<< Solved >> El Capitan: update straight to High Sierra, or go to Sierra first?

[stolenwisdom]

Hi,

I'm currently on El Capitan (with Clover), and I want to update to High Sierra using the .app installers, so that I can update my Logic Pro X (the App Store demands that I have 10.13.6!)

I've read the OS updates guides, but I'm not sure whether I need to update to Sierra first? The certificate on the Sierra .app installer has expired, so I'm getting the "...is damaged and can't be used to install MacOS" error as described here:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ged-and-cant-be-used-to-install-macos.285857/

I'm okay with the workaround of putting back the system date during install, but I wonder about the pros and cons of skipping straight to High Sierra, if possible?

Any guidance about which approach is better would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[stolenwisdom]

Update:

So, I've successfully updated to Sierra! I've noted my experience below in case it helps someone.

First I made a Unibeast boot USB stick just in case, and checked that I could boot from it, following the guide:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/direct-update-to-macos-sierra-using-clover.201465/


I had a bit of trouble where the guide said to update Clover from Sourceforge: firstly the download wouldn't start, so I had to faff about with the mirrors etc for a bit. Once I'd got the download to work, trying to run the .zip file just produced a text file saying :

"You are in the wrong place, go here https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/releases"


So I did that, and downloaded the installer from there, but then I read this thread saying that the automatic update for Clover no longer works if you're going from rev 4xxx to rev 5xxx, which I was indeed about to do:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...xxx-v2-4k-r4972-to-v2-5-r5018-example.281428/

So this made me confused!


In the end I decided to use the Multibeast installer for Sierra to update Clover, and this worked. I could still boot EL Capitan using the newer version of Clover.

I'd already copied FakeSMC.kext to /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/ - updating Clover from Mulitbeast deleted this! I guess it wrote a blank folder over it? One to watch, anyway... Luckily I had the folder open so I saw it disappear! So I copied it over again.

So then I did the workaround, changing the date as per the link in my post above, so that the Sierra installer would run, unplugging my ethernet cable so that the time wouldn't reset. One note: the post that I link to doesn't specify that you have to use 'sudo date' in the terminal. For me, just typing 'date 030300002019' gave me an error that I didn't have permission. 'SUDO' fixed this - if you're not familiar, this gives you higher privileges so that you can change system stuff (be careful!) You can look it up. To me it feels a bit like playing 'Simon Says'.


Then, I first tried the update on my Super Duper 'Sandbox' partition - see here for more info:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/anyone-using-the-sandbox-feature-in-super-duper.274142/

(I'm planning on writing a guide for the Sandbox feature once I've finished my updates.)


I ran the update installer as per the guide, and all went smoothly! I remembered to choose my 'Sandbox' partition each time!

I then re-did the update on my main system drive, and it also worked. So that was good!

I plan to update to High Sierra next, and I will report back on how that went.

 

[Going Bald]

Don't forget to reset your clock.

 

[stolenwisdom]

Thanks! Once I had plugged the ethernet cable back in, it had updated itself by the time I thought to check it!

 

[stolenwisdom]

Further update!

I have now successfully updated to High Sierra, following the guide:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/update-directly-to-macos-high-sierra.232707/

I followed the "Alternative Guide: Update Directly to macOS High Sierra (HFS+)" option, as I didn't fancy having to maintain a kext for APFS. (I always get anxious about whether a kext is getting too old, and I should replace it; or whether updating a kext will break everything!)

So, my Clover install was already on v4713, from when I installed Sierra, so it was a relief not to have to update that again!

I checked that FakeSMC.kext was still in my /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/ folder on my boot drive, and it was. (It is still version 6.18-313, the one I've had since El Capitan, because I tried to update it with the Sierra version of multibeast, along with the sensors and hardware monitors, and it failed!)

I copied and pasted the terminal command (rather than trying to type it in myself), it ran, and I pressed 'a' to agree. In total there were three reboots, in case anyone is wondering, and it all went fine!

At some point I realised that it wasn't going to ask me for a destination volume for the update, I guess because of using the command line install it didn't give me a GUI at any point. So, I didn't update my Sandbox partition first, it just went straight on to my main system volume. (Thinking about it now, I imagine if I'd booted from the Sandbox partition, and then run the terminal command, that would have done the install on that partition?)

Finally, I'm being offered the updates to Logic Pro X! And I can have a year off updating the OS. Phew.