hoakley August 22, 2022 Macs, Technology, Updates

Mints now lists firmware and recovery versions, and more

By popular request, I have now added a new tool to my free utility Mints, in version 1.8, which provides instant access to Software Update information about the versions of firmware and recovery systems installed.

Mints is a unique collection of tools for looking deep into different systems within macOS, either to investigate problems or for research. Most of those tools involve the Unified log, but it’s not a general-purpose log browser like Ulbow. Instead it does the work for you, and only shows entries likely to be relevant to the subsystems you’re interested in. Those currently cover:

iCloud
privacy protection using TCC
triald
Time Machine
App Store
Look Up
scheduled and routine background tasks using DAS-CTS
Spotlight search, with a test of its function.

In addition, Mints gives access to various system information that is otherwise not easy to come by, covering the Mac itself, its keychains, Mach Absolute time, and it can check for Universal binaries.

This new button, Software Update, searches log entries over the last 24 hours to discover listings of firmware versions, recovery systems, and other details, which it then displays.

Depending the Mac model, this can include its normal firmware, firmware version and build for the T2 chip or BridgeOS, and a lot of additional information for Apple silicon Macs. If you’re running Ventura beta, you’ll discover this includes information about its new patch update system as well.

Note that the Recovery system referred to here is that stored in a hidden container for Recovery that isn’t the regular Recovery system in Monterey. Instead, this is a backup copy known as Fallback Recovery. Apple silicon Macs running Monterey and later normally use a copy of Recovery that is paired with the boot system and stored in the same container as that boot volume group. Only when you put your Mac into fallback Recovery, using a double-press-and-hold of the Power button, should it boot into that copy of Recovery in the hidden container on its internal SSD.

The way that fallback Recovery is intended to work is that, each time you update macOS, the previous copy of Recovery is copied into that hidden container to become the fallback, and the fresh Recovery system is installed into the paired Recovery volume. When that works correctly, fallback Recovery should contain that older Recovery system, and should save you from having to run Recovery over the Internet, as on Intel Macs, when the primary paired Recovery doesn’t work.

Assuming you have started your Mac up within the last 24 hours, and have just installed a macOS update, the new Software Update button will show two sets of firmware and recovery versions: those from before the update, and those after. Compare the two to see what has been updated, and which version of Recovery is now available as a fallback.

Mints comes with a comprehensive 33-page Help book, and is now available from here: mints18
from Downloads above, from its Product Page, and via its auto-update mechanism. You’ll find links to a whole series of articles about Mints’ individual features on its Product Page.

I hope you find this new version fascinating to say the least.

14Comments

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1

EcleX on August 22, 2022 at 6:53 am

That was quick. Many thanks! Just minor suggestions: to show “done” or similar after Create Test, Check Search and Delete Test.

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- 2
  
  hoakley on August 22, 2022 at 10:59 am
  
  Thank you.
  When the Spotlight test feature was added in February 2021, 18 months ago, you reported serious problems with it, which we discussed at length. Are you still having them, then? The Create and Delete actions should be immediate, in the twinkling of an eye. I explained then why the Check Search takes time which can’t be shown in any sort of progress bar.
  Howard.
  
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  - 3
    
    EcleX on August 22, 2022 at 11:05 am
    
    Thanks. All work fine. My suggestion was because you can see the radar icon animation while Mints is doing something, but then disappears, and although that should mean that it has finished, there is not a confirmation for some features of Mints.
    
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    - 4
      
      hoakley on August 22, 2022 at 12:31 pm
      
      You’ve completely lost me, I’m afraid.
      If you’d like to refer to the Help book, this is how it recommends you perform the Spotlight search test:
      “A standard check might start with Create Test at a clock time of, say, 01:00:00, followed by Check Search at 01:00:10. At 01:00:30 open the Spotlight log and set the period to -30 seconds to capture all entries since 01:00:00. When finished, clean up using Delete Test to delete the test folder and its entire contents, including any custom files you may have put there.”
      So what happens when you do that?
      1. Create – as with all push buttons, this flashes blue to indicate it has been pressed. The file copy is pretty instant, so there’s nothing to report that is complete or not. However, the critical step here is mdworker indexing those new files. There’s no way to tell when or whether that happens, but I suggest a wait of around 10 seconds, which should be ample when Spotlight is working normally.
      2. Check – while this takes place, a progress spinner indicates that it’s going on. When it completes, i.e. the finish, a window opens and shows the results. Isn’t that sufficient to tell you it has finished?
      3. Delete – another push button with a blue flash, and completion almost instantaneously.
      Throughout these, except on completion of the Check, the only window open is Mints’ main window, which has no space for text. I’m not going to annoy the user by sending notifications, flashing alerts, or opening another window which the user then has to close. Really, what more do you want? It works perfectly well here, and has done so for 18 months.
      Howard.
      
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    - 5
      
      EcleX on August 22, 2022 at 3:37 pm
      
      Thanks Howard. It was just a suggestion to make Mints idiot-proof.
      
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    - 6
      
      hoakley on August 22, 2022 at 7:27 pm
      
      Ah. Mints is intended for advanced users, not idiots.
      Howard.
      
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7

Macintoshista on August 22, 2022 at 6:56 am

An excellent update to an already excellent product. Many thanks once again.

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- 8
  
  hoakley on August 22, 2022 at 11:00 am
  
  Thank you.
  Howard.
  
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9

Ed on August 22, 2022 at 7:06 am

That should be useful & interesting info, thanks. Unfortunately (not really), I updated longer than 24h ago, so it only shows: “No software update log messages found in the last 24 hours.” Would it potentially take too long to search for the last messages regardless of when the update took place? It returned near instantaneously on my M1 Mini. Or are log messages perhaps archived after 24h and would looking through them require a different approach? I only know of ‘zgrep’ but that seems quite capable on Linux at least.

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- 10
  
  hoakley on August 22, 2022 at 7:09 am
  
  All you have to do is restart your Mac, wait a minute or so, then use the button.
  Howard
  
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  - 11
    
    Ed on August 22, 2022 at 7:11 am
    
    Ah! I missed that. I had wrongly assumed it referred to restarting during the update. Thank you.
    
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    - 12
      
      hoakley on August 22, 2022 at 11:00 am
      
      No problems. Happy checking!
      Howard.
      
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13

kapitainsky on August 22, 2022 at 3:11 pm

very handy tool (as many others made by you). One small “issue” is that Mints and some others can not be run from non admin account. Would it be possible to allow it? Of course it means asking for admin user credentials and running it with elevated priviliges.

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- 14
  
  hoakley on August 22, 2022 at 7:26 pm
  
  Thank you.
  Yes, I’d love to do that, but it isn’t so simple.
  You can’t give a whole GUI app elevated privileges like that. What you have to do is separate out the code that requires the privileges into a privileged helper app, and connect to that using XPC. Until recently it wasn’t possible to do the whole of that using Swift, and it still isn’t easy. I’ve been looking at how I can do that, but Ventura is changing the system substantially, which only makes it more complex. So one day I hope to, but please bear with me.
  Howard.
  
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