Mavericks 10.9.2 update warning

[Serge Tsipis]

Just want to give a "heads-up" to everyone going for recent update to 10.9.2

I performed the update on 2012 12-core MacPro and got a pretty serious issue with ATI Radeon HD 5770 card. It has two "30 non-Apple OLED DVI 2560x1440 displays plugged in. #1 is connected directly to DVI port, #2 has to go thru Apple MDP to Dual channel DVI adapter (big one with USB power). When rebooted for an upgrade procedure it died with a gray screen. The startup Apple logo appeared on #2 then the display went to standby and #1 showed gray screen. I tried safe boot - no luck. NVRAM (PRAM) reset lets me log in once with the same startup display "switch", but #2 never comes on again and it's resolutions list and arrangement in System Preferences is empty. It's also pretty obvious to see video memory errors on top portion of the screen, odd Safari pages display, scrolling may cause random lines to pop...

Cables, displays, adapter - checked - no problems with other Macs.

After contacting Apple support and reporting an issue (awaiting further response) and successfully booting the machine from the different drive with older OSX I assume this to be an update software issue.

If you have somewhat of the same display configuration - PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
Be sure to have a backup and a spare time to waste...

Hope that saves someone's day.

 

[paul schefz]

Updated my 2013 retina without any issues.....sorry to hear about your experience....

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Thanks Serge, way to pay it forward. If I knew then what I found out later, I could get roughly six months of my life back that I've spent on similar trips down the rabbit hole. Back in the day a lot of people I worked with NEVER wanted to update a working system - even if it was running a bit slow. These days, that strategy is virtually untenable as constant updates to firmware, software, OS, etc, etc, etc is SOP.

BTW - not that any of the mods have time, but this is exactly the kind of info that would be perfect for a push notification scheme based on user profiles that included preferred platform, job type, etc. Proper curation would include a follow up blast when a patch was issued or some other resolution. Either that or the vendors could hire enough beta testers to catch all but the extreme outliers. Sorry, I lost my mind for a sec - hehe.

Cheers - #19

 

[Serge Tsipis]

Thanks Serge, way to pay it forward. If I knew then what I found out later, I could get roughly six months of my life back that I've spent on similar trips down the rabbit hole. Back in the day a lot of people I worked with NEVER wanted to update a working system - even if it was running a bit slow. These days, that strategy is virtually untenable as constant updates to firmware, software, OS, etc, etc, etc is SOP.

BTW - not that any of the mods have time, but this is exactly the kind of info that would be perfect for a push notification scheme based on user profiles that included preferred platform, job type, etc. Proper curation would include a follow up blast when a patch was issued or some other resolution. Either that or the vendors could hire enough beta testers to catch all but the extreme outliers. Sorry, I lost my mind for a sec - hehe.

Cheers - #19

That's really a good idea about push notifications, Blair! I'm in, just in case.

Also, I love "public beta" concept. If there is not enough beta testers...

 

[Daniel Grosseman]

You should use carbon copy every time you upgrade your OS. Its the safer way not to have something screwed. I upgraded my i74930 hackintosh yesterday and its working better than ever.

 

[Serge Tsipis]

Daniel, what you mean by "carbon copy"?

That was not an issue for me personally. I am quite experienced Mac user, even used to be an Authorised Reseller and Service Provider back in 1998, when I was living in Auckland, New Zealand. So it took me 15 minutes to understand what's wrong and urgently notify Apple team. But nowadays I'm more of a DP than IT guy.

For now, I just keep the most recent working copy on the SSD in the external enclosure. One for each Mac in my workshop. I know it's a pretty "brute force" approach. Was thinking about automating it in some way. No TimeMachine in my case. Are you talking about some sort of automation?

Maybe we can add some info about useful backup routes to this thread...

 

[paul schefz]

Daniel, what you mean by "carbon copy"?

That was not an issue for me personally. I am quite experienced Mac user, even used to be an Authorised Reseller and Service Provider back in 1998, when I was living in Auckland, New Zealand. So it took me 15 minutes to understand what's wrong and urgently notify Apple team. But nowadays I'm more of a DP than IT guy.

For now, I just keep the most recent working copy on the SSD in the external enclosure. One for each Mac in my workshop. I know it's a pretty "brute force" approach. Was thinking about automating it in some way. No TimeMachine in my case. Are you talking about some sort of automation?

Maybe we can add some info about useful backup routes to this thread...

Sorry....but no time machine? And you don't know what carbon copy is? As an experienced Mac user you should run time machine which would have saved you....or carbon copy which has been around much longer and does the same, ..
there is no excuse for not having back up

 

[Serge Tsipis]

Sorry....but no time machine? And you don't know what carbon copy is? As an experienced Mac user you should run time machine which would have saved you....or carbon copy which has been around much longer and does the same, ..
there is no excuse for not having back up

Read my previous post again. I do have a backup. The best possible way ever. Anything happens to any machine's OS and it up and running from dedicated SSD. It's a matter of what? Seconds. And the person doing it's job is not concerned in any way. I dont have time for that.

What I was asking is shedding some light on a different backup approaches.

I do not discuss it, because, as I said it was back in 1998, and I cannot trust automation on that. I need simple reboot and a key stroke. Editor and colorist do not have time for the TimeMachine It is to be delivered NOW. I dont play games with it, thats why I use such expensive way of ensuring software integrity. I know a lot about how MacOS works and still can diagnose many sorts of disasters. But am not an IT person for years now.

 

[paul schefz]

Read my previous post again. I do have a backup. The best possible way ever. Anything happens to any machine's OS and it up and running from dedicated SSD. It's a matter of what? Seconds. And the person doing it's job is not concerned in any way. I dont have time for that.

What I was asking is shedding some light on a different backup approaches.

I do not discuss it, because, as I said it was back in 1998, and I cannot trust automation on that. I need simple reboot and a key stroke. Editor and colorist do not have time for the TimeMachine It is to be delivered NOW. I dont play games with it, thats why I use such expensive way of ensuring software integrity. I know a lot about how MacOS works and still can diagnose many sorts of disasters. But am not an IT person for years now.

as mentioned before: carbon copy....a simple google search will do wonders....CC has been around forever and works very, very well....

 

[Serge Polevitzky]

SuperDuper!

SuperDuper!

… yet another way to clone a working system … Shirt Pocket Software's SuperDuper!.

Serge

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Disk Utility can make an image or clone a drive as well, more options from the command line if you know what you're doing. So you don't need third-party software. That said, I like both of those utilities as they package the functionality into a convenient interface. Also you don't have to hit the command line and search through docs to remind yourself how to do block-level copies and other handy operations. IMO, Carbon Copy Cloner is probably the best $30 you'll ever spend for Mac software.

I like Blair's suggestion of a push notification system. All us moderators can do is echo the suggestion to Jason and Jarred though. Some of this functionality is already available with the forum's subscription services, but I think notifications could be useful at times.

 

[Frank Weeks]

If I knew then what I found out later, I could get roughly six months of my life back that I've spent on similar trips down the rabbit hole.

Bingo! Mavericks was a nightmare. Still paying for it. I know I should have backed up. I won't recover until the nMP arrives in a couple days. Upgrader beware!!! +1 to the push notice.

 

[Serge Tsipis]

Disk Utility can make an image or clone a drive as well, more options from the command line if you know what you're doing. So you don't need third-party software. That said, I like both of those utilities as they package the functionality into a convenient interface. Also you don't have to hit the command line and search through docs to remind yourself how to do block-level copies and other handy operations. IMO, Carbon Copy Cloner is probably the best $30 you'll ever spend for Mac software.

I like Blair's suggestion of a push notification system. All us moderators can do is echo the suggestion to Jason and Jarred though. Some of this functionality is already available with the forum's subscription services, but I think notifications could be useful at times.

Thanks, Jeff and Serge! That's what I was asking for.