Lion Internet Recovery Comes to Current-Generation iMacs

[MacRumors]

Apple today released a series of firmware updates for its 2011 Mac lineup, addressing several issues to increase the stability of the systems. But the iMac EFI Update 1.7 goes a bit further, bringing the Lion Internet Recovery feature to the current generation of iMac models. The iMac update also specifically addresses several Thunderbolt performance issues.

About iMac EFI Update 1.7

This update enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection and includes fixes that resolve issues with Apple Thunderbolt Display compatibility and Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode performance on iMac (early 2011) models.

Internet Recovery launched as part of OS X Lion in July, allowing users to easily install the operating system on a blank hard drive, a feature that is handy for users who are replacing their hard drives or for whom the recovery partition included on their Lion system becomes inaccessible. Internet Recovery functions by adding a minimal bootable install onto a machine's firmware to allow it to connect the Internet and download the full Lion operating system for installation.

Internet Recovery initially debuted on the MacBook Air and Mac mini models that were released alongside OS X Lion, but was extended to the Early 2011 MacBook Pro line last month. With the addition of the iMac, all of Apple's current Mac models with the exception of the Mac Pro are now capable of accessing Lion Internet Recovery. The Mac Pro has not been updated since mid-2010, and delays in Intel's chip production appear to have pushed any refresh into next year.

In addition to the iMac EFI firmware update released today, Apple also pushed out MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.3 for Early 2011 models, MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.2 for Mid 2011 models, and Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.4 for Mid 2011 models.

Article Link: Lion Internet Recovery Comes to Current-Generation iMacs

 

[mobi]

I'm convinced a Lion upgrade trashed my MacBook Pro (2010) hard drive, could have used this feature...glad they are working out the kinks.

 

[SmileyDude]

What's up with the picture of the bondi blue iMac on that support page for the EFI update?

 

[Butler Trumpet]

What's up with the picture of the bondi blue iMac on that support page for the EFI update?

Yeah thats really odd.

 

[bb426]

Wonder if this will fix the SATA III issues I'm still having with my SSD... Hope so...

 

[Jerome Morrow]

What's up with the picture of the bondi blue iMac on that support page for the EFI update?

Made me smile.

 

[justinfreid]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I wonder if this is technically possible on earlier models and whether Apple will ever add it, or if it's partly a licensing issue: they know these later models shipped with Lion or the free upgrade.

 

[aberrero]

Why no support for the 2010 MBA?

 

[SanibelMan]

Is there a document somewhere showing details of the other fixes? My 2011 iMac has a problem where switching accounts will sometimes cause the speakers to stop working, and plugging in and unplugging headphones will fix it. I figured it had to either be an OS or firmware issue.

 

[g-boac]

YES!!!!! Internet Recovery for the 2011 iMac - simply amazing! Thank you Apple!!

 

[Qwaf]

Just updated my iMac, now, I hope they release it for my 2010 MacBook Pro, but I dont expect it.

 

[awulf]

What's up with the picture of the bondi blue iMac on that support page for the EFI update?

I believe that's a blueberry iMac (slot loading), but odd indeed.

 

[78-bit]

After updating my 2011 15" MBP I now experience no Internet connection when waking from sleep.

 

[Skoopman]

Interesting. Should fix a lot of problems people were having with hard disk failures.

 

[johnmacward]

Why no support for the 2010 MBA?

There's a chance the firmware chip from 2010 days can't handle the instruction set or it has to do with older MacBook's not necessarily being entitled to Lion as it downloads a recovery environment without the need for an Apple ID.

 

[Porco]

It's a good option to have, but I can't help thinking it'd be more useful if the iMac's internal hard drive was more easily replaceable by ordinary users.

 

[cludgie]

is this update only for the iMac early 2011 or is it also for the Mid 2011?

 

[divinox]

hoping for this to fix the kernel issues with my mba 2011.

edit: it didn't, rather it created one. sigh.

 

[Farthen]

Awesome! This introduced a display backlight flicker to my 27" iMac though :/

It seems to disappear after a few minutes of uptime though so its not very huge. Even though i think it is really weird and i hope it won't harm the display.

Anyone else with this problem? PRAM and SMC reset don't change anything.

 

[MiltonThales]

MacBook Air Update Confusion

Last night, I updated my MacBook Air Mid2011 13" to the EFI Firmware Update 2.1. Today, Apple Support shows a page for Update 2.1, but it redirects to EFI Firmware Update 2.2. I can download the 2.2 update .dmg and mount it, but when I try to install it says it does not apply !!!

So I am confused and curious. Do I have a bad update installed ? Why can't I install the newer update ?

 

[the8thark]

What's up with the picture of the bondi blue iMac on that support page for the EFI update?

Well it is internet recovery on an internet Mac.
The i in iMac did stand for internet.

 

[alent1234]

so if I have SL installed and never bought Lion i can just "recover" my Mac to 10.7?

 

[Fresh Tendrils]

Well it is internet recovery on an internet Mac.
The i in iMac did stand for internet.

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that model didn't have thunderbolt, and I don't think it supports lion Seeing that computer reminds me of my iMac DVSE. I remember installing OSX 10.0 and being amazed at how different it looked to OS 9. It was buggy though!

 

[LimeiBook86]

I'm happy to get the Internet Recovery option on my 2011 iMac. I was starting to feel left out.

Made me smile.

Me too (attached below in case Apple fixes it)

Awesome! This introduced a display backlight flicker to my 27" iMac though :/

It seems to disappear after a few minutes of uptime though so its not very huge. Even though i think it is really weird and i hope it won't harm the display.

Anyone else with this problem? PRAM and SMC reset don't change anything.

When I perform the update with my iMac I'll let you know if it does the same. Although I'm a bit hesitant now...

 

[JHankwitz]

After updating my 2011 15" MBP I now experience no Internet connection when waking from sleep.

I'll bet you forgot to run Utility Disk Permissions before you ran the update. It's a good idea to do that before every update.