“Reinstall a Clean macOS with One Button” webinar resource page

@highlandtel Did you ever get the auto-launch issue resolved? I'm seeing this on my machines (even the Mojave abberation above)

No. I have not resolved the issue @morsepacific

Hi all,

I followed the instructions as best I can. I have the Install macOS Catalina.pkg (this is version 10.15.3) available in Self Service. I am also using the provided command line

'/Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall' ‑‑eraseinstall
--agreetolicense --forcequitapps ‑‑newvolumename 'Macintosh HD'

But when executing this, I get a pop-up asking for admin rights before proceeding.
"osinstallersetupd wants to make changes"

We do not provide admin rights to any of our staff. So with this pop-up, people can't actually proceed with the erase>install.
Is there anyway to perform this within a person typing in admin credentials?

Edit: Nevermind. The '--' symbols where incorrect and that caused the command line to fail. Typing the command in instead of copy>paste worked.

Can you confirm with the following commands if it is possible to inplace upgrade for all incremental updates of the OS from 10.14.1, 10.14.2 through to 10.14.6?

sudo /usr/sbin/softwareupdate
--fetch-full-installer
--full-installer-version 10.14.6

My 10.15.4 MacBook Pro this morning started downloading High Sierra with this command (after getting Catalina before).
This is the second machine we've had where, for some unknown reason, the /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer command is pulling down the OS that the device shipped with.

Since I upgraded to macOS Catalina 10.5.5 I got this error with executing:
/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer

Executing Policy Cache Install macOS Catalina.app
Running command /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer...
Result of command:
SUPreferenceManager: Failed to set object of class: __NSCFConstantString for key: LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier with error: Error Domain=SUPreferenceManagerErrorDomain Code=1 "(null)"
SUPreferenceManager: Failed to set object of class: __NSCFConstantString for key: LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier with error: Error Domain=SUPreferenceManagerErrorDomain Code=1 "(null)"
Downloading and installing installer

Install failed with error: Update not found

Does anyone has it too ?

Yea, Apple broke something in softwareupdate when they made the changes in 10.15.5 that'll eventually deprecate the --ignore feature and other stuff.
You have to specify the version number now. It won't just download the latest by default.

@jschlimmer Thanks for your feedback. Yeah looks like Apple broke something because even specifying the version it doesn't download it and got these errors:

/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer 10.15.5
Downloading and installing installer
SUPreferenceManager: Failed to set object of class: __NSCFConstantString for key: LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier with error: Error Domain=SUPreferenceManagerErrorDomain Code=1 "(null)"
SUPreferenceManager: Failed to set object of class: __NSCFConstantString for key: LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier with error: Error Domain=SUPreferenceManagerErrorDomain Code=1 "(null)"
Install failed with error: Update not found

I tried also with Catalina 10.15.4

Yes I have same issue on 10.15.5 :(

Mine start downloading then stop at 84% ...

@PayFit You need to specify an additional flag in the command to download a specific version.

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15

@cserfoss I am also having the same issue as you. We are also running 10.13.6 and HFS, and would like to do a clean install of 10.15 by using the eraseinstall switch.

Did you ever get a response back or get it working?

@sbrammer You could try doing an upgrade first to 10.15 on a test machine to see if it converts the volume to APFS as part of the upgrade. If it doesn't, and you were going to wipe the machine anyway, you might have to create a bootable USB and wipe the drive that way via it's disk utility before OS install. Disk Utility on 10.15 has the hidden option to 'convert to APFS' but I doubt it can do it on a booted volume. You could also try using Disk Utility from the machines recovery console. It might be able to convert the non booted volume that way. Right click or control click on Disk Utilities toolbar and select customise toolbar. You will see one of the draggable options says 'Convert to APFS'. I can only assume this is also available from the command line 'diskutil' as well for scripting purposes.

@snowfox So i did an upgrade to Catalina on another machine and worked fine, so i thought to try out the erase and install on that one. It worked, but since i didn't have any configs set up in the prestage enrollment or enrollment packages selected, it didn't install anything. But i have fixed that, so i may have to do the upgrade first, then run the erase and install.

We've created a package with a postinstall script that we're distributing as a workaround, it's not the best but it works.

Much Needed! Need to Install Fresh MacOs! Thanks .

First, thank you so much for this! we have a ton of old machines that we'll be pushing to update, so this is huge! The Catalina script for Catalina machines works like a charm, but I'm having an issue with the Pre-Catalina machines, JAMF shows it pushes and installs properly, but when i check the machine, it's not there, therefore it keeps running at check in.... all of which complete... and i can't test/install Catalina. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! :)

Edit - Fixed: Realized i packaged the installation file improperly.

Reinstall a Clean macOS with One Button process has been a game-changer for the school network i work for. We added an extra policy forcing the update on Student devices after hours. We just updated 50+ devices Nationally without a hitch, zero-touch!

Thankyou Jamf & Fred!

anyone else experiencing issues with this on a 10.15.7 Mac trying to erase and install from Self Service? i even tried manually running the startosinstall command line from terminal but it does not work, self service looks like it runs, finishes and shows done.

something change in these macOS versions?

edit turns out there was something up with the APFS volume 🤷🏻 (though the OS i was on was previously nuked & paved using the self service button)

I have 10.15.7 in the /Applications folder and have the policy run the following command

'/Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall' --agreetolicense --forcequitapps

but it ends of failing, and I see this in the policy log for that computer that it failed on. What is it trying to download? the installer is already on the computer

Result of command:
By using the agreetolicense option, you are agreeing that you have run this tool with the license only option and have read and agreed to the terms.
If you do not agree, press CTRL-C and cancel this process immediately.
Preparing to run macOS Installer...

Preparing: 0.1% Preparing: 0.5% Preparing: 0.9% Preparing: 1.3% Preparing: 1.7% Preparing: 2.1% Preparing: 2.5% Preparing: 2.9% Preparing: 3.3% Preparing: 3.7% Preparing: 4.1% Preparing: 4.5% Preparing: 4.9% Preparing: 5.3% Preparing: 5.6% Preparing: 6.0% Preparing: 6.4% Preparing: 6.8% Preparing: 7.3% Preparing: 7.6% Preparing: 8.0% Preparing: 8.4% Preparing: 8.8% Preparing: 9.2% Preparing: 9.6% Preparing: 10.0% Preparing: 10.4% Preparing: 10.8% Preparing: 11.2% Preparing: 11.6% Preparing: 12.0% Preparing: 12.4% Preparing: 12.8% Preparing: 13.2% Preparing: 13.6% Preparing: 14.0% Preparing: 14.4% Preparing: 14.8% Preparing: 15.2% Preparing: 15.6% Preparing: 16.0% Preparing: 16.4% Preparing: 16.7% Preparing: 17.1% Preparing: 17.5% Preparing: 17.9% Preparing: 18.3% Preparing: 19.6% Preparing: 20.8% Preparing: 21.4% Preparing: 22.6% Preparing: 23.1% The operation couldn’t be completed. (PKDownloadError error 8.)

@tcandela Do your Macs have access to Apple's update servers? (See Use Apple products on enterprise networks for a list of those servers) If this Mac is a T2 equipped machine it could be that a bridegOS update is required for Catalina, and that requires downloading as part of the macOS install process.

@talkingmoose Hi talkingmoose! Please share your wisdom! I'm looking for ways to simplify Catalina deployment and wonder if it is possible to use startosinstall --installpackage flag to install Catalina 10.15.7 Security Update right after HD has been wiped and Catalina reinstalled, but before Mac is re-enrolled in Jamf? I've got the pkg, but not sure how to deploy it. I can't save it anywhere on Macintosh HD, along with Catalina installer, because I think it will be wiped when I use --eraseinstall flag.
So is there any way to do it?

@Strannik, I think you've got the right idea. You want to copy the PKG to some location like /private/tmp on the Mac along with the Catalina installer. When you call the startosinstall command and add the --installpackage option, supply the full path to the 10.15.7 Security Update package file. As part of the process, the package should get copied to the temporary second partition along with the macOS installer and get installed from there. You shouldn't have to jump through any other hoops.

If I do a clean install of Big Sur (11.2.3) on system with Jamf that’s DEP enrolled is there anyway around have to touch the system to go through the first few 'Welcome to MacOS' screens before the Remote Management piece runs?

@bclaringbold You can configure "Automatically advance through Setup Assistant (macOS 11 or later only)" in PreStage. Computer will be enrolled and Remote Management policy can run before you even login.