El Capitan Public Beta Installation Failing

App & System Services Core OS Beta macOS

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:

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?
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.

Boost

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

I've edited my replies above to save anyone else using this thread in the future some time.

And then, to copy over the Users and all their files etc.:

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

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

I had to do:

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

and it's still running. I suspect this one will take a while.

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

You should be seeing a verbose (i.e. a line or two of text for each file) output so you might have some idea of its progress.

Weird that the /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD prefix was necessary this time. Are you sure you don't mean that you had to use -R, not -F?

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

I used -F at first, got the same illegal option error as before, then changed it to -R, and I got the "no such file or directory" output. So I added back the /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD and it worked.

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

Hmmm... Whilst I don't doubt that the Users folder is being copied over correctly, what you've said makes me want to double check the Applications copy - it may have copied the Applications folder from the RecoveryHD partition, which would just be a few system apps and basically useless to you.

After the current operation is finished, Please type the following commands:

cd /Volumes/My\ Passport/Rescued\ Applications

And make sure that you recognise at least a few 3rd party apps.

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

That would make sense because when I was watching the Applications folder copy over all I saw was Disk Utility and Safari.

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

Okay, then the following three commands should do the Applications properly:

cd /Volumes/My\ Passport/Rescued\ Applications

[stop if you get an error message after this]

rm -v *.*

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

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

Users folder just finished. As for the three commands: Nothing happened after the first command. The second command's output was "rm: Safari.app: is a directory". Then the third command returned "no such file or directory".

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

Don't change directories before using that command because it deletes everything in a directory, which we want it to do only in the Rescued Applications directory.

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

This first command didn't return an output. The second (the new one you just told me to do) returned "rm: safari.app: directory not empty". The third command returned a "no such file or directory".

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

You're already in the right directory (the one we're trying to clear out to make way for the real Applications folder)

You just need:

rm -v -R *.*

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

Ok, that worked.

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

Okay, so could you post the output of the following:

cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD

ls -A

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

Sorry... For some reason I can't join my friend's wifi network right now so I'm responding on my phone. Output: .DS_Store .vol dev .DocumentRevisions-V100 A etc .IAProductInfo Incompatible Software home .MobileBackups Network lost+found .OSInstallerMessages OS X Install Data net .Spotlight-V100 Recovered Items opt .TALRestoreApps User Guides And Information private .Trashes Users tmp .dbfseventsd Volumes var .fseventsd cores

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

My guess is that the installer has temporarily put your applications into the Incompatible Software folder.

To confirm:

cd Incompatible\ Software

ls -A