Kernel Panic After Thunderbolt Update

I just want to say a huge thank you for the re-install fix. I'm one of those techno challenged individuals who wigged out when the panic screen popped up--it was so wonderful to come here and find the answer--thanks!!!

It's been so long since I've seen one of these screens--with my PC they happened routinely!

Replacing IONetworkingFamily.kext did not help on my system. There were more kexts missing (compared to a fresh installed 10.7.4) and even after replacing the IONetworkingFamily.kext, my mac went into kernel panic. Copying the whole Extensions Folder seemed to help for the kernel panic, but left the mac booting forever (well, I did not let it, maybe I was too impatient).

I would try this in any case, if it works, it will save a lot of time.

Apple's enthusiasm to release buggy updates, with no regard to the havoc they create for the user is becoming very annoying. I installed this "disrupdate" yesterday, only to find a kernel panic on restart... it took me around six hours to resolve the issue, including reinstalling Lion and then having to update it after deselecting the Thunderbolt "update". I lost almost a day's work thanks to Apple's lack of attention to detail. Will they compensate me from their vast cash reserves?... I didn't think so!

Hi there people

I too have succumbed to this very annoying problem

BUT

everytime I try to reinstall Lion via the download option, the bar gets towards the end (after a few long hours)

and never completes. The remaining time just jumps up to Xhours and stays there........I've cancelled and restarted the installation, everytime it just lingers towards the end, making no progress. Driving me crazy

Anyone else having this problem?

Are really your data ok? It would seem the best solution.

Michael Wineke wrote:

For those that feel betrayed, or otherwise tricked out of a few hours of their day, please hold off on applying updates in the future until others have discovered any problems with the updates. Maybe a few days and a visit to a couple industry related news sites, or befreind an early adopter with more experience and thicker skin.

So now it is the user's fault? They are too unexperienced and too thin-skinned? If you are related to Apple you should be ashamed to argue like this. If you are not, why are you defending them? Do you think they need you to insult their users? Or are you just trolling the Apple support forum?

Apple crashed thousands of computers with their "update". The repair is not trivial. Putting the Mac into target mode, using the terminal and copying kernel extensions is nothing Apple users should be expected to do. In fact this is exactly the opposite of what Apple promises.

To publish this update on the day of the WWDC, when a lot of users were waiting for new features (and so checked for updates) made it worse.

It took 17 hours to restore a Time Machine backup to my MacBook Pro (early 2011). Some VirtualBox images which I excluded from backup are lost, which means extra work. Additionally Mail, iTunes and other programs are now asking questions as if this'd be a new computer.

Because you have not previously had a bad experience with updates doesn' mean you won't in the future. It has happend to people in the past, and it will happen to people in the future. Maybe even to you.

One thing I hope that happens to people in the future is that the Apple employee who gave this update free gets fired.

An official excuse would be appreciated.

I agree completely.

Apple are a huge company with massive resources, who should be able to test their official software updates properly before realeasing them to the unsuspecting populace... many of whom have spent their very hard-earned cash making Apple the mega-corporation it has become.

I had the same problem (a kernal panic during the Thunderbolt firmware installation), and when I restarted in Safe Mode (by pressing and holding Shift immediately after the start-up tone) the terminal told me that there was no OS X system found.

I used Option-Start to start up in the new Lion Recovery mode, then tried to reinstall Lion. The result was a frozen progress bar.

I used Option-Start again and restored my entire HD to its pre-Lion status.

Apple Technical Support asked me to:

1. Re-download Lion from the App Store, then install it.

2. Download and install the 10.7.4 Client Combo from support.apple.com Downloads section.

3. Run Software Update and install what it suggested, avoiding the Thunderbolt update if it appeared -- but that it probably wouldn't since it had been identified as the offending update and had been removed from the update system.

4. The Thunderbolt update did not appear, and the updates installed without incident.

Whew.

Totally agreed. Left completely disgruntled. Why is there an update for a software pushed out indiscriminately when most folks likely don't even have a Thunderbolt port?? Waiting for an official apology.

I completely agree! 2012 is a bad year for Apple updates as far as I am concerned. It damages my trust in Apple big time.

The best solution on this topic!

Wow, just wow...your argument is flawed on so many levels where to begin.

As someone who WORKED for Apple for 10+ yrs I can tell you that something like this completely surprised and disappointed me. I worked in engineering and we worked VERY hard to make sure everything was thouroughly tested before sending out (there are in fact different levels of staging especially for updates like this).

So when us, users see an update, the first thought should not be 'Oh this might be buggy or beta or let me contact someone at C|Net to do an anaylsis!' It should just work, that's what we pay the premium on the hardware and software for.

Stuff happens, but this was and is unexcusable...if an update is changing low-level files or running a process that could render a system inoperable, then great measures need to be taken.

For the result and 'fix' to be re-install OS X Lion (which for some meant just laying down a new copy of Lion over existing data a still several hour process), others it meant wiping the drive completely, starting over and (assuming they had a recent backup) backing up their data, applying updates etc.

I was the later, I had to wipe my drive, luckily having a week-old backup available, after install + restore of data + applying updates it was over 8hrs!!!

Funny thing is when I worked at Apple, if I had something that would have caused me to be down for 8hrs and not do my job that would have been livid, but who can I bill this lost time to? Perhaps Apple AP/AR in Austin??

The other thing that I was really disappointed was how this was handled, AppleCare was not in the loop, they were being inadated with calls, Genius Bars @Stores did not know anything that was going on...I told them to check the forums and they realized what they had on their hands.

This coming after last week iCloud being down for several hours with little to no transparency on that.

No one expects Apple to be perfect...but be upfront. When I was there we did strive for perfection so perhaps my feeling is that 'live by the sword, die by the sword'....you work the **** out of everyone to strive for perfection you had **** better be honest and willing to accept responsibility when things do not turn out 'perfect' and in this case waste a lot of people's valuable time (and in some cases where people didn't backup their valuable data').

Ulrich Hansen, et al.

I'm sorry you took such offense from my suggestions.

I am not a troll by intent. I am a loooong time, largely happy, Apple user who has provided support for organizations and individuals using Apple computers for over 15 years. I HAVE seen this happen before. I expect I will see it again.

I'm equally sorry to hear you lost a day of time. I understand not everyone has access to another system that can access the internet for researching resolution of a problem. In this case, installing the 10.7.4 combo update resolves the problem. I agree it is nontrivial if your one and only computer is experiencing the issue.

As for installing the extensions from another machine, or backup, that was discovered and reported in this thread to be ineffective. Restoring your entire machine from backup was found to generally not be required and was reported here as well. Perhaps there are circumstances where it might have been necessary, but I have not heard of anyone losing the data on their drive as a result of installing this Thunderbolt update.

I'm glad you found this thread though. The Thunderbolt update IS to blame for your problem, if not the particular steps you took to resolve it. My suggestion was merely to help in avoiding such incidents going forward. Again, I'm sorry my post offended you. You might be surprised to hear I read, and edited the post a number of times before committing it.

IT departments the world over install updates on test equipment and shake it for a few days before releasing the updates to avoid this sort of problem. You can ignore my suggestions if you wish of course, but I hope you'll reconsider in that case.

I had the same kernel panics as others yesterday. Impossible to boot into safe mode and booting off the 10.6.8 DVD allowed me to repair the hard drive although to no avail. The solution I found was to hold down the option key on restart and then select the recovery partition to boot from and then reinstall Lion. It took 40 minutes or so to download and another 20 or so to install. Upon reboot everything was working fine* and no personal data was lost.

* I did have a problem with Amazon's Send To Kindle application causing launchd to repeatedly report an error. Deinstalling it fixed that problem. As a further precaution I deleted all caches and restarted. Then updated using Software Update (the expected updates but without the troublesome Thunderbolt update - presumably Apple have pulled it)

I've since learnt I might have been able to boot off my iMac in FireWire target disk mode and apply the 10.7.4 combo updater as suggested here - essential reading if you're still stuck: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57451440-263/thunderbolt-update-plaguing-ma cbook-pros-with-kernel-panics/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=MacFixIt

Anyone know why he recommends running the combo updater after reinstalling Lion? Mine came back as 10.7.4 anyway so I'm guessing that's just a precaution too.

Good luck!

I called applecare and had to do a restore