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platonicbomb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2023
15
0
After I installed Ventura 13.1, I lost internet. All other machines in the house get wifi fine.

I'm trying to reinstall Catalina in order to get internet.

When I try Command + Option + Shift + R reboot, it starts Internet Recovery.

First time I get a -2100F error. OK, try again.

Second time I try to restore from backup, but no backups can be found on my external SSD (it's half full of backups that are usable on my M2 MacBook, so the SSD is fine).

So instead I try to reinstall Catalina. "Select the disc where you want to reinstall MacOS"... but there is no disk visible to choose.

On to Disk Utility. I try to partition the disk... I read somewhere that may make it visible for the reinstall. "This container has 525 GB used space. Its minimum size is 1 TB. This container can't be split, because one or more of its volumes is not mounted."

Can't quit Disk Utility because of a hung password creation popup for the impossible partition. The pride of these Apple developers!

So I jump over to Startup Disk to restart in Recovery mode.

What do I do next? Erase the entire disk in Disk Utility? Will I be able to reinstall Catalina then?
 

Bigwaff

Contributor
Sep 20, 2013
2,711
1,816
It is not clear whether you can log into the machine with Ventura installed. If so, go to Network preferences and delete the Wi-Fi profile and recreate it.
 

platonicbomb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2023
15
0
It is not clear whether you can log into the machine with Ventura installed. If so, go to Network preferences and delete the Wi-Fi profile and recreate it.
Is this the same as "forgetting" a wifi network? I just did this, then entered the password again to connect... no improvement.
 

platonicbomb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2023
15
0
I suggest installing Monterey from a bootable installer.
"How to download macOS" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683
"Create a bootable installer for macOS" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
Can I use an external SSD for this, or do I need a flash drive?

Also, I have Time Machine backups on an external SSD. Pretty sure that will work if I can just wipe the drive. What's the safest way to do it? I can't use "Transfer/Recovery" under General Settings Preferences because that requires internet to log out of Apple ID.
 
Last edited:

Bigwaff

Contributor
Sep 20, 2013
2,711
1,816
Is this the same as "forgetting" a wifi network? I just did this, then entered the password again to connect... no improvement.
No, it is not the same. I don’t have Ventura installed but I understand System Preferences has been replaced by Settings. In the Network section, you want to delete the Wi-Fi adapter config and recreate it.
 

platonicbomb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2023
15
0
Yeah I just don't see anything like that under Network. I can forget WINS & DNS & TCIP... I don't see other actions under Settings/Network/Wifi.

I can also forget Hardware/MAC address.
 

platonicbomb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2023
15
0
Sounds like a corrupted install. You can either do a Time Machine recovery or an erase and reinstall.
Unfortunately it won't let me reinstall from Time Machine. So I'm reinstalling Ventura. I've already done this to no avail, we'll see what happens this time. I think the OS is the problem, corrupt install or otherwise.

Do you know how to do an erase? The Eraser Assistant won't work because it requires logging out of my Apple ID, and logging out requires internet, which is the problem in the first place.
 

svenmany

macrumors demi-god
Jun 19, 2011
2,280
1,519
Add a new one, then you can delete the one named "Automatic"
I didn't mean to imply that I have any understanding of how that would help with your problem. :)

I tried to create a new Location and it just starts with the collection of network services that the original Location had. I wonder of the real goal is to recreate the network service itself. You can just delete one and make a new one on that same interface. But again. I have no idea if that would help anything.
 

platonicbomb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2023
15
0
After I installed Ventura 13.1, I lost internet. All other machines in the house get wifi fine.

I'm trying to reinstall Catalina in order to get internet.

When I try Command + Option + Shift + R reboot, it starts Internet Recovery.

First time I get a -2100F error. OK, try again.

Second time I try to restore from backup, but no backups can be found on my external SSD (it's half full of backups that are usable on my M2 MacBook, so the SSD is fine).

So instead I try to reinstall Catalina. "Select the disc where you want to reinstall MacOS"... but there is no disk visible to choose.

On to Disk Utility. I try to partition the disk... I read somewhere that may make it visible for the reinstall. "This container has 525 GB used space. Its minimum size is 1 TB. This container can't be split, because one or more of its volumes is not mounted."

Can't quit Disk Utility because of a hung password creation popup for the impossible partition. The pride of these Apple developers!

So I jump over to Startup Disk to restart in Recovery mode.

What do I do next? Erase the entire disk in Disk Utility? Will I be able to reinstall Catalina then?
I turned off Private Internet Access under Login Items and that fixed it. Interestingly, starting in Safe Mode did not help... I thought that would have sidestepped the apps. And of course I had PIA turned off this whole time... it was just the Login Item causing the problem.
 

svenmany

macrumors demi-god
Jun 19, 2011
2,280
1,519
I turned off Private Internet Access under Login Items and that fixed it. Interestingly, starting in Safe Mode did not help... I thought that would have sidestepped the apps. And of course I had PIA turned off this whole time... it was just the Login Item causing the problem.

I was involved in another thread where I provided my analysis of Private Internet Access' interference with Private Relay. But, I certainly never had it disable my internet access entirely.

The interference happened when PIA was running, even if the VPN was turned off. PIA installed a seemingly inconsequential rule into the packet filter firewall and that broke Private Relay. In a January, 2022 thread I wrote:

For those familiar with PF, to break email all you have to do is define an anchor in the main ruleset. You don't need to have anything else in the main ruleset. In addition, you don't need to load any rules into that anchor. And, as I already mentioned, you don't have to enable the firewall. Finally, when I turn on Private Internet Access, I see such anchors being defined.

Maybe safe mode must not disable the packet filter firewall (not the firewall you see in system settings) and the interference of that firewall has gotten worse in Ventura.

When I want to use my Private Internet Access account now, I use it with Viscosity rather than the PIA application. That doesn't cause any problems.
 

platonicbomb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2023
15
0
Good to know. I had not heard of Viscosity.

I want to revert to Big Sur. Not sure how best to do that. Ventura seems to have a lot of pitfalls.
 

jonh229

macrumors member
Dec 26, 2013
81
47
I didn't mean to imply that I have any understanding of how that would help with your problem. :)

I tried to create a new Location and it just starts with the collection of network services that the original Location had. I wonder of the real goal is to recreate the network service itself. You can just delete one and make a new one on that same interface. But again. I have no idea if that would help anything.
@svenmany

I cannot thank you enough for suggesting a closer look at location settings. I've been beating my head against the bulkhead for months and burning up my keyboard checking forums anywhere I could find one. Very few users have had my problem with a blank submenu under settings->networkd & Wi-Fi.

Creating a new current location (maybe I could have used auto but I made a new one instead) opened up the settings submenu and even tho I had to repopulate it with my settings (static IP's) that was infinitely better than the suggestion I got from Apple support. They suggested I go to Recovery and wipe my SSD, reinstall, update, & restore with TM. Not about to bury myself in that scenario so have been living with it for months (connection still worked, just was invisible) and hoping a point upgrade would fix it.

All is good now.
 
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