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GUIDE: Create USB Installer - Mavericks Developer Preview 4

rw3

rw3

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 13, 2008
679
41
DFW, TX
So after doing some searching tonight, I was unable to find a good guide to get the latest Mavericks DP4 onto a USB flash drive in order to use it as a clean installer. After doing some digging in the package, I found a nice little Apple provided utility within the package that will do everything we need in terminal. Below you will find the guide:

OS X Mavericks Developer Preview 4 USB Install Disk Guide

1. Download the latest Developer Preview 4 package from App Store



2. Right Click on the Install OS X 10.9 Developer Preview in the Applications Folder and select "Show Package Contents":



3.Now once in this window:



Double Click "Contents" then Double Clock "Resources":



4. Now once in "Resources", you will want to copy the createinstallmedia exec file to your Desktop.



5. Now open Terminal and run a "sudo -s" without the quotes and then enter your user password:



6. Once you have run the sudo command you will then want to launch Disk Utility (keep your root Terminal window open) and format an 8GB USB Flash drive with the name Mavericks. (GUID Partition Scheme and Mac OS Extended Journal)

7. Once you have created a flash drive with volume name Mavericks, you will want to run the follow command in Terminal (replacing shortname with your short name and removing the quotes):

"/Users/shortname/Desktop/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Mavericks --applicationpath /Applications/"Install OS X 10.9 Developer Preview.app" [--force]"



Once you have entered the command, you will see the following text in Terminal:

Ready to start.
To continue we need to erase the disk at /Volumes/Mavericks.
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.
bash-3.2#
bash-3.2#​

The process will take a good 10-15 minutes to complete. I have fully tested this and I am able to install from this newly created USB disk.
 
Thanks. I'll have to try it once the final release is out. I was also going to see if Lion Diskmaker works on 10.9. I used it to make an install USB drive for 10.8 that worked great. Link
 
ATC said:
Thanks. I'll have to try it once the final release is out. I was also going to see if Lion Diskmaker works on 10.9. I used it to make an install USB drive for 10.8 that worked great. Link
Click to expand...

I tried it and it doesn't work for me. This is an Apple made tool that just works.
 
@rw3, are you both an AppleSeed member and a registered developer? How did you get the separate DP4 installer package?
 
I'm a registered developer and never received DP4 as a standalone installer. There was an email they sent out with a link to redeem the code but I never received it. :(
 
RW3 Your Guide Returned This Error For me

rw3

I followed step by step to the T but was returned with this error in the terminal

/Applications/Install OS X 10.9 Developer Preview.app [--force] does not appear to be a valid OS installer application.

I kept the quotation marks from /"Install to [--Force]" I also tried it without the quotation marks.

rw3 is the short name the name of my home directory or the name that shows up in the terminal. I'm guessing the former.

Thanks!

Slide
 
jpeezy said:
I'm a registered developer and never received DP4 as a standalone installer. There was an email they sent out with a link to redeem the code but I never received it. :(
Click to expand...

There is now a new redemption code for the full installer in the mac dev center.

Appleseed could get this before, but only now developers can get it. It appeared at the same time as dp5 was released.
 
tywebb13 said:
There is now a new redemption code for the full installer in the mac dev center.

Appleseed could get this before, but only now developers can get it. It appeared at the same time as dp5 was released.
Click to expand...

Ty

Can I ask this here is the forums? When you use your (in this case my) redeem code for DP4; Do they generate a new redeem code for say, DP6? (When it's ready)

My reason for asking is I had an original redeem code when I signed up for the Dev program which allowed me to download DP1, but the redeem code remained the same; in other words I could not use it again. I had someone from Apple call me. I had to jump through hoops to convince her that a new redeem code would enable me to download DP4. After about 50 minutes of going around and around, she finally issued me a redeem code for DP4. This young woman will go unnamed but was pretty high up in that department.

She kept insisting the procedure was to go from DP1 and update to DP4: DP1 update DP2...etc. We went round and round as I said until I guess I somehow convinced her a new redeem code would allow me to download the full installer for DP4.

This is a concern for me. When the next major DP is released; I''ll still have the redeem code I have now which has already been redeemed for DP4; leaving me where I was before with a redeem code that had already been redeemed.

Sorry for the confusion. I asked you because I thought you might be a Dev.

Kind Regards,

Slide
 
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Well I'm signed up as a developer and could only recently get access to the full dp4.

Will apple give developers access in future to other full dps? I don't know. I would prefer it if all the dps were available to developers as full installers - because then you can make a bootable usb for each one - very useful if you have to reinstall it - and much better than a multitude of delta updates.
 
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Also, a shorter method for making a bootable USB for DP4 in Terminal is (your USB drive should be called Untitled):

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ 10.9\ Developer\ Preview.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ 10.9\ Developer\ Preview.app --nointeraction

You won't have to copy createinstallmedia to the desktop if you use this method.

Also, output in terminal looks slightly different:

Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%...100%...
Copying installer files to disk...
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable...
Copying boot files...
Copy complete.
Done.

So far createinstallmedia is only in the full installer for DP4. It is not present in any of the updaters, or in the full installer for DP1. I think apple made this because they really don't want you to make invisible files visible (a necessary step you need to make a bootable USB for DP1). And rightly so in my opinion. You can cause a lot of damage if you start messing about with invisible files.
 
Is it necessary to do this USB install?

I remember when I installed DP1 I was able to simply go into the contents of the DMG file and install from there.

I know there is an alternative method installing Mavericks from your hard drive without having to create a USB installer.

....of course, there may be a better reason to do it this way and I apologize in advance if I am going against the flow.
 
You don't have to use a bootable usb to install the system. You can install it without the usb. But it is a good idea to make a bootable usb in case you need to reinstall later, do a clean install or if you have to install on several computers. It can also be used to restore from a backup, or use disk utilities to repair a disk. So it's actually very useful to have such a thing.

Only 2 days ago I had to reinstall snow leopard and I had previously made a bootable usb. I used the bootable usb to install it and it installed much faster than the DVD.
 
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rw3 said:
So after doing some searching tonight, I was unable to find a good guide to get the latest Mavericks DP4 onto a USB flash drive in order to use it as a clean installer. After doing some digging in the package, I found a nice little Apple provided utility within the package that will do everything we need in terminal. Below you will find the guide:

OS X Mavericks Developer Preview 4 USB Install Disk Guide

1. Download the latest Developer Preview 4 package from App Store

[url=http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab175/xtrememacs/MacRumors/Mavericks/th_ScreenShot2013-07-25at110751PM.png]Image[/URL]

2. Right Click on the Install OS X 10.9 Developer Preview in the Applications Folder and select "Show Package Contents":

[url=http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab175/xtrememacs/MacRumors/Mavericks/th_ScreenShot2013-07-25at111533PM.png]Image[/URL]

3.Now once in this window:

[url=http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab175/xtrememacs/MacRumors/Mavericks/th_ScreenShot2013-07-25at110647PM.png]Image[/URL]

Double Click "Contents" then Double Clock "Resources":

[url=http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab175/xtrememacs/MacRumors/Mavericks/th_ScreenShot2013-07-25at110652PM.png]Image[/URL]

4. Now once in "Resources", you will want to copy the createinstallmedia exec file to your Desktop.

[url=http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab175/xtrememacs/MacRumors/Mavericks/th_ScreenShot2013-07-25at110712PM.png]Image[/URL]

5. Now open Terminal and run a "sudo -s" without the quotes and then enter your user password:

[url=http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab175/xtrememacs/MacRumors/Mavericks/th_ScreenShot2013-07-25at112422PM.png]Image[/URL]

6. Once you have run the sudo command you will then want to launch Disk Utility (keep your root Terminal window open) and format an 8GB USB Flash drive with the name Mavericks. (GUID Partition Scheme and Mac OS Extended Journal)

7. Once you have created a flash drive with volume name Mavericks, you will want to run the follow command in Terminal (replacing shortname with your short name and removing the quotes):

"/Users/shortname/Desktop/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Mavericks --applicationpath /Applications/"Install OS X 10.9 Developer Preview.app" [--force]"

[url=http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab175/xtrememacs/MacRumors/Mavericks/th_ScreenShot2013-07-25at113054PM.png]Image[/URL]

Once you have entered the command, you will see the following text in Terminal:

Ready to start.
To continue we need to erase the disk at /Volumes/Mavericks.
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.
bash-3.2#
bash-3.2#​

The process will take a good 10-15 minutes to complete. I have fully tested this and I am able to install from this newly created USB disk.
Click to expand...

Giving this a try right now with the GM build. The only thing different is the line:

"/Users/shortname/Desktop/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Mavericks --applicationpath /Applications/"Install OS X 10.9 Developer Preview.app" [--force]"

I changed it to "Install OS X Mavericks.app" to match the GM build title.

Will update post once it's done to confirm that it works.
 
This would be quicker for the GM (your USB drive should be called Untitled):

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
 
tywebb13 said:
This would be quicker for the GM (your USB drive should be called Untitled):

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
Click to expand...

Ah, might try that if the other (OP's) method fails. It's still in the middle of copying installer files to disk right now....
 
I can confirm this works with GM, inasmuch as I can confirm it booted a MacBook Air from USB (it hasn't finished installing yet, but the installer *does* run, and WiFi is not connected). I also did not copy the installer to the hard drive first, but rather ran the command from the mounted image, like so:
Code: 
sudo /Volumes/[I]{mounted Mavericks install volume}[/I]/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/[I]{USB drive}[/I] --applicationpath /Volumes/[I]{mounted Mavericks install volume}[/I]/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction

Edit: it takes a *really* long time to run. Like, it was 15-20 minutes on a Mac Pro octo.
 
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I used this method to make a bootable USB for the GM. It does boot but I get an error after the "preparing to install" process. Now I have a Mac with no OS and a USB drive that can't install one. Awesome.
 
emt1 said:
I used this method to make a bootable USB for the GM. It does boot but I get an error after the "preparing to install" process. Now I have a Mac with no OS and a USB drive that can't install one. Awesome.
Click to expand...

Restore to ML. Hold CMD+R to start from internet recovery :)
 
Remind me next time to not use the slowest computer in the house to test with, but yeah, everything worked and I'm running 10.9 using the method above to do a clean install.
 
Also worked on an 2008 iMac with no problems, clean install.

FYI, no network connection for the duration of the install, and it asked, but didn't require, an Apple ID to set up. I skipped and set up a dummy user, and it downloaded iTunes 11.1 form the App Store without asking for credentials.
 
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