I can't create a bootable OSX Mavericks Install USB Drive

Question

I've downloaded Mavericks from the App Store, repartitioned a 32GB USB key, and followed the instructions. Specifically, I ran:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app

Here's the output. As you can see, it fails with an error:

Ready to start.
To continue we need to erase the disk at /Volumes/Untitled.
If you wish to continue type (Y) then press return: Y
Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%...100%...
Copying installer files to disk...
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable...
Couldn't mount dmg /Volumes/Install OS X Mavericks/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg (error code 112)Mount of outer dmg failed.
Done.

Help?

Post the command you used to create the installer. If you just copied the installer into the USB drive it wont work. — bobbyalex, Oct 30 '13 at 02:11
"Repartitioned a 32GB USB key..." - what partitions do you have? — M K, Oct 30 '13 at 13:21
That sounds a bit like a damaged disk image. Try running hdiutil verify /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg (and if that doesn't find a problem, try running it on the copy on the USB drive -- the path mentioned in the error message). — Gordon Davisson, Oct 30 '13 at 14:56
@GordonDavisson thanks; here's what happens when I try hdiutil: hdiutil: verify: "/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg" has no checksum. — loseeka, Oct 30 '13 at 16:14
@MK it's a 32GB USB Stick with a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition that's 30.82GB in size. — loseeka, Oct 30 '13 at 16:25

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 30 '13 at 17:52

3

It turns out that the Installer Image did not download correctly. To address this I deleted "Install OSX Mavericks" from the Applications folder and then re-downloaded it from the App Store.

answered Oct 30 '13 at 17:52

loseeka

133

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 18 '14 at 11:38

I had the same problem with a 16Gb USB. I tried it twice. First time I got error 112, and then an error 110 when I tried again.

I was about to download it again, but I tried a different USB 16Gb, and it worked with the same app file. So my tip, before you go downloading it again, try another USB brand.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 05 '16 at 15:02

I had same problem and when I ran:

hdiutil verify /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

On the usb, I got

Checksumming Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)…
Protective Master Boot Record (MBR :: checksum failed with error 1000.
...............................................................................................................................................................
calculated CRC32 $00000000, expected   CRC32 $BE5D6293
hdiutil: verify: checksum of "Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg" is INVALID
hdiutil: verify failed - image data corrupted

So the error can be either on the installation or the thumb drive itself (bad drive).

startergo · Answer 4 · 2023-02-02T02:48:26.910

Apple did screw up. Intentionally or not... I had purchased Mavericks before, so I was able to re-download it in 2023 from within Snow Leopard Partition. No matter what I did whether installing it to a drive while in Snow Leopard or creating a USB with createinstallmedia It would always tell me that the image is corrupt. When I tried to mount the InstallESD.dmg directly it would come up with "The DMG image is corrupt" or "The DMG image is unrecognized" error. Well yeah! because it is not actually a DMG image! It is a XAR archive. just do:

file /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

And see what the file actually is.

file /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg: xar archive compressed TOC: 11017, SHA-1 checksum
macmini@MacMinis-Mac-mini ~ % xar -tf  /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
Distribution
InstallMacOSX.pkg
InstallMacOSX.pkg/Bom
InstallMacOSX.pkg/Payload
InstallMacOSX.pkg/Scripts
InstallMacOSX.pkg/PackageInfo
InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg
Resources
Resources/ar.lproj
Resources/ar.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/ar.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/ca.lproj
Resources/ca.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/ca.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/cs.lproj
Resources/cs.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/cs.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/da.lproj
Resources/da.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/da.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/Dutch.lproj
Resources/Dutch.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/Dutch.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/el.lproj
Resources/el.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/el.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/English.lproj
Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/English.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/fi.lproj
Resources/fi.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/fi.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/French.lproj
Resources/French.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/French.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/German.lproj
Resources/German.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/German.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/he.lproj
Resources/he.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/he.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/hr.lproj
Resources/hr.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/hr.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/hu.lproj
Resources/hu.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/hu.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/id.lproj
Resources/id.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/id.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/Italian.lproj
Resources/Italian.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/Italian.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/Japanese.lproj
Resources/Japanese.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/Japanese.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/ko.lproj
Resources/ko.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/ko.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/ms.lproj
Resources/ms.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/ms.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/no.lproj
Resources/no.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/no.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/pl.lproj
Resources/pl.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/pl.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/pt.lproj
Resources/pt.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/pt.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/pt_PT.lproj
Resources/pt_PT.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/pt_PT.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/ro.lproj
Resources/ro.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/ro.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/ru.lproj
Resources/ru.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/ru.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/sk.lproj
Resources/sk.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/sk.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/Spanish.lproj
Resources/Spanish.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/Spanish.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/sv.lproj
Resources/sv.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/sv.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/th.lproj
Resources/th.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/th.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/tr.lproj
Resources/tr.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/tr.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/uk.lproj
Resources/uk.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/uk.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/vi.lproj
Resources/vi.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/vi.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/zh_CN.lproj
Resources/zh_CN.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/zh_CN.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings
Resources/zh_TW.lproj
Resources/zh_TW.lproj/Localizable.strings
Resources/zh_TW.lproj/VolumeCheck.strings

So what you need to do is:

cd tmp
xar -xf /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
ls -l
total 40
-rwxr-xr-x   1 macmini  staff  10301 Sep 10  2014 Distribution
drwx------   7 macmini  staff    224 Dec 31  1969 InstallMacOSX.pkg
drwx------  35 macmini  staff   1120 Dec 31  1969 Resources
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root     staff   4671 Sep 29 09:53 mUtility.log

And the actuall InstallESD.dmg MOUNTABLE is inside the InstallMacOSX.pkg

To Recreate the Install Mac OS X Mavericks Installer follow this:

pkgutil --expand /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg ~/Mavericks
cd ~/Mavericks/InstallMacOSX.pkg
tar -xvf Payload
mv ~/Mavericks/InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg ~/Mavericks/InstallMacOSX.pkg/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport
rm -rf /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/
mv ~/Mavericks/InstallMacOSX.pkg/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app /Applications

To Create a bootable USB Installer follow this: Format an 8GB USB drive with HFS+ GPT partitioning and label it Untitled. Create the USB installer:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app

Checksumming the InstallESD.dmg:

hdiutil verify /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
Checksumming Driver Descriptor Map (DDM : 0)…
     Driver Descriptor Map (DDM : 0): verified   CRC32 $82881B3D
Checksumming  (Apple_Free : 1)…
                    (Apple_Free : 1): verified   CRC32 $00000000
Checksumming Apple (Apple_partition_map : 2)…
     Apple (Apple_partition_map : 2): verified   CRC32 $E3F140E2
Checksumming disk image (Apple_HFS : 3)…
...............................................................................
          disk image (Apple_HFS : 3): verified   CRC32 $0D5460FF
Checksumming  (Apple_Free : 4)…
...............................................................................
                    (Apple_Free : 4): verified   CRC32 $00000000
...............................................................................
verified   CRC32 $B65198C1
hdiutil: verify: checksum of "/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg" is VALID

Check codesign signature:

 codesign -dv --verbose=4 /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg 
/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg: code object is not signed at all
macmini@MacMinis-Mac-mini ~ % codesign -dv --verbose=4 /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app
Executable=/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/MacOS/Install OS X Mavericks
Identifier=com.apple.InstallAssistant.Mavericks
Format=app bundle with Mach-O thin (x86_64)
CodeDirectory v=20200 size=303 flags=0x200(kill) hashes=7+3 location=embedded
Hash type=sha1 size=20
CandidateCDHash sha1=cd59e2a7acca04c95d7e4b27488122dd11aa5b68
CandidateCDHashFull sha1=cd59e2a7acca04c95d7e4b27488122dd11aa5b68
Hash choices=sha1
CMSDigest=32a7926f598b4e52c7b68f0c7e0719afc9f7d6c9b2fceadb8398a44507d10ed5
CMSDigestType=2
Page size=4096
CDHash=cd59e2a7acca04c95d7e4b27488122dd11aa5b68
Signature size=4169
Authority=Apple Mac OS Application Signing
Authority=Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority
Authority=Apple Root CA
Info.plist entries=30
TeamIdentifier=APPLECOMPUTER
Sealed Resources version=2 rules=12 files=948
Internal requirements count=1 size=124

Edit: Unfortunately as of February 2023 the created USB disk could not proceed past:

Only this web available installer works. There is another way around that convoluted installer and the steps are described here.

Thanks! I could not figure out why my Sierra installer's .dmg wouldn't work, and it was this same issue. — Mattie, Apr 24 '23 at 01:38

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 23 '15 at 11:17

its important to know that you have to close the finder windows and the disk utility or any program that might be using the ElCapInstaller flash drive, because if they are being used you, this is what happens:

Copying installer files to disk... Copy complete. Making disk bootable... Mount of outer dmg failed. Done.

and you want this to happen

Copy complete. Making disk bootable... Copying boot files... Copy complete. Done.

score -2 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 24 '15 at 19:02

-2

Close the "Disk Utility.app" and the "Finder" before execute the command. It works for me! :)

answered Jul 24 '15 at 19:02

Reginaldo Marcilon

1

2

How do you close Finder? – nohillside Jul 25 '15 at 09:26
I mean just to close opened Finder's windows. – Reginaldo Marcilon Jul 26 '15 at 15:28

I can't create a bootable OSX Mavericks Install USB Drive

6 Answers6