Level 3

672 points

Mojave install a disaster

My upgrade to Mojave has been an mitigated disaster. First I could not even get past the 90% or so marker (on the little bar) after the first installation. After waiting for what I thought as an inordinate amount of time I did a hard restart. After restart the screen immediately jumped to where it left off. So I did a hard rest and went into recovery mode. selected reinstall Mojave. Did the same thing; stopped at the 90% mark. I finally let it run over night. This was yesterday. This morning I when I looked at the screen it was at the Login screen. I tried logging in but it was so slow and painful. After every letter I typed the beachball would spin. Another weird thing was the account picture was still in its original place (it happened to be on the far left) but would “inch” closer to being over the text box with every letter I typed.

I was finally able to log in. The desktop loaded by slowly. I tried selecting an applicat to get a window. Nothing. Finally I was able to get the computer to shutdown.

After looking for some help I found a message with a link to a YouTube video. There were four recommendations: 1) Hard restart, 2) boot into safe mode, 3) zap the PRAM, 4) Recovery mode. I tried all three nothing really worked. Maybe a slight, and I mean slight, increase in speed. Now I am upgrading a MacPro with 2 quad-core processors. And I am upgrading fron 10.13.X. Finally tried Recoveray mode again.

When I finally get to the desktop the strangest thing is I have no communications. Under the grayed out Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar it says “No WiFi hardware installed.” The Network pane in Systems Preferences shows nothing connected to the two Ethernet ports. I am writing this on my IPad, so I know the house network works.

I am am at my wits end. I made a backup of the drive BEFORE I started the upgrade but I have no way of “slicking” the SSD drive so I can do a clean install.

i really could use some help!

iPhone 6 Plus, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Sep 25, 2018 4:45 PM

Top-ranking reply

dmauch

Level 1

18 points

Posted on Oct 12, 2018 5:50 AM

SUCCESS! In fact the following did work and enabled me to sucessfully upgrade from High Sierra to Mojave resolving all issues. IMPORTANT: Make sure your spacing is correct when typing ls -l /etc/sysctl.conf into the Terminal.

A. If you can log in (even if slow), or you're still on High Sierra, and have not yet upgraded, follow these instructions:

1. Start the terminal app from Applications/Utilities

2. Check if the file exists, by typing

ls -l /etc/sysctl.conf

If this returns a result like the following, then the file exists. If it does not, then your issues are caused by something else

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 136 24 Nov 2013 /etc/sysctl.conf

3. Simply rename the file by typing in: sudo mv /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/sysctl.conf.bak

(You’ll be prompted for your password)

4. Restart your computer, and you should be all set, or if you've rolled back to High Sierra, you should be good to attempt the upgrade again.

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100 replies

dmauch

Level 1

18 points

Oct 29, 2018 6:33 AM in response to t.i.wells

Not sure what on which device you’re running your Mountain Lion OS, but you should check and make sure that it is compatible with the Mojave OS - pre-late 2012 iMac’s are likely to have some problems. You should also make sure that you have sufficient memory/storage.

mambeg

Level 1

4 points

Oct 6, 2018 8:28 AM in response to WilliamL

I had the exact problem. With my late 2013 MBP. I had to go back ti HS. I would expect Apple to fix this problem soon. I have seen many users having the same problem.

WilliamL Author

Level 3

672 points

Sep 25, 2018 5:45 PM in response to lec0rsaire

Unfortunately I don’t have a complete backup in my TimeMachine. Just documents and stuff. My backup in on an external hard drive. I was completely up to date on the OS 10.13.4

i thought there as a way during the startup to force a screen that would scan for bootable drives.

Thanks for the Coomand+R commands

RDustinC

Level 1

14 points

Sep 25, 2018 6:06 PM in response to WilliamL

I had almost the exact same issue, and I'm on a iMac only a year old! Bought June 2017 right after the new ones came out! This should not be happening, but is. Every single thing you had from the slow login, to the no wifi.

I was going to attempt installing again, but now after reading this board I think it's best to wait for the next update of Mojave when they have their act together.

WilliamL Author

Level 3

672 points

Sep 25, 2018 6:37 PM in response to lec0rsaire

I am trying to get to that backup. It is on the external hard drive. I tried the Option key (thanks by the way) and the bootable drive did not show up! Then I remembered it was on the USB bus, which doesn’t get powered up until late in the startup. It is too late to keep fighting this problem. Tomorrow.

Sep 25, 2018 7:55 PM in response to WilliamL

I have EXACTLY the same problem with my late 2015 iMac, am taking then reinstall option first hoping that me interrupting the first install was part of the problem. I have successfuly upgraded to Mojave on my 2016 MacBook.

jowdawg

Level 1

4 points

Sep 26, 2018 3:51 AM in response to WilliamL

I too am having the same problems with a 2013 MBP 500GB SSD. Telling me there is No wifi hardware installed. Slow as molasses on boot and everything else. I have tried everything.

I do get a connection to the apple internet update when I do a restore boot so there is wifi hardware there, just Mojave won't see it. ***..........

If this wasn't ready for prime-time why release it? ***** that this problem exists, but at least I'm not crazy as there is verification here that there is a major problem.

WilliamL Author

Level 3

672 points

Sep 26, 2018 9:10 AM in response to jowdawg

Thanks for the support. One thing I forgot to describe is after selecting which account I want to access (I have three) the individual login screen shows my original, and current, desktop picture. Yet when I finally get to the desktop it shows th default sand dune picture. Strange.

I haven’t seen any report of this in any of the Apple news pages. Usually they are all over install problems, especially MacWorld.

WilliamL Author

Level 3

672 points

Sep 26, 2018 9:29 AM in response to putnik

I used to think so but when I upgraded from my old MacPro to the new trash can the same USB drive would not show up for migration. Buried in the notes was a statement that only FireWire was supported at this juncture.

WilliamL Author

Level 3

672 points

Sep 26, 2018 11:15 AM in response to WilliamL

Well I have succeeded in starting up from my backup drive, abet slowly as the connection is via FireWire 800.

I am torn whether or not to erase the Apple SSD and clone back from the backup drive. I use SuperDuper! There is an issue though with lost passwords including my AppleID which is sort of a pain to fix on all my devices.

Sep 26, 2018 11:26 AM in response to WilliamL

exact the same here: MacBook Pro 15‘ Late 2013 all Apple: no network at all, wifi not installed (works in recovery mode), login almost impossible, the same with the desktop picture, all possible resets and tests done, installed mojave again, trashed network preferences: nothing helped!

jstoneob

Level 1

18 points

Sep 26, 2018 11:50 AM in response to WilliamL

Same here, but with iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch Late 2015, 3.1 GHz intel Core i5, 16GB 1867 MHz DDR3. Graphics- Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 1536MB. Install froze about ⅔ through, couldn't restart, when it finally did install no internet connection even when Airport Utility showed I was connected, to many other issues to get into, spinning BB when attempting to do anything. I keep a clean system without many non Apple apps. I spent the entire day re-installing HS from Time Machine backup using the Command-Option-R method. One interesting fact was when choosing which backup to use there were 8 Mojave backups already on it, even though Mojave had only been on the iMac for about an hour.

Sep 27, 2018 1:50 AM in response to WilliamL

Clean install finished and now working as good as expected, having Time Machine in place made it happen extremely well.

I suspect the problem is not with Apple but with a non compliant app or files that we have. To test I will only install my non Apple apps as needed, but I'm guessing the problem won't come back.

jowdawg

Level 1

4 points

Sep 27, 2018 3:41 AM in response to WilliamL

Of course I have no backup........... When I try to boot restore to a previous version via the internet (the only way I can connect) there is an error message. The the only option to reinstall is mojave, so I have no options other than to use my macbook as a plant pot base............

Maybe Apple in its infinite (loop) wisdom could put High Sierra back on the restore boot internet to downgrade from this problematic mojave??????

HELP.

WilliamL Author

Level 3

672 points

Sep 27, 2018 8:03 AM in response to elthamblues

Old apps (32 bit or smaller) raises an interesting question; how do I determine which is 32 bit? is it the message "application not optimized for your system" that is an indicator? I have passed so many applications from machine to machine, OS to OS. This seems to be a good time to clean everything up.

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Mojave install a disaster