Restoring a Bricked iMac Pro Requires a Second Mac and Configurator 2

Can’t someone use a flash drive with an install of OS X on it?

 

Who says they aren’t already including two copies of EFI firmware? That doesn’t preclude potential of bricking. Merely reduces likelihood and eliminates some failure modes.

--- Post Merged, Dec 15, 2017 ---

Not if the efi or smc firmware is screwed up. The issue isn’t that the OS is fried, it’s that the firmware can be fried.

 

My family home is over 100 miles from a Best Buy, and 50 miles from an independent shop (won't touch Macs) so when I come home with my mac laptop (Xmas) there is always a fews hours of helping friends and family with their PC/Macs....rural areas are just tough like that sadly. I also recommend Macs because they don't break (sw/hw) generally as easy as a Dell/Hp imo

 

who buys an imac pro that doesn't already own a mac? or know someone who doesn't have a mac? just go to starbucks and pay some hippie $5 or buy them a venti coffee to borrow their mac.

 

yes. It is a nice feature to have on a board. 2 physical BIOS chips jumpered as needed.

 

I don’t understand how we still can’t do this from our iPhone. The latest ones are damn near on par with a MacBook Pro.

 

Does this mean that holding "option" on boot no longer gives you the boot menu? So you cant boot macos from an external/usb drive anymore? Cant install a bunch of operating systems on the one computer? These are options I use more than I wish to admit. If those options gone on their most "pro" machine, its quite disturbing.

 

Yes you can, unless you disable it in the new panel in system preferences.

 

This is why professionals buy PCs. Dell or HP will send a tech to your location.....

 

I love to rip on Apple as much as the next person, but even I have to admit this story seems to be overly aimed at stirring up trouble.

 

What iMac Pro user doesn't already own a Mac. Non-issue.

 

So wait...are we restoring the T2 unit/EFI or the entire contents of the encrypted SSD with Apple Configurator?

An iPad is one thing, but there is no way in hell I’d ever buy a Mac that fails a software update and takes my data with it...

 

The efi, not the os.

 

From the beginning of the article:

From the Apple Configurator 2 document:

Since the document does not specify which of the Secure Boot settings will require this new restore procedure, it is reasonable for people to assume that it applies to all settings including "No Security".

 

So the solution here is to disable secure boot on your iMac Pro if you buy one, and if you're not in a position to demand such security and not in a position to be able to recover from an update accident easily.

That sucks because software isn't necessarily updated to work properly on newer Mac OS versions. Sometimes ever. If you need that software and a system restore takes away your ability to run it by forcing you to a newer version, that's not a restore. It's a punishment for suffering an already unfortunate situation.

Wow. What made you such a target of this person? Are you a business or a blogger or something who pissed off a psycho stalker? Former employee of yours? Damn.

Unless you're not under warranty. Or don't have an Apple Store nearby, as repeatedly mentioned in this thread.

The insensitive arrogance of the privileged...

Agreed!! I've been wondering why no computers come built this way. Then again, if Apple does it, the battery would silently die from disuse and you'd have to spend a lot to replace it at an authorized service shop...

UPS units require maintenance. I have two units. One self-destructed its last battery (or the battery was defective, likely damaging the unit) and the other is possibly not power-matched to the gear put on it. It surely didn't cover my PC for long enough to gracefully **** down (I'm no longer using that monstrous hatebox). My iMac might be ok on it, if the battery is still good.

But I'm poor. I can't keep buying replacement batteries when the underused batteries fail from disuse or just their regular lifespan ends. I've run out of the ability to cover power loss scenarios. Poor people have a hard time maintaining whatever setup they built when they weren't poor, with all the necessary "just in case" equipment... and can't build such a setup in the first place if they weren't ever not poor.

But, then they won't be buying this iMac Pro either...

I have a nest egg for the next Mac Pro. I hope it is enough and that the cost of ownership isn't beyond my means. It'll probably be the last new computer I ever buy.

 

This article very misleading, as if this scenario happens all the time. I’ve been using Mac desktops (and also MacBooks) for over 20 years since OS8. None of my Macs have ever been bricked up or had I ever have to take a dead Mac back to the shop except once, which was totally my own fault (I accidentally switched the voltage button instead of the power button as I was switching it off which blew up the transformer). So I doubt I’ll lose any sleep about it bricking up if I were to buy this new iMac Pro. The headline should have been:
On very rare occasions, restoring a Bricked iMac Pro Requires a Second Mac and Configurator 2

 

One solution is given:

Anyway, I would prefer to reboot e.g.in cooperation with a more mobile iOS device - possible?

 

How many people have a professional, over $5000 desktop and don't possess a laptop? 0.01%?

 

Good thing this is aimed at the 'pro market', and they will likely have a derelict Mac Pro sitting around because it's too expensive to throw away.

This is just kinda nuts...

Windows has had TPM for what, decades, and Windows users don't need to go through all that, do they? I wonder what happens if the Magic Chip dies... In the Windows world, if you use TPM, and forget the password, or change motherboards, you are SOOL...

 

Makes me wonder for how long we're able to downgrade macOS to a previous version or to install any other OS if one would like to...

Somehow I think that will be the case in the next few years, and given macOS HS.... that might be a very bad idea.

 

But still... It's added drama. Although this will likely bump the stocks of the companies selling UPS's. And will people need a UPS for their UPS?

For some reason, I'm reminded of the PDP 11/01 that was buried in the innards of a Vax computer. It's job was to diagnose and troubleshoot the parent computer. I think it was involved with booting it at some point too. Will Apple have to have a Mac Mini on-board just to serve as a 'poop happens' rope to Wellville?

 

Random liuck? Someone had to have gotten a hold of all the yahoo passwords, found that I own a domain in my own name, tried all the ports and saw that VNC was open, and tried variations on the password until they found the right one.

It’s a machine I use only for serving iTunes videos to my Apple TVs pretty much, but if the dude knew what he was doing he could have gone from there to my NAS or my keychain and done a lot more damage.

Was working in that room and saw the cursor moving around on the screen and windows opening. He was installing TeamViewer and various other apps to try and make sure he always had a backdoor in. I watched him for a little bit to make sure he hadn’t already gotten anything useful before I pulled the plug and shut down the external vnc port on the router.

--- Post Merged, Dec 16, 2017 ---

Article is, unsurprisingly for this place, wrong.

 

I was watching our ASA5510 one evening, and saw that a slew of attempts to connect came from an IP in China. Surprised to see it happening live, I blocked that IP address. Within minutes, another address from that scheme started picking at it. I blocked that one too, and another one started up. It was getting fun... I blocked that whole subnet. Soon another subnet from an IP registered in Korea started picking again. It was kind of exciting for the first few minutes, but I got tired, and went to bed.

The next day, there were scads of attempts at the wan port all night. Apparently I peaked their interest. I'd have liked to see their faces as I blocked address after address... I wonder how much time they wasted on picking at my firewall.

We have a SonicWall, and I can't seem to get that same level of logging out of it. It was interesting, playing cat and mouse (spy v spy?) with hackers. For all I know, they probably have breached the SonicWall by now. Not impressed with their UI.

Just added this because of the idea of actually watching a hack in progress. Interesting...

 

If this is the "future" of the Mac, just another turn off. I rather consider professional hardware should be designed to be as infallible reasonably possible. Likely a small risk, equally one that shouldn't exist.

Q-6

 

Lol no prosumer will use these unless the department manager is illiterate enough to deploy them.