UnPlugged

Bash script to help build and run an offline installer in recovery.

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Prerequisites

• UnPlugged
• gibMacOS
• macrecovery.py (or gibMacRecovery)
• A 16+ GB USB drive
• Your EFI set up by following the Dortania guide

Pre-Install Steps

1. Download the same version of macOS via both gibMacOS and macrecovery.py

   ◦ i.e. If you want to download Ventura, make sure you get Ventura from both gibMacOS and macrecovery.py

   ◦ They just need to be the same major version (i.e. Ventura with Ventura), it does not need to be the exact same point release (i.e. 13.x.y and 13.x.y)

2. Format your USB with 2 partitions:

   ◦ A FAT32 partition of ~750MB to 1GB (enough to accommodate the EFI and com.apple.recovery.boot folders)

   ◦ An ExFAT partition of the remaining space (needs to be enough to accommodate the files downloaded from gibMacOS)

3. Copy your EFI folder and the com.apple.recovery.boot folder over to the FAT32 partition

4. Copy the folder containing the files downloaded from gibMacOS to the ExFAT partition

   ◦ You'll be cding to this folder later - so it may make sense to label it something easy to type like macOS

5. Copy UnPlugged.command to that same folder on the ExFAT partition

6. Eject the USB drive - this ensures any pending cached writes are applied and can help prevent corrupt or incomplete file copies

7. Boot into the install environment

Recovery Environment Steps

1. Open Disk Utility

2. Enable View -> Show All Devices

3. Format the target device (not the volume) for your macOS version

   ◦ Sierra and prior should be macOS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Map

   ◦ High Sierra and newer should be APFS with a GUID Parititon Map

4. Quit Disk Utility

5. Open Terminal

6. Type cd /Volumes/[your ExFAT volume name]/macOS

   ◦ You can get a list of all volumes with ls /Volumes

   ◦ Make sure to replace macOS with the name of the folder containing the gibMacOS files and UnPlugged.command

7. Type ./UnPlugged.command to launch the script

   ◦ If that does not work - you can type bash UnPlugged.command

UnPlugged.command Steps

1. The script will assess available approaches for locating the Install [macOS version].app needed, and may prompt you to choose from a list of two or more of the following:

   ◦ Fully expand InstallAssistant.pkg - slower, but no risk of app mismatch - if leveraging InstallAssistant.pkg on a recovery env where pkgutil supports the --expand-full switch (most do)

   ◦ Extract the Install [macOS version].app from BaseSystem.dmg - if a BaseSystem.dmg or RecoveryImage.dmg is detected next to InstallAssistant.pkg

   ◦ Choose a locally discovered Install [macOS version].app - if any installers were detected locally

2. The script should auto-detect the required files - but if it does not, it will prompt for the path to them here

3. The script will then prompt asking for the target volume - this is the volume that you just created in Disk Utility. The one where you intend to install macOS

4. Then you'll be presented with a task list - and asked if you want to continue - type y and enter

5. The script will build the full install app and launch it from the Terminal for you - continue the rest of the install as normal

   ◦ Make sure to leave the Terminal open - do not quit it, as doing so will also quit the installer.

Notes for Sonoma and Later

It seems the Sonoma+ BaseSystem.dmg recovery environment does not allow mounting FAT32 or ExFAT volumes at all. To work around this using UnPlugged requires a couple extra steps.

You'll need to use an earlier BaseSystem.dmg|.chunklist downloaded via macrecovery.py in your com.apple.recovery.boot folder (Ventura works fine with FAT32 and ExFAT volumes). You'll also need to download Sonoma's BaseSystem.dmg via macrecovery.py and place that alongside the files downloaded with gibMacOS if you don't intend to expand the InstallAsisstant.pkg directly. The end result should look something like the following:

USB Drive
|-> 800MB FAT32 Partition (named OPENCORE or similar)
|   |-> EFI
|   \-> com.apple.recovery.boot
|       |-> BaseSystem.dmg (for Ventura)
|       \-> BaseSystem.chunklist (for Ventura)
\-> 15+GB ExFAT Partition (named UnPlugged or similar)
    |-> InstallAssistant.pkg (for Sonoma+)
    |-> BaseSystem.dmg (for Sonoma+, if not expanding the .pkg directly)
    \-> UnPlugged.command

When prompted to select where you would like to get the Install [macos Version].app from, selecting Extract the Install [macOS version].app from BaseSystem.dmg will leverage the provided BaseSystem.dmg.

The rest of the process should be the same as with prior OS versions.