Bugs in macOS can make hardware difficult to recover

According to The Register , the Asahi Linux project team that aims to port Linux to Apple Silicon Macs has reported a series of bugs in macOS that could put the hardware in a difficult-to-recover state.

The bugs revolve around how recent versions of macOS handle refresh rates, affecting MacBook Pros with ProMotion displays (14- and 16-inch versions). According to Asahi, the bugs are in the upgrade and startup processes, which when combined can cause the machine to always boot to a black screen and require a device firmware restore (DFU).

Company engineers looked into the issue, initially suspecting it was related to installing Asahi Linux on a Mac and then upgrading to macOS Sonoma or installing it after the upgrade. However, the issue appears to be unrelated to the project.

The team found that all users who upgraded to Sonoma in the usual way had an outdated or even corrupted System RecoveryOS, and that owners of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro were particularly vulnerable to a completely unbootable system.

However, Asahi Linux ensures that data is not at risk and that only two versions of macOS are affected: Sonoma 14.0+ and Ventura 13.6+. The first is that macOS Sonoma uses a previously installed version of System Recovery, a bug that causes problems when the old RecoveryOS is running with newer firmware.

The bug reported by Asahi Linux is actually serious for macOS operating system

The second scenario occurs if the display is configured to a ProMotion refresh rate. According to Asahi, the system will no longer be able to boot into older macOS installations or Asahi Linux. The Asahi Linux installer has been tweaked to check for the issue and will refuse to install if the refresh rate on affected machines is set to anything other than ProMotion. It will also perform an integrity check to verify the state of the System Recovery partition before making any changes.

The group said that even users who only installed version 13.6, without Asahi Linux, were affected by the issue. The group said it was unclear how Apple could release an operating system update that, when upgraded to a normal version, would cause the machine to fail to boot if its screen refresh rate was not the default. This appears to be a flaw in Apple's quality assurance process.

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