Automated provision of full offline installer images as option ?

[scorpion81]

@sickcodes

In theory it should be possibly to automate those steps in the Dockerfile. Downloading could be done with gibMacOS script
https://github.com/corpnewt/gibMacOS mentioned here somewhere in the FAQs too.
Disclaimer: I didnt test this myself (yet). This is still on the state of Mac OS X El Capitan.
Note: A fresh install of monterey 12.1 from recovery BaseSystem.dmg takes over an hour, it even displays ~2 hours in the beginning. I wonder whether full offline installers may be better, because a mere download of the file via browser seems faster than via the recovery installer.

Also possibly relevant for this issue #61

Taken from: https://gist.github.com/coolaj86/22d08c4b582779485e0df11c5d84063a#file-bootable-mac-iso-with-linux-md

Task

Convert mac-os-el-capitan-pkg-to-iso.sh from using hdiutil and asr to using Linux utilities.

See https://gist.github.com/solderjs/22d08c4b582779485e0df11c5d84063a#file-mac-os-el-capitan-pkg-to-iso-sh

Steps

Important: You will need about 30GB of free disk space.

1. Download OS X 1.11 El Capitan InstallMacOSX.dmg from Apple (7GB)
   • https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886
2. Install hfsprogs, hfsplus, & hfsutils
3. Install xar
4. dmg2img and mount can be used to to mount InstallMacOSX.dmg
5. xar can be used to extract InstallMacOSX.pkg (another 7GB)
6. InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg must be mounted to find BaseSystem.dmg
7. BaseSystem.dmg must be copied to a larger read/write AFPS file system (another 8GB)
8. Certain install files must be copied (see script).
9. The new image must be converted to ISO. (another 8GB)

Resources

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/1117461/how-do-i-create-a-dmg-file-on-linux-ubuntu-for-macos

Mount dmg in Linux

apt install -y hfsprogs hfsplus hfsutils dmg2img build-essential libxml2-dev libssl1.0-dev zlib1g-dev

dmg2img InstallMacOSX.dmg #image is compressed, need to decompress

losetup -P -f InstallMacOSX.img #make block devices for each partition
mkdir -p /mnt/loop
mount /dev/loop0p2 /mnt/loop 

Install xar (pkg unzip) in Linux

sudo apt install -y build-essential autoconf
sudo apt install -y libxml2-dev libssl1.0-dev

Method 1

git clone git@github.com/mackyle/xar.git
pushd xar/xar
./autogen.sh
make -j
sudo make install

Method 2

wget https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-downloads/v2/code.google.com/xar/xar-1.5.2.tar.gz
tar -zxvf xar-1.5.2.tar.gz
pushd xar-1.5.2
./configure
make -j
sudo make install

Method 3:

See mackyle/xar#18

Here's what you need to do: In configure.ac, line 332 is:

AC_CHECK_LIB([crypto], [OpenSSL_add_all_ciphers], , [have_libcrypto="0"])

Replace it with:

AC_CHECK_LIB([crypto], [OPENSSL_init_crypto], , [have_libcrypto="0"])

Unpacking .pkg (via xar) in Linux

mkdir ./MacOSX && cd ./MacOSX
xar -xvf /mnt/loop/InstallMacOSX.pkg

based on the according script on MacOS... here you can see what needs to be copied where.

But not sure whether the general path structure still is the same by now

# set strict and verbose modes for bash
set -e
set -u

# Apple provides El Capitan, free of charge
# El Capitan can be upgraded all the way to Catalina, free of charge
# See "How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan"
# https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886

# Download legal, free copy of El Capitan from Apple
# (they also have Sierra, but that didn't boot for me)
# Go to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886 and find the link "Download OS X El Capitan"
# (it changes every day)
# http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg
if ! [ -f "InstallMacOSX.dmg" ]; then
    echo "Error: Did not find 'InstallMacOSX.dmg'"
    echo "    1. Go to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886"
    echo "    2. Click 'Download OS X El Capitan'"
    echo "    3. Copy 'InstallMacOSX.dmg' to this folder"
    exit 1
fi

if [ -f "elcapitan.iso" ]; then
    echo "'elcapitan.iso' already exists"
    exit 0
fi

# Much of this script came from the instructions here:
# https://techsviewer.com/install-macos-elcapitan-virtualbox-windows/

set -x
# Mount the Full Installer
hdiutil attach InstallMacOSX.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint '/Volumes/Install OS X/'
pkgutil --expand '/Volumes/Install OS X/InstallMacOSX.pkg' './Install OS X/'
hdiutil detach '/Volumes/Install OS X'

# Mount DMG Installer to macOS
hdiutil attach './Install OS X/InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg' -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint '/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/'

# Create a DMG Disk
# (this exact file created by this command is included in the repo as 'empty.7900m.dmg.bz2')
hdiutil create -o /tmp/elcapitan -size 7900m -volname elcapitan -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J

# Mount Sierra.dmg disk to your macOS
hdiutil attach /tmp/elcapitan.dmg -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/elcapitan

# Create macOS Sierra Installer Disk
asr restore -source '/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg' -target /Volumes/elcapitan -noprompt -noverify -erase
rm '/Volumes/OS X Base System/System/Installation/Packages'
cp -rp '/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/Packages' '/Volumes/OS X Base System/System/Installation/'
cp -rp '/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.chunklist' '/Volumes/OS X Base System'
cp -rp '/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg' '/Volumes/OS X Base System'
hdiutil detach '/Volumes/OS X Base System'
hdiutil detach '/Volumes/OS X Install ESD'

# Convert DMG Disk to ISO File
hdiutil convert /tmp/elcapitan.dmg -format UDTO -o /tmp/elcapitan

# Move ISO File to Desktop
mv /tmp/elcapitan.cdr elcapitan.iso

# Cleanup
rm /tmp/elcapitan.dmg
rm -rf './Install OS X/'