Blazian-Bruh wrote:
I have an intel Macbook Pro from Mid 2012 with no OS and internet recovery and usb installation doesnt work for me(I either get "Can't download additional components"
Most likely the error is due to the installer's expired certificate. You can try changing the system date to some time in 2017.....may need to be earlier such as 2015. While booted to the Lion installer, launch the Terminal app from the Utilities menu on the menu bar. Use the following command to set the system date & time to Jan. 2, 2017 @ 11:33am (adjust the year accordingly if necessary):
date -u 010211332017
Otherwise you will need access to another Mac from 2008 to 2019 in order to create a bootable macOS USB installer compatible with the 2012 laptop. Generally you will need a Mac from 2008 to 2015 to create a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer. Or a Mac from Late-2009 to 2018 to create a bootable macOS 10.15 USB installer. The Mac you use to create a bootable macOS USB installer must be compatible with that OS although the Mac can currently be running any version of macOS. You can use the following article to confirm which Macs are compatible with various versions of macOS:
https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility
Here is an Apple article with instructions for creating a bootable macOS USB installer (there is a link within this article with instructions for downloading & extracting the OS installer):
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Another respected forum contributor recently posted a link to a third party developer app called MDS which is able to download various versions of macOS directly from Apple regardless of the Mac you have access to (I have not personally tried this app yet). As long as the Mac is an Intel Mac, then you should still be able to use the instructions in the Apple article I linked above to create the USB installer although you may need to modify those instructions for the command line if the installer is downloaded to a location other than the Applications folder. Unfortunately an M1/M2 Apple Silicon Mac cannot be used to create a USB installer for any OS older than macOS 11.x Big Sur.