,618
I thought USB installations did not create recovery partitions or did I miss something.

That depends on how you make it.

Lion and Mountain Lion usbs made with restoring the InstallESD.dmg to the usb will create recovery partitions.

The bootable usb made for the first developer preview of mavericks with manual methods indeed did not make a recovery partition. But this was compensated by the fact that you could manually create one anyway.

Every full installer since DP4 of mavericks have had createinstallmedia and bootable usbs made with that also created recovery partitions (including DP1 of yosemite, although you had to edit the installer to get it to work).
 

ninethirty

macrumors 68000
Mar 1, 2006
1,533
1,528
Quick question if anyone can answer this for me. I'd like to install on a partition, and slowly start to use Yosemite over Mavericks as I discover that bugs and whatnot aren't an issue. Will it be possible for me at some point in the future to delete my original partition (with Mavericks) and just have this one take over and be the only partition on my drive. Or does that make no sense at all? Cheers!
 

roland.g

macrumors 604
Apr 11, 2005
7,409
3,134
I did this but when I reboot, it doesn't reboot to Yosemite, it reboots to the Yosemite installer. I thought this circumvented the installation by putting the OS through a terminal command right onto the USB disk?

Am I missing something?
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
I did this but when I reboot, it doesn't reboot to Yosemite, it reboots to the Yosemite installer. I thought this circumvented the installation by putting the OS through a terminal command right onto the USB disk?

Am I missing something?

All this does is make an installer USB drive. You use it to install Yosemite to another, separate drive or partition.
 

roland.g

macrumors 604
Apr 11, 2005
7,409
3,134
All this does is make an installer USB drive. You use it to install Yosemite to another, separate drive or partition.

Gotcha. It seems to be allowing me to install it on the USB drive. Hopefully it will be able to boot and run from there.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
Gotcha. It seems to be allowing me to install it on the USB drive. Hopefully it will be able to boot and run from there.

It should. That's what I did. I used a USB drive to put the installer on, then installed it on an external USB 3 SSD and it's working just fine.
 
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