El Capitan Installer

[MacCandy]

I have Mac Pro 2,1. Trying to upgrade to El Capitan from OSX Lion 10.7.5 using Pikify App. To do so, El Capitan must be in the Apps folder. Downloaded El Capitan.dmg directly from Apple website (6.5GB). Ran it and now have the El Capitan.mpkg file. However, the installer won't allow El Capitan to be installed on my 2,1. The installer simply provides the error message and only allows you to close the window. Thus, I can't access the El Capitan.exe file.
I have tried to access it through Suspicious Package and Unarchiver software to no avail.

Does anyone know how to override this? How can I get the .exe file into the Applications folder so that I can use the Pikify App? Can anyone upload the El Capitan.exe installer file here? The bottom line is that I have the El Capitan.mpkg file but can't do anything with it.

 

[DeltaMac]

How large is that El Capitan.mpkg file that you are trying to use?
Assuming it is the full OS X installer, it SHOULD be about 6.22 GB.
Not sure what the Pikify app does, but patching the installer app should make it larger than 6.22 GB.
(I'm guessing that you extracted the file named "OSInstall.mpkg" from the "Install OS X El Capitan".
If that's what you have, that OSInstall.mpkg will be a file less than 700 KB, and can't possibly work for what you want.
Also, you won't find any file named El Capitan.exe - - - that doesn't exist.

The name of the installer is "Install OS X El Capitan". It's an application, with the extension .app

I suggest that you download the El Capitan installer again. Use the steps on this page
Notice that you should get a file named "InstallMacOSX.dmg"
When you open that file, you will get a folder with an installer file, named InstallMacOSX.pkg
double-click THAT file, which will open your installer app. Continue with that install.
When the install is complete, the installer app will be copied to your Applications folder. That's all it does at that point, and you will find your Install OS X El Capitan.app there in your Applications folder. No need to move it there.
And, THEN, you can use the Pikify app to patch that installer app, and continue on with the install on your Mac Pro.

 

[MacCandy]

Thanks for responding. I downloaded the El Capitan OSX.dmg directly from Apple to my Mac pro 2,1. When I clicked on the .dmg, it became a El Capitan.mpkg file that's about 6.5GB in size, with the yellow icon box. When I click that, the Apple installer software runs and gives an error message stating that the El Capitan OSX can't be installed on the computer. I'm guessing because it's a 2,1 Mac Pro that the El Capitan OSX is not meant to run on w/o a hack such as the Pikify App developed by gurus in the El Capitan forums. So, I have the El Capitan.mpkg sitting in a folder, but can't do anything with it. I'm not a techy, and am wondering if the native installer is reading script in the package that says my computer is not compatible and don't go further.

 

[DeltaMac]

I don't know how to help you...
I DO know that you can't directly begin the install on unsupported software, and Apple doesn't let you download to an unsupported hardware.
Maybe you can download the installer through another method - such as from this page. (I have used those links several times before. Doesn't seem to work for me today, perhaps you will have better luck (?) )

Another possibility - do you have another Mac that IS supported by El Capitan, that you could use for a successful download of the El Capitan installer?

 

[MacCandy]

Thanks for responding again. You're recommending that I download the software again it seems. I'm saying I have El Capitan.mpkg on one of my Mac Pro 2,1 hard drives already.

I transferred the .dmg to the 2,1 hard drive; clicked on it; the file converted to the .mpkg; I clicked it and the installer ran; then gave an error message that the OSX version is not compatible with my 2,1.

My question is...How do I overcome this? With so many folks having upgraded to El Capitan on their 2,1s, I'm asking what am I missing? Surely others have run into the same installer error.

I'll try downloading the .app file from the site you listed if nothing else.

 

[DeltaMac]

I don't understand why you keep ending up with a file named "El Capitan.mkpg". I think that file is not particularly useful to you.
You should still have the file that you downloaded from Apple.com - "InstallMacOSX.dmg"
Try this to make sure that no other apps are interfering with the extraction of the file you need.
Right-click on that InstallMacOSX.dmg, then mouse down to Open With, and click on Disk Image Mounter (should be the default there)
That should then mount as a folder named "Install OS X"
Inside that folder is your file "InstallMacOSX.pkg"
Right-click on THAT file, again Open With, choosing Installer (again, that should be the default, but doing it this way assures that no other app will open that file.
Your Installer app should open. If you get the window telling you that you can't install on this Mac, then QUIT the installer. That file "InstallMacOSX.pkg" is as far as you should go. If the Pikify app can't use that (and requires the installer file to be in the Applications folder), then one method to proceed is to use another Mac that is natively compatible with El Capitan to run the installer with that file.
And, you will have your "Install OS X El Capitan" app, which you can copy from that other Mac to the Applications folder on your MacPro, and then (finally), Pikify should find that app, and should then successfully prepare that app to allow you to install El Capitan on your MacPro2,1
That should do the job.

 

[MacCandy]

I'm wrong. It is a yellow icon and a .pkg file not a .mpkg. I hate auto correct sometimes.
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So. I need to save a copy of the os x installer app from another mac computer. Is that the only solution? ...Because I only have the 2,1.

 

[DeltaMac]

If you can boot with the Pikify bootloader: Have you tried changing the system time to an older date?
When you are booted to the installer, open Terminal (from the Utilities menu, I think), and type the command

date -u 0101010118

, then press enter, then try continuing on with the El Capitan install.

If your main problem remains (no bootable installer, and no apparent, nor easy method that will work for you), then you might also find an already-loaded bootable installer (USB flash drive), maybe on eBay, just search for El Capitan installer.

 

[MacCandy]

Thanks for this, and for giving my problem the time of day. I've been so disgusted by this setback.

 

[ECJ]

I understand your pain. I need the El Capitan installer app(not dmg) also. I’m trying to make a bootable USB to install it on a OS-less 4,1. My twist is that I am running Catalina on my 16” MBP, which won’t allow a previous OS install for obvious reasons. After searching for an El Capitan ISO, I found a Yosemite ISO. I’ll have to install that and upgrade to get to El Capitan.
Based on this headache, I’m going to collect the past five MacOS install apps to have in case this issue pops up again.

 

[MIKX]

MacCandy

What is the size of your El Capitan installer ?

It should be about 6.15gb. = FULL INSTALLER ( El Capitan10.11.6 )

If smaller, like 1.47gb it is a COMBO and won't work unless you ALREADY have El Capitan installed.

 

[MacCandy]

Downloaded El Capitan.dmg directly from Apple website (6.5GB). Ran it and now have the El Capitan.pkg file However, the installer won't allow El Capitan to be installed on my 2,1. The installer simply provides the error message and only allows you to close the window. That's as far as I can go. Clicking on the .pkg doesn't result in unpackaging into an .app file, only the error. I need the El Capitan osx installer.app file.

 

[chrfr]

MacCandy

What is the size of your El Capitan installer ?

It should be about 6.15gb. = FULL INSTALLER ( El Capitan10.11.6 )

If smaller, like 1.47gb it is a COMBO and won't work unless you ALREADY have El Capitan installed.

The installer that comes from Apple now is a package which "unpacks" the El Capitan installer and puts it in the Applications folder. Because of the scripts that run, it's necessary to run this installer package on a supported Mac in order to get the usual El Capitan installer.
[automerge]1583675633[/automerge]

Downloaded El Capitan.dmg directly from Apple website (6.5GB). Ran it and now have the El Capitan.pkg file However, the installer won't allow El Capitan to be installed on my 2,1. The installer simply provides the error message and only allows you to close the window. That's as far as I can go. Clicking on the .pkg doesn't result in unpackaging into an .app file, only the error. I need the El Capitan osx installer.app file.

You need to run that installer on a Mac which actually supports El Capitan, then you'll have the actual El Capitan installer.

 

[MacCandy]

I really appreciate input. As I shared above, I'm trying to upgrade my Mac Pro 2,1 to El Capitan, as many others in these forums have done, using the Pikify App created by gurus here. It's not useful to tell me to run the installer on a supported Mac. If I had another supported Mac, I'd have copied the installer.app to my 2,1 already, instead of begging folks for assistance here.

 

[MIKX]

I really appreciate input. As I shared above, I'm trying to upgrade my Mac Pro 2,1 to El Capitan, as many others in these forums have done, using the Pikify App created by gurus here. It's not useful to tell me to run the installer on a supported Mac. If I had another supported Mac, I'd have copied the installer.app to my 2,1 already, instead of begging folks for assistance here.

I have a working El Capitan install working with an HIS Hd 5870 GPU on my spare 2,1 cMP.

The 'boot.efi' has to be replaced.

Google " Install El Capitan on 2,1 Mac Pro" . .. I did, I didn't use "Pikify".

🔎 Install El Capitan on 2,1 Mac Pro - Google Search

www.google.co.uk

 

[MacCandy]

Thank you. The guru who created Pikify, also created the boot.efi updater too.

Search Zarmiwoop in the forums, then go to page 56, and scroll to post#1390, for the Pikify.app and boot.efi updater downloads. The techies in that thread are masterful... have given many of us the chance to keep our MP2,1s from becoming obsolete a while longer. So grateful for all the feedback and solutions folks are kind enough to offer here.

 

[chrfr]

I really appreciate input. As I shared above, I'm trying to upgrade my Mac Pro 2,1 to El Capitan, as many others in these forums have done, using the Pikify App created by gurus here. It's not useful to tell me to run the installer on a supported Mac. If I had another supported Mac, I'd have copied the installer.app to my 2,1 already, instead of begging folks for assistance here.

Sorry, you misunderstood. You need to take the package you downloaded, and run that on a supported Mac to get the installer you can use on the old Mac Pro. Running the installer package does not actually install El Capitan. It "installs the installer," so to speak.

 

[MacCandy]

Got it. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Syncretic]

I don't have a MP2,1, so I can't test in your environment. However, if you're comfortable using the shell (Terminal), I might be able to help you get past your first hurdle.

The package is more than 6 GB. This process will definitely create one copy, and possibly two; if you are tight on disk space, we'll need to do this another way.

If you've opened the .dmg file, you should see "Install OS X" in the left pane of your Finder window. If not, open the .dmg file by double-clicking on it.

(Note: everything you type in the Terminal window is case-sensitive, so be careful.)
Open a Terminal window.
Type pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Install\ OS\ X/InstallMacOSX.pkg /tmp/ElCap, then press ENTER.
(This may take a few minutes to complete, so be patient.)

Type vi /tmp/ElCap/Distribution, press ENTER. You will see some shell script code.

Type /isSupportedP, press ENTER.
Your cursor should now be on this line:
function isSupportedPlatform(){

Type the following, where <enter> means "press enter" (don't type the characters "<enter>"):
A<enter>return true;
Press the ESCAPE key.
Type :x, press ENTER.

At this point, you have modified the package installer to ignore your system's incompatibility, which should allow it to create "Install OS X El Capitan.app".
Now you need to re-create the package, including your modification.

IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH DISK SPACE FOR ANOTHER COPY, type the following:
pkgutil --flatten /tmp/ElCap ~/Downloads/ElCapModified.pkg
(This may take a few minutes to complete, so be patient.)

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH DISK SPACE FOR ANOTHER COPY, you need to unmount "Install OS X" (click the "eject" arrow next to it in the left pane of a Finder window), then delete the original. (If you "delete" it by moving it to Trash, you'll also need to "empty Trash" before the space actually gets freed.)
Having freed up that space, type the following:
pkgutil --flatten /tmp/ElCap ~/Downloads/ElCapModified.pkg
(This may take a few minutes to complete, so be patient.)

You now have a file in your Downloads folder called "ElCapModified.pkg", which you should be able to double-click to create the actual installer app. Again, I can't test this in your environment, so you may encounter additional errors/roadblocks, so just let me know if you do and I'll try to help.

Good luck.

 

[MacCandy]

Thank you. I'll need a 1/2 day or so to give it a try. Will contact you if I need guidance.

 

[Rohit Lanjekar]

Hi I am stuck on same problem. I downloaded installmacos.dmg from apple.com now as per macpostfactor I need application of elcapitan in my application folder. When I open the installmacos.pkg its show error that ur system is not compatible. Now I am unable to upgrade my macbook4,1 to elcapitan. I am currently on os x lion. Pls help

 

[XP1]

You can convert the PGK to APP.

To extract and create the app package from the PKG file, follow the instructions from:

How do I create El Capitan installer on a Catalina (or post-El Capitan) installed Mac for use on USB boot installer:

How do I create El Capitan installer on a Catalina (or post-El Capitan) installed Mac for use on USB boot installer?

I have downloaded the El Capitan DMG file (InstallMacOSX.dmg) provided by Apple. The expanded DMG image contains the package "InstallMacOSX.pkg" which should be run to create the El Capitan

apple.stackexchange.com

Commands from @ChrisBraucker's post:

cd ~/Desktop
mkdir installCapitan && cd installCapitan
xar -xf /Volumes/Install\ OS\ X/InstallMacOSX.pkg
cd InstallMacOSX.pkg
tar xvzf Payload
mv InstallESD.dmg Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/
mv Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app /Applications/

 

[matah14]

would this "fix" resolve the following error: [ "This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer." ] ?

I don't have a MP2,1, so I can't test in your environment. However, if you're comfortable using the shell (Terminal), I might be able to help you get past your first hurdle.

The package is more than 6 GB. This process will definitely create one copy, and possibly two; if you are tight on disk space, we'll need to do this another way.

If you've opened the .dmg file, you should see "Install OS X" in the left pane of your Finder window. If not, open the .dmg file by double-clicking on it.

(Note: everything you type in the Terminal window is case-sensitive, so be careful.)
Open a Terminal window.
Type pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Install\ OS\ X/InstallMacOSX.pkg /tmp/ElCap, then press ENTER.
(This may take a few minutes to complete, so be patient.)

Type vi /tmp/ElCap/Distribution, press ENTER. You will see some shell script code.

Type /isSupportedP, press ENTER.
Your cursor should now be on this line:
function isSupportedPlatform(){

Type the following, where <enter> means "press enter" (don't type the characters "<enter>"):
A<enter>return true;
Press the ESCAPE key.
Type :x, press ENTER.

At this point, you have modified the package installer to ignore your system's incompatibility, which should allow it to create "Install OS X El Capitan.app".
Now you need to re-create the package, including your modification.

IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH DISK SPACE FOR ANOTHER COPY, type the following:
pkgutil --flatten /tmp/ElCap ~/Downloads/ElCapModified.pkg
(This may take a few minutes to complete, so be patient.)

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH DISK SPACE FOR ANOTHER COPY, you need to unmount "Install OS X" (click the "eject" arrow next to it in the left pane of a Finder window), then delete the original. (If you "delete" it by moving it to Trash, you'll also need to "empty Trash" before the space actually gets freed.)
Having freed up that space, type the following:
pkgutil --flatten /tmp/ElCap ~/Downloads/ElCapModified.pkg
(This may take a few minutes to complete, so be patient.)

You now have a file in your Downloads folder called "ElCapModified.pkg", which you should be able to double-click to create the actual installer app. Again, I can't test this in your environment, so you may encounter additional errors/roadblocks, so just let me know if you do and I'll try to help.

Good luck.

 

[startergo]

You can convert the PGK to APP.

To extract and create the app package from the PKG file, follow the instructions from:

How do I create El Capitan installer on a Catalina (or post-El Capitan) installed Mac for use on USB boot installer:

How do I create El Capitan installer on a Catalina (or post-El Capitan) installed Mac for use on USB boot installer?

I have downloaded the El Capitan DMG file (InstallMacOSX.dmg) provided by Apple. The expanded DMG image contains the package "InstallMacOSX.pkg" which should be run to create the El Capitan

apple.stackexchange.com

Commands from @ChrisBraucker's post:

cd ~/Desktop
mkdir installCapitan && cd installCapitan
xar -xf /Volumes/Install\ OS\ X/InstallMacOSX.pkg
cd InstallMacOSX.pkg
tar xvzf Payload
mv InstallESD.dmg Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/
mv Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app /Applications/

I agree this is a better method. Plus checking the Checksum on the installer returns:

Spoiler: Checksum check

hdiutil verify /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
Checksumming Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)…
Protective Master Boot Record (MBR :: verified   CRC32 $A7BD379C
Checksumming GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1)…
 GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1): verified   CRC32 $806A6340
Checksumming GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2)…
GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Tabl: verified   CRC32 $F0E45D92
Checksumming  (Apple_Free : 3)…
                    (Apple_Free : 3): verified   CRC32 $00000000
Checksumming EFI System Partition (C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B : 4)…
..
EFI System Partition (C12A7328-F81F-: verified   CRC32 $B54B659C
Checksumming disk image (Apple_HFS : 5)…
.............................................................................
          disk image (Apple_HFS : 5): verified   CRC32 $57AE7836
Checksumming  (Apple_Free : 6)…
...............................................................................
                    (Apple_Free : 6): verified   CRC32 $00000000
Checksumming GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 7)…
...............................................................................
GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table: verified   CRC32 $F0E45D92
Checksumming GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 8)…
...............................................................................
  GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 8): verified   CRC32 $85F55750
...............................................................................
verified   CRC32 $C9DB5839
hdiutil: verify: checksum of "/Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg" is VALID

And Checking signature returns:

Spoiler: Signature check

pkgutil --check-signature "/Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/"
Package "Install OS X El Capitan":
   Status: signed by untrusted certificate
   Certificate Chain:
    1. 3rd Party Mac Developer Application: Apple Inc. (K36BKF7T3D)
       SHA256 Fingerprint:
           C9 F0 84 AF 6C 1C A6 BC 09 E0 FE 84 88 22 3D B2 A4 D4 D4 F5 54 A1
           10 C3 68 EE 9B 76 7C EA F5 2E
       ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2. Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority
       Expires: 2023-02-07 21:48:47 +0000
       SHA256 Fingerprint:
           CE 05 76 91 D7 30 F8 9C A2 5E 91 6F 73 35 F4 C8 A1 57 13 DC D2 73
           A6 58 C0 24 02 3F 8E B8 09 C2
       ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    3. Apple Root CA
       Expires: 2035-02-09 21:40:36 +0000
       SHA256 Fingerprint:
           B0 B1 73 0E CB C7 FF 45 05 14 2C 49 F1 29 5E 6E DA 6B CA ED 7E 2C
           68 C5 BE 91 B5 A1 10 01 F0 24

And don't forget to set up the date. To check the currently set date:

date

To set up the current date:

date XXXXXXXXXX

Where:

MM - 2 digit month  01 - 12
DD - 2 digit date   01 - 31
HH - 2 digit hour   01 - 24
mm - 2 digit minute 01 - 59
YY - 2 digit year   > 15

Please pay attention to the time zone. The date is set in PDT so if you live on the east coast subtract 3 hours.