I recently received the Apple DTK and got things up and running. However, there was an issue with iTerm and oh-my-zsh which basically locked me from accessing the Terminal. So, I thought that I would just recover the OS. No biggie.
One thing that I always do whenever recovering the OS is to do a full clean install. So I rebooted into recovery mode using the Power Button holding and am now currently in the recovery mode. I deleted the Apple Macintosh HD partitions and then proceeded to reinstall macOS as I normally would.
However, during the process of reinstalling Big Sur, there is a step where I need to enter the password of a user. There are no users listed! So, how can I either do some sort of internet recovery and fully wipe everything or bypass this user password requirement so that I can get the OS reinstalled?
One thing that I always do whenever recovering the OS is to do a full clean install. So I rebooted into recovery mode using the Power Button holding and am now currently in the recovery mode. I deleted the Apple Macintosh HD partitions and then proceeded to reinstall macOS as I normally would.
However, during the process of reinstalling Big Sur, there is a step where I need to enter the password of a user. There are no users listed! So, how can I either do some sort of internet recovery and fully wipe everything or bypass this user password requirement so that I can get the OS reinstalled?
I've resolved my problem. For reference if anyone else has this issue, here is how I resolved it.
On another mac running Big Sur (you might have luck on Catalina, but for my case, I had another computer with Big Sur Beta 3).
Download macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3 from https://developer.apple.com/download/universal/
This is an IPSW file (around 13GB in size!).
Download and Install Apple Configurator 2.13 Beta 2 from https://developer.apple.com/download/
Launch Apple Configurator 2.13 Beta 2
Put the Apple Silicon Mac Mini into DFU Mode
Drag the downloaded IPSW (13GB macOS Big Sur image) onto the DFU icon in Apple Configurator
Proceed to restore the image onto the Mac Mini within Apple Configurator. This will take a long time. There is no progress bar that is in any way accurate. Give it 30 minutes or so.
The Mac Mini will reboot.
Proceed to reinstall Big Sur in the recovery mode.
On my instance, the reinstall failed around 12 minutes remaining. I shutdown the Mac Mini and started it again normally.
The Mac Mini now booted to the welcome screen and I was able to proceed with the set up.
To Enter DFU Mode on the Apple Silicon Mac Mini
Remove the Power Cord on the Mac Mini
Ensure USB-C cable is plugged on the far right USB-C plug on the Mac Mini (this is the one furthest away from the Ethernet port)
Press and Hold the Power Button (with the power cable removed)
Insert Power Cable while still holding the Power Button
Release the Power Button
On another mac running Big Sur (you might have luck on Catalina, but for my case, I had another computer with Big Sur Beta 3).
Download macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3 from https://developer.apple.com/download/universal/
This is an IPSW file (around 13GB in size!).
Download and Install Apple Configurator 2.13 Beta 2 from https://developer.apple.com/download/
Launch Apple Configurator 2.13 Beta 2
Put the Apple Silicon Mac Mini into DFU Mode
Drag the downloaded IPSW (13GB macOS Big Sur image) onto the DFU icon in Apple Configurator
Proceed to restore the image onto the Mac Mini within Apple Configurator. This will take a long time. There is no progress bar that is in any way accurate. Give it 30 minutes or so.
The Mac Mini will reboot.
Proceed to reinstall Big Sur in the recovery mode.
On my instance, the reinstall failed around 12 minutes remaining. I shutdown the Mac Mini and started it again normally.
The Mac Mini now booted to the welcome screen and I was able to proceed with the set up.
To Enter DFU Mode on the Apple Silicon Mac Mini
Remove the Power Cord on the Mac Mini
Ensure USB-C cable is plugged on the far right USB-C plug on the Mac Mini (this is the one furthest away from the Ethernet port)
Press and Hold the Power Button (with the power cable removed)
Insert Power Cable while still holding the Power Button
Release the Power Button
