mic (macOS ISO Creator)

What is it?

An application that generates macOS installer .iso files from the installers found in the macOS App Store.

Issues with High Sierra and later

Minimal App Store installers

Starting with High Sierra, Apple sometimes provides "minimal" macOS installers through the App Store. These installers are usually less than 1 GB in size. Otherwise, they appear the same as a normal installer. Make sure to verify the installer before using this tool. The tool does not support minimal installers.

For more information, refer to this forum post.

VirtualBox EFI errors

If you plan to use a High Sierra .iso in VirtualBox, you may encounter EFI errors after the macOS installation process completes. If this occurs, VirtualBox will automatically boot you into the EFI shell. You can work around this problem by executing the following commands in the EFI shell:

fs1:
cd "macOS Install Data"
cd "Locked Files"
cd "Boot Files"
boot.efi

How do I use it?

First, download a macOS installer from the App Store. Once the download is complete, execute:

./mic -i '/Applications/<installer-name>.app' -o ~/Desktop/macos.iso

Where do I download the tool?

Since this is a Go (Golang) application, the preferred method of installation is using go install. This automates downloading and building Go applications from source in a secure manner. By default, this copies applications into ~/go/bin/.

You must first install Go. After installing Go, simply run the following command to install the application:

go install github.com/stephen-fox/mic/cmd/mic@latest
# If successful, the exectuable should be in "~/go/bin/".