Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

tomsguide.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 440 posts

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#141

Post by microtonal »

FireBeyond wrote: post #132
baryphonic wrote: post #59

This is interesting. I sat down at my machine on Thursday morning, and it was entirely unresponsive. It had warned me about installing updates the previous evening, but I've done this many times without an issue, and regardless, they are always complete by morning. I waited a minute or two for any sign of life (beyond the fans running), and then held power. I heard the unpleasant sound of the fans spinning up to high…

For added irony, my Hackintosh installed the update without missing a beat.

So did my Mac and my wife's Mac. I don't see the irony. This probably affects a small subsets of Macs [1] and probably still the count of successful updates is much higher for Apple Macs than Hackintoshes. But yes, if you cherry-pick anecdotes, you can get any outcome you want.

[1] Which is still terrible, these things should just not happen. Bad quality control from Apple' side and inexcusable for > 1000 Euro 'premium' computers.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#142

Post by C19is20 »

sv9 wrote: post #67

I'm consistently amazed by HN's ability to take the most meaningless, inconsequential part of an article (the scroll behavior, the whitespace, the usage of the word "bricked"), and nitpick it to hell and back instead of actually discussing the article. Bravo.

> I'm consistently amazed by HN's ability to take the most meaningless, inconsequential part of an article (the scroll behavior, the whitespace, the usage of the word "bricked"), and nitpick it to hell and back instead of actually discussing the article.

> Bravo.

'Bravi', or 'brave'(f) would be the plural of that.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#143

Post by DanBC »

sv9 wrote: post #67

I'm consistently amazed by HN's ability to take the most meaningless, inconsequential part of an article (the scroll behavior, the whitespace, the usage of the word "bricked"), and nitpick it to hell and back instead of actually discussing the article. Bravo.

You might be interested in what dang, a mod, says here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22336417

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#144

Post by microtonal »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #41
diebeforei485 wrote: post #25

I think companies are pushing updates way too aggressively to those who have auto update on. Is there some reason why phased release isn't more common among OS/firmware updates? Auto update does not have to mean "update my device the day new versions are out". Edit: Is this related to public disclosure of security bugs? If so, the community should change their standard so that public disclosure doesn't happen until a…

Doesn't matter what the security community does - The security fixes are often obvious enough in the binary delta (Comparing all of the changed files on one system to another) that cracking teams can discover the flaws that were fixed within 24h, and have exploits available in 48. That's what drives the pace of these updates - The very real fear that fixes reveal your hand to the malware community.

I guess they could separate security and bug fixes from other changes (features).

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#145

Post by nicolas_t »

eru wrote: post #105
forgingahead wrote: post #88

Side poll: Do people automatically download OS updates for their computers? A lesson from my Windows days way back when was never to update anything unless absolutely needed -- computer, phones, etc. "Needed" is loosely defined as "key software that you need to work is no longer working on your older OS, hence you need to upgrade your OS to keep using this key software (sorry!)." I'm aware of security patches etc, bu…

> A lesson from my Windows days way back when was never to update anything unless absolutely needed -- computer, phones, etc. Windows 10 seems to be pretty good at keeping its users on the latest version? (Unless you actively tell it, not to?)

Yes and because they have a bug with egpu they introduced in August, I had to go in Group policy to disable updates until they finally release a fix or my eGPU won't work (it's in beta apparently and will come out after 11 months)... And I was complaining about Apple but this is even worse...

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#146

Post by microtonal »

saagarjha wrote: post #29
rootusrootus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually a little surprised they're pushing out updates at all right now. They have to be aware of the risk.

Supplemental updates usually fix serious bugs or ones that impact a lot of people. They're fairly rare.

Indeed. The problem was 10.15.4 to start with. One reason to roll out the supplemental update was because 10.15.4 broke Facetime compatibility with older iOS and macOS versions (which is particularly bad in the current crisis).

Maybe they shouldn't have released 10.15.4 right now, but instead only the security fixes in this release. But they had to push out that release to support the new MacBook Air.

Another problem with such reports is that it is hard to get an idea of how widespread this problem is. And whether the problem (perhaps) already occurred with previous Catalina updates, but is now picked up more.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#147

Post by Joeri »

encom wrote: post #118
diebeforei485 wrote: post #25

I think companies are pushing updates way too aggressively to those who have auto update on. Is there some reason why phased release isn't more common among OS/firmware updates? Auto update does not have to mean "update my device the day new versions are out". Edit: Is this related to public disclosure of security bugs? If so, the community should change their standard so that public disclosure doesn't happen until a…

What OS X and Windows, IOS, Android and probably lots of others need, is Long Term Support releases. I'm so sick and tired of my phone and computer switching up major features and UI every year, because some UX person wants to not get fired. Releasing a new major version of your OS yearly is insane.

On windows you can choose to get feature updates with a 4 month delay if you have windows pro (set updates to "Semi-Annual Channel" instead of "Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted)", and yes microsoft are indeed terrible with naming things). I never had issues with windows updates on that branch. There is also windows enterprise long term servicing branch (LTSB), which gets feature updates every 3 years (but is meant more for things like point of sale systems, not for regular PC's).

On macOS you can stay one major release behind. So, stay on mojave until the successor to catalina is released, then upgrade to catalina. You still get security fixes and full software ecosystem support, but far fewer issues with buggy updates.

On android and iOS you don't really have good options to my knowledge.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#148

Post by cygned »

sv9 wrote: post #67

I'm consistently amazed by HN's ability to take the most meaningless, inconsequential part of an article (the scroll behavior, the whitespace, the usage of the word "bricked"), and nitpick it to hell and back instead of actually discussing the article. Bravo.

Brown M&Ms (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232420). How am I supposed to assume your content is of any quality if you cannot get the details right?

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#149

Post by quickthrower2 »

sv9 wrote: post #67

I'm consistently amazed by HN's ability to take the most meaningless, inconsequential part of an article (the scroll behavior, the whitespace, the usage of the word "bricked"), and nitpick it to hell and back instead of actually discussing the article. Bravo.

And there is the damn meta discussion about the nitpicks!

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#150

Post by gmac »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #98
dddddaviddddd wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which issues?

Mostly to do with recognising an external monitor.

Oh, that’s interesting. I’ve recently had to switch to using the HDMI instead of the Mini DisplayPort to connect a 4K monitor to my mid-2014 MBP, since it wasn’t being recognised (which also means dropping from 60fps to 30). Wasn’t sure if this was related to an update. Are your symptoms similar?
Post reply on HN