The softwareupdate command line tool for OS X 10.11 (15A178W) is unable to access updates for OS X 10.11 (15A204H) without first opening the App Store application

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Created Jul ’15

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I ran into an issue with making a factory-fresh unconfigured OS X VM which is running 10.11 Beta 2, where running the softwareupdate tool on Beta 1 was not giving me the following updates:

OS X El Capitan Developer Beta 2
El Capitan Recovery Update

I figured out a solution today and filed a bug report. For those also experiencing this issue, here's the bug report that describes the problem and how I fixed it:

Bug report ID: 21671178

Title: OS X 10.11 (15A178W): The softwareupdate command line tool for OS X 10.11 (15A178W) is unable to access updates for OS X 10.11 (15A204H) without first opening the App Store application

Summary:

The softwareupdate command line tool for OS X 10.11 (15A178W) is unable to access the following updates without first opening the App Store application:

OS X El Capitan Developer Beta 2
El Capitan Recovery Update

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Perform a new install (not upgrade) of OS X 10.11 (15A178W) into a VM or on a Mac.

2. Without going through Setup Assistant, install a script or other means to run the following command with root privileges:

softwareupdate -i -a

Expected Results:

3. The softwareupdate tool contacts Apple's software update service and installs the following updates:

OS X El Capitan Developer Beta 2
El Capitan Recovery Update

4. Following a restart, the VM or Mac should now be running OS X 10.11 (15A204H)

Actual Results:

The referenced updates are not detected by softwareupdate and are not installed. The updates are available after the following process:

1. Go through Setup Assistant and set up an account

2. Log into the account

3. Open the App Store application

4. Check for updates via the App Store and verify that the following updates are now available:

OS X El Capitan Developer Beta 2
El Capitan Recovery Update

5. run the following command with root privileges:

softwareupdate -i -a

A restart is recommended after installing these updates.

6. Following a restart, the VM or Mac is now running OS X 10.11 (15A204H)

Regression:

This process addresses the issue without the need to open the App Store:

1. Perform a new install (not upgrade) of OS X 10.11 (15A178W) into a VM or on a Mac.

2. Without going through Setup Assistant, install a script or other means to run the following command with root privileges:

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL "https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.11seed-10.11-10.10-10.9-mouninlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz"

3. Once the defaults command has completed execution, run the following command with root privileges:

softwareupdate -i -a

4. The softwareupdate tool contacts Apple's software update service and installs the following updates:

OS X El Capitan Developer Beta 2
El Capitan Recovery Update

A restart is recommended after installing these updates.

5. Following a restart, the VM or Mac is now running OS X 10.11 (15A204H)

Notes:

For my testing, I used DeployStudio (http // www dot deploystudio dot com), which has the ability to install and run script-driven tasks on otherwise-unconfigured installs of OS X.

All testing was done in VMware Fusion 7.x running OS X VMs.

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