[SOLVED] Making a bootable MacOS usb on Linux (Suse).

TYTA · 08-03-2019, 07:46 AM

Hi all,

I have a Mac Air (A1465) circa 2012 which I need to do a clean install on for my friend. I need to create a bootable UBS for the installation. As I don't own a Mac , I was wondering if it is possible to create a bootable USB on Linux? Also, how do I download a clean and malware free version not having an Apple account?

I am after a "High Siera" image.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Alex

TB0ne · 08-03-2019, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TYTA

Hi all,
I have a Mac Air (A1465) circa 2012 which I need to do a clean install on for my friend. I need to create a bootable UBS for the installation. As I don't own a Mac , I was wondering if it is possible to create a bootable USB on Linux? Also, how do I download a clean and malware free version not having an Apple account?

I am after a "High Siera" image.

Not sure why you're posting about Mac OSX on a Linux forum....that isn't Linux in any way. There are LOTS of places/links to get a High Sierra image, including Apple's website...have you searched for any??
https://support.apple.com/downloads/highsierra

And there are also a load of tutorials to create a bootable USB stick for Mac's, over half a million found with a brief search:
https://eastmanreference.com/how-to-...ive-with-linux

TYTA · 08-03-2019, 07:36 PM

Many thanks for your reply, much appreciated! Well, my question was Linux related "How to create a bootable USB in a Linux environment".

Once again, many thanks for your reply!

Alex

mrmazda · 08-03-2019, 09:08 PM

My problem with a 2007 iMac was getting an El Capitan image without having an Apple account, which I found impossible to get for myself without using an already installed supported Mac version. I was able to take it to someone with an Apple account and have him download the El Capitan image using my iMac with Snow Leopard already installed from original DVD. The upgrade then became a simple matter of opening the downloaded El Capitan image while booted to Snow Leopard.

You could probably do similar, install any MacOS version you can get your hands on, then open a High Sierra image from wherever obtained.

It's my understanding gleaned from these and contemporaneous events is that if you already have the High Sierra image that you could simply dd it to USB media using Linux, then boot it on the Air by holding down the option key at the chime.

TYTA · 08-04-2019, 12:41 AM

Many thanks! I am not sure if this is a problem but when I try to convert I get the below error messages:

Code:

[1993]  99.50%
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[1994]  99.55%
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[1995]  99.60%
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[1996]  99.65%
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[1997]  99.70%
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[1998]  99.75%
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[2000]  99.85%
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[2003] 100.00%  ok
opening partition 6 ...         [2] 100.00%  ok
opening partition 7 ...                    
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[2] 100.00%  ok
opening partition 8 ...                    
 Unsupported or corrupted block found: -2147483641
[2] 100.00%  ok

Code:

~/MacOS> dmg2img -l macosupd10.13.2.dmg

dmg2img v1.6.7 (c) vu1tur (to@vu1tur.eu.org)

macosupd10.13.2.dmg --> (partition list)

partition 0: Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)
partition 1: GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1)
partition 2: GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2)
partition 3:  (Apple_Free : 3)
partition 4: EFI System Partition (C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B : 4)
partition 5: disk image (Apple_HFS : 5)
partition 6:  (Apple_Free : 6)
partition 7: GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 7)
partition 8: GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 8)

mrmazda · 08-04-2019, 02:40 AM

How was this solved? Please explain what you are trying to convert to what.

TYTA · 08-04-2019, 02:50 AM

The error message hasn't been resolved that is why I change thread status to unresolved again.

I tried different dmg files from Apple site but still getting the same error message when trying to convert dmg to is. This is the command I used.

Code:

dmg2img -v -i macosupd10.13.2.dmg -o macosupd10.13.2.iso

I tried to Google the error message but nothing productive came out from that.

TB0ne · 08-08-2019, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TYTA

The error message hasn't been resolved that is why I change thread status to unresolved again.

I tried different dmg files from Apple site but still getting the same error message when trying to convert dmg to is. This is the command I used.

Code:

dmg2img -v -i macosupd10.13.2.dmg -o macosupd10.13.2.iso

I tried to Google the error message but nothing productive came out from that.

After thinking about this a bit, you're doing things you don't even need to do. You're reloading Mac OSX onto a Mac...use the built-in firmware-based recovery:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

It downloads everything for you, and walks you through the installer. Your 'friend' should probably reference the manual for their computer, or have checked the Apple forums.

TYTA · 08-08-2019, 06:55 AM

Thank you so much for the reply! It is very useful.

My friend got the laptop off EBay and as he doesn't know much about Macs asked me to help. I told him I would give it a go.

Once again, thank you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TB0ne

After thinking about this a bit, you're doing things you don't even need to do. You're reloading Mac OSX onto a Mac...use the built-in firmware-based recovery:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

It downloads everything for you, and walks you through the installer. Your 'friend' should probably reference the manual for their computer, or have checked the Apple forums.

TYTA · 08-17-2019, 07:39 AM

Update:

I have restored the OS using the Web restore method and upgraded to High Sierra. Once again, many thanks!