[Solved] macOS could not be installed on your computer...installer resources error

[jazzman16]

I can confirm that this method works for Catalina and after days of trying to resolve problem (checking memory sticks, hdds and before that various ways of preparing installation usb) i succed from the first try. Many thanks for all of you !
Z97x ud3h bk, i5, gtx 770

I suppouse that net connection is necessery - i have orig mac wifi card so its been very easy cause eth port do not work in my case

I went through so many things trying to figure out why I kept getting this "macOS cannot be installed" message. Eventually I ran the startosinstall command from Terminal and found out through an error message on the terminal that I needed an active internet connection to install macOS.

If you found this guide while trying to install Catalina like I did: Plug in your ethernet cable!!!

 

[filsler]

Hello yourgamesbeover! Im having the same issue here and i thought you might help me!

When i run ./startosinstall --volume disk0s2 it gives the the error "could not get license agreement" and if I try the --agreetolicense it says "couldnt find target" is there anything I could do differently?

Thank you very much for your time and help!

Best regards,

Marcelo

 

[filsler]

By the way! To help the other users: in order to cd into the .app I had to use an \ before every space of the name of the file so the cd command was: "cd Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app" and then "cd Contents" then "cd Resources" then "ls" command to see the startosinstall file

 

[filsler]

Was everything right?

 

[chrisprice]

yourgamesbeover,

Thanks for the help. I was able to get to /Volumes and find the target disk. I also was able to find the 'install macOS Mojave.app' on the root directory. I've been beating my head against the wall, but for reasons unknown, I am unable to 'cd' into the 'install macOS Mojave.app' directory. It shows in a root 'ls', but it acts like it is in a different directory. Maybe you will recognize what I 'm doing wrong, but I will keep trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I just wanted to reply for those who may go back and read this.

the issue with the command line not working to 'cd' into the install directory was a missing '.'

cd into './Contents/Resources'

that fixed the issue for me.


PS, I was using this guide for installing Catalina, so it should be relevant for most systems. If you are wondering what your systems folder layout is, you can go to your computer that you are making the installer on, go to the installer in the Applications folder, right-click on the installer (in my case Install macOS Catalina.app) and choose 'Show Package Contents'. This will provide you entry into the installer where you can view the folder hierarchy. I know not all the OS installers have it the same so if you are trying something older that may help.

 

[chrisprice]

Let me try to remember how it worked...
first, run `mount`,
you should see something listed as mounted at /Volumes/<name of disk to install on>
remember what that was, you'll need it later

next, go to / (`cd /`),
run `ls` to see what folders are there, there should be one called 'install macOS Mojave.app', cd into it
cd into 'Contents/Resources'

If I've remembered the folders correctly, you should now be in the folder that contains startosinstall

recall the path we found in the first step, this is where you need it
now simply run `./startosinstall --volume /Volumes/<name of disk to install on>`

if it's not --volume, run `./startosinstall --usage` and it'll tell you the correct flag.

let me know if that works, or if I got the folder names wrong

Thanks for a detailed list of commands, as it helped me a ton!