The project team working on porting Linux to Macs using Apple Silicon has reported a series of bugs in Apple’s macOS.
According to The Register project team, the Asahi Linux, which aims to port Linux to Apple Silicon Macs, has reported a series of bugs in macOS that could put the hardware in a difficult-to-recover state.
The bugs revolve around how recent versions of macOS handle refresh rates, affecting MacBook Pros with ProMotion displays (14 and 16-inch versions). According to Asahi, errors in the upgrade and boot process, when combined together, can create a situation where the device always boots to a black screen and requires a device firmware (DFU) restore.
The company’s technicians looked into the problem, initially suspecting that it was related to installing Asahi Linux on a Mac and then upgrading to macOS Sonoma or installing after the upgrade. However, the problem does not seem to be related to the project.
The team found that all users who upgraded to Sonoma in the usual way had an outdated or even corrupted RecoveryOS System and that 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro owners, in particular, were vulnerable to a system failure. Cannot start at all.
However, Asahi Linux ensures data is not at risk and only two versions of macOS are affected: Sonoma 14.0+ and Ventura 13.6+. The first is that macOS Sonoma uses a previously installed version of System Recovery, a bug that causes problems when older RecoveryOS runs with newer firmware.
The second case occurs if the display is configured at a refresh rate with ProMotion. According to Asahi, the system will no longer be able to boot into old macOS or Asahi Linux installations. The Asahi Linux installer has been tweaked to test for the issue and will refuse installation if the refresh rate on affected machines is set to anything other than ProMotion. It will also perform integrity checks to verify the state of the System Recovery partition before making any changes.
The team said that even users who only installed version 13.6 and did not install Asahi Linux were affected by this issue. The group said it did not understand how Apple could release an operating system update that, when upgraded to normal, would cause the device to fail to boot if its screen refresh rate was not the default. This appears to be an error in Apple’s quality assurance process.