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Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

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Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#31

Post by hrrsn »

filsmick wrote: post #10

I was bitten by this this week. Tried to reuse my installer to install OS X El Capitan on a MBP without redownloading it over my super-fast 2Mbps internet connection. First, I try to install it by just copying the installer app - "can't be verified". Then I make a bootable USB stick using DiskMaker X - "can't be verified". I run an integrity check on the installer - all good. I then try running `/path/to/Install\ OS\…

I was hit by this issue too. Everything that came up online (and worked in the past) was to reset the date in the Terminal. Of course, that didn't help in the slightest.

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#32

Post by x0x0 »

mikeash wrote: post #17
filsmick wrote: post #10

I was bitten by this this week. Tried to reuse my installer to install OS X El Capitan on a MBP without redownloading it over my super-fast 2Mbps internet connection. First, I try to install it by just copying the installer app - "can't be verified". Then I make a bootable USB stick using DiskMaker X - "can't be verified". I run an integrity check on the installer - all good. I then try running `/path/to/Install\ OS\…

Apple is just awful about providing meaningful, useful errors. The worst is AirPlay. When it fails to connect, which is about 33% of the time, there's nothing. It doesn't even pop up a generic alert, it just silently (or not so silently, if you're playing music) reverts to local playback. Many other examples abound. Most errors at least provide a message, but one so generic as to be useless.

or TimeMachine

"sparsebundle already in use" is the FOAD of error messages. I do love how the (now stale) tools to fix this are maintained by a volunteer on an external site unrelated to apple.

I try not to be too grumpy about it, but I paid $3k for a laptop not to have to fucking deal with windows-style normal operation of the OS and related tools is busted and you're gonna sink hours into debugging it. And least when linux breaks it tends to leave error messages and details in syslog...

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#33

Post by kevincox »

makomk wrote: post #21
kevincox wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this help? In order to provide any security you would need to limit the time from signing, which would be very similar to just issuing the certificate for that much longer. There is no way to verify that the binary was actually signed at that time.

It uses trusted timestamping servers run by certificate authorities to sign the timestamp information.

Ok, I didn't realize that. But it still doesn't solve the problem of compromising an old certificate and creating a fake signature with your own time.

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#34

Post by steveax »

LordKano wrote: post #25
mikeash wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is just awful about providing meaningful, useful errors. The worst is AirPlay. When it fails to connect, which is about 33% of the time, there's nothing. It doesn't even pop up a generic alert, it just silently (or not so silently, if you're playing music) reverts to local playback. Many other examples abound. Most errors at least provide a message, but one so generic as to be useless.

I go back to the days of System Bombs and Unimplemented Trap errors. It was maddening.

Ahh the bomb, a great (Susan Kare) icon:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomb_(icon)

MacsBug was an essential utility back in those days.

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#35

Post by x0x0 »

mikeash wrote: post #19
garrettgrimsley wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not related to their release schedule, it has to do with the certificates used to validate software. You can view an explanation of application level code signing here [0] and the concepts also apply to signing OS images. [0] https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Securi...

I believe they're saying that it is related to Apple's release schedule because having a hard deadline every year and a fixed feature set for that hard deadline means that you run into problems with quality. I would dearly love for Apple to take a year or two (or, hell, five, I'm happy with the current feature set) and just fix bugs. No new features, just bugs. Do another Snow Leopard release, or three.

I have a cron script that hard kills finder hourly because it eats a gig of ram and gets slower and slower until there is typing lag in it

My partner's itunes refuses to reliably see her iphone.

TimeMachine shits the bed on the regular.

SMB appears to be the future but TimeMachine still requires brittle afp.

On a 15-in late 2013 laptop with 10.10.current, about once out of every 20 times I open the lid the laptop doesn't wake up. Even when it does wake up there is a black screen for a noticeable amount of time. This never used to happen on 10.9.

Apps regularly lose the ability to create audio (spotify, chrome, vlc) if you let them run too long. The solution is to sudo killall audiod.

etc etc etc

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#36

Post by zZorgz »

pilif wrote: post #13

Under windows, when I sign a binary, I also have the option (well - it's more like a strong recommendation) to time-stamp the signature. That way, windows can check whether the signature was made during a time when the certificate was valid. This means that when your certificate expires, you won't be able to sign new binaries, but at least the existing ones continue to work. This is something Apple should really cons…

Apple's code signing actually has this and it's on by default. Don't ask me why it didn't help with their installers, though..

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#37

Post by Cieplak »

mikeash wrote: post #17
filsmick wrote: post #10

I was bitten by this this week. Tried to reuse my installer to install OS X El Capitan on a MBP without redownloading it over my super-fast 2Mbps internet connection. First, I try to install it by just copying the installer app - "can't be verified". Then I make a bootable USB stick using DiskMaker X - "can't be verified". I run an integrity check on the installer - all good. I then try running `/path/to/Install\ OS\…

Apple is just awful about providing meaningful, useful errors. The worst is AirPlay. When it fails to connect, which is about 33% of the time, there's nothing. It doesn't even pop up a generic alert, it just silently (or not so silently, if you're playing music) reverts to local playback. Many other examples abound. Most errors at least provide a message, but one so generic as to be useless.

Yeah, diagnostic messages can be pretty useless. Sometimes all you can do is

    tail -f /var/log/system.log

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#38

Post by username223 »

x0x0 wrote: post #32
mikeash wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is just awful about providing meaningful, useful errors. The worst is AirPlay. When it fails to connect, which is about 33% of the time, there's nothing. It doesn't even pop up a generic alert, it just silently (or not so silently, if you're playing music) reverts to local playback. Many other examples abound. Most errors at least provide a message, but one so generic as to be useless.

or TimeMachine "sparsebundle already in use" is the FOAD of error messages. I do love how the (now stale) tools to fix this are maintained by a volunteer on an external site unrelated to apple. I try not to be too grumpy about it, but I paid $3k for a laptop not to have to fucking deal with windows-style normal operation of the OS and related tools is busted and you're gonna sink hours into debugging it. And least wh…

My latest pet peeve is `mds_stores` deciding it needs to spend forever using my iPod, so I can't unplug it without incurring a scolding. It's not hard for Mac OS to stay less terrible to configure than Linux, and less terrible to use than Windows, but that's a low bar.

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#39

Post by donatj »

I had a handful of apps I use all the time stop working entirely about a week ago. They were purchased from the App Store but are no longer in the App Store. I am furious. I am willing to bet the expired certificate is the culprit.

I've had to carefully maintain the .app's myself across a couple Mac's as Apple stopped letting you download things that are no longer in the store. Now they just don't work at all.

The older I get the more I think maybe Richard Stallman isn't crazy.

Re: Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work

#40

Post by dclowd9901 »

donatj wrote: post #39

I had a handful of apps I use all the time stop working entirely about a week ago. They were purchased from the App Store but are no longer in the App Store. I am furious. I am willing to bet the expired certificate is the culprit. I've had to carefully maintain the .app's myself across a couple Mac's as Apple stopped letting you download things that are no longer in the store. Now they just don't work at all. The ol…

> I've had to carefully maintain the .app's myself across a couple Mac's as Apple stopped letting you download things that are no longer in the store.

Since when? I always download .dmg's and install them outside of the Apple Store. You have to do this roundabout security measure in Preferences to run them, but they're always runnable...

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