macOS 10.13 beta stops installing with error "problem with firmware"

macOS 10.13 beta stops installing with error "problem with firmware".

I have MacBookAir 6.2 13" with MBA 61.0099.B22. With 10.12.6 beta is no problem.

Replies

Same error on 27" iMac (Late 2009) 😢

Welcome to the club. Seems quite a few are having the issue, but there seems to be

few, if any solutions.


There seems to be an issue where the installer doesn't install the required firmware

update, but the firmware update is required to install High Sierra.


BTW, when you started your installer, were you given any choice to use APFS

or not (some type of check box)? I never see any, though it is refered to quite often

in the threads.

Just came up with something interesting.


I had previously installed High Sierra on a VMWare Fusion (8.5.8) virtual machine

which was successful and created the VM with APFS as its file system. After all the

aforementioned machinations that I had gone through I thought I would try one more

thing on a whim.


Took and external drive erased and formated HFS+ journaled as usual. I then booted up

the VM and downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner. I then loaded CCC into the virtual machine.

And decided to see what would happen if I cloned the VM to an external drive. So, I attached the

drive to the VM, opened CCC and proceeded to clone the APFS VM to and HFS+ Journaled drive.

I figured the worse that could happen is I end up with a drive that would need to be reformatted

in order to be used again.


Well the cloning went just fine and I shut down the VM and quit VMWare Fusion. I then did a

reboot +option key. I had a volume named HighSierra show up (no apparent Recovery HD

fotr it), so I selected it and proceeded and voila! My iMac booted to this HFS+ drive in High Sierra.


This does absolutely nothing to resolve the firmware issue I have been having but does get

High Sierra booting on my iMac, albeit with HFS+. As for testing my installed applications,

will the lack of APFS hade possible problems?


With all that said, there does seem to be a way to get High Sierra running on a Mac with the

"verify firmware" issue, sans APFS.


I would really, really, really like to resolve this firmware not updating issue!!!!

Welcome to the club. I have tried with beta 6 & 7 on mac pro 2012 12 proc 64 gb, tons of hard disk. I dont get an error I do shutdown and hold buttom through flashing light and through long tone and then let it boot. it takes about 3 times the normal boot. I am at a disadvantage since I run a Nvidia Quadro K5000 video card so I don't see the boot screen, screen doesn't turn on until just before login screen. Nvidia list this as a mac card but doesnt put the full boot software to turn on screen right away. Nvidia card has latest trivers and cuda version Also have tried it letting it boot after the startup light flashes, same result


Regardless the install app reopens and just says firmware must be installed.


Thoughts anyone, I guess If I have to I could put in an old apple card to run one screen

Same error yesterday on iMac 2011. It says the installation could not be completed AFTER installing the firmware update. In fact, it made me reformat. However before reformatting at least it gave me access into the drive when booting from an external drive running my SuperDuper backup of 12.6.x (current version). I am now trying it on my second iMac 2011 (late edition) and see if the result is better, if not I'll have to SuperDuper that machine as well.


Besides it not installing correctly, the only issue I have woith his kind of mess is it won't let me go in and deauthorize any of my authorized software. YES I KNOW THIS IS A BETA! I don't need hindreds of reminders. My point was that all betas dating back to 4 years ago Ive never had this kind of issue so there has NEVER been a need to "deauthorize" ever in the past. In fact sometime deauthorizing creates a bigger problem because then it WON'T authorize after an update, so it's best to just run the update 99.9% of the time. Again, I'm just mentioning this in case someone else has software that needs deauthorizing. On this beta 7 ya might want to go ahead and do it this time.

Well, Beta 7 results in same old same old.


However, based on this, it seems that I may likely not be able to

install any APFS based version that will boot, unless I rip apart my

late 2013 27" iMac and put an SSD in it:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208018

and may not be able to install at all on an external drive, even as HFS+?

If this is true, not a very happy camper

Beta 7 has fixed this in my case. I've a MacBook 2010 with a Samsung SSD, and Beta 6 had previously failed to install (I got "An error occurred while verifying firmware", despite getting the reassuring beep and flashing).


Beta 7 install went without error or extra dialogue, and it silently gave me a synthesised disk and APFS container (or something)... and now everything seems to work fine.


The recovery partition no longer shows up if I boot with the alt key down, but it's still there and works with the usual cmd-r boot option.


Bootcamp survived and works as before.


I can try to remember more details if anyone's any questions :-/

Data Point: If you have a Large drive and there is more than 1TB free the installer incorrectly thinks you are low on disk-space and installs with the "thin" installer. If you fill up the drive with an empty dmg files to get below 1TB free; you'll get the thick installer (which you can make a boot usb installer from). The thin will give you the firmware error in all my testing. The Thick one if you make a boot usb, then will get past that and install on the OWC Aura, but you still won't be able to use it because after the install subsequent boots the mac can't see Aura and you have to reformat and reinstall from scratch.

ANYONE FIX THIS - USING AN OWC SSD / 3RD PARTY SSD - TO INSTALL THE 10.13 BETA WITH NO 'FIRMWARE ERROR' ?

FWIW, I was able to install High Sierra Beta to a seperate partion

on my early 2011, 13', 2.7 GHz i7 Macbook Pro. Firmaware updated.

Installed High Sierra as APFS on that partition. Dual booting Sierra

and High Sierra Beta on that machine.


The install went without any issue and was installing from an external USB installer.


The drive was a 480GB Sandisk Ultra II SSD (replaced original HDD). So, atleast

with this machine and this drive it was smooth sailing.


My iMac is still a no go! Heard there is a beta 8, perhaps it will work but not

holding my breath.

Well beta 8 is same old same old firmware error!!!!!

Tried the install and got same issue.


Created a clone of Beta7 from another Mac in HFS+ format

(APFS won't boot). iMac booted and ran it just fine. Then the

MacApp Store notified me og=f the update to Beta8. Guess what?

Got and erro message saying it could not complete update and

left current install untouched! More firmware crap!


Does anyone in the world have any clue (or even care) on how to resolve

this issue or even determine why it is happening?

Beta 9 still no solution to firmware issue. Will it ever be fixed?

Does anyone even care?

Hi,

I have an iMac 27 "Mid 2010 and have tried to run High Siera GM as an update.

From the ia.log:


Sep 16 14:17:25 iMac OSInstaller[546]: System is a valid target.

Sep 16 14:17:25 iMac OSInstaller[546]: Evaluating SKDisk { BSD Name: disk19 Mount point: /private/var/tmp/InstallerCookies Role: kSKDiskRoleLegacyMacData Type: kSKDiskTypeHFS }

Sep 16 14:17:25 iMac OSInstaller[546]: untitled is a valid target.

Sep 16 14:17:26 iMac OSInstaller[546]: Package Authoring Error: PackageInfo bundle reference found without top-level bundle definition. Bundle will be skipped: <bundle id="*"></bundle>

Sep 16 14:17:26 iMac OSInstaller[546]: ROM Features returned: 3221263395

Sep 16 14:17:26 iMac OSInstaller[546]: ROM does not support APFS

Sep 16 14:17:26 iMac OSInstaller[546]: Clearing automation and attempting to rebless. source volume: SKDisk { BSD Name: disk0s2 Mount point: /Volumes/System Role: kSKDiskRoleLegacyMacSystem Type: kSKDiskTypeHFS } rebless: 7D650198-7A61-3AC1-BB5A-A043423FFCEC

Sep 16 14:17:26 iMac OSInstaller[546]: OSIInstallElement <OSIVerifyROMElement: 0x7f95f8c85a30> errored out:Error Domain=com.apple.osinstall Code=512 "Beim Überprüfen der Firmware ist ein Fehler aufgetreten." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Beim Überprüfen der Firmware ist ein Fehler aufgetreten.}

Sep 16 14:17:26 iMac storagekitd[547]: storagekitd: copyDiskForPath returned nil, error: -69808

Ok I did work around this error but it was a PITA.


Like many others I have one system with an OWC Aura upgrade and the install was failing with the firmware error. All other systems worked fine. Since it failed with the GM candidate I rolled up my sleaves here is the awful solution:"


  1. Time machine backup Sierra install on the OWC 2 TB SSD
  2. Open Mac Pro and remove OWC SSD and reinstall Factory SSD
  3. Internet recovery boot CMD+R
  4. Factory reset install of Yosemite on to the Facotry SSD
  5. Do minimual user setup; and login into developer account and download the Beta Activator
  6. Install High Sierra over the top of Yosemite; works perfect and firmware upgraded finally
  7. After upgrade shutdown mac remove factory ssd and put in external enclosure; reinstall OWC Aura
  8. Boot from the External Drive (containing factory ssd)
  9. Erase all partitions on the OWC
  10. Create a APFS case-insensitive volume on the Aura; and mount
  11. Get the beta enable and run again.
  12. Target the Install at the OWC Aura
  13. High Sierra installs find now because the firmware upgrade is already on the hardware
  14. Restore from Timemachine back (Don't bring over Other or System Settings)
  15. Restore Crash/boots at the very end and boots into the Factory SSD
  16. Manually Reboot and the system comes up as expected on the OWC Aura
  17. Begin triage and clean up of the restore (including toggling (if usising) cloud keychain on and off to clear the upgrade corruption problem)


So it looks like what is need is a standalone version of the EFI firmware updating that isn't rolled in the Installer and that is compatible with the OWC drives if they are installed.


NOTE: Note removing the OWC Drive completely and attempting the same process failed every time; the drive had to be removed completely from the equation.


Hope this helps someone else. If you don't have the factory drive I think will will work from any external drive as long as the OWC Aura is pull from the computer until step 7

Did the same thing here as well for my OWC 4TB, since Apple seems to have excluded third party drives from the install, factory SDD, receieve the firmware upgrade, re-insert OWC 4TB, and resume with running the installer ...