After installing Monterey 12.3 (on an external SSD), the system went into a boot loop caused by a panic:
Using Monterey 12.2.1 to inspect, the 12.3 system volume has a broken seal which is likely the source of the problem:
Has anyone experienced this issue and, if so, is there a solution (I've already tried re-installing 12.3 several times with similar results)?
- Pie Lover
Mac mini 2018 or later
Referred to this in earlier posting regarding Carbon Copy Cloner and here is the actual quotation from same source. Beginning to believe this may somehow be related ?
" Apple's APFS replication utility fails on Apple Silicon Macs running 12.3
Tasks configured to use the Legacy Bootable Copy Assistant will fail on Apple Silicon Macs running 12.3 due to a "bless" failure that is internal to Apple's replication utility.
We reported this issue to Apple on February 4, 2020 (FB9880164). Apple acknowledged the report, but did not give an indication that they are working to resolve it.
Workaround: Don't configure your tasks with the Legacy Bootable Copy Assistant, configure a Standard Backup instead. Standard Backups are simpler, more flexible, and have more functionality than bootable copies of the system. Standard Backups are also compatible with Migration Assistant for performing complete restores of your system.
Update: In earlier beta builds of 12.3, this failure rendered the destination unmountable. In the final release of 12.3, that failure is now innocuous. CCC 6.1.1 will ignore the error and completes the task. That update will be available soon. If you'd like to verify the fix, you can download the beta build of 6.1.1 from here. "
Referred to this in earlier posting regarding Carbon Copy Cloner and here is the actual quotation from same source. Beginning to believe this may somehow be related ?
" Apple's APFS replication utility fails on Apple Silicon Macs running 12.3
Tasks configured to use the Legacy Bootable Copy Assistant will fail on Apple Silicon Macs running 12.3 due to a "bless" failure that is internal to Apple's replication utility.
We reported this issue to Apple on February 4, 2020 (FB9880164). Apple acknowledged the report, but did not give an indication that they are working to resolve it.
Workaround: Don't configure your tasks with the Legacy Bootable Copy Assistant, configure a Standard Backup instead. Standard Backups are simpler, more flexible, and have more functionality than bootable copies of the system. Standard Backups are also compatible with Migration Assistant for performing complete restores of your system.
Update: In earlier beta builds of 12.3, this failure rendered the destination unmountable. In the final release of 12.3, that failure is now innocuous. CCC 6.1.1 will ignore the error and completes the task. That update will be available soon. If you'd like to verify the fix, you can download the beta build of 6.1.1 from here. "
I had an email chat with Bombich not long ago, too. Same info that as macOS progresses, making a startup clone will essentially be impossible. He also mentioned trying to create a bootable clone now isn't recommended as the clone can't be verified as error free, or even complete.
He very strongly recommends doing a "standard" backup, which copies only data related to your account and third party data installed to the root Library folder.
Then, to create a proper bootable clone (or a restore), you install macOS on an erased volume. When it gets to the point where it asks if you have data to restore, you point it to the volume/partition with your CCC backup on.
I reinstalled Monterey 12.3 once again. This time, I noticed that the 12.3 system volume was initially sealed when before being mounted but indicated broken after mounting (and stayed broken).
This seems to be the reason why booting 12.3 is failing (panics). I have reported these observations to Apple Technical Support and am currently waiting for a response.
- Pie Lover
P.S. I now believe that a sealed system snapshot should indicate a size of zero bytes
Bombich had mentioned previously that Apple had told him that the cloning a boot drive would not work later on and that the current option for Big Sur & Monterey would likely be the end of cloning the system volume. Everyone assumed that would occur with the next major OS upgrade instead of a point release of Monterey since typically major system changes are reserved for the major OS upgrades. Hopefully it will be fixed for Monterey, but I'm starting to doubt it since Apple has been releasing more & more major changes the current OS release instead of reserving changes to the next major release.
It is really a shame.
I completely erased the external SSD and reinstalled Monterey 12.3.1 which was initially successful. I even rebooted 12.3.1 a few times to confirm the installation. However once I switched back to Monterey 12.2.1, I could not go back to 12.3.1. The symptoms (kernel panic) were the same as previously reported. I also noticed that the system seal was broken on Monterey 12.3.1 which probably is the source of the boot problems.
My latest theory is that Monterey 12.3+ can be installed on an external drive as expected. However, once installed, booting an earlier update such as 12.2.1 (from the internal drive in my case) somehow corrupts the system seal on the the 12.3 system external volume.
Does this explanation make sense to anyone?
- Pie Lover
P.S. To anyone who is interested, Monterey 12.3.1 does not restore the AirPlay Receiver capability to the Mac mini (2018). So it seems that I am forced to stay on 12.2.1 for the foreseeable future.
Wondering aloud, as this installation is to an External Drive.
Any thought on your discovery and how it relates to below. Yes if the Internal Drive has been Flashed with the Required EFI BOOT ROM - installing to an After Market External Drive in theory should work.
There are reports appearing on the ASC Forums regarding failed installation of Monterey on older Qualifying Apple Computers. In most cases this is related to having a NON Apple Original internal drive ?
The EFI Boot ROM included in Monterey is verifying for Original Apple Drive and if not found , may Balk or fail to upgrade to Monterey.
Reports indicate the EFI BOOT ROM is Required to Flash the Computer and is a requirement for a Successful Monterey Installation.
OK some more experimenting.
· Wiped the external SSD.
· Reinstalled a fresh copy of OS 12.3. Let’s call it CopyA.
· Boots fine and as it should.
· Rebooted into my normal OS (13.2.1).
· Made a copy of the fresh instal (CopyA), using ChronoSync (CS), to the same SSD. Let’s call this CopyB that is an exact copy of CopyA.
· Boots fine and as it should.
· Rebooted into my normal OS (13.2.1).
· Using CS, I synchronised my original OS to CopyB on the SSD.
· CopyB does not boot, gives the know errors.
I would have hoped this would fix it as for a while (OS11) this was the workaround of creating a bootable copy.
Thought I share this just in case it helps finding a solution.
I read somewhere that even opening the system volume with write access (but not actually changing anything) is enough to break the SSV seal.
Thinking aloud, I wondering if it's the process of booting 12.2.1 that "corrupts" the 12.3.1 installation on the external disk. If so, perhaps a workaround could be to first shutdown the machine, disconnect the external SSD with 12.3.1, and using the startup manager (press Option on power-up) to select 12.2.1 (going back would entail shutting down the machine, re-connecting the external SSD, and selecting 12.3.1 with the startup manager).
- Pie Lover
I don't really have a good explanation for this behaviour but disconnecting the 12.3+ external SSD before booting 12.2.1 from the internal drive works. In other words, I could shutdown the machine, connect the 12.3.1 external SSD, and boot into the Startup Manager. So it seems that booting 12.2.1 breaks the seal on the newly installed 12.3.1 OS (when connected).
BTW, I forgot to mention that I had to boot into Safe Mode in order to install 12.3.1 to the external SSD.
- Pie Lover
diskutil apfs list
About This Mac
I called Apple Support this morning to let them know that my proposed workaround was not stable. The Apple advisor reviewed the feedback from engineering. For what it's worth, one engineer had recommended resetting the privileges database using the tccutil reset All command (see A Guide to Catalina’s Privacy Protection: 4 tccutil).
In the end, the advisor seem to agree that my best option was to put this aside and hope for a future fix. For my part, I'll probably let a few updates go by before attempting again.
I did manage to briefly experiment with some new 12.3 features such as Universal Control (it worked well with our 8th Gen iPad on iOS 15.4.1). Also, as mentioned previously, the AirPlay receiver feature is not supported on the Mac mini (2018) as of Monterey 12.3.
- Pie Lover
I don't believe that the two installation issues are closely related.
I was able to upgrade to Monterey 12.3 using the internal drive. However, I reverted back to 12.2.1 once I realized that the AirPlay Receiver feature was not supported on the Mac mini (2018). That said, I wanted to experiment with 12.3 using an installation on an external drive.
I assume that the installation of 12.3 on an external drive should have worked just as it did for 12.2.1. My guess is that the issue is either related to a broken system seal or perhaps a flaw in the updated firmware (System firmware version 1731.100.130.0.0 and iBridge version 19.16.14242.0.0,0 for Intel Macs with T2 security chip such as the Mac mini (2018)).
In terms of debugging, I used verbose mode while booting and took a photo of the screen (i.e. with a smartphone). The Operation not permitted error (see below) may be consistent with an issue with a system snapshot broken seal.
- Pie Lover
Perhaps so.
What I can say with certainty that some was changed in 12.3 but the way is presently unknown.
Doing a Legacy Clone using CCC on 12.2.1 would work fine.
Doing the same action on 12.3 will fail. The developer of this software has alerted CCC Users of this and is working on fix.
Suspect, the ASR functionality of Monterey 12.3 has changed and has just become tighter and tighter by Apple.
Are the two related - unknown
It occurred to me that the issue may have a simpler explanation; launchd may be missing the Full Disk Access privilege during the boot phase. This would explain why the Monterey 12.3 installation works with an internal drive but not with an external one. Also, this behaviour would had to have changed with 12.3 (since installation to an external drive works with 12.2.1).
- Pie Lover
@P. Phillips linked me to this discussion as I have similar problems.
Containers or partitions for several OS o… - Apple Community
I must report that I just did a fresh install of 12.3 on to an external SSD and that boots fine. Will try to run a bootable backup to it this afternoon. BTW, I use ChronoSync not CCC as I found it to be superior long ago when I bought it. Still my backups do not boot (see pics in other post) it loops endlessly.
EDITED
Can say I have Not experienced this issue.
Then again have not attempting installing Monterey to External Drive
Question - the computer on which the test has been done from, has already been upGraded and running Monterey 12.2.1?
Broken Monterey System Volume Seal
