Mac Mini 2018 Kernel panic bug_type 210 after Security Update 2020-002

[luchotrrn]

I have the same problem, my Mac mini was solid until this update, now it crashes 4 or more times a day

 

[scschulte1]

I have the same problem, my Mac mini was solid until this update, now it crashes 4 or more times a day

Hello -- I have the same problem as I wrote, but yesterday from the Apple Discussions group someone sent this suggestion, which has worked for me to keep my Mac from crashing / restarting / shutting-down 2-6 times per day-- this suggestion prevents the Mac from going to sleep and it seems to be that it is in the sleep mode when it crashes or restarts:

He wrote: I have not had the issue with my machine randomly restarting but that may be because I do not allow it to go to sleep on it's own. I have heard the restart issue is related to sleep mode. There is a way to turn that off, which I have done. Maybe you can try this setting on the Energy Saver control panel to see if it fixes it for you.

See the attached screenshot. It shows just the very first box being 'ticked' - to prevent the Mac from sleeping when the display goes off.

Hope this helps and again, this is not a "cure" -- it just lets us use our Macs until Apple comes-out with an update to the Apple Security UpDate 2020-002 which is causing these issues.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte
Friday 10 April 2020

 

[Fishrrman]

I have my own 2018 Mini set up as per the graphic in post 27 above, and it doesn't crash.

Been doing this for years.

I also set up a "hot corner" in the desktop & screen saver pref pane, when I walk away from the Mini I just push the mouse to the upper right corner and the display "goes dark".

If I'm going to be away for a longer period of time, I just "reach forward" and SWITCH OFF the display entirely.

At night, I shut the computer down.
I reboot in the morning for a "completely fresh start".

Things have worked great this way.
For many years.

 

[iAssimilated]

Hello -- I have the same problem as I wrote, but yesterday from the Apple Discussions group someone sent this suggestion, which has worked for me to keep my Mac from crashing / restarting / shutting-down 2-6 times per day-- this suggestion prevents the Mac from going to sleep and it seems to be that it is in the sleep mode when it crashes or restarts:

He wrote: I have not had the issue with my machine randomly restarting but that may be because I do not allow it to go to sleep on it's own. I have heard the restart issue is related to sleep mode. There is a way to turn that off, which I have done. Maybe you can try this setting on the Energy Saver control panel to see if it fixes it for you.

See the attached screenshot. It shows just the very first box being 'ticked' - to prevent the Mac from sleeping when the display goes off. View attachment 904909

Hope this helps and again, this is not a "cure" -- it just lets us use our Macs until Apple comes-out with an update to the Apple Security UpDate 2020-002 which is causing these issues.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte
Friday 10 April 2020

Might be why I am not experiencing any crashes on my minis. I have sleep disabled and I only reboot if I have to. I turn off my monitor when not using my 2018 mini and the 2014 mini is headless with caffeinate running. I did get the kernel panic on a reboot the other day though, but didn't think much of it since I was troubleshooting a different issue and assumed it was related to a hung program I was trying to fix.

 

[stormseq]

Hi guys, i have a bad macbook pro 2018 sitting on me because of these kernel panics related to T2 chips, its so bad that my laptop is useless now unless I change the logic board. Frustrated I bought the mac mini i7, its been running fine, i was just going to Install the update but saw this thread, OMG!

I haven’t installed the security update, is there a way to prevent installing it by mistake or on its own!? I have unchecked the following options, how can i delete the update file that my mac automatically downloaded?

Thanks in advance and i hope apple resolves this soon.

 

[luchotrrn]

Hello -- I have the same problem as I wrote, but yesterday from the Apple Discussions group someone sent this suggestion, which has worked for me to keep my Mac from crashing / restarting / shutting-down 2-6 times per day-- this suggestion prevents the Mac from going to sleep and it seems to be that it is in the sleep mode when it crashes or restarts:

He wrote: I have not had the issue with my machine randomly restarting but that may be because I do not allow it to go to sleep on it's own. I have heard the restart issue is related to sleep mode. There is a way to turn that off, which I have done. Maybe you can try this setting on the Energy Saver control panel to see if it fixes it for you.

See the attached screenshot. It shows just the very first box being 'ticked' - to prevent the Mac from sleeping when the display goes off. View attachment 904909

Hope this helps and again, this is not a "cure" -- it just lets us use our Macs until Apple comes-out with an update to the Apple Security UpDate 2020-002 which is causing these issues.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte
Friday 10 April 2020

Thanks a lot Steve, I'll give it a try. Yesterday I disabled 'put hard disks to sleep' and the mac didn't crash that much. I'll follow the setup you suggested and see how it goes today. Hope Apple can do something about this soon.

 

[howdytom]

Update April 11, 2020: I did some further testing regarding my initial issue. I have restored from a previous system backup using SuperDuper. This backup clone does NOT include the Security Update 2020-002 Mojave and Safari 13.1. Surprisingly the shutdown message still shows up sporadically when I power on the Mac mini. I have completely shut down my Mac mini 2018 around 10 times. I have waited 5-10 minutes. 4 of 10 times the crash report showed up. It's really difficult to debug. What's interesting is the macOS Mojave Software Update does not show the Security Update 2020-002. So it seems to be already applied. I guess it is definitely related to the T2 BridgeOS Update or other firmware settings which have been patched during the Security Update 2020-002. Restoring from a 4 weeks old system backup does not resolved my issue.

This is a really bummer. I wish Apple would spend more time on testing. So far I haven't heard back from my Apple Bug Report #FB7646566.
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I haven’t installed the security update, is there a way to prevent installing it by mistake or on its own!? I have unchecked the following options, how can i delete the update file that my mac automatically downloaded?

Lucky you. You don't have to. Simply disable the checkbox Automatically keep my Mac up to date.

 

[wayne_rowley]

I have the exact same issue. Only shows when I power on from cold, otherwise the Mac works fine.

When I installed 2020-002 my Mac never came back from the restart sequence. I had to reset SMC to get the screen back. The errors appear since then.

My Mac is a stock i5 6 core, 256GB SSD, except I have installed 32GB of RAM.

i hope Apple fix this!

Wayne

 

[Hessel89]

Yep, I have the exact same issue. Same error report too. Updating to Catalina solves it completely. Thankfully I still have Mojave installed on my Macbook Pro from 2017. It doesn't have the T2 chip so it's not affected by this.

 

[wayne_rowley]

Yep, I have the exact same issue. Same error report too. Updating to Catalina solves it completely. Thankfully I still have Mojave installed on my Macbook Pro from 2017. It doesn't have the T2 chip so it's not affected by this.

This update has made me nervous of updating to Catalina - as has the other thread about a user's Mac mini that was bricked by the update!

 

[Hessel89]

This update has made me nervous of updating to Catalina - as has the other thread about a user's Mac mini that was bricked by the update!

I wouldn't worry about that. Personally I don't like going to Catalina because some of my Hardware synthesizers aren't compatible with it, but that's a very specific use case. For most people Catalina is absolutely fine. It runs perfectly stable.

 

[mikehalloran]

Has anyone actually spoken to Apple? I have.

All the stupidupereinstalOS can’t help because none of it touches the T2 firmware, controlled by Bridge OS.

At the moment, Apple doesn’t have a solution though they’re working on it. We’re iscussing replacing my iMac Pro under AppleCare which I do not want. Upgrading to Catalina won’t fix this yet but there’s a fix in the works for Catalina 15.5.

I like Catalina but one of the apps I use to make a living has yet to be updated So I have it on a test machine only.

I’m holding them to the fact that they own this issue till Oct. 2021 till AppleCare runs out.

I never let my Mac sleep so it only bothers me when I have to reboot. Unfortunately, my USB 3 ports collapse on occasion and a reboot is the only thing that brings them back. Thunderbolt is unaffected. My reboot time is now 7 minutes and a number of Apple engineers have sat on the phone with me timing it And observing the crash report that, oddly enough, says that my Mac shut down with a problem and bla, bla, bla...

As I went through my normal diagnostics, I tried a Safe Boot — holding down the Shift key, it always booted normally. Finally, I went into the Repair Partition and disabled the T2 security in the utility. Then it would go into Safe Mode And I could clear the NV RAM. The USB ports haven’t collapsed since.

Apple has promised a follow up by Friday. We’ll see what happens.

 

[Hessel89]

Finally, I went into the Repair Partition and disabled the T2 security in the utility.

I think for most of us, this is the best solution for the time being. Would you mind sharing how to go about this exactly?

 

[mikehalloran]

Sure.

Shut down.

Boot holding the Command r keys To get into the Repair Partition.

From the top tool bar, click on Utilities and select Startup Disk Utilities. Enter your Admin password to unlock.

The screen should be self-explainitory.

The first time I tried it, it required me to create a password to protect the Repair Partition before I could exit. I had to log in again later to remove that.

 

[watakoola]

Boot holding the Command r keys To get into the Repair Partition.

Am I the only one using a 2018 mini for which Command r boot keys do NOT work?

Note: The other boot key combinations DO work.

 

[mikehalloran]

Am I the only one using a 2018 mini for which Command r boot keys do NOT work?

Nope. Anyone with a clone on their system will not be able to access the Repair Partition. Likewise, any other Mac OS present on the system will prevent you from accessing it with APFS.

Hopefully, it’s on another drive and you can disconnect it. Do so after you shut down and before you boot.

Note: The other boot key combinations DO work.

As you may have guessed, this has nothing to do with the Repair Partition.

I get in trouble for saying this but if you were stupid enough to partition your boot drive under APFS and install another Mac OS, you got some removing to do. Never partition an APFS drive. It’s ok (And far better) to create volumes but don’t ever install another Mac OS onto one.

BTW, if you do have a clone and expect that you’d be able to boot your Mini from it should your system fail, you’d be disappointed. There is a way but you must enable this ability in the T2 security settings first—you’ll see how when you get to that screen.

 

[watakoola]

Hey! Who are you calling stupid?

No. I am not ‘stupid’ enough to have a second partition on my boot drive.

I do have an emergency backup drive that I can boot from as I have allowed “booting from external media” in the Startup Security Utility.

But… are you saying if I have another drive that automatically mounts on startup (I have external drives in a TB3 enclosure) that it will stop Command-r working? If so, I _was_ unaware of that.

 

[wywh]

After Safari is used in Mojave, and Mac mini 2018 is put to sleep, it always crashes and reboots after about two minutes. Or after using Safari, and doing a shutdown and a cold-boot, a crash report is always issued.

These Mac mini 2018 Mojave sleep/shutdown crashes started after the recent macOS 10.15.4 update or Security Update 2020-002 Mojave which updated firmware to Boot ROM Version: 1037.100.359.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.14263.0.0,0). macOS 10.15.4 Supplemental update updated it to Boot ROM Version: 1037.100.362.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.14281.0.0,0) but the same sleep/shutdown crashes persist in Mojave (no crashes in Catalina).

Disconnecting peripherals, resetting SMC, PRAM, safe-boot, Disk First Aid or even a clean install to macOS 10.14.6 and Safari 12.1.2 does not help.

I now use Chrome with no crashes. A few times after I have accidentally launched Safari, the Mac mini 2018 always crashes in the described manner.

 

[mikehalloran]

Chrome works hand in glove with a database I must use but every now and then, I come across an old web site where Firefox is the only browser that can do what I need. I still keep Safari around for the few sites (mostly Apple) where it works best.

The best thing about Chrome is that you can place a trouble ticket Click on Customize and control Google Chrome in the upper right hand corner, Scroll down to Settings/Report an issue… I've never seen a problem that wasn't fixed quickly.

Support will never reply but Chrome updates every time it is relaunched. After a few hours, shut down and relaunch Chrome—see if the problem is still there.
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Disconnecting peripherals, resetting SMC, PRAM, safe-boot, Disk First Aid or even a clean install to macOS 10.14.6 and Safari 12.1.2 does not help.

None of that can help since it's not the problem. Neither can updating to Catalina since OS 10.15.4 introduced it also.

I'm hoping that Apple has a T2 firmware updater that I can test this week. They've already offered to replace my iMac Pro under AppleCare but I don't want that. Those I've talked to at Apple seem to be unaware that this affects a lot of people.

Every person covered by AppleCare affected by this Bridge OS 4.4 kernel panic issue should be in touch with Apple. Bug reports aren't enough. Let's force them to fix this now.

This is similar to the USB 2 audio interface bug (T2 Macs only) where Apple replaced a lot of Macs under warranty before Mojave 10.14.4 was released and fixed the problem.

 

[Hessel89]

Sure.

Shut down.

Boot holding the Command r keys To get into the Repair Partition.

From the top tool bar, click on Utilities and select Startup Disk Utilities. Enter your Admin password to unlock.

The screen should be self-explainitory.

The first time I tried it, it required me to create a password to protect the Repair Partition before I could exit. I had to log in again later to remove that.

hm.. turns out I already had all Security options disabled.. My Mac Mini 2018 still crashes during sleep..

 

[Fishrrman]

Mike Halloran wrote:
"I get in trouble for saying this but if you were stupid enough to partition your boot drive under APFS and install another Mac OS, you got some removing to do. Never partition an APFS drive. It’s ok (And far better) to create volumes but don’t ever install another Mac OS onto one."

Just an anecdotal reference:
I partitioned my 2018 Mini's drive into 4 "pieces" when I set it up:

The OS partition (MiniBoot) is APFS.
The 3 other partitions are HFS+.

It's worked fine for me for just over a year now -- no problems with the drive or its partitions at all.

Worth noting:
Among the very first things I did after first booting the Mini were:
- DISABLE Startup Security (as much as I could disable it)
and
- TURN OFF System Integrity Protection (I routinely disable ALL of the Apple "security junk" they've been adding on, and I NEVER have problems for having done that)

Just the way I do it, and I realize that it's different from the way you do things.
That's ok.

 

[mikehalloran]

hm.. turns out I already had all Security options disabled.. My Mac Mini 2018 still crashes during sleep..

I didn't say it would fix anything other than that, with the security settings disabled, you can boot from an outside drive.

I was able to reset the NV RAM and do a Safe Boot after I disabled Security — once the Bridge OS 4.4 issue hit, I hadn't been able to. My iMac is no longer crashing overnight and my USB3 ports are stable again (I think—they've not been crashing, in any case).

I do not let my iMac go to sleep other than the display so the crash upon wake from sleep doesn't happen to me.

The problem is still with Apple. The issue is still corruption in the T2 firmware. Much of what I've done has been at their request while we ry to figure out what the issue is.

 

[BroncoBear]

Any news from Apple regarding this?
Have they acknowledged the problem and committed to correcting it?

 

[howdytom]

So far, there is no update on my Apple Bug Report.

 

[zimboden]

I have a Mac Pro mid-2012 running Mojave. The same problem. Ran the security update and then my mac kept restarting and showing lots of text over the apple logo.

I created a bootable installer on a portable drive, using this kb article from Apple (always helpful): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

I did a clean install of Mojave and it fixed the problem. Like it never happened and was just my imagination (except Backblaze, my remote backup service, knew and locked my account with something called "Safety Frozen".

That was the short story. The long story is that I struggled for hours trying to restore. My recovery disk had Sierra, so it could not SEE my startup volume that had been formatted differently after, I think, High Sierra.

Thanks to this thread I will not install that security update again, but that pretty much freezes my OS, unless I can figure out how to get Catalina running on this big old beast.