Pre-Release Seeds?

Hi Josh,

[Removed]

-Max

Is this specifically for the public beta or is it just a general command?

It is specifically for the Public Beta. There is a similar command for the Developer Betas, but the one I gave you is for the Public Betas.

What if I use the GM Seed catalog? Will that add the pre-release seed option in App Store System Preferences?

The El Capitan GM Candiate seed is not available in either the Public Beta or the Developer catalogs. It has to be downloaded.

As part of the Public Beta program, you should have gotten an email with a link for causing the download to appear in the Purchases section (the update catalogs only affect the update section).

I appreciate that the current situation is a bit convoluted - Is what I've written making sense to you?

I had the pre-release seed option on El Capitan public betas and on the GM. It only disappeared when I disabled it by accident. I found a command that has a GM seed catalog link.

sudo softwareupdate --set-catalog https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz

Anyway, I ran your code and the one I found and neither put the pre-release seeds option back in System Preferences > App Store. I know it was there in the betas and GM because that's how I accidentally turned it off.

There is no GM seed in that catalog - I just checked - out of curiosity, what led you to believe there was?

I should re-emphasise: The GM Candidate is not an update - it is a full download of 6+ GB - you can not apply what you've experienced with the beta release path to it - GM's are release candidates, not beta updates.

OS X Daily had it posted along with the developer and public beta catalogs.

Anyway, we got a little off topic. I still don't have the pre-release seeds option in App Store System Preferences after running your command. Is it possible, because I'm on the GM, it won't show up now and it was only there on the GM before because I updated from a beta?

I still don't have the pre-release seeds option in App Store System Preferences after running your command. Is it possible, because I'm on the GM, it won't show up now and it was only there on the GM before because I updated from a beta?

The catalog referenced by OS X Daily is the catalog that Macs that are on the GM already are using for updates (for components of OS X only - not the OS itself as does the catalog I referenced) and this will continue to be the case after the 10.11 ships on the 30th. Perhaps that's what they are referring to.

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to help me.

Unfortunately, I did not update from Yosemite. I created a USB installer from El Capitan Public Beta 1 and did a clean install. I then updated to Public Beta 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 via Mac App Store Updates. I then updated to GM Candidate by downloading the installer from Mac App Store Purchases. I was not a beta tester in any way for Yosemite. After I was on GM Candidate, I disabled pre-release seeds by accident (more out of curiousity).

If we can't figure out how to get that option back, I am OK with that, but it would be nice to get it working again. Also, for the time being and considering I'm on GM Candidate, which catalog should I be using to ensure I receive any other GM Candidates and any future Public Beta updates?

I tried to see if YosemiteBetaAccessUtility.dmg was still available for download for you from anywhere, but it isn't - lots of sites link to it on appleseed.apple.com but it's no longer available from there so the ability to manually restore the option in the SysPref pane that you're used to has gone - there was never any El Capitan equivalent for manually re-establishing this.

Interestingly, my installation and update path mirrors yours exactly but with the developer version at every stage instead of the public. I never had the option in question in my App Store Pref Pane, but I don't doubt that you did - it must have been one of the very few differences between the dev betas and their public counterparts...

As for the correct catalog to be on, you should use the one given by OS X Daily, and not the one I suggested to begin with - I'll remove it in a minute. I wasn't aware that, with the GM Candidate, the update catalog had shifted from seed to release - I thought it would only do that come the 30th.

Rest assured however, that having that catalog set properly assures you of getting all OS X 10.11 related updates as they become available. Further GM Candidates however, won't be available through update for anyone - they'll require a full download from the App Store Purchases tab - as will the shipping release come the 30th.