Why can't I disable rootless?

[Nidron]

Hey everyone,
I want to disable Rootless due to many of my installers failing with the "installer could not install the software because there was no software found to install" error.

But I simply can't!
First, I tried the sudo commands, then someone here on the forums pointed out that I need to do it through recovery mode, did that - still not working.
Went back to recovery mode, checked if the box had been re-checked automatically - it hadn't. Back to OS X, the installations still fail, and in Disk Utility I can see that Rootless is still turned on.
I don't get it, there's no reason as to why it shouldn't work.

I'm running a Retina iMac with a fresh install of El Capitan, on a newly formatted drive.
Does anyone have a clue about this?

Best regards,
Adrian

 

[adrianlondon]

As of Beta 2, both the nvram method and setting it after recovery-booting work. Disk Utility shows rootless as being enabled even when it isn't. Useful, huh.

I"d guess your installer issues are not related to SIP as you seem to have successfully disabled it.

 

[mikecwest]

Hey everyone,
I want to disable Rootless due to many of my installers failing with the "installer could not install the software because there was no software found to install" error.

But I simply can't!
First, I tried the sudo commands, then someone here on the forums pointed out that I need to do it through recovery mode, did that - still not working.
Went back to recovery mode, checked if the box had been re-checked automatically - it hadn't. Back to OS X, the installations still fail, and in Disk Utility I can see that Rootless is still turned on.
I don't get it, there's no reason as to why it shouldn't work.

I'm running a Retina iMac with a fresh install of El Capitan, on a newly formatted drive.
Does anyone have a clue about this?

Best regards,
Adrian

I have seen many instructions on how to disable rootless, and devmode , I have seen a lot that are wrong.

This should work if you need only rootless disabled. (note the important "=" sign before the 0.)

sudo nvram boot-args="rootless=0";sudo reboot

I have seen some that put it like this:

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1 rootless 0" <---THIS IS WRONG, note that the "=" sign is not there.

If you need rootless AND devmode disabled

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1 rootless=0";sudo reboot


---
If you are still having issues, go to TERMINAL, and type

nvram boot-args

I got as a result:

kext-dev-mode=1 rootless=0

...

If you properly disabled rootless, and or enabled devmode, then that’s what you should see.

 

[MikhailT]

I have seen many instructions on how to disable rootless, and devmode , I have seen a lot that are wrong.

This should work if you need only rootless disabled. (note the important "=" sign before the 0.)

sudo nvram boot-args="rootless=0";sudo reboot

I have seen some that put it like this:

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1 rootless 0" <---THIS IS WRONG, note that the "=" sign is not there.

If you need rootless AND devmode disabled

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1 rootless=0";sudo reboot


---
If you are still having issues, go to TERMINAL, and type

nvram boot-args

I got as a result:

kext-dev-mode=1 rootless=0

...

If you properly disabled rootless, and or enabled devmode, then that’s what you should see.

This is also wrong because Apple will be removing the boot-args completely soon in El Cap. The only way to properly disable SIP is through the Recovery OS, via the security settings.

As for the OP, you need to tell us which installers is showing this problem, maybe one of us can test it.

I have not seen a single installer fail because of SIP.

 

[CanadaMaple]

I'm having same issue as OP on my 2008 Mac Pro.

Tried everything... Nothing working.

Will give Mike's suggestion of also adding bootargs for Kext-dev-mode and report back.

 

[CanadaMaple]

Still nothing... Followed exactly.

 

[redheeler]

Back to OS X, the installations still fail, and in Disk Utility I can see that Rootless is still turned on.

Still nothing... Followed exactly.

Rootless shows as enabled in the Disk Utility hard drive info regardless of whether it actually is or not. Have you actually tried to do something that requires Rootless to be disabled, such as modify system files, to ensure that it is still enabled?

 

[CanadaMaple]

Rootless shows as enabled in the Disk Utility hard drive info regardless of whether it actually is or not. Have you actually tried to do something that requires Rootless to be disabled, such as modify system files, to ensure that it is still enabled?

Look's like you're right! Thanks.

Someone in another thread, possibly even forum, had said that that was the way to check. I didn't even try modifying my system yet.

Perfect. Thanks!

-CanadaMaple

 

[sd70mac]

I know that rEFInd, an EFI boot manager, can't be installed with rootless enabled, as I just tried to install it. It uses terminal to install though, so I doubt that it's what the original poster was trying to install. Rootless and the disabling of boot-args seem to have made their way into 10.10.5 as well, by the way.

 

[AllergyDoc]

The only way to properly disable SIP is through the Recovery OS, via the security settings.

This is how I did it. I needed to run a patch to make my 27" Acer monitor run at its highest resolution. I enabled SIP after I ran the patch. Worked like a charm.

 

[SG-]

Apple has said that you should be using the Recovery Tool to enable/disable it as every other method is work in progress and will change as they finalize things.