Preparing a 2010 MacBook to Give Away

[Buadhai]

I've spent all day trying to prepare an old MacBook (the heavy, white, unibody model) to give away. I started by signing out of Music and iCloud. I booted in to recovery mode and used Disk Utility to erase the hard drive (the only format options available were all APFS). I then tried to reinstall High Sierra, but ran into all of the problems discussed here: macOS High Sierra Problem, including "recovery server cannot be contacted". Although that's the error message presented to the user, the installer log tells a different story. It seems the installer is expecting an HFS+ drive and balks when the drive is APFS. (High Sierra is fine with APFS, that's what I was running it on. But, the installer fails if it doesn't find an HFS+ drive.)

So, I decided to download a fresh copy of Install macOS High Sierra and create a bootable installer, like this:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/contents/resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/untitled
Ready to start.
To continue we need to erase the volume at /Volumes/untitled.
If you wish to continue type (Y) then press return: y
Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%... 30%...100%...
Copying installer files to disk...
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable...
Copying boot files...
Copy complete.
Done.

Looks like it worked right? I was able to boot from that USB drive and got this:

From there I selected Install MacOS. It looked like it might work, until I got this.

Keep in mind that this is a brand new, freshly downloaded copy of the installer. I tried it with an older High Sierra installer, with the same result.

The last entry in the Installer Log says: "The Quartz framework's library couldn't be loaded from:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Quartz

I've tried this with three different USB drives; two spinning drives and one SSD. All with the same result.

What have I done wrong here?

 

[chabig]

I think this short YouTube video is your answer. It involved tricking the installer by changing the date on your Mac to a date just after the release of High Sierra.

 

[Buadhai]

Well, it was a good shot, but it didn't work. I downloaded yet another fresh copy of the Installer. Created another boot drive. Booted from it. Opened terminal and set the date to 10/10/17 (date 1010101017) and tried installing. Same error about "The Quartz framework's library couldn't be loaded".

I also tried booting into Internet recovery [command-option-r]. Before running the installer I reformatted the internal drive to APFS.

But then the installer complained:

"Target is not convertible to APFS: This volume is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"

So, I changed it back to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and tried again. This time the installer complained:

"The recovery server could not be contacted"

The installer log doesn't contain the URL of the failed installer fetch, so nothing I can do about that.

I'm stuck.

 

[chabig]

Are you formatting using Disk Utility running from the installer? That might matter because APFS is evolving. The High Sierra installer expects a drive formatted by the High Sierra Disk Utility.

 

[Bigwaff]

I downloaded yet another fresh copy of the Installer.

Downloaded from where? Latest Apple App Store link -

‎macOS High Sierra

‎New technologies at the heart of the system make your Mac more reliable, capable, and responsive — and lay the foundation for future innovations. macOS High Sierra also refines the features and apps you use every day. It’s macOS at its highest level yet. Easily organize, edit and view your...

apps.apple.com

 

[AlixSPQR]

I've spent all day trying to prepare an old MacBook (the heavy, white, unibody model) to give away.

Not helpful per se, but I'd install a Long Term Support Linux distro instead. Any future user should benefit from security updates, which are not available for High Sierra any longer.

 

[Buadhai]

Downloaded from where? Latest Apple App Store link -

The App Store won’t let me download the installer: even to my 2019 Intel iMac. I do have the original installer that I used for the old MacBook, but it also doesn’t work. I downloaded it from the App Store in 2018.

Not helpful per se, but I'd install a Long Term Support Linux distro instead. Any future user should benefit from security updates, which are not available for High Sierra any longer.

I may do that. Probably easier and less frustrating than trying to install MacOS on an old machine. The MacBook has 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.

What Linux distribution do you suggest?

 

[Buadhai]

Are you formatting using Disk Utility running from the installer? That might matter because APFS is evolving. The High Sierra installer expects a drive formatted by the High Sierra Disk Utility.

I have run it from the installer. I will give it another shot.

Do you think that the Disk Utility that is one of the recovery mode utilities is different from the one that comes with the High Sierra installer? Wouldn't they be the same since they both originated with the same OS?

 

[AlixSPQR]

I may do that. Probably easier and less frustrating than trying to install MacOS on an old machine. The MacBook has 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.

What Linux distribution do you suggest?

I prefer Ubuntu myself, and have it on an MBP Mid 2009, but many prefer Linux Mint. There are a lot of other distros out there, but those two are the most popular, I believe.

 

[Grumpus]

So, I changed it back to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and tried again. This time the installer complained:

"The recovery server could not be contacted"

The installer log doesn't contain the URL of the failed installer fetch, so nothing I can do about that.

You might try Fix #3 from this recent mrmacintosh.com blog post. Since you say that the URL doesn't appear in the log, you'll have to type the full nvram command rather than use copy-and-paste. You've changed the date, so if changing the URL doesn't work, try changing the date back to today and try again.

 

[Slix]

The App Store won’t let me download the installer: even to my 2019 Intel iMac. I do have the original installer that I used for the old MacBook, but it also doesn’t work. I downloaded it from the App Store in 2018.

I may do that. Probably easier and less frustrating than trying to install MacOS on an old machine. The MacBook has 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.

What Linux distribution do you suggest?

If you downloaded the installer in 2018 and made that into a USB installer, try changing the date to December of 2018 and see if that works. You don't need an internet connection to use a USB installer on that computer.

 

[Buadhai]

Summarizing here:

Based on reading elsewhere, it appears that Apple no longer hosts the High Sierra installer for Internet recovery mode installation. So, the NVRAM trick won't work. The file is no longer there.

I will try one last time with the installer that I originally downloaded back in 2018. I tried and failed with that before, but I will give it one more shot.

Then it's on to Linux.

 

[Buadhai]

I decided to give it one more shot. This time I used the High Sierra installer that I downloaded from the App Store in 2018 and used to install High Sierra on the old MacBook which I first started using at that time:

Sellotape:Applications mnewman$ ls -la "Install macOS High Sierra.app"
total 0
drwxr-xr-x@  3 mnewman  admin    96 Jul 31  2018 .
drwxrwxr-x  86 root     admin  2752 Jan 18 16:55 ..
drwxr-xr-x@ 11 mnewman  admin   352 Aug 20  2018 Contents

It worked just fine then and I used High Sierra on that machine until this week.

I made sure the date on the target machine was set correctly:

And that the target drive was formatted properly:

And then I ran the installer and it failed like this:

The only clue in the installer log file is this bit about Quartz:

"The quartz framework's library couldn't be loaded from /System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Quartz"

But, there is no such directory:

The only subdirectory in /System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/ is Frameworks. There is no subdirectory called Quartz.

I've tried a total of four different installers and they all fail with the same error, so we know that it's not a corrupt installer. I have no idea how any of these installers worked before, but none of them work now.

[Note that as soon as the installer runs, it changes the system date and time, probably from a network time server.]

So, I give up unless someone has an alternative.

I'll be away from home for the next week. When I return I'll tackle Ubuntu.

 

[Buadhai]

Half hour, max. So much easier than the 10+ hours I spent struggling and failing with High Sierra.

If the screen were OK it would be a great little machine.

It surprises me a bit that the High Sierra installer has at least two serious problems.

The first is the missing directory, described in a previous post.

The second is the installer's attempt to determine whether or not the target file system can be converted to APFS. What the programmer failed to consider was the case where the target system was already APFS. Easy error to make, but it should not have been released that way.

 

[Slix]

View attachment 2338354

Half hour, max. So much easier than the 10+ hours I spent struggling and failing with High Sierra.

If the screen were OK it would be a great little machine.

It surprises me a bit that the High Sierra installer has at least two serious problems.

The first is the missing directory, described in a previous post.

The second is the installer's attempt to determine whether or not the target file system can be converted to APFS. What the programmer failed to consider was the case where the target system was already APFS. Easy error to make, but it should not have been released that way.

Glad you got it working finally at least. I'm confused why your installer seems to be broken in such a way that causes the Quartz issue and the APFS issue. I've installed High Sierra onto drives that are already APFS formatted before and it's worked just fine. Maybe there was an issue with the version you had and they fixed it in a later update?

 

[Grumpus]

Last night I used Mist on a 2019 MBA to download and create a High Sierra installation USB, and this morning I successfully used that USB to install HS on a 2010 15" MBP.

 

[Buadhai]

All I know is what I saw in the installer logs. I tried four different installers. One that I downloaded in 2018 from the App Store, one from the Internet Archive, one that I downloaded via the High Sierra patcher utility and one from a link in an article that explained how to install HS on an older machines. All four eventually had the Quartz failure when I got past the APFS failure.

I will try again with Mist. (Just for fun.)

 

[Buadhai]

Last night I used Mist on a 2019 MBA to download and create a High Sierra installation USB, and this morning I successfully used that USB to install HS on a 2010 15" MBP.

The boot install disk created by Mist worked fine. No errors at all. Thanks for that.

Now I have to wonder why the install disks I made via the command line and using High Sierra Patcher all failed.

I guess it will remain a mystery.

 

[Bigwaff]

Now I have to wonder why the install disks I made via the command line and using High Sierra Patcher all failed.

I guess it will remain a mystery.

They are old and use invalid expired certificates. Mist downloaded latest from Apple, who posted updated installer app with valid certificates. It’s what we’ve have been trying to explain in the thread.

 

[Buadhai]

They are old and use invalid expired certificates. Mist downloaded latest from Apple, who posted updated installer app with valid certificates. It’s what we’ve have been trying to explain in the thread.

The only mention in the entire thread of expired certificates is in your post.

 

[sdfox7]

Github recommends using 0101010118 for High Sierra. It has worked for me every time, I mentioned this a while back somewhere else in the forum.

OSX Install Dates

10.16 - 0.5 Leopard   - date 0101010121 <- Currently not needed
10.15 - Catalina      - date 0101010120 <- Currently not needed
10.14 - Mojave        - date 0101010119 <- Currently not needed
10.13 - High Sierra   - date 0101010118
10.12 - Sierra        - date 0101010117
10.11 - El Capitan    - date 0101010116
10.10 - Yosemite      - date 0101010115
10.9  - Mavericks     - date 0101010114
10.8  - Mountain Lion - date 0101010113
10.7  - Lion          - date 0101010111
10.6  - Snow Leopard  - date 0101010110
10.5  - Leopard       - date 0101010108

 

[gilby101]

Opened terminal and set the date to 10/10/17

The only mention in the entire thread of expired certificates is in your post.

Messing about with dates was all about avoiding issues with expired certificates. It wasn't just a magic incantation.

Glad you got it sorted by using Mist to create your installer USB.

 

[macsforme]

[Note that as soon as the installer runs, it changes the system date and time, probably from a network time server.]

Yes, if the machine has internet connectivity during the installation, then changing the date ahead of time is pointless, as the machine will reset the date to the current one (as you discovered). In my experience, I have to change the date, reboot, possibly reset the NVRAM (to remove the stored wifi credentials), then boot into the installer and go through the process.

Linux is always a solid choice too, though.