Level 1

22 points

Boot failure after High Sierra Update

Originally I updated my 2012 Mac Mini to High Sierra and quite frankly... it broke! I did a full recovery and an install of High Sierra from scratch and system has ran fine.

I have however since applied the 10.13.1 update from App Store onto it... and it's failing to boot.

Black screen with Apple logo at boot, won't go any further than the 100% thermometer.

Went into verbose mode, and the following is showing:

Synced /var/db

Warning: couldn't block sleep during cache update

Warning: proceeding w/o DiskArb

/dev/disk1 on / (hfs, local, journaled)

bash: /etc/rc.server: No such file or directory

tzinit: New update not compatible or older version: 2017c.1.0 vs 2017c.1.0: No such file or directory

Date/Time localhost com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] <Notice>: Early boot complete. Continuing system boot.

pci pause: SDXC

Waiting for DSMOS...

And there it hangs.

I really don't want to have to rebuild this Mini again!

Mac mini, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)

Posted on Nov 7, 2017 11:40 AM

Top-ranking reply

Olaf Seifert

Level 1

64 points

Posted on Jan 15, 2018 1:34 PM

IT4apple, this a good point to start from. I had a comparable situation at a custumor who installed the "10.13.2 Additional Update": Boot failure, grey screen never got finished, verbose mode shows looping entries with "Process crashed opendirectoryd [...] too many corpses being created" (or similar). And of course, NO Time Machine backup :-(

We got the Mac back to life with this procedure:

Boot the Mac from another drive or connect it in target mode to another Mac running the same OS Version
Clone the faulty installation from the original startup disk to another volume. Maybe "Recovery HD" can do the job - I did it with another Mac and Carbon Copy Cloner. I would recommend to use a target volume on a different disk drive. I was in lack of this and split the original partition into two partitions - shrinking the original partition and creating an empty one - although cloning and restoring is very fast (internal bus), this is really risky! Then I cloned the original volume to the newly created on the same drive.
Erase the original partition completely (so you should be extremely sure, that step 2 was successful!)
Install a newly downloaded High Sierra on the original (now empty) volume
During first boot from the fresh install let the Migration Assistant migrate everything (users, applications and so on) from the clone drive to the original drive.

We got everything back, the Mac runs stable – and the first thing to do is configuring Time Machine...

Hope, this may help someone.

Greetings from Hamburg

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64 replies

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Nov 10, 2017 6:33 AM in response to CSerpent

CSerpent,

Due to the nature of the issue, we recommend that you reach out to Apple Support for further assistance.

Take care.

CSerpent Author

Level 1

22 points

Nov 9, 2017 4:24 AM in response to sterling r

Hi sterling r

I'd already tried safe mode, this fails at:

kextd stall: 'X86PlatformPlugin', 'MCHC', 'IGPU', 'AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriverLoader', 'AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriverLoader', 'MKY0', 'IOResources'

Which is where the unit actually failed on the 10.12->10.13 upgrade funnily enough.

CSerpent Author

Level 1

22 points

Nov 10, 2017 6:13 AM in response to jeremy_v

Hi Jeremy

Another rebuild after already being forced to do so already on the 10.12->10.13 upgrade failing should not be an answer here. With respect, there's a clear issue here and potential data loss should not be the answer.

TracyJr

Level 1

4 points

Nov 25, 2017 1:36 AM in response to CSerpent

I'm having the same problem. I've gone to the Genius Bar and all they can tell me is that they have to delete all my files to downgrade my [supposedly compatible] mid-2010 macBook Pro back to regular Sierra. There is a build error in the OS and the file system isn't working. All we can hope for is a better build of the OS.

Owl-53

Level 10

103,393 points

Dec 2, 2017 1:19 PM in response to Claudio P.

I have only done a TimeMachine Restore once in all my years.

That said, it (TM) did erase the entire internal HD or SSD and restored ALL files ( macOS and any personal files) corresponding to the date and time of that TM Backup.

Dec 2, 2017 1:42 PM in response to Owl-53

Thanks P. Philipps! That is what I feared. So I will have to try to reinstall the “oldest” macOS available for my device. Or wait an update of High Sierra that solves the problem (my Time Machine is about 15 days old... no big deal but I keep that as the really last option).

But let me say... Seems Apple did a remarkable bug into High Sierra! I wouldn’t have believed it possible. The machine became unusable!

Anyway thanks

Best regards

Cla

Dec 2, 2017 11:47 PM in response to TracyJr

Hi TracyJr

thanks for answering!

may I ask a precision?

I plan to start in recovery mode and use the key combination

Shift + alt +command + R

supposedly this should revert to the original macOS or to the oldest available for that specific machine (I imagine it downloads from Apple servers).

Are you telling me that High Sierra crippled my Mac AND prevents me from going back to just the previous macOS!?

thanks and best regards

Claudio

Dec 3, 2017 12:23 AM in response to TracyJr

Hi TracyJr

I can confirm you are right :-(

I am sitting in front of a recovery screen asking me if I want to install Mavericks and asking to choose a volume... and no volume is shown!!!!

So I think I will go for the Time Machine backup of 15 days ago. I do not use my Mac professionally so that is not a big deal. But what an issue!! It’s really not worth of Apple.

Best regards and thanks again

Cla

Dec 3, 2017 7:19 AM in response to Claudio P.

Update: my iMac (around 2014) is back ... but to the cost of using a complete Time Machine restore (my fault of course, 15 days old, but I do not use the iMac professionally).

As soon as i was online again, iMac said he wanted to install a safety update and a few minutes after it simply installed it, no question asked. Now I remember that was the last thing happened before "the black out". Could there be a connection?

I have not dared yet to shut down and restart. I will update again if it happens again.

But ... sorry dear Apple... I have to say this is not what I expect from you.

I switched over from Windows three years ago, but something like this never happened to me since I use computers (and it is a while :-).

Anyway, thanks to the forum and especially to TracyJr for the help. It is really appreciated.

Regards

Claudio

ikcizokm

Level 1

4 points

Dec 22, 2017 5:51 PM in response to CSerpent

Same issue here. Attempted a High Sierra install on the latest gen of Mac Mini. Install seemed to go OK, but on the first boot-up, I get the white Apple logo over black background... the white bar completes... then the screen goes white, with graphic corruption across the bottom half of the display... then it goes back to black, and hangs there, with graphic corruption.

I've tried resetting SMC, PRAM, and going into Safe Mode. Safe Mode still has the graphic corruption across the bottom of the screen, and none of the Disk Utility first aid options work.

I do use this Mini for work so I'm a little frustrated here. Would love to see if anyone has a fix. Thanks.

CSerpent Author

Level 1

22 points

Dec 23, 2017 1:48 AM in response to ikcizokm

I've done two further updates since 10.13 went wrong originally.

10.13.1, and now 10.13.2.

Each time I've been forced to entirely rebuild from USB stick from scratch and rebuild.

Apple, there's more than 60 'me too' on this. It needs addressing. You have a defective OS build.

Dec 28, 2017 5:10 AM in response to CSerpent

I have the same problem in my late 2011 MacBook Pro! Apple support also refused to help me effectively because the support for my computer ended some time ago.

Luckily I’ve found this topic, because I couldn’t understand what happened. Now I know my laptop is not turning on because of this update.

Managed to save my files into an external hard drive, using Linux in a pendrive. Now I’ll try to install some previous version of Mac OS.

Really disappointed with Apple!

Dec 28, 2017 5:19 AM in response to CSerpent

Sadly, their are doing .... nothing! :-(

As others too, I’m really disappointed with such s poor behavior from Apple. I switched from Windows about 3 years ago. It is definitely *not* the “brave new world” that I naively expected.

Well, lesson learned everyone!

Happy holidays and new year nevertheless!

Claudio

Feb 1, 2018 2:03 PM in response to Claudio P.

I have the same problem, too. MacMini. HighSierra update... "too many corpses being created."

I still hope I will not have to go through TimeMachine Recovery Process. Anyone has another solution to solve this issue?

IS APPLE SUPPORT AWARE??

Thanks to all on this thread.

jwillia2

Level 1

4 points

Feb 9, 2018 8:53 AM in response to Surnomgenial

My computer has had many issues since the very first Sierra. The update to High Sierra, I thought might fix the many issues. Did not. The last update to High Sierra has ruined my computer. It would not boot. I did everything. Tried recovery, disk utility repair, booting in safe mode (would not). Worked 12 hours, nothing. Could not even reinstall High Sierra, quit halfway. Finally I recalled I had backed up my computer on an external drive before moving few months back. Uploaded contents and it now works on regular Sierra. Working fine. I honestly do not know why apple does not fire these programing idiots or listen to their customers. They need to get a clue. I have ordered a new Imac (which is sitting in the floor waiting for me to set it up) because I thought this one was dead, dead, dead. Learning moment- Always use external backup.

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Boot failure after High Sierra Update