Can't install 10.13.4

[Vandal.]

Hey guys,

somehow my Macbook can't install yesterday's High Sierra update (10.13.4), it's failing with the message "The OSX installation couldn't be completed". I reset SMC and PRAM and managed to boot into first a older bootable backup to verify/repair both main and recovery partition (both appeared fine) and then into my actual Macintosh HD holding alt.

The update is now appearing in the app store again, but I'm afraid to reboot before figuring out what happened here. Currently doing a full time machine backup.

The error log is attached below, maybe someone can make some sense of this or point me in the right direction.

Thanks a ton in advance!

 

[treekram]

In your log, you have (excerpted):

Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Process: macOS Installer [544]
Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Path: /System/Installation/CDIS/macOS Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/macOS Installer
Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]:
Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000018
Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11
Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Terminating Process: exc handler [0]

Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Error Code: 0x00000004
Apr 4 08:08:31 MacBook-Pro ReportCrash[548]: Trap Number: 14

Absent any signs of hardware issues, I would guess this is a bug in the installer program. The EXC_BAD_ACCESS is familiar to most programmers who use the "C" language or some variant. I would submit the log to Apple (unless there's an indication that it was already sent). At that point, you can wait until you hear back from Apple (who know's if they'll respond), or contact Apple via phone or Genius Bar visit to get some guidance. If it were me, I'd probably hold off another attempt until you can get some additional information from Apple on what's going on.

 

[Vandal.]

Thanks for you reply and for checking out my log. It looks like you're right, it might actually be a bug in the app store installer:

Apple Support Forums: Can't install macOS High Sierra 10.13.4

I tried the combo update as recommended in that thread, it first failed just the same (plus I was stuck with a black screen instead of the failed installer/recovery mode) but did work after trying to install the update from the app store again and rebooting twice. So I guess both installers were buggy and I just got lucky with the combo update.

And I actually did submit the log after the first try already but more to let them know than to expect help tbh. According to the thread it also sounds like the Genius Bar didn't know what to do either and just wiped everyone's system for a reinstall…

 

[treekram]

If it is a bug, that's just bad programming and QA on the part of Apple - yet another in the long string of such incidents (...sigh...).