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

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

#191

Post by odshoifsdhfs »

zenexer wrote: post #72
ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #4

It's not "bricked" if you can fix it in Recovery Mode. Still bad that it's happening, but the term "bricked" is thrown around so flippantly these days. If a piece of tech is bricked, it's not recoverable at all.

The original source[0] states that access to Recovery Mode is not possible, at least in some cases. One user there reports[1] that the device shows no signs of life--no power, no fans spinning, nothing: > No power at all. I tried SMC and PRAM reset but sadly was unable to do either since my computer won’t even turn on. [0]: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/warning-macos-catalina-... [1]: https://forums.macrumors.…

I have this issue.

Computer went to sleep after the update. This was on Friday. Haven't been able to do any kind of thing on it. Trackpad 'clicks' but no screen, not touchbar, nothing (2018 Macbook Pro).

Called apple, they tld me it had to go a store, unfortunately where I live, due to quarantine there are no shops available to pick it, and we aren't allowed to drive outside our district.

Will try the apple configurator idea someone posted below and will report back. Just need to find a cable that supports both power and data that is USB a to USB c.

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

#192

Post by capableweb »

gregmac wrote: post #45
ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #4

It's not "bricked" if you can fix it in Recovery Mode. Still bad that it's happening, but the term "bricked" is thrown around so flippantly these days. If a piece of tech is bricked, it's not recoverable at all.

"Bricked" is relative, depending on your skill level. For some consumers, if recovery mode doesn't work that might be the end of line. However, there are more advanced users that can access the storage via another system and fix it there, hook up via serial port or JTAG and flash new firmware, or even desolder and replace chips. On the far other end of the spectrum, there's going to be people that consider "doesn't s…

I've always had the impression that the difference between bricked and non-bricked is if it requires you to "fix" the hardware, it's considered bricked while if you can somehow fix it with just software, it's not bricked (yet?)

So flashing new firmware to fix the problem, not bricked.

Requiring soldering stuff and replacing hardware, it's bricked.

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

#193

Post by gerardvivancos »

I'm not sure this is an issue specific to this update. The very same description in the Apple forums matches what happened on my work Macbook Pro (a 2018 one if I'm not mistaken) while installing a different update a few months ago.

I won't say this is not an issue specific to this supplemental update, but I'm not buying it is _yet_.

It looks like one of the usual consequences of a system update going wrong. See that the user reports that after fixing this through Recovery Mode, they were asked to install the very same update again, as if nothing had happened. This looks like a rollback.

I wish MacOS was more transparent about what actually happens on those cases. If you had to roll back, let me know. If you could not install because of any reason, let me know.

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

#194

Post by hypervis0r »

gregmac wrote: post #45
ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #4

It's not "bricked" if you can fix it in Recovery Mode. Still bad that it's happening, but the term "bricked" is thrown around so flippantly these days. If a piece of tech is bricked, it's not recoverable at all.

"Bricked" is relative, depending on your skill level. For some consumers, if recovery mode doesn't work that might be the end of line. However, there are more advanced users that can access the storage via another system and fix it there, hook up via serial port or JTAG and flash new firmware, or even desolder and replace chips. On the far other end of the spectrum, there's going to be people that consider "doesn't s…

The problem with this 'it is relative' line of logic is that everything can be relative. We need terms that describe stuff regardless of how people perceive it.

Otherwise, as you said, 'bricked' can mean almost anything. So what's the point of using a word without any particular meaning?

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

#195

Post by GrumpyNl »

ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #4

It's not "bricked" if you can fix it in Recovery Mode. Still bad that it's happening, but the term "bricked" is thrown around so flippantly these days. If a piece of tech is bricked, it's not recoverable at all.

Only the HN community cans tart a discussion over the term brick while the issue is a non functioning mac book after a update.

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

#197

Post by jillesvangurp »

bluedino wrote: post #6

Are people not using auto-update?

I disable them for two reasons:

1) they take ages to complete and I want to run them on my schedule instead of being forced to take a 40-60 minute chunk out of my schedule. 2) there's always a risk of an update breaking something and if that happens, I'm OK with being a few days/weeks behind.

In recent years, big OSX updates are effectively a beta release until the second service release or so. Also, they have been enormously underwhelming in the sense that I can barely tell them apart. There's generally very little in them that I need/want. I don't use any of the bundled software (mail, icloud, the office stuff, etc). All I care about is being able to run my browser (Firefox), Homebrew, some games (quite a few less as of Catalina), and development tools like vs code, intellij, docker.

I actually updated my imac to the latest Catalina last weekend, and applied the fix we're discussing here a few days ago to be able to run the latest x-plane beta with a new rendering engine that uses metal (and vulkan elsewhere); it complained it needed the latest driver. Didn't break anything for me luckily. My mac book pro is not getting the supplemental upgrade until I know it's not going to ruin my day.

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

#198

Post by appleflaxen »

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.

It appears you created this account just to make this massively derailing comment.

Regardless of what you think about HN comments, this is antisocial behavior, and can't possibly raise the quality of discussion.

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

#199

Post by xcalibre »

This has been mentioned quite a few times but Apple's software quality seriously has taken a turn for the worse in the last few years. I've usually updated my macs to the latest OS's within a couple of weeks of release, but Catalina is the first time where I still have yet to update. Stories of bugs such as this as well as mail messages getting blanked out and unrecoverable makes me actually scared to upgrade.

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

#200

Post by flyinghamster »

oneplane wrote: post #2

Odd, this seems to be happening across the industry and is now either reported better or just more prevalent. Besides bricks (well, is it a brick if you can recover?) we have seen post-update BSOD's, data loss, browsers going bad, settings getting reset on various operating systems of the big vendors out there. I know that it isn't like software 'used to be perfect' but this type of defect feels bigger than it used t…

I've experienced it myself with one of the Android apps i use (a VoIP client). The latest update killed my ability to call out through my office PBX, and I had to fish the old version out of one of my backups, since the Play Store oh-so-helpfully doesn't let you install older versions of an app.
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