[HowTo] Create OSX ISO from the OSX Install app

[vitaly9]

Hello,
Your script is trying to erase /Volumes/OS X Base System on my host macOS X?
Is this is a partition for recovery operations?
am I doing right this execution?

[socratis]

If you're referring to this:

To continue we need to erase the volume at /Volumes/OS X Base System.
If you wish to continue type (Y) then press return: N

Operation canceled.

them yes, it's part of a normal operation. That's what it's supposed to happen. This is a result of the command:

sudo "Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System

where we tell the "createinstallmedia" command to create an installer on "/Volume/OS X Base System". That message is coming as a warning from the "createinstallmedia" command and it's perfectly legal.

You can continue safely, nothing to worry about...

[jpaindaveine]

Hello,

I am trying to build an "install ISO" for El Capitan, running script on Mojave 10.14.3 from an administrator user account.

Script stops with this error message:

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

Restore the Base System into the 10.11.6 ISO image...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Validating target...done
   Validating source...done
   Retrieving scan information...done
   Validating sizes...done
   Restoring  ....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100
   Restored target device is /dev/disk5s2.
   Remounting target volume...done
asr: Couldn't personalize volume /Volumes/OS X Base System

Do you have any idea on how to solve this issue?

Thanks a lot

[socratis]

@jpaindaveine

1. Make sure that you have the latest InstallerApp2ISO.sh.zip from the first page of this thread.
2. You don't need to be an administrator for the 10.11 (El Capitan) ISO, but it won't hurt either.
3. Open up a Terminal (become an admin) and run the script with the added "-v 3" command line switch. That will enable the highest verbose level.
4. Once the script fails, save the contents of the Terminal in a text file, using Cmd+S.
5. ZIP that text file and attach it to your reply.

[fposter]

Like JP, I wish to run a 10.11 (El Capitan) Guest on 10.13 Host. Operating Terminal is a daunting learning curve for me. I have no experience running .sh scripts from Terminal. My several attempts at installing all ended at the UEFI (whatever?) terminal.

I have the "Install OS X El Capitan" app on my hard drive. Is running Terminal to make the ISO my only course? Are there pkg or dmg files in the contents of the installer app that could mount? Could this be done in OS' graphical interface instead of Terminal?

I have Terminal-Phobia.

[socratis]

Operating Terminal is a daunting learning curve for me. I have no experience running .sh scripts from Terminal.

Find someone physically local that does. Can't help you with that.

Could this be done in OS' graphical interface instead of Terminal?

Not with my tool, no, sorry...

[fposter]

When I ask a question:
"Could this be done in OS' graphical interface instead of Terminal?" and you likely know the answer to that question beyond "not with my tool", is your dismissive reply what you refer to as obfuscating requested information?
No disrespect intended beyond what is reflected from you.

[socratis]

and you likely know the answer to that question

I haven't done an excessive search, but when I started developing the script, there was pretty much nothing that was covering my needs. So I created my own... What did your research show?

is your dismissive reply what you refer to as obfuscating requested information?

No, I would call it "reality hitting you in the face!", but it seems that not that many people appreciate an honest and straight answer...

If you don't like it you know what you can do, right? Oh, and you can also hire someone that can write a GUI app for you. Might be a tad expensive though, custom-made apps are...

No disrespect intended beyond what is reflected from you.

Right... if you don't like the answer, it's a lack of respect now, is it not?

[tman75]

Thank you so much for the script. It works wonderfully!

[Leon0628]

Doesn't work for me on Mojave with the installer for El Capitan. The .iso is not created. There is one in /tmp but it seems to be incomplete (only 1.3 GB).

[socratis]

There is now a GUI app that encapsulates the functionality of the script. Working closely with user 'granada29' and the InstallerApp2ISO application was born. Check it out...

[DashingDave]

I've tried running the GUI (version 1.0.2) to create an ISO of both 10.9 and 10.14. The last two times I ran the application, my computer crashed (everything freezes except the mouse).

The first couple of times, the application seemed to have trouble if the file path included a space anywhere in a folder name--process would stop, saying something along the lines of file-doesn't-exist, and the file path displayed would be truncated at the location of the blankspace in a folder's name.

I've tried removing all associated files containing "app2iso" in the file/folder name, deleting the application, reinstalling the application. Just doesn't seem to work. I'm running ...well, I'll just take a screenshot of the About This Mac window:

Screen Shot 2019-08-22 at 5.02.59 PM.png (54.66 KiB) Viewed 4284 times

[socratis]

Please re-run the application with the Log Detail set to "All messages" and the "Dry run" checked. Copy the output, save it into a text file, ZIP it and attach it to your response.

[socratis]

New version: 2019-08-25. Since it's been quite some time that I announced newer versions, here's a lump sum of the release notes that were missing:
2019-08-25

• Added support for 10.14.6.
• Added support for 10.7.

2019-06-05

• Added support for up to 10.15.beta and beyond.
• When using the dry-run simply check for the existence of the installer. Do not check for the available free space or the output/temp directory, since no actual conversion will take place.

2019-05-28

• Small fixes for the 3rd party authentication.
• Change the 'if' statements style from 'test' to '[]'.

2019-05-26 (granada29 version)

• There is a GUI app by granada29 that encapsulates the script functionality
  https://www.whatroute.net/installerapp2iso.html
• Incorporated changes by gradana29 for authorization/batch processing.
• Added support for up to 10.14.5.

InstallerApp2ISO.app
For those of you that you're using InstallerApp2ISO.app from 'granada29', you can always update the script without updating the app (until granada29 incorporates the latest changes^[1]) by doing the following:

• Launch InstallerApp2ISO.app » File » Open App Support...
• This will open "/Users/<you>/Library/Application Support/InstallerApp2ISO".
• If you save the script there, you will be asked at run-time if you want to use the "Original" script (the one packaged with the app) or "External", the one you just saved in the folder mentioned above.

Thanks again to 'granada29' for providing the AppSupportFolder and the on-the-fly script changes, that makes my life a lot easier...

---

^[1]: That's actually just a pain with the latest versions of OSX, because the app has to be notarized anew...

[DashingDave]

Happily/Embarrassedly/Sadly, I've been unable to reproduce the crash with the App2ISO GUI that I had prior to my last post. I have no idea why it worked today. I seriously doubt it had anything to do with the fact that I saw your latest post about the 8-25 update, thought that meant a new version of the GUI was available, dragged my copy of the App2ISO app into the trash, went to the website, discovered that I was a little ahead of myself and that 1.0.2 was still the latest version, dragged the app back out of the trash, and ran it a half-dozen times (trying different combinations: default log, dry run/default log, real run/etc.) successfully.

So good news is that it works. Bad news is that I'm going to have to find my Mac a therapist/exorcist.