Special Skylake build of El Capitan on the new 27" iMac?

[Erdbeertorte]

Hi,

in another thread I wrote about USB issues on my new 27" iMac.

If you don't like to read the whole text, just tell me please what's your build number of El Capitan on the Skylake iMac.

I wanted to disable the fusion drive, but was not able to boot the installer from an USB thumb drive, which I used several times before to install El Capitan on other Macs. It showed me an empty disk symbol in the boot menu.

Then I tried to download El Capitan from the AppStore to create a new one, but it did not let me download, because El Capitan was already installed.
On my MacBook Pro I can download it anyway and just skip that message. I though maybe it's why my MBP is on 10.11.1, so I updated the iMac too, but a download was still not possible.

Also it was not possible to boot from the internal SSD of my MacBook Pro with 10.11.1 Beta 4. I connected it to an USB port and it failed booting after some time.

So I started Internet Recovery on the iMac and installed El Capitan on another USB SSD. Finally I was able to boot from an external device to disable the fusion drive. After that I installed El Capitan on the internal PCIe flash storage, from the recovery partition of the external SSD.

For not any special reasons, while installing, I read the detailed installation informations and there was an error that said something like a 10.11.0.1 package could not be found to download.

The installation finished with no official displayed error and booted normally, but my USB SDD at least since then has only 2.0 speed and works only on the first port (from the middle).

In the meanwhile I created a new USB boot device on my MBP and the iMac did not recognize it. I tested it on every port and also another USB thumb drive which has a Mavericks installer on it. None of them showed up on the Desktop or in Disk Utility.

Updated again to 10.11.1, but that did not help me out.

So, may it be there are special Skylake drivers for the new iMac, which are not included in the regular build of El Capitan and also not in the latest beta of 10.11.1 and Internet Recovery does not provide these drivers yet? Or is anything wrong with my iMac?


Edit: The two USB transmitters for my wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse seem to work on any port.

I am now testing a clean install with Internet Recovery this time from the internal drive again.

 

[mikeboss]

as long as there's no 10.11.1 available to download from the App Store you'll have to use the internet recovery method to reinstall El Capitan. 10.11 doesn't have skylake support built in. so yes, I assume that the late 2015 27" is delivered with a special build.

10.11 release has build number 15A284. what's yours?

 

[Erdbeertorte]

But 10.11.1 Beta 4 seems also not support Skylake yet.

That's from the installation protocol, when I did the first internet recovery. There must be a special build 10.11.0.1 but it could not be installed.

Oct 18 01:51:56 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Checking Software Update catalog URL https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...n-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Oct 18 01:51:58 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Could not add SWU product
Oct 18 01:52:03 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: LSExceptions [0x7fb3605087d0] unloaded
Oct 18 01:52:06 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Package Authoring Warning: The installer script defines but doesn't use (and can't install) package id com.apple.pkg.OSUpgrade version 10.11.0.1.
Oct 18 01:52:07 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Using product <OSInstallRecoveryProduct: 0x7fb36058e810> at distance 25
Oct 18 01:52:07 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Using product <OSInstallESDProduct> based on distribution at /var/tmp/RecoveryTemp/OSInstall.mpkg at distance 5
Oct 18 01:52:07 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Oct 18 01:52:07 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: DM ..F-[DMManager(PrivateMethods) clientConforms:error:]: currentThread=40971=0xa00b expectedThread=775=0x307
Oct 18 01:52:07 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Oct 18 01:52:07 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: DM ..F-[DMManager(PrivateMethods) clientConforms:error:]: currentThread=40971=0xa00b expectedThread=775=0x307
Oct 18 01:52:07 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Oct 18 01:52:07 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: DM ..F-[DMManager(PrivateMethods) clientConforms:error:]: currentThread=40971=0xa00b expectedThread=775=0x307
Oct 18 01:52:13 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Created IATool object:60454b00
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Preventing machine sleep.
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Using product IA_PKSecureNetEnabledProduct <file:///Volumes/SSD/OS%20X%20Install%20Data/> at distance 5
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Using mutable product path: /Volumes/SSD/OS X Install Data
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Retrieving 1 packages (6.144 GB)
Oct 18 01:52:14 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Waiting for edge cache info.
Oct 18 01:52:17 iMac InstallAssistant[459]: Fetch completed.

 

[mikeboss]

But 10.11.1 Beta 4 seems also not support Skylake yet.

AFAIK the latest DP should come with skylake support built in:
https://pikeralpha.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/os-x-10-11-1-beta-4-adds-skylake-support/

 

[Erdbeertorte]

Hmm, but I updated with that tool and the USB issues stayed:

Just trying Internet Recovery again...

 

[mikeboss]

Hmm, but I updated with that tool and the USB issues stayed:

Just trying Internet Recovery again...

integrated support for skylake doesn't necessarily mean integrated support for iMac17,1

 

[Erdbeertorte]

Seems to work now. The external SSD is running with USB 3.0 speed instead of 2.0 before. Build Number is 10.11.0 15A4310.

USB thumb drives are recognized too now.

Is it better to wait for the final version of 10.11.1 or a new beta until I migrate my MBP (10.11.1 15B38b) to the iMac?

 

[xgman]

I think the last beta if cloned from an old imac model (2013-2014) would/should work on a new imac with Skylake. If it doesn't, I assume the internet recovery will be updated Monday and likley 10.11.1 fi8nal release Mon or Tues as well.