macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#1

Post by _susn » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 6:33 PM UTC

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#2

Post by gcr » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:05 PM UTC

TL;DR: Recent macOS Sonoma and 13.6 Ventura have upgrade bugs that brick some macs and make recoveryOS unusable, causing a black screen that requires a DFU revive.

Issues on Sonoma appear most often on dual-booting macs: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208891

Ventura upgrades can also bite you if your display refresh rate is set to anything other than ProMotion, for unclear reasons.

The doc is on the Asahi Linux wiki because their developers discovered this issue, but it's not unique to Asahi. In fact, running the Asahi Linux installer can detect whether your mac will be affected by this issue, even if you ultimately choose not to install Asahi Linux. See the article for details.

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#3

Post by neilalexander » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:06 PM UTC

Interestingly I ran into this exact problem with my work MacBook Pro M1 upgrading to Ventura 13.6 and assumed it was a totally isolated incident. I don't have a dual-boot setup either, just a single macOS install.

The computer was connected to a Thunderbolt Display during the update which I assume had the same effect of changing the refresh rate to something other-than-ProMotion that the linked article mentions. I had to do a DFU restore from another Mac and then run the macOS Sonoma installer from USB, which thankfully detected the existing install and did an in-place upgrade, preserving all of my data. Nothing else worked.

I also wasted far too much time trying to get the DFU restore to work before discovering that you cannot use a Thunderbolt cable — it has to be done using a plain USB-C cable, otherwise the Apple Configurator simply won't detect the other Mac.

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#4

Post by racl101 » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

I am so terrified of this upgrade that I think I'll wait a whole year. That's not a good thing.

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#5

Post by krackers » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:15 PM UTC

See also his twitter for some speculation as to how on earth simply changing refresh rate would cause boot corruption: https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/111329614147717090

>Why? I can tell you why: because Apple hates display modeset flicker, and switching modes between ProMotion on/off causes a modeset flicker, so of course they made it so that is stored in nvram somewhere and applied when the screen is turned on during early boot, so when macOS boots it doesn't have to flicker again.

>And they didn't test it with older OS bootloaders, so display handoff/init just fails catastrophically with those when this mode is enabled.

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#6

Post by wetpaws » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:15 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#7

Post by mattchamb » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:16 PM UTC

Not sure if related, but my 2020 M1 macbook air bricked a week or so after upgrading to Sonoma. I was suspicious if this was related to the update. Luckily the logic board was replaced for free under warranty laws here, though it put me off switching to iphone which I was a day away from doing.

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#8

Post by alsetmusic » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:16 PM UTC

neilalexander wrote: post #3

Interestingly I ran into this exact problem with my work MacBook Pro M1 upgrading to Ventura 13.6 and assumed it was a totally isolated incident. I don't have a dual-boot setup either, just a single macOS install. The computer was connected to a Thunderbolt Display during the update which I assume had the same effect of changing the refresh rate to something other-than-ProMotion that the linked article mentions. I ha…

> I also wasted far too much time trying to get the DFU restore to work before discovering that you cannot use a Thunderbolt cable — it has to be done using a plain USB-C cable, otherwise the Apple Configurator simply won't detect the other Mac.

I would have expected a Thunderbolt cable to be required, if either was. This is quite surprising to me. Usually, the more capable (higher bandwidth) cable works if one isn’t supported. I’ll hope to remember this is I ever find myself reviving a bricked Mac in the future.

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#9

Post by bitigchi » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:21 PM UTC

I am somewhat glad that there is a 3rd party that actively helps finding macOS issues.

Re: macOS Sonoma Boot Failures

#10

Post by vbezhenar » Tue, Oct 31, 2023, 7:24 PM UTC

alsetmusic wrote: post #8

neilalexander wrote: post #3

Interestingly I ran into this exact problem with my work MacBook Pro M1 upgrading to Ventura 13.6 and assumed it was a totally isolated incident. I don't have a dual-boot setup either, just a single macOS install. The computer was connected to a Thunderbolt Display during the update which I assume had the same effect of changing the refresh rate to something other-than-ProMotion that the linked article mentions. I ha…

> I also wasted far too much time trying to get the DFU restore to work before discovering that you cannot use a Thunderbolt cable — it has to be done using a plain USB-C cable, otherwise the Apple Configurator simply won't detect the other Mac. I would have expected a Thunderbolt cable to be required, if either was. This is quite surprising to me. Usually, the more capable (higher bandwidth) cable works if one isn’t…

I restored my Macbook just one hour ago with crappy USB-C USB-A cable, god bless the libimobiledevice creator.