Mac OS X 10.0.1: Fixing "insufficient disk space" error on installation

We previously noted a case where Mac OS X 10.0.1 would not install, claiming that it needed 300MB of disk space, even though there was over 20GB of space on the drive. Jason Harris had the same problem and discovered the cause (at least for his situation): He had installed a modified df file (stored in the invisible UNIX /bin directory) via an installation of GNU filetools. The df command in UNIX provides information about available disk space. The GNU-installed df command provided somewhat different output than the Apple one. Jason adds: "This non-Apple df file was the cause. The Installer apparently uses it to check disk space and did not recognize the non-Apple one."

Jason was able to quickly fix this by copying the original df file from the Mac OS X CD. To do this from Terminal, with the CD mounted, he typed:

cp /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ CD/bin/df /bin/df