hoakley February 14, 2021 Macs, Technology

Last Week on My Mac: Big Sur 11.2.1 update is broken

Before we get to the bad news, I thought I should share the good: it is possible to turn the majority of external SSDs into bootable disks for M1 Macs. Thanks to various users who’ve tried this, I can now reproducibly install a bootable copy of Big Sur 11.2 on a USB-C SSD which had previously refused to complete macOS installation. The secret is to avoid connecting the disk to your M1 Mac’s USB-C port. I know, why would anyone want to connect a USB-C disk to a USB-C port, you wonder.

Creating an external bootable disk for an M1 Mac still involves trial and error, though. If the disk has a Thunderbolt interface, then you should be able to get it to work reliably using a certified Thunderbolt 3 cable to one of the USB-C/TB4 ports on your M1. But most external SSDs use cheaper SATA and USB-C interfaces. Some of those will work properly when connected to a USB-C/TB4 port, but many will fail to complete the Big Sur installation. In those cases, connect them instead to one of the USB-A ports on your M1 Mac mini. Whether this works through a dock to a USB-C/TB4 port on an M1 MacBook Air or Pro, I’m afraid I don’t know.

You wouldn’t want to leave your external SSD connected to a USB-A port any longer than you have to, though. Whilst I was about it, I used my disk benchmarking app Stibium to see how big a performance hit USB-A is against USB-C. My Samsung 860 EVO SSD running through an unbranded SATA to USB-C case read at around 400 MB/s and wrote at about 390 MB/s. Move it to a USB-A port and those figures fell to about 300 and 310 MB/s respectively – a far cry from M1 internal storage which should be turning in around 3 GB/s, or an external Samsung X5 at better than 2 GB/s.

So once you’ve got Big Sur installed successfully on your external disk, you’ll therefore want to move it from USB-A to USB-C as soon as you can.

The bad news is that, once you’ve created your external bootable disk with Big Sur 11.2, you probably won’t be able to update it to 11.2.1. That’s not apparently related to the initial problem of installing 11.2, and switching it to a different port proves to be of no help here. It’s because the 11.2.1 update is currently broken.

I have two M1 Macs, a Mac mini and a MacBook Pro. Both updated their internal storage flawlessly to 11.2.1 through my local Content Caching Server. I also now have two external bootable SSDs which are stuck with macOS 11.2 and can’t be updated to 11.2.1. As Apple hasn’t yet released a full updater for 11.2.1, which in itself suggests that there’s a problem, there seems no workaround until Apple fixes this.

The most infuriating point about the failure of the 11.2.1 update is that it occurs at the last moment before the update should be installed: in order for that to begin, on an M1 Mac (but not Intel models), the user has to enter their password. That’s when it falls apart, because no matter what you enter, the installer refuses to accept it, shaking its dialog and refusing to progress every single time. This happens whether the keyboard is running wirelessly, or connected to a USB port. Sometimes, when in wireless mode, the password entry box runs away streaming in characters which you haven’t typed. At other times it seems to behave until it yet again vigorously shakes its disapproval at what you know is the correct password.

Because of another bug in the 11.2 installation process, which leads to the copying of the existing user as well as creation of a new account, I’ve tried updating from each of those two accounts, with identical failures.

The workaround which I tested when trying to install 11.2 was to run the full Big Sur installer. Although Apple released the 11.2.1 update on 9 February 2021 and normally makes its full installer available quickly, that available in the App Store is still apparently 11.2, and listing available full installers using the command
softwareupdate --list-full-installers
only offers one Big Sur installer,
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.2, Size: 12208832027K
and 11.2.1 is nowhere to be seen.

Without a full installer, it’s impossible to create a bootable installer containing 11.2.1. Apple has made an IPSW file available, which can be used to restore the internal storage of an M1 Mac via Configurator, but can’t be used on an external disk. Without a standalone updater, there’s simply no alternative to the online update.

So why hasn’t Apple told us of these problems updating to 11.2.1? Does Apple test its updaters on external macOS installations? If it does, and has discovered this problem, why has no one informed users?

27Comments

Add yours

1

moseskravitz on February 14, 2021 at 9:30 am

I don’t want to say it, please don’t make me say it, but this is SICKENING…

and I’ve been through the same tortuous path as you describe…

LikeLiked by 2 people
2

Michael Bach on February 14, 2021 at 10:07 am

Dear Howard:

Your software has turned 2 hyphens in to an emdash. I should be:
softwareupdate –list-full-installers
Minor thing, of course.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 3
  
  hoakley on February 14, 2021 at 12:48 pm
  
  Sorry about that: I though that I had set that line in code style. I have corrected that now, thank you.
  Howard.
  
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4

Michael Bach on February 14, 2021 at 10:07 am

and now this has happened to my comment as well! 🙂

LikeLiked by 1 person
5

Bryan Christianson on February 14, 2021 at 10:15 am

Hi Howard.

Your experience is different from mine. Once I had moved the external disk to a a USB-A port on my Mac Mini M1, I was able to upgrade it to 11.2.1 with no problems. I am using a Samsung T7 disk, the non-touch version. I suppose the difference in our experience is the chipset used in the disk-enclosure.

You are quite right though – this stuff should just work and also be port agnostic.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 6
  
  hoakley on February 14, 2021 at 1:29 pm
  
  Thank you – you are one of the users who inspired me to try the USB-A port trick.
  If Apple tests any of this, you’d have thought they might inform users, to save wasted hours and infuriation.
  Maybe we’re just Apple’s testers after all?
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
7

Duncan on February 14, 2021 at 12:24 pm

“in order for that to begin, on an M1 Mac (but not Intel models), the user has to enter their password. That’s when it falls apart, because no matter what you enter, the installer refuses to accept it, shaking its dialog and refusing to progress every single time.”

Just curious – what if you remove the admin password completely (leaving it blank) and try that? Not that that would be a good solution overall but you could then add it again later if this happens to work.

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 8
  
  hoakley on February 14, 2021 at 1:29 pm
  
  Thank you.
  I’m not sure that it would accept any empty password, but I’ll give that a try later today.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
  - 9
    
    moseskravitz on February 14, 2021 at 3:49 pm
    
    I tried empty password
    NOOOOOO
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
  - 10
    
    Duncan on February 14, 2021 at 3:51 pm
    
    When setting up a new account the newer versions of MacOS will insist on a password. But you can then change it to later (at least up to Mojave).
    
    When I set up a test machine or something isolated from the network I’ll delete the Admin password to streamline all the verification panels that pop up (just hit ‘return’). It saves a lot of keystrokes and bother.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
- 11
  
  hoakley on February 14, 2021 at 11:31 pm
  
  I tried this too: the password entry dialog even refuses an empty password. It’s just broken, I’m afraid.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
12

Duncan on February 14, 2021 at 3:55 pm

^ Followup: “But you can then change it to later (at least up to Mojave).”

I tried to type “change it to ‘blank’ later” using angle brackets but it seems to have interpreted that as code.

LikeLiked by 1 person
13

Joey Jay on February 15, 2021 at 6:23 pm

I could be wrong, but I think the admin verification process is failing for the same reason in several different areas because macOS want the admin password which matches the original authentication used to setup up macOS the first time on a machine, i.e. the one assigned to the internal drive setup, which it the uses to encrypt and seal all subsequent drive installations. Since external boot drives are not yet fully supported, the seals are never properly made beyond the original boot disk. And macOS doesn’t know how to authenticate when you boot from a different installation. All it knows is that what you are giving it doesn’t match the hash of the original internal seal. Therefore the following features will fail: external software updates, external FileVault enabling on boot drives, modifying Security parameters on external boot drives.

Does this guess make any sense to anyone?

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 14
  
  hoakley on February 15, 2021 at 6:28 pm
  
  Yes, but it’s not correct. I’m using the exact same password across all those accounts. Despite that, it’s still rejected.
  I’m also suspicious about the claim that the system isn’t sealed: I’ll check that later.
  Howard
  
  LikeLike
  - 15
    
    Sab Gigo on February 15, 2021 at 8:48 pm
    
    I was able to update my M1 Mac mini from 2.0 to 2.0.1 on both my external and my internal drives this weekend, without any authentication issues. I had reinstalled 2.0 on both drives using a bootable installer made from a fresh download from the Mac App Store. Maybe Apple silently modified the installer without changing the version number (just a guess). The external drive is connected using a Cirago 2 drive dock cabled to a USB 3 port. I still cannot modify the Startup Security settings for the external drive – I keep getting an error that the modification failed because a local profile cannot be created. I can modify the Startup Security settings for the internal drive without any problems. My “1TR” is System Firmware Version 6723.100.321! which I think was installed with the Big Sur 11.3 Beta.
    Scott
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 16
      
      hoakley on February 15, 2021 at 9:22 pm
      
      Thank you, and well done.
      No, Startup Security settings are a function of the internal SSD, and not the external, I gather.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLike
- 17
  
  hoakley on February 15, 2021 at 8:39 pm
  
  Thanks. I’ve had a chance to check this out, and here are my answers.
  macOS wants the admin password for the internal drive – as I have said, for test purposes I’m using the exact same password, so whatever macOS might want, the password is correct, but still fails.
  the password is then uses to encrypt and seal all subsequent installations – my external SSD isn’t encrypted, and the System installed there isn’t. It is sealed, but sealing isn’t performed by the internal System, it’s performed by the macOS installer at the end of the install process.
  external boot drives are not yet fully supported – aren’t they? Can you please point me to anything saying that.
  seals are never properly made beyond the original boot disk – that’s not correct. The external system is correctly sealed according to macOS. Not only that, but external bootable disks work fine with Big Sur on Intel Macs, and seal just fine.
  macOS doesn’t know how to authenticate when you boot from a different installation – it does. Authentication occurs repeatedly, and works perfectly well. Indeed, one of the first things you have to do is authenticate to mount the internal SSD fully. That works fine too.
  it doesn’t match the hash of the original internal seal – seals aren’t compared one against another. The Seal on the System is compared against that specified by Apple, which is the same for every installation of that version of macOS. If they don’t match, macOS can’t boot from that volume at all. It doesn’t start up wonky – you get turfed into Recovery to install macOS again.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
18

Nelson on February 15, 2021 at 10:57 pm

macOS 11.2.1 full installer is finally available at the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-big-sur/id1526878132?mt=12

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 19
  
  hoakley on February 15, 2021 at 11:12 pm
  
  Thank you.
  Yes, and it’s available through softwareupdate. However, Apple has also pulled the 11.2 full installer, so the only option users have now is to install 11.2.1, unless they perform a DFU restore, or have kept their own copy of the 11.2 full installer. And there’s no separate updater still.
  We just aren’t making any progress, I’m afraid. The only way that I can try to update my M1 external bootable systems is using the full installer. Isn’t it crazy?
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
  - 20
    
    josehill on February 17, 2021 at 6:16 pm
    
    I suppose I should be grateful that Apple offers a full 11.2.1 installer, but it is extremely annoying that it appears to be the only option for updating Big Sur running as a guest OS in a virtual machine. The usual Software Update processes show 11.2.0 VMs as up-to-date, leaving the full installer the only route to update the VM.
    
    Given the relatively small (though important) changes between 11.2.0 and 11.2.1, it rankles to download a 12.2 GB installer and run through a process that can take nearly an hour.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 21
      
      hoakley on February 17, 2021 at 8:56 pm
      
      Thank you.
      Howard.
      
      LikeLiked by 1 person
22

Nelson on February 16, 2021 at 2:05 am

Today’s update (Feb 15, 2021) 11.2.1 (20D75), has a different build from last weeks 11.2.1. (20D74)

LikeLiked by 1 person
- 23
  
  hoakley on February 16, 2021 at 2:16 pm
  
  Thank you: yes, it appears to be the same basic macOS, and the change in build number reflects that the installer fixes a bug where it didn’t check that there was sufficient free space to complete the installation. Not that Apple has said anything.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLike
24

Boyd Waters on March 2, 2021 at 3:44 am

My MacBook Pro M1 failed to update to 11.2.1, as you describe here. I had to discover the `softwareupdate –fetch-full-installer` command.

Let’s see if this is still a problem updating from 11.2.1 → 11.2.2…

LikeLiked by 2 people
25

Michael Tsai - Blog - macOS 11.2.1 on March 15, 2021 at 5:43 pm

[…] Update (2021-03-15): Howard Oakley: […]

LikeLiked by 1 person
26

Joshin Yamada on March 18, 2021 at 1:42 am

Last night I got curious and borrowed my wife’s M1-based MacBook Air. I unwrapped a fresh Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB SSD and placed it in an Inateck SATA-to-USB-C external drive. I tried installing to the drive with a fresh copy of Big Sur 11.2.3 downloaded from the app store that evening. It failed at first, but it eventually worked. The drive works fine to boot her M1 MacBook Air. I then tried booting my 2015 iMac 5k with Intel Core i5 off of the same drive and though the drive shows up in the Startup Disk preference, it will not boot off of the drive.

I am planning to go erase the drive again and install Big Sur from the iMac 5k and then see if I can boot her M1cBook Air off of the drive. I’m not expecting it to work.

LikeLiked by 2 people
- 27
  
  hoakley on March 18, 2021 at 6:59 am
  
  Thank you.
  Some have claimed that they’ve managed to get a bootable external disk to work with both Intel and M1 Macs. I confess that I haven’t tried, as I’ve already wasted so many days just working with the M1’s problems.
  I wish you success.
  Howard.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person