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Issues installing El Captain on MacBook Air

I wanted to basically start again on my MacBook Air (it’s quite old, I couldn’t tell you what year!)

So I backed it up on an external hard drive and erased the drive. When entering into Recovery Mode I downloaded El Captain, but anytime I go to install it, it says no packages were eligible for install.

I’m aware this is because Apple has been a bit slack in updating recovery servers with current certificates.

I’m also aware I can change the date in terminal, and I’ve tried that. Unfortunately my Mac automatically connects to Wifi and it resets the date.

My question is - is my only way around this connecting to my router via Ethernet? This would mean I’d have to buy a thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter and I’d like to avoid spending the $40 AUD if I can.

Please help me, I need my laptop for study! What a can of worms I’ve opened haha.

MacBook Air

Posted on Jul 16, 2021 11:32 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 17, 2021 12:13 AM

Yes you should not have erased your mac and then gone on to rely on reinstalling

via Apples Recovery Servers because of the certificate issue.


Ideally you should have downloaded a copy of El Capitan which is still available

from Apple (with valid certificates) from here, How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support (UK)

Go to the Downloads section and click on Mac OS X El Capitan.

This would have downloaded InstallMacOSX.dmg which you open to get InstallMacOSX.pkg which you open

to create the Install OS X El Capitan.app in the Applications folder.

With the Install OS X El Capitan.app and the createinstallmedia command in Terminal you can create a bootable

USB flash drive installer, How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support (UK)

You would then boot to the installer USB, erase the drive with Disk Utility and reinstall Mac OS X El Capitan.

If you have access to another mac that you know is capable of running El Capitan then you could still do this

and then transfer the bootable USB to your MacBook Air and reinstall that way.

It is important that the donor mac is capable of running El Capitan (it may nave been upgraded since,

but that is OK) any mac that was bought brand new with a newer OS (Sierra onwards) will refuse the process

where it creates the Install OS X El Capitan.app from the InstallOSX.pkg.

If you have or can borrow a mac to do the above then I can give you more detailed instructions on what to do.


Did you make a full backup of your mac before you erased the drive if so you could reinstall El Capitan

that way using the Restore from Time Machine.


If you can only reinstall from Apples Recovery Servers then you may have to get that Thunderbolt to

Ethernet adaptor, unless of course you know someone you could borrow one from. Relying on WiFi

will reset the date back to today and you will encounter the earlier issue.

Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 17, 2021 12:13 AM in response to ElizaKate3

Yes you should not have erased your mac and then gone on to rely on reinstalling

via Apples Recovery Servers because of the certificate issue.


Ideally you should have downloaded a copy of El Capitan which is still available

from Apple (with valid certificates) from here, How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support (UK)

Go to the Downloads section and click on Mac OS X El Capitan.

This would have downloaded InstallMacOSX.dmg which you open to get InstallMacOSX.pkg which you open

to create the Install OS X El Capitan.app in the Applications folder.

With the Install OS X El Capitan.app and the createinstallmedia command in Terminal you can create a bootable

USB flash drive installer, How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support (UK)

You would then boot to the installer USB, erase the drive with Disk Utility and reinstall Mac OS X El Capitan.

If you have access to another mac that you know is capable of running El Capitan then you could still do this

and then transfer the bootable USB to your MacBook Air and reinstall that way.

It is important that the donor mac is capable of running El Capitan (it may nave been upgraded since,

but that is OK) any mac that was bought brand new with a newer OS (Sierra onwards) will refuse the process

where it creates the Install OS X El Capitan.app from the InstallOSX.pkg.

If you have or can borrow a mac to do the above then I can give you more detailed instructions on what to do.


Did you make a full backup of your mac before you erased the drive if so you could reinstall El Capitan

that way using the Restore from Time Machine.


If you can only reinstall from Apples Recovery Servers then you may have to get that Thunderbolt to

Ethernet adaptor, unless of course you know someone you could borrow one from. Relying on WiFi

will reset the date back to today and you will encounter the earlier issue.

Issues installing El Captain on MacBook Air

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