None of the updates could be installed. Kernel panic

I actually have a phone appointment with Apple Support in about 3.5 hours. I managed to re-install Lion and integrate a month-old Time Machine back-up (Note to self: more regular back-up's) on my IMac mid-2011 but now it wants to update the very same software that started this mess. So I wanna talk to them. After all, this is what I bought Apple Care for.

If they can confirm which update is the problem or any other useful information, I will post it here. 🙂

I wanted to share an update.

Good news. I rebooted with Cmd-R pressed and reinstalled Lion. Then - applied 10.7.4 combo update. The problem was resolved. The culprit was Thunderbolt update. Note: all data and preferences have been retained.

Private observation: very poor QA Apple. But the recovery has been straightforward.

Same problem on 2011 iMac27.

Was only able to find out what was wrong and how to recover by using older Powerbook to access this forum - what would you do if your only machine is down and your not very tech savvy?

It has taken 5 hours to restore operations.

I'll be nervous updating in the future!

GP7200 - I'm in the middle of reinstalling OS 10.7 using the same method. I'm surprised to hear that all your preferences were retained, I had assumed I would need to restore from a back up after the OS was installed. You're saying not so? What a relief that would be

Thanks

Hello,

I can also confirm that this solution is working for me. I'm currently running the updates but all my files, photos, music and applications are all there. Stupid apple update!

1) Hold in command-r while rebooting (or from cold start) to boot to the recovery partition.

2) Chose re-install mac osx

3) Enter appleID credentials

4) After the re-install is complete (may take a while depending on your intenet connection etc) all your files, preferences, and software will be there, you shouldn't lose anything.

5) DO NOT reattempt the Thunderbolt update. You can update the iPhoto and other updates that Software Update finds...just DO NOT check the Thunderbolt one or you will be at step one again.

Thanks to all.

Hi,

steps I went through last night.

cmd-r > disk utilities and repaired permissions

then I connected the laptop in target mode through firewire and got all my files out just to be on the safe side

turn on imac connect firewire to mbp and press T at bootup...

at that point

cmd-r > re-install lion.... I did not loose anything, except a bit of sleep, its all there :-)

I was a bit iffy about rolling back the time machine because my nas disk is rather temperamental.

somebody was saying that because they had done a clean lion install it wouldn't recognize their installation disks...I had tht problem once but a bit of insistence and it fnnaly recognized the disks... press C at start-up, one problem with mbp spring '11 is that there is an expired certificate in the application install disks so you need to set the dat back to spring '11 to get them to install.

Clem

I've covered several options for recovering the system after this update here: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57451440-263/thunderbolt-update-plaguing-ma cbook-pros-with-kernel-panics/

I hope it helps some fix their systems.

Same thing here. Apple reps are clueless at this point. Been on with two of them.

They suggest re-install of Lion, which, in my case, hangs in black screen after "downloading additional components."

Anger cannot describe what I am feeling. This is NOT an OS update and it apparently did not get QAed properly to the point it is killing a lot of machines.

I am desperate for data on the machine!

Now the senior advisor's line just cut out and didn't get a call back!!

Well, I'm adding my vote to the "Thunderbolt hosed my Mac" thread. 15" MBP, 2011, went into kernel panic on reboot after applying the Thunderbolt update. Wonder why it's still available at software update? Spent the night reinstalling. To my relief, user files appear intact.

It seems to be a bug with the update.

READ ALL THIS. IT WILL SAVE YOUR COMPUTER. YOU WILL NOT LOSE ANY FILES AND DO NOT HAVE TO RESORT TO A TIME MACHINE BACKUP IF YOU PROPERLY PURCHASED LION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for grammer...typing fast

Assuming that you have properly purchased OS X Lion...

IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH MAC

!) shut down laptop

2) Hold down option key and restart computer

3) Choose Recovery HD from the boot menu

4) Make sure Wifi is on, and connected to internet

5) Choose Reinstall OS X Lion from the Recovery Utility Menu

At this point, your computer is going to attempt to contact apple and download an eariler version of Lion. I tried doing this, but it wasnt able to make a connection, and ened up saying close the application and try again. Dont waste your time here...move on

IF YOU HAVE A RECENT TIME MACHINE BACKUP

-follow the steps above except obviously choose restore from time machine backup

IF YOU HAVE A COUPLE FILES YOU WANTED TO SAVE SINCE THAT LAST BACKUP

-you will need another Mac to save them and a firewire 800-firewire 800 cable

1) turn of the broken laptop

2) Plug firewire from broken laptop to working laptop

3) turn on working latop and open finder

4) hold down the "T" key on the broken one and start it

5) you should see a grey screen with a battery indicator and a firewire logo floating on the screen

6) in finder on the working computer, you should now see the harddrive of your old computer, drag the files you want to the new one and restore to a backup with the steps above

IF YOU HAVE AN OS X LION CD-ROM

1) Turn off computer

2) Insert Lion install disk

3) Start up computer while holding Option key

4) Release option key when several hard drive icons appear

5) Click the arrow below the CD-ROM icon

6) From the list of tasks in the Recovery Utility window, choose Reinstall OS X Lion. This option will NOT touch any of your files, it will only strip the OS and replace it.

IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER LAPTOP

1) On the working laptop, navigate to the App Store, and Sign in

2) Search for OS X Lion in the app store

3) If you correctly purchased the Lion upgrade originally, you should be able to click the "Download" button next to the Lion photo. ALTERNATIVELY you can click "purchases" in the app store, and navigate to the Install Lion app, and then click download from there

4) When Lion installs, conduct a Spotlight search (very far upper right hand corner of your screen magnifing glass) for "Install Mac OS X Lion" and choose "reveal items in finder"

5) right click on the Install Mac OS X Lion app (the one with the lion picture)

6) Choose "show package contents"

7) Open "contents"

8) Open "shared support"

9) In the spot light search, no type "disk utility"

10) in shared support, drag "InstallESD.dmg" to some blank white space in the left hand box of the Disk Utility window (the correct box probably says something like "500.11 GB ST90546500" on the first line, and "MAC HD" on the second line.)

11) Right click on the "InstallESD.dmg" in the disk utility box (the location you just dragged to) and right click it and choose "Open Disk Image"

12) insert a free USB thumbdrive (CAUTION. if you do not know how to create a new partition [[[5GB REQUIRED FOR THIS STEP]]] then everything MAY be wiped from this drive)

13) Your new drive should show up in black in disk utility. If it shows up grey, click on it and in the erase tab of Disk Utiliy, make sure you choose MAC OS JOURNALED from the drop down menu and click erase

14) In disk utility, click on the drive listed below "InstallESD.dmg" should be called "Mac OS X Install ESD"

15) In the restore tab, you should see "Mac OS X Install ESD" in the source tab

16) Drag your USB flash drive from the left hand box of disk utility to the "destination" text box

17) Click restore. It should take about 15-20 minutes. once done, eject the flash drive and plug it in to your broken computer

18) Start the borken one and hold down option

19) you should now see at least these three options come up on a grey screen MAC HD (harddrive icon), RECOVERY HD (harddrive icon), and MAC OS X INSTALL ESD (usb icon)

20) Choose MAC OS X INSTALL ESD

21) choose install a version of lion from the recovery utility menu

22) THIS IS DIFFERENT THAN THE FIRST SET OF STEPS I LISTED. ONCE YOU BOOT FROM THAT FLASH DRIVE, IT WILL NOW TRY TO FIND THE LION OS FROM YOUR DRIVE WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO CONTACT APPLE FROM THE INTERNET (like how it would of had you selected Recovery HD from the boot menu)

23) Now your computer should go through some basic prompts, install for about 15 minutes, and then restart and finish installing for about 35 minutes.

24) You should be back to normal. DO NOT UPDATE TO that 10.4.7 or whatever it is called. if your computer asks, click show details and UNCHECK that option.

The re-install worked for me, though it took a loooong time to download since so many people are accessing the Apple servers for the same exact reason.

As BWGS said, after CMD + R at boot, a restore of 10.7.4 all was fine and Network Prefs, Bookmarks etc were all intact, did not have to resort to a back up.

Don't be too hard on the Apple reps, they are being overwhelemd today and it wasn't their fault, they didn't write to code or do the QA. Have a heart! But it is frustrating for sure.

I wasn't too hard on them, but I did call them as I went thorugh this mess twice, once yesterday /booted to recovery partition --> reinstalled) and then again this morning to see if it was some old software I had that had caused it.. -> Nope.. even on a fresh install with no 3rd party SW added this update will cook your boot parition.

2011 MBP 17 in fully loaded. New June 2011.

Recovery is thankfully, straightforward,

However, this is solidly reproduceable on a less than 1 yr old MBP and apparently was not tested.

I just heard from another discussion that Apple has pulled the Thunderbolt update, so no more users will have this issue.

It seems I am the only one here that can NOT use the Cmd-R or Option boot method to fix it. None of the keyboard combo works for me, and I've tried all of them, resetting PRAM, SMC, safe mode... Nothing worked. Just a grey screen. It seems that only one key works in my keyboard -- power :(

I'm using a mid-2010 MacBook Air 13".

Hi, I did the same thing but I could not locate my files. I think I lost them.