I’m likely to get a new 15" M3 macbook air soon, and will probably want to install Sonoma instead of Sequoia. I do not use iCloud.
I don’t have wired intertubes for at least a few months, possibly longer. I do have 50 GB of hotspot cell data, but can’t install snitch or trip mode until after the initial setup. Cell is not fast, but it’s (usually) a good bit better than the 1.5 Mbps DSL I had. I’ve already downloaded full installers from Mr. Macintosh.
Is it still possible to set up a mac with no network access at all, or using just hotspot without breaking the data budget? Is it still possible to install an older OS without network access or using another Mac? I have lots of macs, but all are elderly. Taking the mac somewhere with good net access isn’t practical.
Of lesser importance, can one still swap the keycaps? I use dvorak, and putting labels on keys risks damaging the screen.
You should able to set up a Mac without network access, but of course you won’t be able to set up some services such as iCloud.
For installing macOS, the first rule is that you can never downgrade to a version earlier than what originally came with the Mac when that model was introduced. This is because old versions wouldn’t include the drivers for that model.
For an M3 MacBook Air, that would be macOS 14.4 Sonoma.
Sonoma can not be installed without network access. Some time ago macOS started requiring Internet access during installs; that’s when it downloads firmware, and I suspect on Apple Silicon it is checking with Apple for a valid signature.
Older macOS didn’t have that requirement. Does anyone know when it started? Was it Big Sur?
Yes. You can use another Mac (with sufficient bandwidth, perhaps at an Apple Store) to download a macOS installer package. You can then use the package’s createinstallmedia script to make a bootable flash drive from it.
When you boot this drive, it will boot to an internal recovery mode which you can use to install macOS from that drive. You can also use it to run Disk Utility to blow away the APFS container holding the existing macOS installation, which will be necessary if you want to downgrade macOS from what’s currently installed. (Only delete the macOS container. DO NOT delete any other containers that may be present on the internal SSD - if you do that, you’ll need to use DFU mode, Configurator and another Mac to recover.)
Note, however, that you shouldn’t attempt to downgrade it to anything older than the version with which that Mac model originally shipped. For the 2024 M4 Air, this means nothing older than macOS 14.3. I’d recommend the latest Sonoma release (14.7.2) if you don’t want to use what Apple pre-loads (probably a near-latest release of version 15).
Thanks. It’s nice that Apple hasn’t completely removed everything that I care about yet. I’ll probably try the hotspot with it to grab Rosetta and keep sequoia for a bit to play with it before setting it back to sonoma (more flexible virtualization and much less AI nonsense).
Yes. The container that contains macOS and its Data volume.
On an Intel Mac, there is normally only one APFS container, containing several volumes, including:
macOS (which is snapshotted to create the SSV that is actually booted)
Data
Preboot
Recovery
VM
There’s also a separate EFI partition that is not an APFS container.
But on an Apple Silicon Mac, there are three APFS containers, each containing several volumes:
Apple_APFS_ISC (the lowest-level boot loader, which locates and boots macOS, both from internal and external media)
ISC Preboot
xART
Hardware
Recovery
Apple_APFS_Recovery. The Recovery mode you get if you boot the Mac when there is no macOS installed
Recovery (fallback)
Update
Apple_APFS. The installed macOS system, functionally equivalent to what you find on Intel Macs.
macOS (including the SSV snapshot)
Data
Preboot
Recovery (the one you get when booting to Recovery mode on a Mac where macOS is installed)
VM
If you want/need to blow away an Apple Silicon Mac, you want to delete the Apple_APFS container, but do not touch the Apple_APFS_Recovery or Apple_APFS_ISC containers.
I’m not sure Disk Utility will let you try to delete these two containers without jumping through hoops, but you shouldn’t try, because if you succeed, you will brick the Mac until someone can use Configurator (from another Mac) to restore it.
