Resolved How to Update the Recovery Partition in High Sierra

[RobK88]

Unfortunately, most of the High Sierra Security Updates will fail when attempting to install them on unsupported Macs since they unsucessfully attempt to update the Recovery Partition.

The fix is simple. First update the Recovery Partition using my method below then install the High Sierra Security Update via the App Store. (Or you can download the Security Update from Apple's website, hack it as described here
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-high-sierra-10-13-unsupported-macs-thread.2048478/
and then run the hacked installer for the Security Update).

The method below should also probably work on Macs that natively support High Sierra but I would just download the Security Update from the Apple website and run it first before trying the method below.


Method for Updating the High Sierra Recovery Partition:

1. Download the Lion Recovery Update from https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1464?locale=en_US . Put it into the downloads folder if it is not there already.

2. Download the latest Security Update for High Sierra from Apple's website (https://support.apple.com/downloads). It will be a file ending in .dmg.

Double click on the .dmg file to mount it.

Move the update.pkg to Desktop.

Open Terminal.

Type "pkgutil --expand" (without the quotes)
Now drag and drop the .pkg from the Desktop into the Terminal window and type after a space Then type "~/Desktop/Expanded" (without the quotes) and hit Return.
Wait, this takes a little while.

Open folder named "Expanded" on your Desktop.
Right click on the file named "EmbeddedOSFirmware.pkg" and click Show Package Contents.
Copy RecoveryHDMeta.dmg into your Downloads folder.

3. Copy and paste the following code using TextEdit or Xcode etc and save the file as HSrecovery.sh into your Downloads folder:

#
# Script to Update the High Sierra Recovery Partition
#
# License:  GNU GPL2
#
#
read -p "Ensure "RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg" and "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg" are in your Downloads folder and press [Enter]"

#access dmtest from RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg
rm -rf /private/tmp/RecoveryHDUpdate
echo "Expanding RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg"
hdiutil attach -nobrowse ~/Downloads/RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg
pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Lion\ Recovery\ HD\ Update/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg /tmp/RecoveryHDUpdate

#access BaseSystem.dmg and BaseSystem.chunklist
echo "Expanding RecoveryHDMeta.dmg"
hdiutil attach -nobrowse ~/Downloads/RecoveryHDMeta.dmg

#build Recovery partition
echo "Building Recovery Partition. Please Wait"
/tmp/RecoveryHDUpdate/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg/Scripts/Tools/dmtest ensureRecoveryPartition / /Volumes/RecoveryHDMeta/BaseSystem.dmg 0 0 /Volumes/RecoveryHDMeta/BaseSystem.chunklist

#cleanup
echo "Cleaning up"
hdiutil eject /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Lion\ Recovery\ HD\ Update
hdiutil eject /Volumes/RecoveryHDMeta
sudo touch /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
sudo kextcache -f -u /
exit 0

4. Open Terminal and type the following commands:

chmod +x ~/Downloads/HSrecovery.sh

sudo ~/Downloads/HSrecovery.sh

5. Wait a few minutes for it to finish and return back to a prompt.

6. To make your updated High Sierra Recovery Partition bootable, you will need to boot off Dosdude1's High Sierra installer on a USB memory stick and choose POST INSTALL. Make sure the Recovery Partition Patch is selected before running the patches.

OPTIONAL:

It is also a good idea to update Dosdude1's installer on the USB stick with the most updated High Sierra Recovery Partition data if you ever need to reinstall High Sierra on an unsupported Mac using the following steps:

1. Follow Step 2 above. At the end, you should have a file named "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg" into your Downloads folder.

2. Double click on to mount it.

3. Insert Dosdude1's High Sierra installer into a USB port. It should automatically mount.

4. Using Finder, copy the following four files from the mounted "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg" to the root of Dosdude1's High Sierra installer:

AppleDiagnostics.chunklist
AppleDiagnostics.dmg
BaseSystem.chunklist
BaseSystem.dmg

5. In Finder, unmount "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg"

6. In Finder. unmount or eject Dosdude1's High Sierra installer and unplug the USB memory stick from the USB port.

You are done!

 

[RobK88]

I forgot to mention in the Optional Section above that if when you reinstall High Sierra from scratch and want to be able to boot off the Recovery Partition, you must select the patch for the Recovery Partition in the Post Install tool from DosDude1's USB Installer. If you do not do that, you will not be able to boot off the Recovery Partition.

Unfortunately, the patch for the Recovery Partition in Dosdude1's Post Install tool is not selected by default. You must check it yourself. If you forget, you can always boot of Dosdude1's installer at a later time and run the patch for the Recovery Partition.

 

[Polarmuppet]

This is great work - thank you. I've now been able to install the latest High Sierra updates on my 2008 Mac Pro and I now have a working recovery partition, which I didn't before. The install of the security update from the App Store was a bit shaky - it hung at one point and I had to recycle the power, but it completed and I've checked the build number, and it installed.

 

[ATC]

Unfortunately, most of the High Sierra Security Updates will fail when attempting to install them on unsupported Macs since they unsucessfully attempt to update the Recovery Partition.

The fix is simple. First update the Recovery Partition using my method below then install the High Sierra Security Update via the App Store. (Or you can download the Security Update from Apple's website, hack it as described here
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-high-sierra-10-13-unsupported-macs-thread.2048478/
and then run the hacked installer for the Security Update).

The method below should also probably work on Macs that natively support High Sierra but I would just download the Security Update from the Apple website and run it first before trying the method below.


OPTIONAL:

It is also a good idea to update Dosdude1's installer on the USB stick with the most updated High Sierra Recovery Partition data if you ever need to reinstall High Sierra on an unsupported Mac using the following steps:

1. Follow Step 2 above. At the end, you should have a file named "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg" into your Downloads folder.

2. Double click on to mount it.

3. Insert Dosdude1's High Sierra installer into a USB port. It should automatically mount.

4. Using Finder, copy the following four files from the mounted "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg" to the root of Dosdude1's High Sierra installer:

AppleDiagnostics.chunklist
AppleDiagnostics.dmg
BaseSystem.chunklist
BaseSystem.dmg

5. In Finder, unmount "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg"

6. In Finder. unmount or eject Dosdude1's High Sierra installer and unplug the USB memory stick from the USB port.

You are done!

I just wanted to say thanks again for posting this, the OPTIONAL part in particular.

I've had nothing but headaches in the past. All security and point updates through the MAS to my HS install on my iMac 9,1 have always hung and failed. I tried various workarounds posted here and elsewhere without much luck. I used this OPTIONAL method to mod the HS USB flash drive made with Dosdude's tools and then clean installed 10.13.6 last night, all subsequent updates through the MAS (including SU2019-003) have installed flawlessly after that.

Great work!

 

[philk34]

Hello,
this command do not work for me
chmod + x ~ / Téléchargements / HSrecovery.sh

sudo ~ / Téléchargements / HSrecovery.sh

i have this message error : command not found

 

[jbarley]

You need to get rid of all the "spaces" so your command looks more like "chmod +x ~/Téléchargements/HSrecovery.sh"
same goes for the second command.

 

[Oadbylad]

Unfortunately, most of the High Sierra Security Updates will fail when attempting to install them on unsupported Macs since they unsucessfully attempt to update the Recovery Partition.

The fix is simple. First update the Recovery Partition using my method below then install the High Sierra Security Update via the App Store. (Or you can download the Security Update from Apple's website, hack it as described here
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-high-sierra-10-13-unsupported-macs-thread.2048478/
and then run the hacked installer for the Security Update).

The method below should also probably work on Macs that natively support High Sierra but I would just download the Security Update from the Apple website and run it first before trying the method below.


Method for Updating the High Sierra Recovery Partition:

1. Download the Lion Recovery Update from https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1464?locale=en_US . Put it into the downloads folder if it is not there already.

2. Download the latest Security Update for High Sierra from Apple's website (https://support.apple.com/downloads). It will be a file ending in .dmg.

Double click on the .dmg file to mount it.

Move the update.pkg to Desktop.

Open Terminal.

Type "pkgutil --expand" (without the quotes)
Now drag and drop the .pkg from the Desktop into the Terminal window and type after a space Then type "~/Desktop/Expanded" (without the quotes) and hit Return.
Wait, this takes a little while.

Open folder named "Expanded" on your Desktop.
Right click on the file named "EmbeddedOSFirmware.pkg" and click Show Package Contents.
Copy RecoveryHDMeta.dmg into your Downloads folder.

3. Copy and paste the following code using TextEdit or Xcode etc and save the file as HSrecovery.sh into your Downloads folder:

#
# Script to Update the High Sierra Recovery Partition
#
# License:  GNU GPL2
#
#
read -p "Ensure "RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg" and "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg" are in your Downloads folder and press [Enter]"

#access dmtest from RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg
rm -rf /private/tmp/RecoveryHDUpdate
echo "Expanding RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg"
hdiutil attach -nobrowse ~/Downloads/RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg
pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Lion\ Recovery\ HD\ Update/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg /tmp/RecoveryHDUpdate

#access BaseSystem.dmg and BaseSystem.chunklist
echo "Expanding RecoveryHDMeta.dmg"
hdiutil attach -nobrowse ~/Downloads/RecoveryHDMeta.dmg

#build Recovery partition
echo "Building Recovery Partition. Please Wait"
/tmp/RecoveryHDUpdate/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg/Scripts/Tools/dmtest ensureRecoveryPartition / /Volumes/RecoveryHDMeta/BaseSystem.dmg 0 0 /Volumes/RecoveryHDMeta/BaseSystem.chunklist

#cleanup
echo "Cleaning up"
hdiutil eject /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Lion\ Recovery\ HD\ Update
hdiutil eject /Volumes/RecoveryHDMeta
sudo touch /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
sudo kextcache -f -u /
exit 0

4. Open Terminal and type the following commands:

chmod +x ~/Downloads/HSrecovery.sh

sudo ~/Downloads/HSrecovery.sh

5. Wait a few minutes for it to finish and return back to a prompt.

6. To make your updated High Sierra Recovery Partition bootable, you will need to boot off Dosdude1's High Sierra installer on a USB memory stick and choose POST INSTALL. Make sure the Recovery Partition Patch is selected before running the patches.

OPTIONAL:

It is also a good idea to update Dosdude1's installer on the USB stick with the most updated High Sierra Recovery Partition data if you ever need to reinstall High Sierra on an unsupported Mac using the following steps:

1. Follow Step 2 above. At the end, you should have a file named "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg" into your Downloads folder.

2. Double click on to mount it.

3. Insert Dosdude1's High Sierra installer into a USB port. It should automatically mount.

4. Using Finder, copy the following four files from the mounted "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg" to the root of Dosdude1's High Sierra installer:

AppleDiagnostics.chunklist
AppleDiagnostics.dmg
BaseSystem.chunklist
BaseSystem.dmg

5. In Finder, unmount "RecoveryHDMeta.dmg"

6. In Finder. unmount or eject Dosdude1's High Sierra installer and unplug the USB memory stick from the USB port.

You are done!

Hi is this still viable with the latest Security update dated 2020-003 as i keep getting

pkgutil --expand/Volumes/Security\ Update\ 2020-003 ~/Desktop/Expanded


pkgutil: unrecognized option `--expand/Volumes/Security Update 2020-003'

 

[Oadbylad]

I forgot to mention in the Optional Section above that if when you reinstall High Sierra from scratch and want to be able to boot off the Recovery Partition, you must select the patch for the Recovery Partition in the Post Install tool from DosDude1's USB Installer. If you do not do that, you will not be able to boot off the Recovery Partition.

Unfortunately, the patch for the Recovery Partition in Dosdude1's Post Install tool is not selected by default. You must check it yourself. If you forget, you can always boot of Dosdude1's installer at a later time and run the patch for the Recovery Partition.

Is this in itself argumentative? this post purports to help get OS recovery back, but the above post states that to use dosdud1's High Sierra patcher but he sates that a prerequisite for it to work is you must have SIP disabled and yet you can only achieve this through Terminal in recovery??????????

 

[jorgk]

Many thanks to the original poster RobK88 !

Your instruction worked flawless for me for a MacBook5,1 (late 2008 Unibody/Aluminium). Both the instruction for the MB HDD recovery partition as well as for the Dosdude1's High Sierra installer on an USB. Admittedly, I did not test their functionality as a bootable recovery partition - was just too lazy.
However, the Security Update 2020-003 for HS ran through without any hickup - very different to earlier updates that always reported errors (where people here suggested to ignore them as it would be caused by a non-updated recovery partition).
Thanks!

 

[LegacyUser12]

Many thanks to the original poster RobK88 !

Your instruction worked flawless for me for a MacBook5,1 (late 2008 Unibody/Aluminium). Both the instruction for the MB HDD recovery partition as well as for the Dosdude1's High Sierra installer on an USB. Admittedly, I did not test their functionality as a bootable recovery partition - was just too lazy.
However, the Security Update 2020-003 for HS ran through without any hickup - very different to earlier updates that always reported errors (where people here suggested to ignore them as it would be caused by a non-updated recovery partition).
Thanks!

Do yourself a favor and go test the recovery partition! I'm right where you are with the 5,1 late 08 C2D 2.0ghz Unibody using dosdude1's HS patch. I'm having kernel issues right now and can't get into safe mode.

 

[Filou]

Hi RobK88,

thank you for posting a method to retrieve the use of the recovery partition.
on point 3, the User is advised to copy and paste some lines of code, save them into a file to be used further along the procedure.

what I read on my screen seems to be 'fishy' in a few places, for example

echo "E"panding RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg"

is likely to read

echo "Expanding RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg"

here - " - is displayed and we should understand - x - same with some letters -y-

can you please confirm that my assumption is correct ?

 

[Filou]

on point 2 of the original post, "Download the latest Security Update for High Sierra from Apple's website"

unfortunately, this is no longer available. Is there a workaround ?

 

[nospamboz]

on point 2 of the original post, "Download the latest Security Update for High Sierra from Apple's website"

unfortunately, this is no longer available. Is there a workaround ?

Show a little more initiative. Find the High Sierra article on Wikipedia, scroll to the end of the Releases section, and use the link there for Security Update 2020-006.

 

[Filou]

It is interesting: X and Y letters used in the script HSRecovery.hs proposed by RobK88 do not display on my monitor, but when copied and pasted into an editor, they are present.

Even more interesting the observation that a simple command line like

read -p "This command works" entered at the terminal DOES work.

the same command written in a simple TestScript.sh file which is given excutable credential is not executed.

Screen shot illustrates the situation.

 

[jbarley]

on point 2 of the original post, "Download the latest Security Update for High Sierra from Apple's website"

unfortunately, this is no longer available. Is there a workaround ?

This what you're looking for?

Security Update 2020-006 (High Sierra) - Apple Support (CA)

Security Update 2020-006 is recommended for all users and improves the security of macOS.

support.apple.com

 

[Filou]

The procedure proposed a while ago by RobK88 eventualy worked. The script copied from the browser window contained extra sets of characters that precluded its use. TexEdit was not displaying this additional - unwanted - text, but TexWranlger was ...

Ran entire procedure, including point 6.
Still un-able to boot in Recovery mode, thus I cannot re-enable SIP.
Moreover:

- invoking the Security Up-grade resulted in a hang-up
- now wifi service is displaying X symbol, reset PRAM, disabled it and re-enable does not fix this "minor" issue either

how can I be sure the Recovery parition is present and functional if I cannot boot off it ?

 

[massimo57]

A BIG thank you to RobK88 for this post! Up and running with no problems. Actually, the only one was trying to convince TextEdit to save a clean .txt file and not a .rtf ? at the end I used BBEdit, and everything was fine. Cheers! ?