@mhasman I think that's the issue with using the package, it is NOT a combo installer. So I'm guessing that there is something missing that it is looking for.

I just wiped my test machine, reinstalled Catalina 19H1 I think, then I ran softwareupdate --install -a --restart and it fully updated to H524. This had failed before, but, it was with our WSS proxy in place. I also ran across a post referencing tbsc.apple.com as something new in the MacOS update pipeline.

So now I'm going to wipe and start again with everything except the WSS in place. I really hope this gets me somewhere.

Hi, @gabester,

I saw this portion of your post and decided to give it a try. It gave me some hope for getting these machines updated.

Oh, to end on a useful note, in my correspondence with Apple where I was complaining about the lack of standalone downloads from the support site, I was advised that, for limited testing on isolated systems that couldn't run software update, one could always download the associated assets from the same catalog ID along with the .dist file, and with them all in the same folder, run: /usr/sbin/installer -target / -pkg /path/to/folder/with/pkgs.dist I had no idea you could do that with the .dist files, I always wondered what purpose they served! Mind you this is for TESTING and specifically NOT RECOMMENDED for deployment to your fleet... but it's another tool in my belt.

However, when trying it, it seemed to start correctly but then threw an error "The package is attempting to install content to the system volume.". So much for my hopes.

Hello,
Does anybody have the url to download Catalina Security Update 2021-002?

@mhasman Hot off the presses: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2072?locale=en_US

And if you need Mojave: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2073?locale=en_US

@sdagley Thank you, Steve!

I do not miss this struggle, having finally implemented a caching server setup, just using the native softwareupdate command line and/or the jamf software update method has made my life easier. No doubt in the next week I'll run into some edge case that necessitates my revisiting this unpleasantness.

Hello! Does anyone have Security Update 2021-003 (Catalina) download URL, please?

@mhasman Apple finally released the standalone Catalina Security Update 2021-003 .pkg installer on 2021-06-02. Here is the link for the KB article with the download link: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2075?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Hello! Does anyone have Security Update 2021-004 (Mojave) download URL, please?

@Mhomar Apple finally released the standalone Mojave Security Update 2021-004 .pkg installer on 2021-06-02. Here is the link for the KB article with the download link: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2074?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Unfortunately there is currently nothing at that link as Apple appears to have forgotten that they have customers that do actually need standalone .pkg installers for security updates.

Thank you so much!

@sdagley Thank you!

Please share Security Update 2021-004 for Catalina download URL. Thanks!