Filed under: Software Update, Bad Apple
Reports of startup issues after 2009-001 Security Update
Over the weekend, the mailbag caught a few notes of problems starting up once Leopard users had applied the 2009-001 Security Update (thanks @danielbru), and on Friday the spotty issue was noted by MacFixIt as well. Affected users report a variety of symptoms: the dreaded 'boot disk not found,' a 20-minute hold before the login screen shows up, and a disabled keyboard & mouse -- making the usual first troubleshooting step (a Safe Boot, triggered by holding down the shift key at start up) rather more difficult. As with most Mac OS X patches, the majority of those who applied the security update did so with no reported problems, but that's cold comfort if you're one of the unlucky few.While it's always a good idea to verify your backups before updating to major dot releases, I doubt most users would bother with that due diligence when facing a 'simple' security update; unfortunately, since these updates often touch multiple subsystems, issues do emerge for some folks in the aftermath. MacFixit's thorough guide to troubleshooting startup problems is a good starting point if you're having problems, and if you've already been through the mill this weekend, let us know how you resolved your problems in the comments below.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
William Hook said 9:55AM on 2-16-2009
No issues here, thankfully. :)
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Randall Hand said 9:57AM on 2-16-2009
Upon my first reboot after this patch, I was unable to run most applications. They simply crashed.
I paniced a bit at first, but another reboot had everything back to normal.. Been fine ever since.
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Michael Richards said 10:16AM on 2-16-2009
I'm glad to know why I was panicking on Friday night. I thought the blue screen of death was the end of the HD. I ended up re-installing 10.4 and that took care of the problem.
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66MBA said 10:14AM on 2-16-2009
None here.
Ran the update on three machines this weekend (2 MBAs and a 15' MBP) without any problems.
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lifino said 10:19AM on 2-16-2009
are there any suspect systems? processors? or is it just a wide spread outbreak - probably relating back to tainted peanut butter>
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borisbaik said 10:22AM on 2-16-2009
had to restore from last time machine update, itunes, quicktime, skype and others wouldnt boot up
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William said 10:27AM on 2-16-2009
You are kidding me, right?
I applied this update and everything seemed fine (rebooted, fine, etc, etc).
However when I got back from holiday the thing wouldn't start, and it showed the symptoms you've described, also the computer started to shut down on it's own and at one point it tried to make me login via the darwin console.
The computer is now down at the repair shop (as I think it may be more than just the update that's killed the mac) but I'm going to contact Apple and see if they will reimburse me any costs for getting the thing fixed.
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John said 10:33AM on 2-16-2009
Happened to me. I applied the update and my MacBook refused to boot up. Repairing permissions from the OS X install disks solved the problem.
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remagio said 10:59AM on 2-16-2009
My Vodafone 3G UMTS USB E172 stopped to work.
Launching the Vodafone tool the icon bump without open the windows. And you have to force to quit the Vodafone app from Finder.
Tried everything, reinstalled the vodafone tools, reconfigured all, and tried to upgrade the vodafone app.
Nothing works!
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John said 11:08AM on 2-16-2009
I updated my iMac (2.16 GHz model running OS 10.5.6) last night and Time Machine gave me two successive "backup volume is read only" messages. I dismounted the external hard drive and remounted it and Time Machine started up and ran for an unusually long time, but not unprecedentedly so - perhaps half an hour? No other problems ... yet?
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rmac said 11:46AM on 2-16-2009
50% success here. No problems with my mid-2007 MBP, but my late-2006 iMac drove me nuts. Many hangs, generally weird behavior, eventually I could not complete booting off of internal drive, external drive, or Leopard install DVD. Eventual cure: resetting SMC.
Now how would THAT have gotten messed up?
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Cupra said 11:56AM on 2-16-2009
My Mac mini seems to take 5+ minutes to even sound the start up noise then it goes as fast as normal to boot up the rest of the way. The long wait started after I installed the update.
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Dorfer said 11:57AM on 2-16-2009
My Mac Pro RAID crashed upon rebooting. Says "file system invali" when I try to rebuild or repair the mirror. I figured it was one of my (Seagate) hard drives, however this post is interesting, as I had just installed the security update before rebooting to a failed RAID.
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fini said 12:25PM on 2-16-2009
2 machines, mac mini 1st gen no problems whatsoever. Powerbook G4 took an unusually long time to boot after the install, but it did eventually and all is well. Actually I updated the powerbook first which overall has more ram and better specs than the mini and the mini finished before the powerbook.
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Cody Barbo said 1:22PM on 2-16-2009
My PowerMac G5 of five long years, finally died thanks to this update. I took it down to the friendly (haha not) apple store after I tried just about everything in the book to get it to boot normally. I was running 10.5.6 and like many other users, after the security update, the reboot never ended and eventually my machine would just turn itself off. The genius at the apple store said that my HDD was the reason, I say fuck Apple...
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ramond said 1:09PM on 2-16-2009
After the update on my white MacBook the screen res went a bit broken. Even the Apple logo at boot was stretched. It was like the graphics drivers hadn't loaded. The res was zoomed in and displaying like 800x600 or something. When I moved the mouse to the right the dispay went mental. Luckily I could quicksilver to the display preferences and then set it back to 1280 and now it is fine.
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vandil said 1:57PM on 2-16-2009
3 machines, no issues.
Then again, I do not run 3rd party OS-changing applications nor do I run any sort of "optimization" utilities.
Anyone not using Time Machine or some other backup mechanism has failed themselves.
And have a copy of Disk Warrior handy. It is very simple to get your System Folder re-blessed.
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Gray_hat said 3:31PM on 2-16-2009
I had problems with opening any application on both of my computers. Luckily I had applejack installed, and after one 'applejack AUTO restart' later on each computer I had them fully up to speed.
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Heebie said 3:35PM on 2-16-2009
It just goes to show, fellas (and ladies), that the best move to make once you see a juicy update in the SU app is to:
-> hang back and watch the poor people who do decide to latch onto the bait to take the hit.
-> Then watch out for articles like these.
-> Then once Apple's discretely fixed it (the only way of telling is by the change in MD5 of the package) you can safely update.
Never again will I jump on a virgin update like I did from 10.5.4 to *.5!
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Juliet said 4:11PM on 2-16-2009
My mom had trouble with her eMac hanging at the screen with the gear. I've just spent 2 hours troubleshooting the issue from 700 miles away. We tried resetting the SMC, booting in safe mood (didn't work), and repairing the disk and the permissions. We're finally at reinstalling the system via Archive and Install for a second time. The first time, we took a shot and tried to preserve the users and settings, but it wouldn't take her password at startup, even after we reset the password. So now it's back to Archive and Install without preserving the users and settings. I really hope this works, because I'd like to be able to do something with what's left of my holiday. Thanks Apple!
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