This is now a repeatable bug.
Everytime Time Machine tries to back up my MacBook Air (OS X 10.5.2) to our Time Capsule (v7.3.1) over our wireless network, the MacBook Air suffers a catastrophic crash (entire OS, the kind where you must press and hold the power button to reset the machine).
Time Machine backups worked fine until very recently, the only things that changed recently are the application, via software update, of:
- MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 1.0
- MacBook Air Bluetooth Firmware 1.0
- Safari 3.1.1
So logic suggests that one or a combination of those three things has broken Time Machine.
I can disable Time Machine backups and go back to Carbon Copy Cloner for the short term, but I am left wondering what my Time Capsule is for in the long term…
snolan | 23-Apr-08 at 8:46 am | Permalink
To be completely fair - here is a list of all Administrator activity on my MacBook Air recently:
2008/04/01:
Software Update:
GarageBand Update 4.1.2
iPhoto Update 7.1.3
Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.0
AirPort Utility 5.3.1
Safari 3.1
Time Machine and Airport Update 1.0
Security Update 2008-001 1.1
restarted
2008/04/13:
Software Update:
QuickTime 7.4.5
iTunes 7.6.2
Keynote Update 4.0.3
MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 1.0
MacBook Air Bluetooth Firmware 1.0
Front Row Update 2.1.3
restarted
2008/04/21:
Had to re-applie the MacBook Air Bluetooth Firmware 1.0
it apparently did not take the first time?
restarted
Adium 1.2.4
Camino 1.6
Firefox 2.0.0.13
vlc 0.8.6f-intel
Software Update:
MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 1.0
Safari 3.1.1
restarted
snolan | 23-Apr-08 at 8:52 am | Permalink
The error is: “Time Machine Error: The backup volume could not be mounted.”
That should prevent backups, but it is horribly wrong that a failed backup attempt should crash your entire machine… wrong and unacceptable.
Brian L. | 23-Apr-08 at 10:12 am | Permalink
You tried re-applying the latest full Mac OS X 10.5 combo update to your computer? Sometimes the partial updates leave “problematic” files on your computer that will cause problems like this.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1052comboupdate.html
Regards,
Brian
snolan | 24-Apr-08 at 8:28 am | Permalink
Thanks Brian, I will give that a shot.. it may wait a few days, as that is one big update…
snolan | 05-Jun-08 at 6:53 am | Permalink
John Gruber over at Daring Fireball ran into the same nasty problem and has a suggested solution.
Mount the disk on a Mac, then use DiskUtility to repair the sparse disk image. Interesting that no one at Apple could provide an answer to this one.