iMac not booting after upgrade to Yosemite

I can not comment on any interactions I have with Apple under my NDA (sorry)

Suffice it to say, the workaround that we determined on our own -- to remove the OD preferences in single-user mode -- has seemed to work for the machines showing this problem here. Obviously not a long-term solution (or a solution for remotely-managed computers), so we are waiting to see (along with everybody else) what comes along when 10.10.2 is eventually released.

If you are having this problem -- please file a bug. The more bug reports, the more attention this problem will get.

Please don't tell people not to update. Incremental OS updates are created for the purpose of solving problems. One of the first things a technician will ask a user is if they have the latest OS and I often ask the same question of my users. (Yes, I have definitely had an OS update solve an issue.)

SPTigertech wrote:

Please don't tell people not to update. Incremental OS updates are created for the purpose of solving problems. One of the first things a technician will ask a user is if they have the latest OS and I often ask the same question of my users. (Yes, I have definitely had an OS update solve an issue.)

One should NEVER update their OS with the intent of solving an issue. I will not change that point of view, only in rare circumstances do updates fix a problem end users are having. In almost all cases issues should be fixed prior to updating.

rkaufmann87 wrote:

SPTigertech wrote:

Please don't tell people not to update. Incremental OS updates are created for the purpose of solving problems. One of the first things a technician will ask a user is if they have the latest OS and I often ask the same question of my users. (Yes, I have definitely had an OS update solve an issue.)

One should NEVER update their OS with the intent of solving an issue. I will not change that point of view, only in rare circumstances do updates fix a problem end users are having. In almost all cases issues should be fixed prior to updating.

So you're telling me if the Release Notes for 10.10.2 say something to the effect of "Addresses stability issues for computers bound to Active Directory when the AD server is not available." that I should not upgrade to 10.10.2 even though that's the exact problem I have? Instead I should what, take my MBP to the Genius Bar and let them tell me to upgrade to the latest release because that is what actually fixes the issue? I seriously can't tell if you are serious or just a troll.

For Yosemite boot hang issues I recommend this thread over at the JAMF forums.

There has been much discussion about Active Directory (AD) binding being the issue, or for users using FileVault. I am seeing serious Yosemite boot hang issues and for us it appears to be AD binding.

The thread contains a fix reported as effective, plus debate about 10.10.2 fixing it permanently.

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=12589

I do not see any notes in the 10.10.2 update about this issue. One of our compsci teachers found this fix on a coding website and it has been working so far (I'm cutting & pasting it directly, so I'm not responsible for the "humor"):

1. start the computer in single-user mode by holding command-S in startup.

2. Wait for all of the white text to finish loading--a prompt will appear. Type exit and login to the local admin account. (if this doesn't work, I believe the unix commands below can be done at this prompt in single-user mode)

3. Open terminal

4. Type "sudo mount -uw /" and hit enter (no quotes). Type the admin password and hit enter.

5. Type "sudo /usr/bin/nano /etc/rc.server" and hit enter (no quotes). Type the admin password and hit enter if it prompts you.

6. The nano text editor will open to a blank file. Type the following three lines of code exactly:

#!/bin/sh

/bin/echo/ BootCacheKludge -- not my fault if the computer explodes

/usr/bin/BootCacheControl jettison

7. After those three lines are typed, hit control-O to save the file, then control-X to exit the editor.

8. Restart and hopefully everything boots properly from now on.

Bought my wife a Macbook Air which came with Yosemite installed. Spoke with Apple Care about transferring her data from her late 2008 Macbook, updated to Mavericks. Was told I needed first to update the older Mac to Yosemite, which I had been resisting (if it ain't broke...) [this updating turns out to be unnecessary]

So I installed the update and am having many problems, partly solved with the advice in this forum. It now boots, albeit slowly, and frequently hangs up when I try to open files.

Frankly I don't want to struggle more, just get the older Macbook back to its former excellent working condition. Is there a way to restore it to Mavericks and then, using our Time Machine Backup disk, restore the data?

Steve, deleting the "Open Directory" folder in Preferences (via single user mode) worked like a charm. Thanks!

This is definitely not hardware specific. I'm experiencing this issue with all AD bound Macs that have been updated to Yosemite (10.10.x, any version).

You will want to have some mechanism in place to *rebind* the machine to Active Directory after you do this -- deleting that directory will remove your machine from AD otherwise!

Yes, I do need to devise some way to accomplish the rebinding automatically, but if being bound to the directory causes a computer to be unable to boot, I'll be holding off on re-binding until Apple can provide a permanent fix.

How do you do the auto-binding, if you don't mind me asking? We can take the discussion to email if you prefer.

we use munki to do our software deployment. When the random hourly check runs, we have a script that will check to see if a computer is bound to AD. If it's not, then it binds it.

It's non-intuitive, though. Not that I'm not willing to post what we do, but it wouldn't make a lot of sense without the whole backend/infrastructure parts...

It's more likely the /etc/rc.server workaround above is probably a better solution for other systems (as that could be pushed via ARD if you aren't managing computers otherwise...) until Apple releases a fix for this issue, frankly

10.10.2 update doesn't fix the problem on our 120 iMacs.

Using the suggested

sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/*

sudo rm -rf /private/var/db/BootCache.playlist

greatly reduced the instances while we had 10.10.1 and but they seemed to increase with 10.10.2 until I applied the commands (with Apple Remote Desktop) again - but it still ocurrs.

I have yet to try editing rc.server as this file is not blank on our Macs and is quite complex:

/bin/echo/ BootCacheKludge -- not my fault if the computer explodes

/usr/bin/BootCacheControl jettison

or 10.10.3 beta

The above instructions worked to un-stick one of our iMacs which uses wireless network and had been stuck in the boot process with progress bar at about 50%. However, it's actually "/usr/sbin/BootCacheControl jettison", not "/usr/bin". I also added one additional refinement:

#!/bin/sh

echo BootCache kluge ...

/usr/sbin/BootCacheControl jettison &/bin/mv -i /etc/rc.server /etc/rc_server_old

so the script will only run once.

Requisite disclaimer: worked for me; may never work for anyone else; may make things a whole lot worse.

Steve,

Have you heard anything else from Apple? I have about 100 macs that I need to bind to AD (20 already done) and some of them are starting to have issues.

Pleas let me know

I can not publicly say what I have/have not heard from Apple.

However, until such time as something would be announced publicly, we are using the "BootCacheControl jettison" workaround here fairly successfully.