I have an M1 MacBook Air that I'm currently using to run the public beta of macOS Monterey. For Intel Macs as well as Intel Macs with the T2, I feel like I had a pretty good handle on how wiping and reloading the OS worked. Same with Internet Recovery, booting to the Recovery HD partition. For Apple Silicon Macs, I feel like I 60% get it.
I know that I can wipe and reload the operating system on an M1 Mac by booting holding down the power button, clicking the "Options" gear, and doing what I'd otherwise do when booted to any of the many Recovery mode options on an Intel Mac with the T2. Past that, and I'm a bit uncertain of things.
PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong about any of the following:
It's my understanding that Internet Recovery is essentially replaced with 1TR (One True Recovery), which lives in a hidden APFS container on an M1 Mac's internal SSD. I believe that there is still also the standard Recovery HD partition within the same APFS container that contains the base operating system. I'm not sure which my Mac boots to when I do the procedure I detailed above, nor am I sure if there is a procedure to do to get to the other Recovery environment instance, or if there even is one.
I know that doing a DFU mode restore of an M1 Mac from another Mac using Apple Configurator 2 will restore 1TR in addition to the OS that gets installed on that Mac (compared to a DFU restore on a T2 chip that just restores the T2 chip and doesn't necessarily do anything relative to the installed OS other than wiping the internal drive completely, mandating Internet Recovery to perform the reinstallation of macOS). Also that doing a DFU restore on an M1 Mac is, effectively, the same as doing a DFU restore on an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV (which is to say that 1TR is also returned to its current default settings).
Past that and I'm a bit fuzzy.
A practical application of my current confusion: I wiped my M1 MacBook Air (which previously had an installation of macOS Big Sur 11.5) and did a clean installation of the macOS Monterey Public Beta. If I boot that Mac, while pressing and holding the power button, and select the "Options" gear at the boot picker, I'll get a recovery environment for the macOS Monterey Public Beta and not macOS Big Sur. If I was doing this on an Intel Mac with or without the T2, booting to the standard Recovery Partition would get me the recovery environment for the macOS Monterey Public Beta, while Option+Command+R for (current OS flavored) Internet Recovery would take me to a recovery environment for macOS Big Sur 11.5.
Given this: (a) Is 1TR now running a macOS Monterey Public Beta version of itself? Or is this merely the Recovery HD environment (assuming the two are not the same on Apple Silicon Macs)? (b) Is there a way to boot to a macOS Big Sur 11.5 Recovery environment on my Mac? Or is this gone now that I've bumped up to the Monterey Public Beta? And lastly, (c) let's say I have a dual-boot situation where I have macOS Big Sur 11.5 on one partition/container on the internal SSD and the macOS Monterey Public Beta on another, which recovery environment do I then get when I attempt to select the "Options" gear? Or do I now get two of those?
Also, somewhat unrelated, are Firmware Passwords totally dead on Apple Silicon Macs? Is there anything to outright replace them? Or is the Activation Lock+FileVault+needing-an-admin-account-and-password combo presumed to be enough of a replacement for this functionality on Apple Silicon Macs and/or is there a way to lock down booting to that boot picker?
Apologies for the the lengthy post on this matter. Supporting Macs is a huge part of my career and to say that Apple Silicon Macs are throwing a way larger wrench into many of my long-standing conventions than was ever thrown during the PowerPC to Intel transition (let alone the advent of the T2 chip) would be a bit of an understatement.
I know that I can wipe and reload the operating system on an M1 Mac by booting holding down the power button, clicking the "Options" gear, and doing what I'd otherwise do when booted to any of the many Recovery mode options on an Intel Mac with the T2. Past that, and I'm a bit uncertain of things.
PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong about any of the following:
It's my understanding that Internet Recovery is essentially replaced with 1TR (One True Recovery), which lives in a hidden APFS container on an M1 Mac's internal SSD. I believe that there is still also the standard Recovery HD partition within the same APFS container that contains the base operating system. I'm not sure which my Mac boots to when I do the procedure I detailed above, nor am I sure if there is a procedure to do to get to the other Recovery environment instance, or if there even is one.
I know that doing a DFU mode restore of an M1 Mac from another Mac using Apple Configurator 2 will restore 1TR in addition to the OS that gets installed on that Mac (compared to a DFU restore on a T2 chip that just restores the T2 chip and doesn't necessarily do anything relative to the installed OS other than wiping the internal drive completely, mandating Internet Recovery to perform the reinstallation of macOS). Also that doing a DFU restore on an M1 Mac is, effectively, the same as doing a DFU restore on an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV (which is to say that 1TR is also returned to its current default settings).
Past that and I'm a bit fuzzy.
A practical application of my current confusion: I wiped my M1 MacBook Air (which previously had an installation of macOS Big Sur 11.5) and did a clean installation of the macOS Monterey Public Beta. If I boot that Mac, while pressing and holding the power button, and select the "Options" gear at the boot picker, I'll get a recovery environment for the macOS Monterey Public Beta and not macOS Big Sur. If I was doing this on an Intel Mac with or without the T2, booting to the standard Recovery Partition would get me the recovery environment for the macOS Monterey Public Beta, while Option+Command+R for (current OS flavored) Internet Recovery would take me to a recovery environment for macOS Big Sur 11.5.
Given this: (a) Is 1TR now running a macOS Monterey Public Beta version of itself? Or is this merely the Recovery HD environment (assuming the two are not the same on Apple Silicon Macs)? (b) Is there a way to boot to a macOS Big Sur 11.5 Recovery environment on my Mac? Or is this gone now that I've bumped up to the Monterey Public Beta? And lastly, (c) let's say I have a dual-boot situation where I have macOS Big Sur 11.5 on one partition/container on the internal SSD and the macOS Monterey Public Beta on another, which recovery environment do I then get when I attempt to select the "Options" gear? Or do I now get two of those?
Also, somewhat unrelated, are Firmware Passwords totally dead on Apple Silicon Macs? Is there anything to outright replace them? Or is the Activation Lock+FileVault+needing-an-admin-account-and-password combo presumed to be enough of a replacement for this functionality on Apple Silicon Macs and/or is there a way to lock down booting to that boot picker?
Apologies for the the lengthy post on this matter. Supporting Macs is a huge part of my career and to say that Apple Silicon Macs are throwing a way larger wrench into many of my long-standing conventions than was ever thrown during the PowerPC to Intel transition (let alone the advent of the T2 chip) would be a bit of an understatement.
