OK, I give up! How do I get a Lion into a Macintosh....?

[Koldov]

After spending a couple of hours on this yesterday afternoon, (although I have to admit I'm not sure it's worth the effort - long story short, I need a Mac to do some testing for another issue, so I dug out an old Macbook that's been sat in the cupboard for a few years)...

 

There are a few more things to try before I admit it beat me, but to save me time that I don't really have does anyone know how to get the Mac OS back onto a Macbook Pro (A1211 - 2006'ish).

 

I thought I had a fairly good grip on what to do (only internet searches as I'm no Mac daddy for sure)!

 

Got into Disk Manager (sorry 'Utility') wiped the disk and tried to do a 'Reinstall Mac OS X' from an online thing... but apparently my Apple ID is too new or something and can only download later versions...

 

So, I downloaded a Lion.dmg file and researched what to do (after realising it won't USB boot), which is restore an image or something, which I try and get various error like 'cannot unmount disk', 'source busy', 'couldn't resize partition', then it asks to scan the image and tells me 'resource busy'.... in fact I lost count of the amount of ways it told me it couldn't do what I wanted...

Edited March 30, 2022 by Koldov

[Norphy]

It sounds like you've done this already, but here we go:

 

Step 1) On a handy Mac, grab Lion installer from Apple website here: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2077?locale=en_GB

Step 2) Open the DMG. Copy the PKG file somewhere, then use The Unarchiver to extract it.

Step 3) In the extracted contents, there's another PKG file called InstallMacOSX.pkg. Right click on that and click "Show Package Contents". There's a DMG in there called InstallESD.dmg. Open that DMG to mount it.

Step 4) Put a USB stick into your Mac and open Disk Utility. I'm on a Mac with High Sierra at the moment, earlier or later versions will look different. Find your USB stick and click the Erase button. Format it with Mac OS Extended format and choose the GUID Partition Map scheme. Give it any label you like.

Step 5) Find your newly formatted USB Stick volume in the Disk Utility, right click on it and press Restore. Tell it to restore from "Mac OS X Install ESD", then press the Restore button.

Step 6) Wait an indeterminable amount of time for the DMG to get restored to the USB Stick. It should then turn into a Lion USB stick and be bootable. Plug it into the Mac you want to install Lion on, reboot it while holding down the Option key and wait for the boot menu to appear. With luck and a following wind, you should see the Lion installer in your bootable image list.

Step 7) ???

Step 8) Profit

 

I've just done this and the USB stick shows as a bootable volume in the Startup Disk panel in System Preferences so I assume it should be bootable.

[Norphy]

I'm also pretty sure that the same steps should work with a DVD-R, should the Mac not be able to boot from a USB stick. There's no reason why it shouldn't though.

[Koldov]

Many thanks for taking the time to detail all this for me, I do appreciate it! Nothing more frustrating that going round in circles especially with an OS you're not familiar with... Windows can be cryptic at times but with MacOS, I really have no clue why it isn't letting me do what I want (especially as it is randomly refusing to format a disk or unmount it etc).... Sad to say I've got so used to downloading an ISO and whacking it on any old computer, this just baffles me...

 

Unfortunately there were obviously some steps I missed as (unlike your thorough explanation) I guess the internet guides assume that one is familiar with the Mac OS.

 

What is more unfortunate is that I'm falling at the first hurdle... 'Step 1) On a handy Mac'... because this is the only Mac in the building, so I'm guessing the other steps are a moot point... and also the fact that it seems Apple didn't reach the 21st Century until after this Macbook 'Pro' was produced and there is no USB boot on this model (apparently)...

 

EDIT: Just seen the DVD option... but without a Mac inc. DVD writer, I think I'm still stuck?!

Edited March 30, 2022 by Koldov

[howartp]

What is more unfortunate is that I'm falling at the first hurdle... 'Step 1) On a handy Mac'... because this is the only Mac in the building

Actually you CAN download that on any PC - i'm downloading it now on my Win10 running Chrome browser.

 

I didn't expect you could, as I had a Macbook 2014 last week that I was updating and had to jump through similar hoops, and the .dmg's would ONLY download on Safari on Mac.

 

Peter

[Koldov]

Yes, that's true in my OP I mentioned I'd downloaded the 'Lion.dmg', of course I forgot to mention that was on my Windows PC and it's called InstallMAcOSX.dmg and I've just had a thought that 7Zip might open it... which it has... and I can see the InstallMacOSX.pkg file!

 

It's just the rest of it that appears to need a working Mac (or can it all now be done from the 'Disk Utility' in the Base OSX that loads up)?

 

But, I wonder if there is anything else to stop me using it this way (could I just write that to a DVD or I might have PLOP boot from USB somewhere - if it works on a Mac)?

Edited March 30, 2022 by Koldov

[Norphy]

Many thanks for taking the time to detail all this for me, I do appreciate it! Nothing more frustrating that going round in circles especially with an OS you're not familiar with... Windows can be cryptic at times but with MacOS, I really have no clue why it isn't letting me do what I want (especially as it is randomly refusing to format a disk or unmount it etc).... Sad to say I've got so used to downloading an ISO and whacking it on any old computer, this just baffles me...

 

Unfortunately there were obviously some steps I missed as (unlike your thorough explanation) I guess the internet guides assume that one is familiar with the Mac OS.

 

What is more unfortunate is that I'm falling at the first hurdle... 'Step 1) On a handy Mac'... because this is the only Mac in the building, so I'm guessing the other steps are a moot point... and also the fact that it seems Apple didn't reach the 21st Century until after this Macbook 'Pro' was produced and there is no USB boot on this model (apparently)...

 

EDIT: Just seen the DVD option... but without a Mac inc. DVD writer, I think I'm still stuck?!

 

Do you have a DVD writer anywhere? I can see if I can make an ISO of the installer for you to burn?

[Koldov]

Do you have a DVD writer anywhere? I can see if I can make an ISO of the installer for you to burn?

 

Many thanks, that would be a godsend if you could.

 

[Norphy]

OK, converting it now. I'll send you instructions over a PM, I don't want Edugeek to be attacked by a ravenous hoard of Apple lawyers...

[Koldov]

Or have your download/bandwidth/hosting site overrun by hoards of Macbook users wanting to install an 11 year old OS on their 16 year old machines... wait I forgot, they aren't Windows users...

[Norphy]

Or have your download/bandwidth/hosting site overrun by hoards of Macbook users wanting to install an 11 year old OS on their 16 year old machines... wait I forgot, they aren't Windows users...

 

Meh, it's Microsoft's bandwidth, I'm sure they can cope

 

Link sent

[Koldov]

OK, so just to update this thread (because I know you're all on the edge of your seats) and offer a solution to anyone else in the unlikely event they are trying to put such an old OSX on an even older Macbook Pro...

 

Here is an edited/extended version of the P.M. I sent to @Norphy to thank him for the help...

 

 

Well, that was absolutely mental!

 

Windows 10 just flat out didn't like the ISO, so had to try and find a decent (non spyware/virus infested) ISO tool... only to realise it was too big to burn on a standard DVD and no DL ones handy... honestly can't remember the last time I burnt a DVD.

 

The restore to DVD on the Mac wouldn't work either (possibly because the disk wasn't large enough thinking about it), it just wouldn't let me select it as a destination and every time I clicked on it, it just took me to the page that asked me if I wanted to erase it or something (it was brand new) and I couldn't drag it or select it any other way.

 

Anyway, in the end I managed with 7-zip to get the installESD.dmg file out of the InstallMacOSX.dmg I had downloaded.

 

Tried all sorts of ways to get it to load wasted more time on various forums and mac 'advice' pages suggesting all sorts of other software and writing just some of the files of the ISO to a DVD disk swapping and using boot software (which is actually impossible on a Macbook Pro with no eject button and no way to remove the boot DVD with the keyboard if the DVD with the boot software on is still running - should I admit I pulled the Macbook apart and then booted it and lifted the 'super drive' out to stop the disk spinning and remove it with pliers...? Nope... ), usb boot software just wouldn't allow it to boot (something to do with the USB being on an internal hub).... so still no luck....

 

In the end it was actually very simple (if you have the correct equipment) as I came across a post in a forum from years ago (obviously) by someone who does this a lot and he said he keeps all his older images on a Firewire disk to restore on Macs that don't USB boot...

 

Then it hit me, I have a 15+ year old caddy that does firewire (even though it has an old IDE connection inside and luckily had an old IDE disk in it), because I never throw anything away!

 

Managed to do the 'restore' to the disk in there and rebooted... chose the Firewire disk and it seemed to do something, but chucked it back to the recovery partition choices screen, so I thought I might just give up... but on the off chance just one last time I chose 'Install Lion' and it didn't take me to the internet this time, it just started installing!!!!

 

So, now it has finished and I can get to testing what I originally wanted it for (if I can get my head round how to work the damn thing)!

[Marylin]

had the same problem with Mac 2015. Now I'm reading the comments on the post!!))

[handstand]

It sounds like you've done this already, but here we go:

 

Step 1) On a handy Mac, grab Lion installer from Apple website here: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2077?locale=en_GB

Step 2) Open the DMG. Copy the PKG file somewhere, then use The Unarchiver to extract it.

Step 3) In the extracted contents, there's another PKG file called InstallMacOSX.pkg. Right click on that and click "Show Package Contents". There's a DMG in there called InstallESD.dmg. Open that DMG to mount it.

Step 4) Put a USB stick into your Mac and open Disk Utility. I'm on a Mac with High Sierra at the moment, earlier or later versions will look different. Find your USB stick and click the Erase button. Format it with Mac OS Extended format and choose the GUID Partition Map scheme. Give it any label you like.

Step 5) Find your newly formatted USB Stick volume in the Disk Utility, right click on it and press Restore. Tell it to restore from "Mac OS X Install ESD", then press the Restore button.

 

Step 6) Wait an indeterminable amount of time for the DMG to get restored to the USB Stick. It should then turn into a Lion USB stick and be bootable. Plug it into the Mac you want to install Lion on, reboot it while holding down the Option key and wait for the boot menu to appear. With luck and a following wind, you should see the Lion installer in your bootable image list.

Step 7) ???

Step 8) Profit

 

I've just done this and the USB stick shows as a bootable volume in the Startup Disk panel in System Preferences so I assume it should be bootable.

 

 

For anyone googling this, if Step 5 doesn't work, because it can be temperamental with certain operating systems, try downloading the App "Install Disk Creator" which works every time

[Cw2k]

had the same problem with Mac 2015. Now I'm reading the comments on the post!!))

 

For a 2015 Mac you can use OpenCore Legacy Patcher to get it up to Monterey, more difficult for Ventura

[KK20]

I bought a cheap mac mini that had a broken drive. After changing the drive I needed to get an OS onto the mac - it was our only mac. I used a utility called transmac to make a bootable USB in windows, then extracted a DMG onto it. Only after all this faffing did I realise I could have COMMAND+R and restore from internet (I didnt have much mac knowledge at the time).

[Mrpower]

I seem to remember back in 2006 Apple had several firmware update that needed to be install before some Macs could be up-graded to newer OS's.

Was the Laptop working Ok before you put it in the cupboard? Have you check the hardware, correct amount of ram? Hard drive not misbehaving or making clicking noises etc..

I always find, with old intel Macs using snow Leppard is a good OS to start from. As it was the first pure intel version of MacOS, it seems to install ok on any Mac I have tried to install on. Alas I do have access to a disc copy of snow Leppard and disc copies of Mac OS going back to 10.2 form my old G4 tower.