I can't say that this is complete or there won't be any gotchas for specific
use cases, but here's what I can think of.
1. Preserving access in the App Store
If you don't "Purchase" the OS installer before the next release you
won't be able to download a new copy in the future.
So...
Whenever a new OS is released I "Purchase" the installer, download it,
and archive it.
After it finishes downloading, the installer launches, quit the
installer and copy the app to a safe permanent storage location.
Delete the installer application from /Applications
This process should make sure you have a local cache of installers and
download access to the installer in the future through the App Store.
2. Creating Installers
In general, I just install on an external USB hard drive. I use 16 GB
USB sticks.
Here are some instructions
Lion and Mountain Lion
http://www.macworld.com/article/1167857/software-system/how-to-make-a-bootable-mountain-lion-install-drive.html
Mavericks and Beyond
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
Once I create an installer USB stick I keep it around, for the cost and
headache its just easier.
3. Installing operating systems (Old and New)
Occasionally Apple introduces new hardware that does not support older
OS's.
Occasionally Apple introduces new Software that does not support older
hardware.
So, to be thorough, you need to maintain an awareness of what your
hardware supports, and don't ditch your older machines so easily.
Virtual machines are a good work around if you don't have actual
hardware that supports the OS you want to install on. But there may be
limitations.
4. Virtual Machines
Ever since Apple allowed virtualization Parallels and VMWare are great
Its nice to be able to take a snapshot and mess around break stuff and
then rollback and test some more.
If you do a lot of work in virtual machines vagrant
(https://www.vagrantup.com) is a pretty cool. It facilitates rapid setup and
switching between VMs. It works with virtualbox and VMWare, not sure about
Parallels.
There may be some limitations for specific development needs as some
have pointed out, hardware acceleration support. The only thing we trust at
work is tests verified on actual hardware.
Sandor
> On May 4, 2016, at 08:29, Alex Zavatone <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Considering that we all will need to perform this joyous process when we
> least expect it and have the least time to do it. Would it be possible to
> bulletpoint the process to serve as a reference?
>
> One thing I have noticed with some of the more recent versions of OS X (10.9
> I think) is that once upgraded, HFS will no longer recognize volumes from
> previous incarnations of the Mac OS.
>
> This caused great panic on my end since it was unexpected, but it is
> important to note if you are trying to install a prior OS to a volume where
> the format or partition or whatever is not recognized by the HFS version of
> the OS you are trying to install.
>
> Just a nice detail.
>
> To mitigate this pain, I keep several VMWare Fusion VMs around at 40 GB a
> piece and when a new OS comes out, I duplicate the latest one, upgrade it,
> install Xcode on it and move forward.
>
> This way, I can always spoil up an older OS with a working version of Xcode
> on it if needed.
>
> Keeping these on a cheap and large HD and moving the one needed to an SSD is
> a cost efficient manner of keeping working older OSes with functional Xcode
> installs around if needed.
>
> Hope this helps anyone who might have to go through Graham's lovely ordeal.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alex Zavatone
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On May 4, 2016, at 7:41 AM, Sandor Szatmari <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Glad you got it to work. I have seen the installer 'could not be verified'
>> before. The only time I saw that was after using command line copy (cp) to
>> copy the installer app. But except for that one experience, using
>> createmediainstaller has worked well. I also copy the installer to
>> someplace outside /Applications like Phil (sqwarqDev) suggested before
>> letting it run. Basically the installer app that I archive is a pristine,
>> never been run, download. And then I make USB sticks directly off of those
>> archived apps.
>>
>> Sandor
>>
>>> On May 4, 2016, at 01:33, Graham Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 3 May 2016, at 8:28 PM, Graham Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> So probably a redownload isn’t going to help, but I’m doing it anyway.
>>>
>>>
>>> Success! Finally.
>>>
>>> I created a new bootable installer using createinstallmedia and a fresh
>>> Mavericks download. I did the Pacific Daylight Time change just in case
>>> (though it sounds like voodoo, I’m prepared to believe anything at this
>>> point…)
>>>
>>> I was able to install from that disk without further problems and now have
>>> a working Mavericks OS.
>>>
>>> What didn’t work was trying to use the InstallESD.dmg directly. Creating a
>>> copy of it using DU/Restore worked, but it only created a pure copy of the
>>> disk image. That image was not bootable, and I was unable to make it so
>>> using createinstallmedia nor the Ars instructions (which apply to earlier
>>> versions of the OS anyway). It looks like the InstallESD approach is
>>> defunct from 10.9, though there may be something I’m missing.
>>>
>>> Thanks to everyone for their help.
>>>
>>> It certainly shows that upgrading as new versions of the OS are released
>>> should not be done without a great deal of thought. Leson learned.
>>>
>>> —Graham
>>>
>>>
>>>
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