Bootable USB Installers for OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and Sierra
First, review this introductory article: Create a bootable installer for macOS. Second, see this How To outline for creating a bootable El Capitan installer. Simply replace the Terminal command with the one from the preceding article by copying it into the Terminal window. You will need an 8GB or larger USB flash drive that has been partitioned and formatted for use with OS X.
Expo CLI is a command line app that is the main interface between a developer and Expo tools. Expo CLI also has a web-based GUI that pops up in your web browser when you start your project — you can use the GUI instead of the command line interface if you're not yet comfortable using a terminal or prefer GUIs, both have similar capabilities. Cask brings simplicity and speed to installing and managing GUI applications on macOS.
![Line Line](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134211079/449847874.jpg)
Drive Partition and Format
- Open Disk Utility in the Utilities' folder.
- After Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry with the mfg.'s ID and size) from the side list.
- Click on the Erase tab in the Disk Utility toolbar. Name the drive, 'MyVolume'. <---- IMPORTANT!
- In the drop down panel set the partition scheme to GUID. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
- Click on the Apply button and wait for the Done button to activate. When it does click on it.
- Quit Disk Utility.
Create Installer
Open the Terminal in the Utilities' folder. Choose the appropriate command line (in red) depending upon what OS X installer you want. Paste that entire command line from below at the Terminal's prompt:
Command for macOS High Sierra:
sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app Creating a macos app.
![Install App Command Line Mac Install App Command Line Mac](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134211079/159941340.png)
Command for macOS Sierra:
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app
Command for El Capitan:
sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app
Command for Yosemite:
sudo /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app
Command for Mavericks:
Install App Command Line Mac Version
sudo /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app
Press RETURN. You will be asked for your admin password. It will not echo to the Terminal window. Then press RETURN again. Wait for the return of the Terminal prompt signifying the process has completed. It takes quite some time to finish. Be patient.
Sep 13, 2018 1:16 PM
An intrepid reader asked the following question:
How do you install a .dmg package from the command line?
Many applications are distributed as disk images, a compressed binary format. If you double click a disk image in the Finder, it is mounted automatically. Once mounted, installation of the application is typically done by dragging an icon to the Applications folder. The same can be accomplished from the command line using two commands,
hdiutil
and cp
.Install Mac Command Line Tools
The following steps show the installation of a popular VNC client for OS X called 'Chicken of the VNC'. It can be used as a remote desktop client for Linux, Mac, or Windows hosts. https://ghziex.weebly.com/blog/veer-mac-os-app.
The download file is named 'cotvnc-20b4.dmg'. Here are the steps needed to install it remotely from the command line.
note: this technique can be used from a local Terminal window or a remote SSH connection.
note: this technique can be used from a local Terminal window or a remote SSH connection.
Mac Install Pkg Command Line
Mount the disk image
The first step is to mount (or attach) the disk image. From the command line, use:
I received the following output:
hdiutil mount cotvnc-20b4.dmg
I received the following output:
A mounted disk image appears on the Desktop, in the Finder, and more importantly shows up as a directory in /Volumes. In this case, the last line of output from hdiutil showed exactly where the disk image was mounted.
Sometimes when a disk image is mounted, it will prompt you to agree to a license first. In that case, the text that would normally appear in a GUI dialog box instead appears in the Terminal window. Once you scroll to the bottom of the agreement, you can type in Y to continue or N to stop. The Firefox disk image is one example of a package that displays a license before mounting.
Install the application
Use the
cp
command to copy the application to /Applications:sudo cp -R '/Volumes/Chicken of the VNC/Chicken of the VNC.app' /Applications
The
-R
switch means to copy recursively, in other words, copy everything from that location including all subdirectories and files below. It is important to leave off the trailing '/' from the 'Chicken of the VNC.app' directory, or the command will not copy the directory itself, just the contents. After entering your password, the application will be installed and ready to use. Most applications can simply be copied to the /Applications directory. However, some are distributed in a .pkg format and must be installed using the
installer
command instead of cp
. To install a .pkg, use this command:sudo installer -package /path/to/package -target '/Volumes/Macintosh HD'
Unmount the disk image
To tidy up, return to your home directory and unmount the disk image:
cd ~
hdiutil unmount '/Volumes/Chicken of the VNC/'
You should see this message after the unmount:
'/Volumes/Chicken of the VNC/' unmounted successfully.
Installing applications from a .dmg package at the command line is not something you need to do every day. But it is a nice tool to have if you want to install an application on a remote server or script the installation of a package to a group of desktop Macs.