Some who updated to 26.2 reported their downloads were over 10 GB in size, rather than the expected 3.78 GB for Apple silicon Macs. Why was that, and why didn’t Apple release an earlier BSI?
SSV
How to check secure boot, SIP, Gatekeeper/XProtect, its SSV, FileVault, macOS and its firmware, and XProtect Remediator scans.
A mystery volume mounts from nowhere, and its name starts with Creedence. This is a cryptex, also favoured in Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. Is it a ghost of the past, or harbinger of the future?
There are substantial differences in the structure of the internal disks in macOS, iPadOS and iOS, as shown here. And there are at least 24 cryptexes now used to support AI.
Working with external bootable disks: how to create and add them, ownership and LocalPolicy, how that can be changed, and what happens with errors and failure.
How the number of bundles in /System/Library has risen from Mojave to Sequoia, and why the last 5 years have been so different from the previous 20.
How the immutable system of the SSV, the firmlinked Data volume, and cryptexes ‘grafted’ into the directory tree combine to form the boot volume group of Intel and Apple silicon Macs running macOS 15.
Exactly what is the disk shown in the Finder named Macintosh HD, in Big Sur and later versions of macOS? An exploration of the structure of the modern boot disk.
Security in macOS is designed and applied in multiple layers to remain effective even when one layer is bypassed, and herd protection determines types of attack.
What if you want to boot your Mac using two or more different versions of macOS, with different versions of APFS? Here’s how to avoid problems.
The Eclectic Light Company 