MBA mid 2011 2.9 Firmware update just killed by Air

Software update utility is a wrapper that follows a pre-, install- and post- phase.

Download the Firmware package...

Jul 22 15:10:01 Drs-MacBook-Air.local Installer[241]: MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update Installation Log

Jul 22 15:10:01 Drs-MacBook-Air.local Installer[241]: Opened from: /Volumes/MacBookAir EFI Update/MacBookAirEFIUpdate.pkg

Jul 22 15:10:01 Drs-MacBook-Air.local Installer[241]: Product archive /Volumes/MacBookAir EFI Update/MacBookAirEFIUpdate.pkg trustLevel=501

Start the update...

Jul 22 15:10:13 Drs-MacBook-Air.local Installer[241]: Upgrade: "MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update"

Jul 22 15:10:13 Drs-MacBook-Air.local Installer[241]: MacBookAirEFIUpdate.pkg#MacBookAirEFIUpdate.pkg : MacBookAir : 2.9.0.0.1.1355452227

Jul 22 15:10:13 Drs-MacBook-Air.local Installer[241]: -[IFDInstallController(Private) _buildInstallPlan]: file://localhost/Volumes/MacBookAir%20EFI%20Update/MacBookAirEFIUpdate.pkg#MacB ookAirEFIUpdate.pkg

"PKLeopardPackage <file://localhost/Volumes/MacBookAir%20EFI%20Update/MacBookAirEFIUpdate.pkg#Mac BookAirEFIUpdate.pkg>"

Jul 22 15:10:13 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: PackageKit: Will do receipt-based obsoleting for package identifier com.apple.pkg.MacBookAirEFIUpdate (prefix path=/)

Extract the package...

Jul 22 15:10:13 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: PackageKit: Extracting file://localhost/Volumes/MacBookAir%20EFI%20Update/MacBookAirEFIUpdate.pkg#MacB ookAirEFIUpdate.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxM anager/C018E4DE-3F3F-45CD-AB13-728BF72D1C67.activeSandbox/Root, uid=0)

Run pre- and post- preparation...

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: PackageKit: Executing script "preinstall" in /private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.lZbWeS/Scripts/com.apple.pkg.MacBookAirEFIUpdate. PWiVLE

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: PackageKit: Executing script "postinstall" in /private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.lZbWeS/Scripts/com.apple.pkg.MacBookAirEFIUpdate. PWiVLE

Bless so this device can boot...

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local _securityagent[271]: Begin script: blessEFI

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: Deleting contents of EFI cache directory

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: Creating /Volumes/bless.IFLo/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE if needed

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: Deleting previous contents of /Volumes/bless.IFLo/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE

Save the old firmware...

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: Deleting /Volumes/bless.IFLo/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE/MBA41_0077_B11_LOCKED.scap (8454768 bytes)

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: Opened dest at /Volumes/bless.IFLo/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE//MBA41_0077_B11_LOCKED.scap for writing

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: preallocation not supported on this filesystem for /Volumes/bless.IFLo/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE//MBA41_0077_B11_LOCKED.scap

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: /Volumes/bless.IFLo/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE//MBA41_0077_B11_LOCKED.scap created successfully

Jul 22 15:10:16 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: Relative path of /Volumes/bless.IFLo/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE//MBA41_0077_B11_LOCKED.scap is \EFI\APPLE\FIRMWARE\MBA41_0077_B11_LOCKED.scap

Finish update and set NVRAM...

Jul 22 15:10:17 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: Setting EFI NVRAM:

Jul 22 15:10:17 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: postinstall: 2 : <CFString 0x10af4deb0 [0x7fff711c4f00]>{contents = "efi-apple-recovery"} = <CFString 0x7fb1a940b8c0 [0x7fff711c4f00]>{contents = "<array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia </string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>3D4CFE9E-2731-4 7 43-940F-4B8AD73DDC1A</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk 0 s1</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>MediaFilePath</st r ing><key>Path</key><string>\EFI\APPLE\FIRMWARE\MBA41_0077_B11_LOCKED.scap</stri n g></dict></array>"}

Jul 22 15:10:17 Drs-MacBook-Air.local _securityagent[279]: End script: blessEFI

Jul 22 15:10:17 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: PackageKit: Writing receipt for com.apple.pkg.MacBookAirEFIUpdate to /private/var/db/receipts

Jul 22 15:10:17 Drs-MacBook-Air.local installd[258]: Installed "MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update" ()

As you can see it does finish but never seems to successfully show up in System Report...

App Store provides the front-end, but the Software Updater (softwareupdated) has not changed much. You can even see the references to Leopard. 😉

Are you now running the new firmware or still the old one? Does your App Store window no longer ask for a firmware update to be executed?

It is very interesting that you mention three SMC resets specifically.

Just a quick update, it would appear Apple may have done something to the update on the Software Update page, as it's no longer showing as an available update for this MBA, even though it failed on the previous installation attempts.

It's still up at this link:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1756

Not sure if Apple pulled it off, or if it's just now being flagged by this MBA as installed, though System Information is still showing the original B0F EFI.

I had the same problems as reported earlier. EFI update showed up on the App Store, after installing it I had the fear that my MacBook Air was bricked because I couldn't start it up. At some point it just restarted. The Update showed up again in the AppStore... Firmware is still the same as before.

Firmware Update and the MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.9 link got removed now.

The exact problems the firmware update is supposed to fix. From http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1756

"This update is recommended for MacBook Air (Mid 2011) models. This update addresses an issue where systems may take longer to wake from sleep than expected and fixes a rare issue that may cause fans to run at full speed after waking from sleep."

Thank you. If that is the case, I would not recommend doing the SMC-reset-3-times procedure, but continue running with the old firmware till an updated version is available from Apple. (It is still available here though - http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1756. This should also be removed. Let the L2 folks at Apple know, if you talk to them again).

rozalie_m is running into issues with the updated version, and I think others also will.

To quote Jason's post - "Clearly Apple knows they screwed the pooch on this one."

I installed update, and it didn't brick my machine, but I can't get Ethernet to work at all now. I have two USB Ethernet adapters and an Apple Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter and none of them work. They all work on my iMac, but in the network control on the MacBook Air they show as "Cable Unplugged."

Tried zapping the PRAM and doing a SMC reset, still won't work. At least I can still use WiFi.

I'm a semi-lucky one. It installed ok for me but now I'm having major WiFi problems, which I didn't have before. I thought this update was to *fix* WiFi problems, not create them. Now it never connects to my network when waking from sleep. I have to manually point it to my network and tell it to connect every time I open the lid.

At least it didn't brick my MBA!

Yeah, I noticed this morning that mine no longer connects to Wifi after waking from sleep. So odd... it didn't update the firmware, but it introduced a new bug to my system. Apple, please FIX this shiznit!

Same here - installed update twice yesterday, first time MBA shut down but did not restart so i booted manually after about a minute. App Store indicated update installed but also available for install. Tried a second time, MBA shut down and eventually rebooted itself after about 5 minutes with same result: installed and still available for install. Having same problems having to connect manually to wifi.

Noticing the notification badge was still on my App Store icon, i clicked on it and discovered that the update available is no longer there and my two supposedly successful installation attempts yesterday are listed. Badge then disappeared after closing App Store. Can i assume the issue has been resolved and the updates were successful or is there still and issue and Apple is not informing us or what????

Like some above, I now have wifi issues ever since this update. Now I usually have to manually connect my wifi to the network each time I return from inactivity. Also I notice that skype now kicks me offline when I leave the laptop and does not recover when I return. I have to explicitly change my skype status to online. Also, my virtualbox running guest machine switches to paused and I have to explicitly resume it. Never had to do any of this before.

I too was having to manually connect to known WiFi networks on wake from sleep after 'unsuccessfully' installing this update. I was going to try an SMC reset to see if that had any effect on this, but a simple full Shut Down and cold boot (not a reboot) appears to have resolved this, oddly. Known WiFi networks are joined automatically on wake from sleep as expected now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nowhere near as savvy as you guys but mine installed in much the same manner as others have mentioned; took around 5 minutes to restart.

However, my fan now runs a LOT more than it ever used to and my memory seems to fill up really quickly.

I use MemoryClean to flush it out and the fan slows down after the 3rd or 4th clean, usually when there is a gig or more free.

Luckily I don't seem to have wifi issues or weird startup happenings (yet)

My 2011 MBA 13 went through the EFI update fine. No bricking. However, I find that the Wireless Connection is now impaired. Prior to this update, on wake from sleep, the MBA would connect to known access points in 1-3 seconds. Now, it just sits there. I need to manually choose the access point and connect.

The only change to my MBA has been this update yesterday, and the symptoms have been visible since then.

Is there any way to uninstall this update?