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I have a new-to-me early-2009 iMac. It came to me without any updates since early 2016 and I decided to update it from OSX Yosemite to El Capitan (the last version supported on this hardware.)
I downloaded the "app" from the Store on the iMac and restarted to begin the installation process. During the install I receive the following message:
OS X could not be installed on your computer
No packages were eligible for install. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.
I hit restart and I end up in a boot-loop. When I try to use the Alt (Option) key to select a recovery boot it just restarts back into the installer without giving me an option to select a boot source.
When I search for information about this error, I found suggestions to use the Terminal date
command to set the correct timestamp. This does not appear to be the issue though as when I run the date
command it returns the correct date and time (although the wrong timezone - PDT instead of the correct MDT).
Further research suggests I may have to use a bootable USB with the OS X installer on it. I do not, however, have any other Macs in my home. I have tried using TransMac but the drive doesn't seem to be recognized as a bootable device by the iMac.
Are there any other steps that I can try to make this work and escape this boot loop?
Thanks!
Google is your friend. "Create Bootable El Capitan USB Drive in Windows">>>>>>>http://jafty.com/blog/make-a-bootable-el-capitan-usb-drive-for-mac-from-windows-pc/
– Moab – 2019-10-25T02:26:43.350@Moab I followed those instructions (I linked to the SuperUser post that I followed). When I hold down the Alt Key (I only have a Windows keyboard) and click restart it does not appear in the boot selector. – Asclepiadae – 2019-10-25T02:32:00.253
3You don't use
date
to set the correct date, you use it to set the date back to when the certificate was valid. sometime mid-2016 should be safe. Try that & tell us what happens. Alternatively, try Internet Recovery, Cmd/opt/R at the boot chimes. [Ah, I note that article was written in 2016, when its info was actually correct.] – Tetsujin – 2019-10-25T07:29:16.917@Tetsujin that's the answer dude, post it in answeres not comments – Death Waltz – 2019-10-28T05:18:38.010
I wasn't aware of this new message, so it was a guess. I've got a far more comprehensive Q&A over on Ask Different, for reference, to which I've now added this error message: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309399/how-can-i-download-an-older-version-of-os-x-macos
– Tetsujin – 2019-10-28T10:52:25.590