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

Accepted Answer

Yep, looks good.

You can crossreference it with a much briefer guide I posted for someone else in a similar situation here:

https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/19400

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

Thanks. Excuse my Terminal ignorance here, but could you explain why the instructions I found has --nointeraction at the end and yours doesn't?

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

Simply that it won't ask you to confirm as you go.

--nointeraction is safe to use if there's nothing else on your USB stick, but I wouldn't use it if you were using your My Passport for instance.

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

Good to know. Also, just curious, what would happen if I proceeded with the install of Yosemite (after making the bootable USB drive) but skipped erasing my Macintosh HD (Step 5 above)?

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

Refer back to my answer to 2.2 of your original question:

Q: 2.2 If not, is there a way to revert back to Yosemite while still keeping my files?

There could be; it partly depends on how far the Yosemite installer got.

A partition is checked by an installer to ensure that the system is suitable for the version of OS X it has to offer and one of the red flags is if a specific .plist on that partition registers that the currently installed version of OS X is later than its own. This .plist file could be altered or deleted but it may not be the only obstacle.

Because of this it's definitely worth trying first. The only caveat is that the directories in your OS X partition looked a bit messed up (no Applications folder for instance) and you may find yourself doing a clean install after all.

Still, worth a try now you've got the external installer.

tywebbooooo OP

Jul ’15

But didn't christhomp say he wanted the public beta?

Actually for the public beta the command is

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan\ Public\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan\ Public\ Beta.app --nointeraction

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

He opted for Yosemite in the end.

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

I followed the directions to create the bootable USB drive and everything completed successfully. I tried rebooting with OPT held down and the USB drive is not an option—it's the same two options that were available before: OS X Installer and Recovery-10.11.

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

It should appear. Could you post the output for diskutil list diskX (where X is the number of the USB stick) so I can check to see its partition table and that it's formatted correctly.

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

Here's the output:

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *32.0 GB disk2

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1

2: Apple_HFS Install OS X Yosemite 31.7 GB disk2s2

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

That looks as it should.

Weird that it's not showing up. Try booting into your MBP with alt held down until you see the bootable partitions and then putting in the USB stick.

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

Does it show up when you do the same on your friend's Mac?

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

I'm not with him anymore, so I'm not sure.

Booting up with alt held down and then putting the USB stick didn't work either.

Max108 OP

Jul ’15

Have you tried your other USB ports?

christhomp OP

Jul ’15

Yes, I've tried both.