OSX installation error

[mengstr]

Problem Description

The MacOS dmg image can't be opened on a machine still running the OSX El Capitan or older.

From what I understand the default filesystem for dmg's have changed to APFS - something that apparently El Capitan can't read.

Proposed Resolution

Make the dmg's with the old UDIF format which I believe is compatible with the newer MacOS and the old OSX versions.

[frankmorgner]

We are (and always have been) creating the image with something like hdiutil create -srcfolder "${imagedir}" -volname "@PACKAGE_NAME@" OpenSC-@PACKAGE_VERSION@.dmg. There have been some changes to hdiutil lately (see #1198), which may also be the reason for a change of the default format. Please make a pull request with your changes and we can test/integrate them for the next release.

[rajramasawmy]

Hi,
I am also using El Capitan and having the same issue.
Is it possible to install from the opensc-0.18.0.tar.gz?
I tried running the install-sh script, but I am not sure what input files it wants, running with no input arguments returns: "no input file specified".
Thanks

[frankmorgner]

We could explicitly specify e.g. HFS+. This, however, would make the image incompatible with Sierra and later. It seems like we need to create two images (or drop backward compatibility)...

[martinpaljak]

I don't understand why a HFS+ DMG should not work on Sierra or later?

[mengstr]

Yea, that seems very unlikely that Sierra can't open DMGs from the previous OSX release - then basically all software installations would have failed for the first year or so until the developers made new ones.

I can't test this - but it should be easy for @frankmorgner to make a dmg with hfs+ and test on his machine. If it works then why not use hfs+ for the next few years until the El Capitan and older have died of old age?

[rajramasawmy]

In the end, I just used 0.17.0 version, which installs fine on El Capitan, and which works for my purposes.

[mengstr]

I first tried the "APFS Retrofit Kit" that should in theory make my old El Capitan able to mount and read APFS images, but by some reason that didn't work. So I ended up using brew to install the 0.18.0 even if it feels kinda funny to install third-party repackaged applications instead of the Real Thing ™.

[franton]

Correct, hdiutil now defaults on 10.12 or better to using APFS as it's filesystem. Adding the switch -fs JHFS+ to the existing hdiutil command should fix this issue.

[frankmorgner]

Please check whether the binaries at https://github.com/OpenSC/Nightly/tree/2018-08-24_5a25bd33 are fixing your issue

[mengstr]

Yes, that works just fine.... I can open that dmg on my old El Capitan laptop. Thanks!

[frankmorgner]

works also in High Sierra