
(default on macOS, easily installable on Linux), you can just do tar -xvf Payload. That contains the files installed by this package. The second archive-in-archive is the Payload. The structure produced by both tools is a bit different, but we can You can either extract it with pkgutil -expandįoo.pkg foo_files (the last argument is the destination directory, can beĪnything, will be created by pkgutil) if you have access to that command (it’sĪvailable in Recovery OS), or you can try the xar utility as xar -xfįoo.pkg. Those files are in XAR format, which was invented by the This was deduced from the file command and The Unarchiver. You can find more resources about the flat package format, one or two, although
#How to completely reimage macbook air el capitan install#
This package isĮxpected to install /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app. If you take a look at the instructions, you will see that this is The only thing you can download from Apple is El Capitan. Hackintoshing this little bit harder, but this also affects legitimate users. If it doesn’t, and Recovery can’t install it for you, that can be difficult toĪpple does not make macOS images publicly available. Program included with that installer app. The expected way to produce macOS install media is to download the installerįrom App Store/Software Update, and run the createinstallmedia command-line

Unfortunately, making a USB stick with the macOS installer on it is a nuisance. The best, safest, least error-prone way to do an install is with a USB stick.

Making install media with El Capitan (with access only to Recovery)
