Create Mojave USB Key Bootable from HighSierra?

[umbilical]

I follow this: http://osxdaily.com/2018/09/26/make-macos-mojave-boot-usb-installer/

I download Mojave from app store: Install macOS Mojave.app

1. I erase a usb key, Untitled etc...
2. I hit this:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/UNTITLED --nointeraction && say Mojave Drive Created

and give me this:

To use this tool, you must download the macOS installer application on a Mac with 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. For more information, please see the following: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201372.

why?

 

[casperes1996]

Well likely because there was something crucial inside one of those updates that's needed to create a bootable Mojave drive. Why not just upgrade your High Sierra installation?

 

[umbilical]

Well likely because there was something crucial inside one of those updates that's needed to create a bootable Mojave drive. Why not just upgrade your High Sierra installation?

Upgrade? NO thank you, I never upgrade from a OS to other, is the worst idea, many bugs etc.
I prefer create a usb key bootable with the new OS and erase my HD and create a fresh install.
So I'm now in High Sierra, I download Mojave and I need create a usb key bootable to erase my HD and install Mojave from the USB key.

 

[casperes1996]

Upgrade? NO thank you, I never upgrade from a OS to other, is the worst idea, many bugs etc.
I prefer create a usb key bootable with the new OS and erase my HD and create a fresh install.
So I'm now in High Sierra, I download Mojave and I need create a usb key bootable to erase my HD and install Mojave from the USB key.

I didn't say upgrade from HS to Mojave. I said upgrade HS to the latest release of HS.

Instead of being on 10.13.0 or whatever you're on, upgrade to the latest HS and then see if the tool doesn't work properly then.

 

[umbilical]

I didn't say upgrade from HS to Mojave. I said upgrade HS to the latest release of HS.

Instead of being on 10.13.0 or whatever you're on, upgrade to the latest HS and then see if the tool doesn't work properly then.

oh!, yes I'm in the latest high sierra: 10.13.6 (17G6030)

app store says "no updates available" so yes, I'm in the latest.

 

[treekram]

When do you get the error message? Is it right after you enter the command; or after you see "If you wish to continue type (Y) ..."; or after you see "Erasing disk ..."; or after you see "Copying to disk ..." or some other time? I tried this on the same version of High Sierra you have and it works. I tried different scenarios but I don't get the error message you do. So maybe something is not right with the flash drive? I wonder if it can be that it requires a certain EFI level? What Mac do you have? what Boot ROM version do you have? (type in "system information" in Spotlight and it should open a page which will display the "Boot ROM Version" you have.

 

[umbilical]

When do you get the error message? Is it right after you enter the command; or after you see "If you wish to continue type (Y) ..."; or after you see "Erasing disk ..."; or after you see "Copying to disk ..." or some other time? I tried this on the same version of High Sierra you have and it works. I tried different scenarios but I don't get the error message you do. So maybe something is not right with the flash drive? I wonder if it can be that it requires a certain EFI level? What Mac do you have? what Boot ROM version do you have? (type in "system information" in Spotlight and it should open a page which will display the "Boot ROM Version" you have.

the message appear after:

1. I hit the command
2. ask me for my password

and boom! message appear.

here's the complete stuff:

bash-3.2$ sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --nointeraction && say Mojave Drive Created

Password:

To use this tool, you must download the macOS installer application on a Mac with 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. For more information, please see the following: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201372.

===

Boot ROM Version: 151.0.0.0.0

USB KEY is fine, I try one usb key more and same message.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

 

[casperes1996]

the message appear after:

1. I hit the command
2. ask me for my password

and boom! message appear.

here's the complete stuff:

bash-3.2$ sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --nointeraction && say Mojave Drive Created

Password:

To use this tool, you must download the macOS installer application on a Mac with 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. For more information, please see the following: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201372.

===

Boot ROM Version: 151.0.0.0.0

USB KEY is fine, I try one usb key more and same message.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

I assume you've copied that straight from your shell. In which case, it confuses me that it's logged into a direct bash shell rather than through a regular login. I can't see why it would really make a difference, but how did you spawn the shell?

Where are you when you run the command? I.e. what folder? Try running it from the applications folder. (cd /Applications)

Try not running the comand with the nointeraction flag and you can remove the && say Mojave Drive Created bits. it just make the computer say aloud when it's done.

If this still doesn't work, I guess we can try with dd and bless, but the potential for causing data damage with dd means I'd rather avoid that option. Then again, if you're planning on reformatting anyway

 

[umbilical]

I assume you've copied that straight from your shell. In which case, it confuses me that it's logged into a direct bash shell rather than through a regular login. I can't see why it would really make a difference, but how did you spawn the shell?

Where are you when you run the command? I.e. what folder? Try running it from the applications folder. (cd /Applications)

Try not running the comand with the nointeraction flag and you can remove the && say Mojave Drive Created bits. it just make the computer say aloud when it's done.

If this still doesn't work, I guess we can try with dd and bless, but the potential for causing data damage with dd means I'd rather avoid that option. Then again, if you're planning on reformatting anyway

I try in the /Applications folder, same thing, I remove nointeraction flag and the && say Mojave Drive Created, same thing...

I'm a fish shell, but same thing, I move to bash, same thing etc...

the last thing that I should try is: I have another computer with Mojave, I'll try do it from that computer.

 

[treekram]

The Boot ROM version looks correct. On the web page I looked at, the EFI version it has for my Mini (High Sierra) matches what I have and my EFI was upgraded after the 2019-002 security update (the last time the EFI was updated). So this source has the same EFI version as you have posted for your MBP.

The Mojave installer on my Mini High Sierra computer is for 10.14.4. I wonder if the installer changed. I don't know if this is what shows the installer version but if you do the following in Terminal:
cat "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/version.plist"

what I get is 248 for the BuildVersion, 14.4.08 for the CFBundleShortVersionString and 14408 for the CFBundleVersion.

It should have downloaded the installer to this location under Applications - if you get some message saying file not found, then it's been put someplace else.

I was wondering about the bash prompt as well. Are you running the Terminal app and typing in the command or doing something else?

 

[casperes1996]

I'm a fish shell, but same thing, I move to bash, same thing etc...

the last thing that I should try is: I have another computer with Mojave, I'll try do it from that computer.

It's not so much that it's bash that made me wonder. Bash is the default shell so that makes perfect sense. But it's a spawned bash shell seemingly and not a login shell, which confuses me. Bash's login shells have a prompt in the form
"computer-name:current-folder UserName $"


Anyways, if you can't get it to work, and it for some reason also fails on the other machine, you can try with dd

dd if=/InputHere of=outputHere

and then bless on the volume afterwards.

of will become an exact copy of if.

 

[umbilical]

The Boot ROM version looks correct. On the web page I looked at, the EFI version it has for my Mini (High Sierra) matches what I have and my EFI was upgraded after the 2019-002 security update (the last time the EFI was updated). So this source has the same EFI version as you have posted for your MBP.

The Mojave installer on my Mini High Sierra computer is for 10.14.4. I wonder if the installer changed. I don't know if this is what shows the installer version but if you do the following in Terminal:
cat "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/version.plist"

what I get is 248 for the BuildVersion, 14.4.08 for the CFBundleShortVersionString and 14408 for the CFBundleVersion.

It should have downloaded the installer to this location under Applications - if you get some message saying file not found, then it's been put someplace else.

I was wondering about the bash prompt as well. Are you running the Terminal app and typing in the command or doing something else?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>BuildAliasOf</key>

<string>InstallAssistant</string>

<key>BuildVersion</key>

<string>248</string>

<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>

<string>14.4.08</string>

<key>CFBundleVersion</key>

<string>14408</string>

<key>ProjectName</key>

<string>InstallAssistant</string>

<key>SourceVersion</key>

<string>1223000000000000</string>

</dict>

</plist>

 

[treekram]

That shows the same version.plist that I have.

If you haven't resolved it, you can try entering the following commands in Terminal:

cd "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app"
find -s . -type f -exec md5 {} \; | md5

The result I got was: ba5361f5e06e0bda0a6cef75c43101d5 on two different computers although I can't remember if one was copied from the other since on my Mini, it automatically downloads the installer so I just keep it there and on the other computer I store installers.

If you get a different result, there could be reasons why they are different even if the files are all the same. But if you get the same result, you have the same installer I do - in which case something on your computer is different.

 

[umbilical]

That shows the same version.plist that I have.

If you haven't resolved it, you can try entering the following commands in Terminal:

cd "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app"
find -s . -type f -exec md5 {} \; | md5

The result I got was: ba5361f5e06e0bda0a6cef75c43101d5 on two different computers although I can't remember if one was copied from the other since on my Mini, it automatically downloads the installer so I just keep it there and on the other computer I store installers.

If you get a different result, there could be reasons why they are different even if the files are all the same. But if you get the same result, you have the same installer I do - in which case something on your computer is different.

0a1bd5937c679fc38afb0c1bca726d03

 

[treekram]

So something is different between our installers. You can try

cd "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app"
find -s . -type f -exec md5 {} \; > $HOME/mojave_md5.txt
(this will write a file to your home directory)

After it completes, type in:

diff $HOME/mojave_md5.txt [downloaded file]

where [downloaded file] is the file I've uploaded of the md5 results I got (you need to download this file). This should output what files are different. If the output is large, your installer is very different from what I have. If results are small, you can post it and we can see what's different.

 

[umbilical]

So something is different between our installers. You can try

cd "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app"
find -s . -type f -exec md5 {} \; > $HOME/mojave_md5.txt
(this will write a file to your home directory)

After it completes, type in:

diff $HOME/mojave_md5.txt [downloaded file]

where [downloaded file] is the file I've uploaded of the md5 results I got (you need to download this file). This should output what files are different. If the output is large, your installer is very different from what I have. If results are small, you can post it and we can see what's different.

thanks, I'll try later IF I can't have the same problem on the other computer.
[doublepost=1557038112][/doublepost]thanks for the help guys! I appreciate it. very kind!
I'm back here if I can't do it in the other computer.