El Capitan Public Beta Installation Failing

App & System Services Core OS
christhomp OP
Created Jul ’15
Replies 99
Boosts 0
Views 18k
Participants 6

I am trying to install the Public Beta version of El Capitan and after about 10-15 mins of trying to install, a message pops up that says "no packages were eligible for install" and the installation fails. Here's what I've tried so far:


Rebooting with CMD + R:

  • I do not have a Time Machine backup.
  • Disk Utility: I have my internal Mac HD listed, "Apple disk image" with "OS X Base System", and then about 10 or so "untitled" disk images. I ran First Aid and everything checks out.
  • Reinstall OS X: my only option here is to proceed with the installation of El Capitan. When I try from this screen a message pops up saying it needs to verify my computer's eligibility. When I click Continue an error occurs: "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again."


I'm on a mid (or late) 2009 MacBook Pro 15". I don't think Internet Recovery is available in my model—CMD + ALT + R brings up the same OS X Disk Utilities app that CMD + R brings up.


Here's what I'm thinking:

  1. Is there a correlation between the "no packages were eligible for install" error and the error that occurs when it's trying to verify my computer's eligibility? If so, is this something on Apple's end that could be fixed?
  2. If the above is a 'no' and there's no way to move forward with the El Capitan install...
    1. Could I insert an OS install disk that comes with Macs and install that OS and still keep all of my files? (Or will this be a clean install?)
    2. If not, is there a way to revert back to Yosemite while still keeping my files?
    3. If not, is there a way to backup my files to an external HD from Terminal, then do a clean install of an OS?


Thanks in advance for your help.

Replies  99
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Participants  6
Max108 OP
Jul ’15

Okay, it was only a small chance 🙂


Now attach the drive you want to copy your files onto and run the following command in Terminal:

diskutil list disk2

0
christhomp OP
Jul ’15

I ran diskutil list disk2 (see below). In case you wanted to see the details about the drive I just plugged in, though, I went ahead and ran the full diskutil list as well.



diskutil list disk2

/dev/disk2 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +5.2 MB disk2

diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *250.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 249.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme +2.1 GB disk1

1: Apple_HFS OS X Base System 1.3 GB disk1s1

/dev/disk2 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +5.2 MB disk2

/dev/disk3 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +524.3 KB disk3

/dev/disk4 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +524.3 KB disk4

/dev/disk5 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +524.3 KB disk5

/dev/disk6 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +524.3 KB disk6

/dev/disk7 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +524.3 KB disk7

/dev/disk8 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +6.3 MB disk8

/dev/disk9 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +2.1 MB disk9

/dev/disk10 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +1.0 MB disk10

/dev/disk11 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +524.3 KB disk11

/dev/disk12 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +524.3 KB disk12

/dev/disk13 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +1.0 MB disk13

/dev/disk14 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled +6.3 MB disk14

/dev/disk15 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk15

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk15s1

2: Apple_HFS My Passport 999.8 GB disk15s2

0
Max108 OP
Jul ’15

Good Call. As you can see, the disk you added has become disk15.

Before performing the copy, can you confirm that there is enough free space for your user folder or do we need to check that first?

0
christhomp OP
Jul ’15

I would say yes- there is... my ext HD is 1TB (and I only have a couple GBs of stuff on there already), and my MBP is only 250GB capacity, and it wasn't full.

0
Max108 OP
Jul ’15

Good. We'll copy your Applications folder and your Users folder, but be aware that, although all of your documents and other stuff will be preserved, some/many of your applications won't work when copied to the Applications folder of your future new installation of OS X - you'll have to redownload and install those that don't. Other folders are practically pointless to copy because the settings etc. that you had are basically non-transferrable in to a new installation in this manner.


Happy with that?

0
christhomp OP
Jul ’15

That's fine. Just so I'm clear, will the following things be copied over?

  • Music
  • Photos
  • Files/documents
  • My wife has an account on the computer with files as well- so we'll need to copy her user folder as well.
0
Max108 OP
Jul ’15

Yes to all of the above. If you're lucky the organisation of your Music and Photos within iTunes and the Photos App will also be preserved, but there's no guarantee of that.


Just in case you're typing out the Terminal commands in my posts, you can copy-paste them from the broswer - also the following command will require your password but it won't appear on screen:


sudo cp -R -p -v /Applications/ /Volumes/My\ Passport/Rescued\ Applications
0
Max108 OP
Jul ’15

That's all one command above.

0
Max108 OP
Jul ’15

Also, you don't need to post the output of that unless there's an error message.

0
christhomp OP
Jul ’15

Thanks. I received an ouput of: sudo: command not found

0
Max108 OP
Jul ’15

Then just:

cp -R -p -v /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Applications/ /Volumes/My\ Passport/Rescued\ Applications


Sudo is just to give Admin privileges to the command, but Terminal in Recovery must have that by default.

0
christhomp OP
Jul ’15

Output:


cp: illegal option -- F

usage: cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvX] source_file target_file

cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvX] source_file ... target_directory

0
christhomp OP
Jul ’15

Output:


/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/: No such file or directory

0
Max108 OP
Jul ’15

Then just:


cp -R -p -v /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Applications/ /Volumes/My\ Passport/Rescued\ Applications


Hopefully it'll work this time 🙂

0
christhomp OP
Jul ’15

Looks like it finished successfully. What next?

0
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