After 10.6 security update 2013-002 PGP encrypted disk won't boot

Question

After 10.6 security update 2013-002 PGP encrypted disk won't boot

I ran the latest security update on my very old 17" intel MacBook Pro (It won't boot, so I can't give you the model number). It has PGP encryption installed on it, but I only have my passphrase, not the keys since it's a managed system. Half way through the install, it failed with a cryptic error, and the machine won't boot now. It gets half way through booting, and the screen goes black.

I have booted into single user mode, and ran fsck and applejack, only to get an error about a sibling error, and the hard disk is full.

Is this a PGP issue? Does the latest security update conflict with PGP?

I found this resolution to a similar sounding problem in 2010, but am unsure if this is happening now. Google searching hasn't yeilded anything so far.

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20101111120329585

Thanks for any help.

Melissa

Posted on Jun 10, 2013 7:29 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Yeehat

Level 1

49 points

Jun 10, 2013 10:04 AM in response to Melissa McGuire

About PGP I can't tell; the hint you linked (and the suggested fix) might still be valid:

PGP recommends folks to decrypt their drives first, update to 10.6.5 and then re-encrypt.

this sounds as a general recommendation.

However fsck reported a sibling error (an invalid link sibling error I presume) and that's not fine. Afaik, Disk Utility can't fix it; DiskWarrior hopefully will. I quote from Alsoft Support Database:

Question

Is DiskWarrior capable of repairing an "Invalid Sibling Link" error?

Answer

This is an error you definitely don't want. It indicates that parts of your directory, and therefore some of your files and folders, are inaccessible.
Mac OS Standard (HFS) and Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) disk directories have a very complex structure. Each file or folder (item) on a disk has an entry in the disk's directory. These entries are in order of enclosing folder and then item name. This is similar to a yellow pages directory being ordered by type of business and then business name. Just like a yellow pages directory, the disk directory has pages except that its pages are called nodes. Unlike the yellow pages, nodes are dynamic and change as you add and delete items. It's sort of like a realtime yellow pages.
Imagine that the pages of the yellow pages are not in order and at the bottom of each page it says "Continued on page n," where n is the page that contains the next set of listings for the particular type of business that you're looking up. Well nodes are not arranged in order and each node has a reference, or link, to the next node that contains the next set of ordered items. This link is what is referred to as the sibling link.
A sibling link error is a bad link to another node. Either the link refers to the wrong node or it refers to an invalid node. As I said, a sibling link error makes some of your items inaccessible and can even prevent a disk from mounting. Sibling errors are notoriously difficult for some of the patching type of disk repair utilities to repair. Sometimes the repairs fail and the directory is damaged further. If a disk with a sibling link error is still mountable, I would advise backing up the accessible files and folders on the disk before attempting to repair it with that type of disk repair utility.

I'm not really sure DiskWarrior will work on a PGP encrypted disk. According to a few old Google matches, it should. See e.g.:

http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=4263350

but according to more recent ones, it won't:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2719460?start=0&tstart=0

It seems you're out of luck even with Safe Boot (from PGP Whole Disk Encryption Command Line User's Guide):

The Mac OS X Safe Boot feature does not work on a boot disk that has been whole disk encrypted; if you hold down the Shift key to enter Safe Boot, the system will fail to boot after authenticating at the PGP BootGuard screen.

So, while you're waiting for some more knowledgeable advice, you might backup your data to an external drive while booted in single user mode. There are many how-tos out there; I think this one is pretty clear:

http://jsalovaara.com/blog/backing-up-files-to-a-usb-drive-using-single-user-mod e.html

Hope this helps.

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 10, 2013 2:04 PM in response to Yeehat

Thanks for the help Yeehat.

I did a lot of reading last Friday when this all went down on the invalid sibling link error, and did a bit more searching on Disk Warrior. All interweb knowledge said that neither applejack or fsck could fix it on their own and DW was only mostly successfu.

Throw in the PGP encryption and no one place said for sure whether it worked. I don't have access to DW, so might end up purchasing it if everything else proves unsuccessful.

Given your defintion of the sibling link eror above, I am still leaning this primarily being a PGP encryption not playing nicely with OS X Snow Leopard issue. I think that at this point, since I don't manage the PGP keys, it might be beyond my ability to fix. I have called in another tech who does have access to the master keys since he works in the IT support, and we shall see what he can figure out.

For now, I am still without a system, and sitting through the weekend did nothing to help it boot.

Thanks for everything. What you wrote helped me to better understand what I had spend Friday reading, and also confirmed that I'm on the right path.

Take care,

Melissa

Reply