Error installing High Sierra on Fusion Drive

[slosho]

Trying to apply the 10.13.1 update, oddly I found that every time I reboot my hack, the modified "com.apple.Boot.plist" went back to unmodified, any thoughts?

Here are the first two things that come to mind:

1) Have you tried doing the edits from Recovery, a MacOS installer, or a different boot drive? After some trial and error, for the 10.13.1 update, I ultimately used a High Sierra USB installer with its own copy of Clover to do the edits. (A Unibeast USB should probably work, too, since that’s basically what it is.)

2) After editing, are you rebooting using the Reboot option in the Apple menu? (If you’re using the Startup Disk Selector to reboot, this will overwrite the changes.)

You could also try alenchev’s solution above.

 

[alenchev]

Cool! I think this proves that the error is related to Clover and/or the OS insisting on looking for the boot files in their “normal” locations rather than the directory structure created by the first-stage installer.

Yes. 10.13.* installer/updater put all files in one folder. Clover didn't know about this.
PS For new install make same ****.

 

[slosho]

Thanks. This is very interesting. In my situation fusion drive shows up in Clover (as well as Recovery HD partition) and I can boot OSX or Recovery from it with no issues.
Just can't get a second part of the supplementary to start...

UPDATE:
slosho, I've managed to figure out what was wrong with your guide and successfully applied update
1. You don't have to mount "Recovery HD" partition from your Fusion drive. Mount "Boot OS X" instead to get to "com.apple.boot.P/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration", usually it is 3rd partition of your 1st CoreStorage group disk
2. There is no need to boot from USB drive to edit the file, but once you save it & reboot, Clover must be started from another physical disk (here goes your extra USB disk), otherwise 2nd part of update will report "The path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged" error (thx 43n79w).

I ran into the OSInstall.mpkg error for the 10.13.1 update. The disabling EmuVariables trick doesn’t work for me because I don’t normally use the EmuVariables driver. My motherboard doesn’t seem to need it.

What seemed to fix it was temporarily loading the driver, running the first-stage installer, doing the edits, disabling the driver, and then running the second-stage installer. I think what this does is allow the NVRam emulation to intercept the first stage’s settings change and prevent it from getting into the actual NVRam. That way, the new setting isn’t stuck there waiting to make the installer angry.

 

[ykymtks]

I tried various things with 3rd partition as a tip,
Successfully upgraded directly to High sierra with FusionDrive.

1. Back up the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X) with dd.

sudo dd if=/dev/disk?s3 of=/Users/username/boot_os_x.img bs=1m

2. Install High Sierra.

3. reboot, recovery mode.

4. Start Terminal.

5. Mount the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X).

diskutil list
diskutil mount /dev/disk?s3

6. Copy prelinkedkernel and com.apple.Boot.plist.

cp -rp /Volumes/Boot\ OS\ X/com.apple.boot.?/prelinkedkernel /Volumes/FusionDrive/Users/username/
cp -rp /Volumes/Boot\ OS\ X/com.apple.boot.?/com.apple.Boot.plist  /Volumes/FusionDrive/Users/username/

7. Unmount the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X).

diskutil umount /dev/disk?s3

8. Write back the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X) that was backup.

dd if=/Volumes/FusionDrive/Users/username/boot_os_x.img of=/dev/disk?s3 bs=1m

9. Mount the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X).

diskutil mount /dev/disk?s3

10. Overwrite the copied prelinkedkernel.

cp -rp /Volumes/FusionDrive/Users/username/prelinkedkernel /Volumes/Boot\ OS\ X/com.apple.boot.?/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel

11. Rewrite the Kernel Flags referring to the copied com.apple.Boot.plist.
vi /Volumes/Boot\ OS\ X/com.apple.boot.?/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-rootdmg-ramdisk auth-root-dmg=file:///macOS%20Install%20Data/BaseSystem.dmg</string>

12. reboot, continue installation.

13. Success.

10.13 to 10.13.1 also succeeded.

 

[Gaffalover]

ykymtks, you are my hero!
Just installed the 10.13.1 update on my home made FusionDrive!
On Step 11. I also had to remove the KernelCache Key and String beneath it.

 

[moonrotation]

Hi all.

I can't get the installer.

Already try all guides without success.
Only the ykymtks guide i can get boot screen but stop and get still waiting for root device.

 

[cccip]

Got in a bit of a trouble with any of the workarounds above.
Any clues where to dig?

 

[slosho]

Got in a bit of a trouble with any of the workarounds above.
Any clues where to dig?

That error message sounds like 43n79w's problem above. Have you tried this:

I was able to get the update to apply by changing the argument auth-root-dmg to just root-dmg in the plist file.

 

[Adam1203]

I tried various things with 3rd partition as a tip,
Successfully upgraded directly to High sierra with FusionDrive.

1. Back up the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X) with dd.

sudo dd if=/dev/disk?s3 of=/Users/username/boot_os_x.img bs=1m

2. Install High Sierra.

3. reboot, recovery mode.

4. Start Terminal.

5. Mount the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X).

diskutil list
diskutil mount /dev/disk?s3

6. Copy prelinkedkernel and com.apple.Boot.plist.

cp -rp /Volumes/Boot\ OS\ X/com.apple.boot.?/prelinkedkernel /Volumes/FusionDrive/Users/username/
cp -rp /Volumes/Boot\ OS\ X/com.apple.boot.?/com.apple.Boot.plist  /Volumes/FusionDrive/Users/username/

7. Unmount the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X).

diskutil umount /dev/disk?s3

8. Write back the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X) that was backup.

dd if=/Volumes/FusionDrive/Users/username/boot_os_x.img of=/dev/disk?s3 bs=1m

9. Mount the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot Boot OS X).

diskutil mount /dev/disk?s3

10. Overwrite the copied prelinkedkernel.

cp -rp /Volumes/FusionDrive/Users/username/prelinkedkernel /Volumes/Boot\ OS\ X/com.apple.boot.?/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel

11. Rewrite the Kernel Flags referring to the copied com.apple.Boot.plist.
vi /Volumes/Boot\ OS\ X/com.apple.boot.?/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-rootdmg-ramdisk auth-root-dmg=file:///macOS%20Install%20Data/BaseSystem.dmg</string>

12. reboot, continue installation.

13. Success.

10.13 to 10.13.1 also succeeded.

This worked perfectly! I'm going to try to script some of this, so we can maybe run it from the terminal. Thank you for the guide!

 

[cccip]

Thanks for pointing slosho, it was that + offline update DMG I've used.
Erasing all files and re-downloading update directly from AppStore resolved my frustration.