warp1g's OS X Macbook Universal Install Method - requires no DL burner
So I know this is a really old thread - but I struggled for days trying to
figure out how to make this work. I ended up using pieces of the nicely
detailed procedure located here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/371302/
along with my own work. My hope is that this can help someone else having similar issues.
I have an older macbook and a copy of OS X 10.5.5 - it wouldnt install. It kept giving me "Cannot Install On This Computer".
I tried modifying the OSInstall.mpkg (Specifically the Distribution file -
as described in the above procedure) in a sparse image and re-burning on
my PC (with a DL) several times to no avail.
I ended up successfully doing the following:
1. Upgrading my macbook (was running tiger) to 10.5.5
2. Not burning any discs of any sort
3. Not creating any sparse images
4. Adding a few gray hairs to my collection
What you will need:
------------------
1. Macbook pro running tiger
2. Mac OSX 10.5.x install disc
3. A jump drive (small is fine - I used a 128meg one I had laying around,
formatted in some readable format - mine was FAT)
4. A high level of comfort working in the cmdline <---- IMPORTANT
5. About 3 hours
What you do:
--------------
1. Install the xar util as described in the above-referenced procedure
2. Mount the OSX install disc and copy /Volumes/MAC OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg to
~/foo/ORIG_OSInstall.mpkg
3. Unpack the mpkg with xar
cd ~/foo && xar -xvf ./ORIG_OSInstall.mpkg
4. Modify ~/foo/Distribution to remove all the logic in the check_install
features - I basically went through the script top to bottom and
invalidated all of the install validation functions to return "true". E.g. - make them all look like:
function installCheckScript(){
return true;
}
5. now in the ~/foo directory - remove the ORIG_OSInstall.mpkg file (rm
~/foo/ORIG_OSInstall.mpkg)
6. in ~/foo - create your new OS_Install.mpkg file
xar -cvf ./myinstall.mpkg .
7. Now go to the finder - go to Mac OSX Install DVD and fire up the Mac OSX
Installer - it will ask you to authenticate and then it will reboot the
machine - this is fine (obviously LEAVE THE MAC OSX Install DISC IN THE
DRIVE!)
8. When the machine boots - it will take you to the language selection
screen - choose your language, and hit continue. This is where you get
the fabulous "Mac OSX Cannot Install on this computer" notice. This too,
is fine. Hit "OK" and it will take you to the emptiness of the deep space
desktop background. At the top of the screen (I believe it is under
utilities) - choose Terminal. This will open up a terminal session
(obviously). This is where you have some more work to do.
9. Plug in your jump drive - it should mount. You'll know its mounted
when it shows up under /Volumes (ls -la /Volumes) to see what its named.
Lets say its named "JUMPDRIVE". (And we are going to assume that my
username is bob)
10. Copy the install package to your jumpdrive from your mac hard disk
cp /Volumes/Macintosh HD/users/bob/foo/myinstall.mpkg /Volumes/JUMPDRIVE
11. Create symlinks for all of the base os install packages on your
jumpdrive, pointing to the packages on the boot volume (the cd!)
cd /Volumes/JUMPDRIVE; for i in `ls /System/Installation/Packages` ; do ln -s /System/Installation/Packages/${i} ${i}
12. Copy the rc.install file to /private/var/tmp
cp /etc/rc.install /private/var/tmp/my.install
13. Fire up textedit and open up /private/var/tmp/my.install
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/Textedit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /private/var/tmp/my.install
14. Scroll down to the line that reads:
INSTALL_PKG=/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg
Modify it to read:
INSTALL_PKG=/private/var/tmp/myinstall.mpkg
Save and exit. Make sure you end the textedit process
15. Create a symlink to point from /private/var/tmp to the jumpdrive for your install package
ln -s /Volumes/JUMPDRIVE/myinstall.mpkg /private/var/tmp/myinstall.mpkg
16. Redefine this variable at the command line
export INSTALL_PKG="/Volumes/JUMPDRIVE/myinstall.mpkg"
17. Remove the installer pid file from original try at boot
rm /private/var/run/installer
18. run /private/var/tmp/my.install
19. Installation should start up - and run normally. DO NOT REMOVE THE JUMPDRIVE UNTIL AFTER YOUR INSTALLATION IS 100% COMPLETE!
20. Enjoy
Post-script:
I may have skipped some troubleshooting steps - if you have problems let me know I'd like to help.
Would it have been easier to figure out how to get the image to burn
properly on your pc?
Sure - but nowhere near as fun - and I wouldn't have learned anything
about how the actual boot/install process works.
-wP!
