talksr Posted December 20, 2017 Posted December 20, 2017 Hi, I recently started a thread on how best to convert an older iMac 21.5 inch from a 500gb HDD to an SSD. Following on from some great advice on these forums, I have successfully changed the drive, BUT, I have got an issue. The computer in question was a spare, box fresh and never used. - No point cloning the original hdd as it was factory fresh. I booted up and did an Internet Recovery install onto the new SSD. I do have other models around the school, but they are all running Windows so they will all have this old OSX installed on them. It installed Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63). If I visit the App Store, it tells me I can upgrade for free to High Sierra but when I click download, it tells me: This update requireas macOS version 10.8 or later. Fair enough, I have found a link which will take me to that version on the App Store. It asks me to sign in to Apple ID, but immediately tells me that my password is wrong when it is not, and I immediately get a 2 factor auth notification on my iPhone to allow a login from a new device. It makes no difference if I allow or not. I have a problem! I am off of work no, so no usb sticks I can try and download the right os onto. I am visiting a site tomorrow which has a brand spanking new 2017 21.5 inch iMac - I could try and take a time machine backup of it and put that on to this 2011 model, but I am not sure if that will be a success. Now that the system has built via recovery, I am finding if I attempt to boot holding cmd + r, after some time, I get a no entry style symbol. Any ideas?!
Norphy Posted December 20, 2017 Posted December 20, 2017 The time machine backup will probably work. If you have managed to download a macOS installer from somewhere, you could use Disk Manager to add an extra volume to your SSD and use the createinstallmedia command to make that new partition a macOS install disk. You’ll then be able to boot from that volume and install the os onto the other. 1
Brimstone Posted December 21, 2017 Posted December 21, 2017 Have a read of this... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 1
talksr Posted December 21, 2017 Author Posted December 21, 2017 The time machine backup will probably work. If you have managed to download a macOS installer from somewhere, you could use Disk Manager to add an extra volume to your SSD and use the createinstallmedia command to make that new partition a macOS install disk. You’ll then be able to boot from that volume and install the os onto the other. Fingers crossed, I have started taking a backup now via Time Machine. It says the total backup is 45gb which is not that large. I am starting to wonder if that would restore the OS Have a read of this... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 Thanks for your suggestion, but I don't think it will help. When I open Recovery, it opens the macOS Utilities window as expected, but it doesn't give me the option to Reinstall macOS, it gives me the option to Reinstall OS X Lion which will put me in the same position I am in at the moment. When I initially did this, the hard disk was completely blank. When it connected to the internet, it installed Max OS X Lion - that seems to be the highest version it will download via the internet. Not sure why.
talksr Posted December 24, 2017 Author Posted December 24, 2017 Time machine backup worked well, however, when I boot or restart the system, after the Apple bootup chime, I am presented with the centralised Apple logo, followed a few seconds later by a prohibitory symbol which lasts a few seconds, followed by the Apple logo. This repeats for a minute or so, before I see an Apple symbol with a progress indicator below. The system then quite rapidly boots to macOS High Sierra. Does anyone have any ideas on what the prohibitory symbol means? The Apple site says: [bProhibitory symbol When you see a circle with a slash symbol instead of the Apple logo, it means your Mac couldn't find a valid System Folder to start up from. If you're using your Mac at a school or business, it might be trying to start from the wrong version of macOS. Contact your IT department for more help. If this is your personal Mac, try reinstalling macOS using macOS recovery.[/b] I could understand this, but the symbol does not stay and the system does eventually boot with no issues. Have tried running Disk Utility>First Aid on the SSD - nothing found. Have run diskutil verifyVolume / on terminal, no issues reported. Have run an Apple Hardware Test on bootup, ran the extended 1 hour test, nothing found. Lastly, have reset the NVRAM, no change, issue is still there. Does anyone know what I can try?
Arthur Posted December 24, 2017 Posted December 24, 2017 (edited) Does anyone have any ideas on what the prohibitory symbol means? I think it's because you have gone from 10.7.5 to 10.13 but not installed any firmware updates since you are effectively restoring from a backup image. This is why Apple no longer recommends (monolithic) imaging. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208020 If you try to use a monolithic system image, required firmware updates will be missing from the installation. This causes the Mac to operate in an unsupported and unstable state. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/when-booting-from-usb-i-get-circle-with-line-through-it.1411034/#post-16575067 The 'circle with the slash' through it means the operating system / firmware you are trying to install is NOT the correct firmware / operating system state at the correct level. If you start the Mac in Verbose Mode (⌘ + V) you should be able to find out what the issue is. When I initially did this, the hard disk was completely blank. When it connected to the internet, it installed Mac OS X Lion - that seems to be the highest version it will download via the internet. Not sure why. That's because you didn't install macOS 10.12.4 or later using the Mac App Store installer. If you do this, it enables macOS Recovery to install the latest supported version of the operating system (High Sierra in this case) when starting up the Mac pressing Option + Command + R. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904 If you haven't already updated to macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later, Option-Command-R installs the macOS that came with your Mac What I would do is what @Norphy suggested earlier and create a bootable USB installer with the createinstallmedia command in Terminal, then reinstall macOS from scratch to ensure the Mac isn't in an unstable/unsupported state. sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/[color="#FF0000"]MyVolume[/color] MyVolume = the name of your USB drive. Edited December 24, 2017 by Arthur 1
talksr Posted December 27, 2017 Author Posted December 27, 2017 (edited) I think it's because you have gone from 10.7.5 to 10.13 but not installed any firmware updates since you are effectively restoring from a backup image. This is why Apple no longer recommends (monolithic) imaging. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208020 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/when-booting-from-usb-i-get-circle-with-line-through-it.1411034/#post-16575067 If you start the Mac in Verbose Mode (⌘ + V) you should be able to find out what the issue is. That's because you didn't install macOS 10.12.4 or later using the Mac App Store installer. If you do this, it enables macOS Recovery to install the latest supported version of the operating system (High Sierra in this case) when starting up the Mac pressing Option + Command + R. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904 What I would do is what @Norphy suggested earlier and create a bootable USB installer with the createinstallmedia command in Terminal, then reinstall macOS from scratch to ensure the Mac isn't in an unstable/unsupported state. sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/[color="#FF0000"]MyVolume[/color] MyVolume = the name of your USB drive. Hi there. Thanks for your helpful post. I got a copy of macOS HighSierra, and made a USB Bootable drive from it, but even when I used that to install a fresh version of macOS High Sierra, still I am getting this prohibitory sign flashing back to the Apple logo and then going. I re-formatted the drive yesterday from OS X Extended Journalised to APFS and then ran Internet Recovery again. This time it behaved. Gave it several restarts and no issues. Then today, I booted up from cold and straight away, I get the cycling between prohibitory folder and Apple logo. It is driving me up the wall! In answer to your comments re not installing the update via the App Store. I did try this, but the system was refusing to accept my Apple ID. It kept saying I had put in the wrong password and immediately my phone would flash up with the 2 form factor ID auth message to say my apple ID was being used. I would ok it and it would display the 6 digit code, but I had nowhere to put it as the App Store just kept refusing my password. It is almost as though Apple no longer support upgrading a system of this age which is on OS X Lion, if you have 2 form factor authentication on your Apple ID. Edited December 27, 2017 by talksr
Arthur Posted December 27, 2017 Posted December 27, 2017 Then today, I booted up from cold and straight away, I get the cycling between prohibitory folder and Apple logo. It is driving me up the wall! Did you try starting the Mac up in verbose mode? If so, did it display any error messages? If you open up System Info, do the Boot ROM and SMC versions match the versions listed here for your Mac? https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201518 1
talksr Posted December 27, 2017 Author Posted December 27, 2017 Did you try starting the Mac up in verbose mode? If so, did it display any error messages? If you open up System Info, do the Boot ROM and SMC versions match the versions listed here for your Mac? https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201518 Yes and yes. It booted up like an Intel windows based computer (dos style screen) and there were some errors about kernal, but by the time I got the phone to take a pic, it had progressed to the apple bootup screen. It is still trying to load the OS, bear with me and I will try and get you that info once it is ready.
talksr Posted December 27, 2017 Author Posted December 27, 2017 (edited) Did you try starting the Mac up in verbose mode? If so, did it display any error messages? If you open up System Info, do the Boot ROM and SMC versions match the versions listed here for your Mac? https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201518 I gave up and pulled the plug, it was taking so long and nothing seemed to be happening. Here is the verbose bootup screen. I took a look at the link you gave. The details for my model are: iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) iMac12,1 IM121.0047.B21 (2015-001) I have taken a look on System Info, and the numbers are slightly out. System info shows the following for Boot ROM Version: IM121.004D.B00 It is very similar, but not the same. System Info also has the following: Model Identifier: iMac12,1 Hardware UUID: D3EC6B97-ADFW-5B7C-9ADC-094FA79041E5 - not sure what I can compare these against. Edited December 27, 2017 by talksr
Arthur Posted December 27, 2017 Posted December 27, 2017 Thanks for the photo and other details. The Boot ROM on your iMac (IM121.004D.B00) looks like it is newer than the version listed on the Apple website (IM121.0047.B21) since 004D in hex is higher than 0047. A couple of other things you could try are resetting the iMac's NVRAM and booting into safe mode. Both of those clear various caches inc. the kernel cache. ices\boot.efi Start OpenVolume End OpenVolune Start ProcessOptions End ProcessOptions RegisterRestartDataProtocol: called. 0x8c74e398 RestartData protocol installed successfully. Start LoadCoreStorageConfiguration fs_read_stream:14080: got err 5 reading at pos 0 in obj-id 357 (blkcount 168, len 690998) Read error 0x7 End LoadCoreStorageConfiguration Start SetConsoleMode End SetConsoleMode Start OpenKernelRootVolune End OpenKernelRootVolume fs_read_stream:14080: got err 5 reading at pos 10489856 in obj-id 783556 (blkcount 255, len 1044892) Read error 0x7 End ReadKernel Cache ERROR!!! Load prelinked kernel with status 0x8000000000000007 does printf work?? [color="#FF0000"]Error loading kernel cache (0x7)[/color] Since you have High Sierra installed it would also be worth running Apple's eficheck utility from Terminal. More details here... https://eclecticlight.co/2017/09/24/high-sierra-automatically-checks-efi-firmware-each-week/ If eficheck detects a problem with your EFI firmware it will display a message. 1
talksr Posted December 27, 2017 Author Posted December 27, 2017 (edited) Thanks for the photo and other details. The Boot ROM on your iMac (IM121.004D.B00) looks like it is newer than the version listed on the Apple website (IM121.0047.B21) since 004D in hex is higher than 0047. A couple of other things you could try are resetting the iMac's NVRAM and booting into safe mode. Both of those clear various caches inc. the kernel cache. ices\boot.efi Start OpenVolume End OpenVolune Start ProcessOptions End ProcessOptions RegisterRestartDataProtocol: called. 0x8c74e398 RestartData protocol installed successfully. Start LoadCoreStorageConfiguration fs_read_stream:14080: got err 5 reading at pos 0 in obj-id 357 (blkcount 168, len 690998) Read error 0x7 End LoadCoreStorageConfiguration Start SetConsoleMode End SetConsoleMode Start OpenKernelRootVolune End OpenKernelRootVolume fs_read_stream:14080: got err 5 reading at pos 10489856 in obj-id 783556 (blkcount 255, len 1044892) Read error 0x7 End ReadKernel Cache ERROR!!! Load prelinked kernel with status 0x8000000000000007 does printf work?? [color="#FF0000"]Error loading kernel cache (0x7)[/color] Since you have High Sierra installed it would also be worth running Apple's eficheck utility from Terminal. More details here... https://eclecticlight.co/2017/09/24/high-sierra-automatically-checks-efi-firmware-each-week/ If eficheck detects a problem with your EFI firmware it will display a message. Thanks very much for your help with this. I had tried an NVRAM restart last night but it didnt help. I have tried again now and I am currently on in Safe Mode. I tried using eficheck from an elevated terminal, but whatever I try, I seem to get errors back. GenerateHashes: couldn't get EFI contents from kext sh-3.2# clear sh-3.2# /usr/libexec/firmwarecheckers/eficheck/eficheck --generate-hashes -b firmware.bin GenerateHashes: failed to read firmware.bin sh-3.2# /usr/libexec/firmwarecheckers/eficheck/eficheck --integrity-check ReadBinaryFromKernel: No matching services found. Either this system is not supported by eficheck, or you need to re-load the kext IntegrityCheck: couldn't get EFI contents from kext sh-3.2# Sadly NVRAM reset and Safemode boot have not helped. Not really sure if it will help, but this is a video of the bootup process at the moment: https://youtu.be/xD0KN8fKUWc Edited December 27, 2017 by talksr
Arthur Posted December 28, 2017 Posted December 28, 2017 (edited) I had tried an NVRAM restart last night but it didn't help. I have tried again now and I am currently on in Safe Mode. I tried using eficheck from an elevated terminal, but whatever I try, I seem to get errors back. Sadly NVRAM reset and Safemode boot have not helped. Very strange! I couldn't find the info in your other thread, but which SSD + adapter did you buy in the end? It's a bit of a long shot, but are there any firmware updates available for your SSD? I wonder if that would help? Edited December 28, 2017 by Arthur
talksr Posted December 29, 2017 Author Posted December 29, 2017 Very strange! I couldn't find the info in your other thread, but which SSD + adapter did you buy in the end? It's a bit of a long shot, but are there any firmware updates available for your SSD? I wonder if that would help? I would like to throw the thing out of the window. I have spent hours on chats with Apple, even they don't know what to suggest. We managed to get it up to OS X but it now refuses to install High Sierra freezing through the install or rebooting with a flashing question mark folder. Absolute nightmare. You may be right about the ssd, but it was brand new and went into the iMac with in a day of arriving. It is SanDisk, so unfortunately, I can't find out if there is any new firmware for it, without putting it into a Windows machine, which would mean taking the whole iMac apart again!
Norphy Posted December 30, 2017 Posted December 30, 2017 Or you could install Windows on the Mac? Windows 10 x64 will just install with a standard usb flash drive installer, no need for boot camp.
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