blackswan22 Posted May 30, 2022 Share Posted May 30, 2022 Real Mac question here- before I can proceed onward to create my custom mac... I'm trying to upgrade from Catalina to MacOS Big Sur. The Apple Laptop is a rental from my work and has some admin protections on it that are blocking the install. It won't let me install an OS to an external drive or any other drive. It won't let me update from Catalina to Big Sur. I even tried installing Big Sur to an installer USB, but when I boot up using Command + R the disk utility access has also been blocked. There's a lock screen with a password box, but no password can even be entered (see screenshot). Is there a way I can override the admin protections? I don't care if I have to blow over and erase the previous OS of the laptop. I'd just like to re-install everything from scratch so I don't have to deal with the admin limitations. Any workarounds for this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slice Posted May 30, 2022 Share Posted May 30, 2022 Boot into Single User mode. mount -uw / rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone reboot Now you will see partially installed macOS and you may create new admin account. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackswan22 Posted May 30, 2022 Author Share Posted May 30, 2022 I can't access single user mode. It must be disabled. Anything else I can try? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aben Posted May 31, 2022 Share Posted May 31, 2022 If the Mac in question is T2 equipped, you can forget about it; it's as good as trying to break into a stolen Mac locked with encryption. If it happens to be a non-T2 model then your only best bet would be to open the chassis and have the internal custom Apple-SSD drive replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackswan22 Posted May 31, 2022 Author Share Posted May 31, 2022 Yes, it's T2 Equipped. It's got a firmware password set from my work's IT department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackswan22 Posted May 31, 2022 Author Share Posted May 31, 2022 How would Apple or a repair company get into this to re-install the OS if someone forgot the firmware password? As the controls are set now, no one can update the OS. Could the startup drive be corrupted so that you'd have to boot from an installer USB and reformat the hard drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aben Posted May 31, 2022 Share Posted May 31, 2022 (edited) AASPs use proprietary tools to have the drive wiped in such situations, of course, under rightful owner's consent. Worse case, they'll simply replace the drive. Edited May 31, 2022 by aben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackswan22 Posted May 31, 2022 Author Share Posted May 31, 2022 Ok, thanks. I will reach out to our IT dept. and if they can't help I may try the AASP route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slice Posted May 31, 2022 Share Posted May 31, 2022 15 hours ago, blackswan22 said: I can't access single user mode. It must be disabled. Anything else I can try? I never saw it was disabled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackswan22 Posted June 1, 2022 Author Share Posted June 1, 2022 I thought single user mode was no longer available after Mojave OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aben Posted June 1, 2022 Share Posted June 1, 2022 (edited) Single User mode is still present on current macOS releases however in your case, like you reported earlier, access has been disabled with the help of Firmware Password protection set by your organization.EDIT: Apple seems to have deprecated the use of Single User mode on T2 equipped Macs regardless of security restrictions in place. Access to SUM on non-T2 Macs remains. Edited June 1, 2022 by aben Info about SUM on T2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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