Apple is preparing to release OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Is your Mac compatible with El Capitan, and if so, how will you download and install the new OS? Here are some tips for getting ready for El Capitan.
1. When and where can I download El Capitan?
2. How much will it cost?
Not a penny. Like OS X 10.10 Yosemite before it, El Capitan will be free.
3. Will my old Mac run El Capitan?
The minimum hardware requirements for OS X 10.11 El Capitan remain the same as they were for Yosemite. Here is a list of the Macs that El Capitan will definitely run on:
- iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
- MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
- MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum or Early 2009 or newer)
- Mac Mini (Early 2009 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (Mid / Late 2007 or newer)
- Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
- Xserve (early 2009)
OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8)
OS X Lion (10.7)
OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)
OS X Mavericks (10.9)
OS X Yosemite (10.10)
If you have an older Mac with an OS that predates Snow Leopard, you will need to install Snow Leopard before upgrading to El Capitan. You can buy Snow Leopard for $ 19.99 from this link.
4. How can I find out how old my Mac is and what version of OS X is installed on it?
Click the Apple button in the upper left corner of your Mac and choose About This Mac. If you are running Yosemite on an old Mac (in my case, early 2011) the OS version will be displayed. For older versions of OS X, you will see information about the system, and then you will need to click the "More Information" button to view the year your Mac was released.
5. How much do you need places?
Apple did not specify how big the download of El Capitan would be, but based on experience with OS X 10.10 Yosemite, you need roughly 8GB of hard drive space. Yosemite also requires at least 2GB of RAM, your Mac will most likely meet this threshold.
You can find how much memory and disk space your Mac has by clicking on "About This Mac" in the Apple menu.
6. Do I need to back up my Mac before installing El Capitan?
Of course! You should always back up your system to protect your data before installing a new OS. If the installation goes awry, you don't want to lose your important documents, photos and music libraries. Fortunately, the Mac already has a tool that makes it easy to create backups - the Time Machine.
We've been using the El Capitan open beta for several months now. Read
The process of installing clean OS X 10.11 itself is complex, so we will use a slightly simpler method. We'll just install our OS X to a virtual machine using VMware. The team has prepared this guide for those who need to develop iOS apps on Windows
What is VMware?
To summarize, VMware is a program that allows the user to install and run OS X, which only works with Intel processors, on other machines with AMD processors and on machines with Intel processors, respectively.
Steps to Install OS X El Capitan on VMware Workstation Player under Windows
Step 1: Download our OS X image and unpack it
Download and unpack the Unlocker patch
This patch will make it so VMware will support OS X El Capitan as a Guest OS.
Step 3: Download and Install VMware Workstation Player
Step 4: patch VMware using Unlocker
Step5: create a new virtual machine
how Guest Operating System choose Apple Mac OS X .
We give the name and location to our virtual machine.
In the window Specify Disk Capacity choose Store virtual disk as a single file .
When the virtual machine is created, click on Edit virtual machine settings .
Note: Do not start the virtual machine until the complete successful installation, otherwise you will have to go through all the steps again.
After we removed Hard disk , press Add and add a new one Hard disk .
Select the type of disk - Sata
IN Select Disk choose Use an existing virtual disk .
After clicking on Finish the program will ask you about converting the disk. Just select Keep existing Format.
Now go to the folder where we saved our virtual machine and look for the file type there VMware virtual machine configuration. We open it with Notepad.
At the end of the list we add smc.version \u003d "0" and save the document.
Now we have installed our virtual machine and can start it. After a successful launch, you should see the language selection splash screen.
VMware Tools for OS X 10.11 El Capitan
It's worth noting that sound and networking work even without VMware Tools installed, but for best performance, you should also install VMware Tools. VMware Tools will improve graphics, allow you to make a shared folder for OS X and Windows, synchronize time, improve mouse and touchpad performance, and also allow you to open a virtual machine in full screen.
Step 6: Install VMware Tools
Download VMware Tools (darwin.iso) and unpack it.
Launch Mac OS X El Capitan on VMware Workstation Player. Push Player - Removable Devices - CD / DVD (SATA) - Settings
Push Use ISO image file , then press Browse and find our unpacked file Darwin and select it.
Open the folder " VMware Tools"on the OS X desktop, and click on" Install VMware Tools"and install.
After installing VMware Tools, restart your OS X El Capitan.
N.B. Remember, this OS X 10.11 El Capitan installation is for testing and training purposes only. In a virtual environment, you don't get all the functionality of OS X, it is only available for Apple Hardware devices. But to run, for example, Xcode (a development environment for iOS) is quite a good option.
Good afternoon friends!
I remind you that this post is for informational purposes only, we do not force, do not force or oblige to perform these actions. Everything we do - we do for the sake of the test, and then remove the installed hackintosh. Well, you get the idea. So let's get started.
The hardware on which we will install OS X 10.11 El Capitan:
- Gigabyte GA-Z87m-HD3
- Intel Core i3-4330 Haswell 2 cores at 3.5 GHz with Intel HD 4600 graphics
- 2 x 4 GB Samsung DDR-3 1600 MHz
- 1 x SSD 120Gb SanDisk
- 2 monitors (DVI + HDMI)
On this hardware, almost everything starts up out of the box, you only need a kext for the network and for sound, although you can start the sound by patching AppleHDA.kext. But today is not about that, we will only install OS X 10.11 El Capitan on this hardware. This article will work for almost everyone, as it will lay the foundation for creating a bootable El Capitan USB stick.
Preparing VMware
The biggest problem with installing OS X is the lack of the original mac, which is basically not needed. Instead, we'll be using VMWare, which will run OS X El Capitan. From under the virtual machine, we will create our bootable USB flash drive.
The action plan is as follows:
- download VMware Workstation 12.0.0 Build 2985596 Pro Final x64
- download OS X 10.11.4 (Image for VMware)
- download OS X 10.11 DMG (for installation)
- download Unlocker for VMware 11+ (link below)
- install VMware and run OS X 10.11 from under it
There is a problem with links, since the very popular torrent tracker * .org in Russia was blocked, so I will not name its address, but only give some of the links from where you can download:
- /forum/viewtopic.php?t\u003d5069288 (VMware Workstation 12.0.0 Build 2985596 Pro Final x64)
- /forum/viewtopic.php?t\u003d5090705 (OS X El Capitan Image for VMware)
- https://cloud.mail.ru/public/FQBt/6Ts8grepN - Install Unlocker for VMware after installing WMvare
I think you already have an OS X 10.11 image, I will not give specific links, since you can find it on the Internet yourself.
Briefly how to run OS X 10.11 from under a virtual machine:
1) Install VMware
2) Download a custom image from OS X 10.11
3) Run VMware Unlocker as administrator
4) Unzip OS X 10.11
5) Launch VMware Player. Select our OS X 10.11 virtual machine image and run it. If swears at Hyper-V, do it.
It seems to me that you should have no problems installing a virtual machine with OS X on board. It is so? So that's great. In any case, the final result of the installation should look like this:
I will describe in detail how to create a bootable OS X El Capitan flash drive using screenshots, so I think you will not have any problems with creating a flash drive. Everything is simple here. The only thing you need to enable showing hidden files using the ShowHiddenFiles.app utility (link at the end of the article)
If necessary, you can share the folder on a Windows machine in VMware. To do this, press CTRL-D and do as in the screenshot:
Creating a bootable USB flash drive with OS X El Capitan from under Windows
Open BaseSystem.dmg, which is located at Contents / SharedSupport / InstallESD.dmg (open image) /BaseSystem.dmg.
You don't have to wait for the archive check, you can skip it.
Formatting the USB stick
To format the flash drive, open the disk utility:
Restoring the BaseSystem.dmg image to a USB flash drive
Remove the shortcut to the Packages folder from our flash drive at OS X Base System / System / Installation and copy our folder to the place of the shortcut Packages of OS X Install ESD
Do not forget to put two files from the root of our flash drive OS X Install ESD, namely BaseSystem.chunklist and BaseSystem.dmgotherwise the installation won't work:
Download Clover from the official website (https://sourceforge.net/projects/cloverefiboot/) and install:
We will not describe what Clover is. This is a bootloader that loads OS X on non-Apple hardware. There is a lot of detailed information on other sites, including the official project page.
Next, you need to put FakeSMC in the /EFI/Clover/kexts/10.11/ folder, and config.plist in the / EFI / Clover / folder. The EFI folder is on the desktop and appears after installing Clover. To manually mount it, you can use utilities such as Clover Configurator, which allows you not only to edit config.plist visually, but also to mount the EFI folder.
You need to compose config.plist taking into account your hardware. I renamed GFX0 to IGPU, specified my Mac model and filled in the ig-platform-id. For a minimal installation, this is enough, if you have other hardware, then you need the appropriate settings. If you do not have Intel graphics, you do not need to specify the ig-platform-id.
In this article, I will not give a description of the config.plist settings, I will try to do it another time, since I can't remember everything from memory. I recommend that you read the khaki book Clover. My config.plist can be downloaded at the end of the article.
In addition, each hardware is individual and you need to select the settings taking into account YOUR hardware. If your computer is similar to mine, try booting with my config.plist
After writing the bootable USB stick, edit the BIOS settings as shown below. These settings are suitable for Gigabyte Z87 motherboards: GA-Z87-HD3, GA-Z87m-HD3 and others. Remember to enable only UEFI boot
BIOS options for hackintosh installation:
Bios Features - VT-d \u003d disabled (if selectable)
Bios Features - limit CPUID Max \u003d disabled
Bios Features - Intel Virtualization Technology \u003d enabled
Bios Features - Secure Boot \u003d disabled
Peripherals - XHCI Mode \u003d disabled
Peripherals - XHCI Hand-off \u003d enabled
Peripherals - EHCI Hand-off \u003d enabled
Peripherals - Initial Display Output \u003d IGFX (if you only have integrated graphics)
Peripherals - Intel Processor Graphics \u003d enabled
Peripherals - Intel Processor Graphics Memory \u003d 32 MB
Performance - Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) \u003d Profile
Press F12 and boot from the USB stick. If everything goes well for you, then in 20 minutes you will have El Capitan installed. Do not forget to install Clover again, but on your main hard drive, otherwise you will constantly have to boot from the USB stick!
Required programs to install OS X 10.11 El Capitan:
ShowHiddenFiles.app -
PListEditor.app -
config.plist - https://yadi.sk/d/eiFKPy2pdduSS
FakeSMC.kext -
After installing OS X 10.11 El Capitan, the system was removed from the computer.
Most users traditionally switch to a new version of OS X by simply clicking the "update" button in the App Store. Undoubtedly, this is the easiest way, but at the same time it is not always the most effective, since over time, many Mac growers notice that their system is no longer as fast as it was at the beginning of operation, and updating does not solve the problem.
Users who are constantly changing and reinstalling software on their Mac are especially prone to such trouble. The reason for the decrease in performance is precisely the various system garbage and "leftovers" from remote programs that safely remain in place during the update. That is why many people prefer to install a "clean system".
Things to remember before installing from scratch
Be sure to back up your system first. To do this, in the standard set of OS X programs there is a wonderful Time Machine utility.
Also, be sure to check that all your contacts, calendars, mail, etc. syncs with iCloud (settings\u003e iCloud)
Clean install OS X El Capitan step by step
2. Restart the Mac while holding down the key option (she alt).
3. Select the USB flash drive as the bootable media.
4. After the Mac boots Recovery from the USB flash drive, visually it will happen like this,
we open Disk Utility and format the Mac hard drive.
5. To do this, select the hard disk partition in the left panel, then in the top panel, click erase (do not change the format and name) then press again erase (down below).
6. When finished formatting, close Disk Utility and select item reinstall OS X.
7. In the next window, select only that formatted hard drive and after the installation process is complete, you get a crystal clear OS X El Capitan.
By the way, you can reinstall the system from scratch without bothering with a USB flash drive. True, you need to have Capitan already installed on the Mac from scratch, otherwise the version of the system that came in the box will be installed.
So, if such a need arises, then restart the Mac by holding cmd + R, open Disk Utility and format the hard drive as shown above. After also choose Reinstall OS X and wait for the installation to complete.
Apple has released OS X 10.11.4 for Mac users running El Capitan. The new version supports Live Photos in Messages app, password protected Notes, and includes compatibility support for iOS devices running iOS 9.3.
Additionally, multiple bug fixes, security improvements, and overall improvements are included in OS X 10.11.4, making it a recommended update for Mac users running a prior versions of OS X El Capitan. Aside from El Capitan, Mac users running prior versions of OS X will also find a security update available which is recommended to install.
Updating a Mac to OS X 10.11.4
Mac users running a prior version of OS X can find the latest version available now from the Mac App Store, the App Store represents the easiest way to install the software update. As always, be sure to and let it complete before starting the software update process.
- Did you backup? Don’t skip a Time Machine backup!
- Go to the Apple menu and choose “App Store” then visit the “Updates” tab
- Choose “Update” alongside the “OS X El Capitan Update 10.11.4 Update” release
The Mac will automatically reboot and complete the installation of OS X 10.11.4.
OS X 10.11.4 Combo Update Download Links
Some advanced Mac users and sysadmins prefer to use package installers directly from Apple, thereby avoiding the Mac App Store. These downloads are available directly from Apple support website as follows:
- (1.5GB)
The combo updater allows Mac users to update to 10.11.4 from a prior version of OS X 10.11 (10.11.1, 10.11.2 or 10.11.3), whereas the regular updater only updates from the immediate predecessor release of OS X 10.11. 3.
OS X 10.11.4 Release Notes
OS X El Capitan 10.11.4:
- Adds the ability to passcode-protect notes containing personal data in Notes
- Adds the ability to sort notes alphabetically, by date created, or date modified in Notes
- Adds the ability to import Evernote files into Notes
- Adds support for sharing Live Photos between iOS and OS X via AirDrop and Messages
- Addresses an issue that may cause RAW images to open slowly in Photos
- Adds the ability for iBooks to store PDFs in iCloud, making them available across all your devices
- Fixes an issue that prevented loading Twitter t.co links in Safari
- Prevents JavaScript dialogs from blocking access to other webpages in Safari
- Fixes an issue that prevented the VIPs mailbox from working with Gmail accounts
- Fixes an issue that caused USB audio devices to disconnect
- Improves the compatibility and reliability of Apple USB-C Multipart Adapters
Finally, Mac users running earlier releases to OS X EL Capitan will find Security Update 2016-002 and Safari 9.1 available for OS X Mavericks and OS X Yosemite. Those are recommended updates if you’re not running El Capitan, both available from the Apple menu Software Update mechanism of the App Store.
Separate from the Mac, iPhone and iPad users will find, and as well.
Troubleshooting OS X 10.11.4 Installations & Updates
Some Mac users have reported a variety of issues with installing OS X 10.11.4 on their Mac. The problems may vary from a frozen or stalled installation, to unexpected crashing during the update, and a variety of other issues. Some users may encounter a kernel panic on boot or during the update as well.
Users may be able to remedy a failed update process by rebooting the Mac into Safe Mode (hold down shift key during boot), and then downloading and running through the update again for OS X 10.11.4. This can often resolve installation errors and update failures.
One common reason for some Macs to kernel panic during the system update is due to a third party kernel extension called SUIDGuard, which hasn’t been updated to support OS X 10.11.4 yet. If you have installed the SUIDGuard installation, you would need to remove it before being able to complete the update by rebooting the Mac into Safe Mode with the Shift key, then open “/ Library / Extensions” and look for “SUIDGuardNG.kext” and delete it.
If the update is successful but the Mac is running slower after updating to OS X 10.11.4, simply waiting for the various Spotlight and maintenance processes to complete usually remedies the speed issue and any potential rapid battery drain. This can take an hour or more depending on the speed of the Mac and the amount of data it accesses on a drive, so patience can be important.
In some cases, the only solution is to restore back to the prior OS X release with Time Machine, perhaps while a few remaining bugs or quirks are worked out.