"An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again." - System installation fails for Sonoma with being unable to find boot.efi or install bless

[Razzaline]

Which operating system are you trying to install?
macOS 14 Sonoma

Describe the bug
When installing macOS 14 Sonoma, it fails near the end (when it says "About 12 minutes remaining") after downloading and installing InstallAssistant.pkg, with the error message "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again."

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run ./setupArch.sh
2. Select option 7 (macOS 14 Sonoma)
3. Boot into macOS Base System once the VM loads
4. Open Disk Utility and select the 68 GB drive
5. Select "Erase" and format it to APFS (default)
6. Go to "Reinstall macOS 14 Sonoma" and start the installation process
7. Wait until it reaches "About 12 minutes remaining"
8. The error message should display
9. Clicking "OK" takes you back to the recovery/setup options

Expected behavior
The installer finishes and I'm able to boot into Sonoma

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Manjaro
• Version: rolling release so no specific version number, but Linux kernel is 6.6.1

Additional context
I was impatient and silly and didn't save the messages from the install log, but it mentioned being unable to find boot.efi and being unable to setup bless.

I'm guessing it's related to sickcodes/Docker-OSX#511 and sickcodes/Docker-OSX#714, which seems to occur because the installer tries to download an installer package for Apple Silicon processors.

I was able to work around this issue for now by installing macOS 12 Monterey instead (also with APFS).

[Razzaline]

I wasn't able to copy and paste the text directly, so here are screenshots of the relevant part of the installer log. The same error occurs whether I use APFS or HFS+.

[Razzaline]

Okay, same error when trying to install Ventura as well. Is there any way to force a download of the Intel/x86 pkg file for InstallAssistant?

[Razzaline]

It seems like upgrading from Monterey to Sonoma isn't working either. I don't know where to find the install logs, but I've tried three times and it just boots back to Monterey and tells me there's an update to macOS Sonoma 14.1.1.

[s-n-g]

I've tried this way too; at some point it rebooted and... never booted again :)

[notAperson535]

@Razzaline try formatting as macOS extended journaled

[Razzaline]

I did try, with the same results >.<

[notAperson535]

I'm going to update the OpenCore image over this long weekend. You can join the discord server for faster communication and easier testing.

[Razzaline]

Okay, I'll consider joining.

For now, I've confirmed that the recovery image does download the ARM/M3 pkg file for 14.1.1:

https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-sonoma-full-installer-database-download-directly-from-apple/

This is the link it's downloading from: https://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/50/19/042-95558-A_EWFKLKJ2BT/pml2xngdyskimzad55ogcomovjo5pzb32d/InstallAssistant.pkg

[Millermiller]

is there any news? have same error(

[guzuqing]

is there any news? have same error
venture and sonoma error, montery work

[mcdsilva-dev]

I'm having the same problem trying to install Ventura, can you help us? @notAperson535

[robinrosenberger]

There seems to be a workaround here:
sickcodes/Docker-OSX#715
basically the same as an offline install from OSX-KVM

[notAperson535]

I seem to know the problem with Sonoma. It’s due to a cpu not being supported. Will look at it this weekend. Thank you all for waiting patiently

[guzuqing]

which cpu ?

I seem to know the problem with Sonoma. It’s due to a cpu not being supported. Will look at it this weekend. Thank you all for waiting patiently