Access 'About this Mac' before creating a user

Question

I've wiped and reinstalled macOS in order to sell a 2017 MacBook Pro. Of course, I forgot to take a screenshot of 'About This Mac' to get all the specifics (all I need is the CPU variant).

I've booted into Recovery Mode to access terminal and try a host of variations on system_profiler. None of them work.

I don't want to have to create a user just to view my specs and then have to wipe and reinstall macOS again.

Does anyone have a working 2020 method for accessing system information from the terminal before creating a user?

Did you check whether there is an "About my Mac" menu entry in Recovery Mode? — nohillside, Oct 20 '20 at 15:29
Did you try using sysctl? Use the command sysctl -a | grep machdep.cpu.brand_string — Allan, Oct 20 '20 at 15:34
@nohillside there is no entry for that, only a Startup Disk option (which I tried and still doesn't show about my Mac) — Jack Scott, Oct 20 '20 at 15:43
@Allan I've tried a different version which didn't include grep , but your version works , thanks very much! — Jack Scott, Oct 20 '20 at 15:43
If you have an external drive to boot from, you can take screenshots of About This Mac there. — benwiggy, Oct 20 '20 at 16:04

Allan · Answer 1 · 2020-10-20T16:34:55.013

2

Use sysctl command to get the CPU brand string.

% sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string
machdep.cpu.brand_string: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-700K CPU @ 4.20GHz

edited Oct 20 '20 at 16:34

answered Oct 20 '20 at 16:05

Allan

101,432

Hi, your other suggestion worked: sysctl -a | grep machdep.cpu.brand_string – Jack Scott Oct 21 '20 at 15:02
Both should work, with and without the grep – Allan Oct 21 '20 at 15:18

Access 'About this Mac' before creating a user

1 Answers1