So I waited a few days to gather some information from users on what has gone wrong with this one before posting if it is safe or if caution is advised. The verdict – caution is advised.

This is the first update that I myself have encountered a problem with so I will attempt to cover what I know as well as what others have found, and how to fix what we’ve seen break.

First problem report I heard was – a kernel panic when running the combo update.

This was related to ApplePolicyControl.kext – when the update loaded it, the system panicked and left things in a non functional state. The users resolution was to re run the combo update from a separate OS X installation, remove the problematic kext when it was done and to then run myFix. This extension is removed by the myHack “Remove Problematic Extensions” feature but that won’t help if it is loaded on a running system by a combo update.

This can be avoided however – if you have an smbios.plist that identifies your system as something that ApplePolicyControl.kext will not panic on – no panic will happen, this was the case with my own system. So you have two options:

1. Create an smbios.plist for your system that ApplePolicyControl.kext will not panic on
2. Run combo update from another OS X installation, targeting the 10.7.x OS X installation you want to update, when finished, run “Remove Problematic Extensions” function from myHack.

Ok, next problem – This happened on my system. When the update was completed, I rebooted. The system panicked on IOPCIFamily.kext. So I rebooted again with -f -v, no panic this time, but the system hung when trying to load AppleHDA, and claimed that kextd was not running. So first I attempted to boot into my ‘fail-safe partition’ which is basically an extra myHack OS X Install Disk for 10.7 that I have on my internal boot partition so I don’t have to dig out my USB stick every time something goes wrong. It hung at the same point….

While I am not entirely sure why the separate partition with a 10.7.0 OS X installer on it was effected by the update the reason for it happening isn’t really important – the solution is simple – I plugged in my USB myHack OS X Install Disk, ran myFix – a full one, not a quick one – and rebooted – everything works fine now. So to sum it up:

1. Ensure your myHack OS X Install Disk is not attached or mounted on the system
2. Run the 10.7.4 update and reboot when it is finished
3. Boot to your myHack OS X Install Disk
4. Run myFix, select full not quick, run, and reboot when it is finished
5. Boot your OS X 10.7.4 installation

The last problem I have seen was reported by a user on the forum. His Nvidia GTX295 stopped working after the update. This is a problem I have seen in past updates and why in the myHack guide I always advise users to backup at minimum their /S/L/E directory prior to running any OS X updates. You may read the thread he opened on the forum HERE

The solution for this problem is as follows, and the following method can be adapted to virtually any hardware device that no longer functions after an OS X update due to Apple’s modifications of the System Extensions:

1. Prior to running an OS X update, always backup /System/Library/Extensions
2. In his case his NVidia graphics no longer work due to updates of the Nvidia graphics so he could either determine exactly which kext is the problem and replace only that one with the one from his 10.7.3 backup, or he could replace all of the nvidia graphics extensions including the frame-buffers
3. Determine which extensions you want to override in /System/Library/Extensions in his case he took all of the Nvidia extensions and frame-buffers
4. Place the extensions from 10.7.3 backup in /Extra/Extensions
5. Run myFix, reboot
6. Boot to OS X 10.7.4

A full list of the NVidia extensions and frame-buffers is in the thread I linked to, the clean way to do it would be to just grab the ones for your card specifically – I will be explaining to him how to figure out which ones he needs in the forum thread.

So there you have it, that is how to avoid the 3 most common problems I have seen thus far with this update. If you encounter a new one please let me know via the forum – I will update this post if needed.

Additionally, keep in mind 10.7.4 is pulling code in from 10.8 so there might be a number of issues for users who are still relying on older graphics or i386 libraries…

In case you were wondering why this site was down for about 5 hours today, last night we had one of the most severe thunderstorms of this monsoon season here. The lightning and thunder was some of the most intense I’ve experienced in recent memory. It was striking several times per minute all over my neighborhood – it felt similar to the controlled demolitions of buildings I’ve witnessed from a few blocks away, it wasn’t a crack it was a hard hitting thud that rattled your chest and bones.

I generally enjoy thunderstorms but this one was more than inconvenient. I was in the process of working on updating the template for this site when the power went out, and stayed out for over 5 hours. Additionally more than 18 people are dead, the power is still out to many homes, and fortunately I don’t have to commute to work because the transportation system is in chaos.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here are a couple pictures from down the street to illustrate:

From the Korea Herald:

The precipitation in Seoul between Tuesday and early Wednesday morning exceeded 400mm, the national weather agency said, adding heavy rain is expected through early Thursday morning.

The Korea Meteorological Administration said downpours tallying a record 60mm per hour were recorded in the country’s central and southern parts.

Southern Seoul was the hardest hit part of the capital.

The building of the educational TV station, EBS, was flooded and SK Telecom’s mobile networks. Flooding was reported in streets, subway stations, underground walkways and residential districts throughout the city.

A number of flooded main roads in downtown and southern Seoul were closed to traffic, while a motorway linking Seoul to southern Gyeonggi Province was closed due to a landslide.

 

I live in Southern Seoul and it is still raining…

So if this site goes down again sometime in the next day or two, you know why… but I am hoping the worst is over. I have also just realized that I lost about three weeks worth of work on an important project I was working on – my workstation drives shorted out from the lightning and I was in the middle of syncing a backup at the time, so I only have a partial copy on my server. All attempts at recovering the data have failed… %#&@*!

Update – count has risen to 32 people killed and 24 seriously injured and many more missing…

This is from CNN:

More than 750 rescue workers had been dispatched to the site after the collapse occurred at midnight, according to the Central Disaster Relief Center.

About 400 families have lost their homes and more than 14,000 were left without power.

The hillside gave way during a summer of record-setting rainfall, which has caused flooding and major traffic disruptions across portions of the country.

Chuncheon is about 75 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of the capital, Seoul, which has seen more than 400 millimeters (15 inches) of rain since Tuesday.

Sixty households in the capital have been cut off by high water, and six people are missing, the disaster center reported.

The Korea Meteorological Agency has issued a special heavy rainfall alert for cities in the center of the country. The forecast calls for the downpour to continue at a rate of 60 millimeters (2.4 inches) per hour over the next day.

“This is a lot of rain considering that the amount we saw yesterday and today consists of three-quarters of what we got during the rainy season,” Cheung Kwan-young from the meteorological agency said.

South Korea typically experiences a rainy season during the summer.

I have been away from this project for the last 3 months. I apologize for this, however sometimes life gets complicated and investing my time on free projects such as this one must be put aside for a while.

I will be working on a new update to the myHack installer, including the bugfixes for the MBR mod compatibility with 10.6.0 & 10.6.3 DVD’s which I should have released months ago, over the coming weeks.

I will also do my best to get through these 500+ comments that have been waiting for my approval since the last time I logged in to manage this website.

Again, I apologize for this, but I am happy to see that myHack is still helping thousands of users despite these delays in my work on the project.

I have had a series of very aggravating events take place in my personal life which has unfortunately consumed all of my time in the last two weeks. I feel that these issues are nearly resolved and I have attempted to get the project back on track and respond to the comments and questions you have all left over the last 10+ days. I am truly sorry that I have been unable to get to these sooner.

There are a number of updates I need to make to the software and website and I will make a sincere effort to push forward to achieve these goals ASAP.

I haven’t abandoned this effort! I was merely caught up in things I would much rather not have to deal with at all… To try and satisfy your curiosity I will simply sum it up as follows: several individuals are attempting to manipulate money out of myself and my family due to their own incompetency, to satisfy their own selfish and unjustified greed. What they were claiming is completely invalid and what they were trying to do was completely illegal. I am attempting to settle the matters without going to court and I seem to have made at least some progress in the last few days. After exercising considerable patience and restraint I believe I have been able to make them understand that I simply will not allow them to take advantage of my family in this way without making it very difficult, and ultimately costly for them. They seem willing to bargain now, though I doubt I will get them to back down completely, a small cost to settle things out of court would be much better than the time and stress of having to take things to the next level. So wish me luck!

Thank you for your support and understanding, I will get things back on track shortly.

Sincerely,

-Conti

I got home a couple days ago, still haven’t completely unpacked or recovered from the trip/jet lag/etc but I am glad to be home.  I’ll be resuming work on the project as soon as I get adjusted.

Cheers.