macOS 13.5 + Rosetta 2 Issues

[zinkotheclown]

I have a preboot script that I install on my Macs to initiate some Jamf policies but it requires Rosetta 2 to be installed prior. 

I usually pre-install Rosetta with "softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license" but with 13.5, you now get this error: "Package Authoring Error: 032-69584: Package reference com.apple.pkg.RosettaUpdateAuto is missing installKBytes attribute" and my preboot script package fails to install.

Has anyone else experienced this with macOS 13.5?

[sdagley]

@zinkotheclown Are you sure the install is actually failing? There has long been an issue with an authoring error reported for the Rosetta package, but it hadn't been preventing installation from working.

[zinkotheclown]

Yes, when I run my preboot script package, it constantly asks to download/install Rosetta 2 but that constantly fails.

[sdagley]

Can you post the entirety of the softwareupdate install response?

[zinkotheclown]

softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license
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.
2023-07-27 08:57:27.325 softwareupdate[15368:438927] Package Authoring Error: 032-69584: Package reference com.apple.pkg.RosettaUpdateAuto is missing installKBytes attribute
Install of Rosetta 2 finished successfully

[sdagley]

@zinkotheclown The "Install of Rosetta 2 finished successfully" would indicate that it did install successfully despite the "Package Authoring Error" message. If your script is considering the latter as an indication of failure you might want to change it to look for the former as an indication of success.

[shaquir]

You can actually download the Rosetta installer package.  Guide: https://tinyapps.org/blog/202103270700_backup_rosetta2.html 

• "You can download RosettaUpdateAuto.pkg directly by parsing the .sucatalog from Apple: https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-rosettaupdateauto-1.sucatalog.gz It looks like every macOS build number in the .sucatalog file only appears once, so you can search for your macOS build number in the .sucatalog file and the url for RosettaUpdateAuto.pkg will be a few lines above."

So you could install the package then run the command for redundency

 /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

Or even use this script after you install the package to ensure it is setup correctly:  https://github.com/rtrouton/rtrouton_scripts/blob/main/rtrouton_scripts/install_rosetta_on_apple_sil...

[shiftybird]

I'm having this issue as well and began with 13.5.  despite software update claiming it was installed, rosetta is, in fact, NOT installed.  I discovered this today when i noticed that my newly deployed machines only have half the applications that should install during enrollment - the installs fail because rosetta is necessary

[sdagley]

@shiftybird How are you testing to see if Rosetta is installed. There has been some discussion on the <censored> MacAdmins Slack channel recently regarding the best way to detect if Rosetta is installed and the mechanism that has been recommended by FruitCo employees is the following:

arch -x86_64 /bin/test 0

# On Apple Silicon Macs testing $? after this call will return 0 if Rosetta is available, or 1 if it isn't

[shiftybird]

i've been checking for the oahd process, on my affected machines, it is not.  i also don't see the install receipt in /Library/Apple/System/Library/Receipts.  some one else in #macos-13-ventura channel on the mac admins slack commented on the exact same issue, new deployments of 13.5, rosetta is not installing.

[sdagley]

@shiftybird That the receipt isn't found sounds like a valid problem, but for the process name the MacAdmins Slack thread on the method I posted before suggests checking for the oahd process wasn't recommended.

[zinkotheclown · Accepted solution]

I found a resolution to this issue thanks to meta in the macos-13-ventura Slack channel.

This issue was due to with the manual creation of the "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Library" folder when trying to trick the macOS installer to do an upgrade instead of a bare metal re-install of macOS in the recovery partition.  In 13.5, it is now required to add the "sunlnk" flag to the Library folder. 

Anyone who uses Mac Deploy Stick will probably run into this issue.  The issue can be resolved by running "/usr/bin/chflags sunlnk /Volumes/<disk name>/Library"  from recovery.

[tperfitt]

I just posted a beta build of MDS 5.1 that resolves this issue. 

[Eric_SD_Wrkr]

Is there a way to check the flag is set while in terminal? Something to confirm success anyways after the command?

[zinkotheclown]

This command will tell you if the Library folder has the sunlnk flag:

ls -lO /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/ | grep "sunlnk" | grep "Library"

[Darkneo88]

Wait I got it!

In Recovery in terminal I entered the following. 

"/usr/bin/chflags sunlnk /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library"

[Darkneo88]

Hey there, 

Is there any other solution for this? I am struggling to understand that are you just entering "/usr/bin/chflags sunlnk /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Library" into terminal within recovery? 

I keep getting invaild flag

[Eric_SD_Wrkr]

Is there a way to automate the use of the "/usr/bin/chflags sunlnk /Volumes/<disk name>/Library"  command for the devices that have the issue is there a way to push out a policy to resolve it or does it have to be done through recovery? I still have devices that say Rosetta is installed but i still get package failures.

[Darkneo88]

Yeah I am also after this as well, I use MDS so I am wondering if I can include that in the Package & Apps Folder and have this as a script or so. 

Then have it within the After MacOS Installation part or even at the When Running Workflow part. I will test further tomorrow and report back,  

[Eric_SD_Wrkr]

I was fortunate in that we only imaged about provisioned about 100 devices with that version of MDS that had the issue. We collected and manually applied the fix to these devices through recovery and terminal, rather than re-image them. Then rosetta 2 installed without any issues and I made a policy to install the pkgs that had previously needed rosetta 2 to install.