Apple EFi & SMC Firmware Updates

BEFORE you run ANY mac updates make sure to update your SGN to the latest which is 6.01.  You don't need to decrypt, or uninstall the current version, just install over it.  After that any firmware or mac updatse containing updated EFI modules should work exactly as needed.

Note: This will work for SAME OS X VERSIONS already, if you're updating from 10.6 to 10.7 or 10.7 to 10.8, you WILL need to decrypt your system and remove Sophos SafeGuard BEFORE updating the OS to a new version.

I have the same issue here. I am on a Retina MacBook Pro (MacBookPro10,1) which is kept on 10.7 by the company's IT department. It is running Sophos AV and Sophos SafeGuard (06.01.00) and we authenticate via Active Directory (with sudo / administrator rights).

The SMC 1.1 update keeps popping up in Software Update, even though I have installed it about 5 times (according to System Preferences -> Software Update -> Installed Software) already. The SMC firmware remains at 2.3f32 while it should be 2.3f35 after the update. I tried resetting SMC as well as NV/PRAM without any luck...

My guess is that Sophos' SafeGuard disk encryption is somehow messing things up as you have to enter your credentials on boot to be able to use the 'disk' and I assume you cannot 'boot' the firmware update. However the post above suggests it should work...

Anybody got a clue?

Hi Joel, 

Thanks for your reply. I tried manually installing the pkg from the terminal, but again no luck... :S No errors, all goes well but  SMC Version is still at 2.3f32...

/Volumes/MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update Manual $ sudo installer -verbose -pkg MacBookProRetinaSMCUpdate.pkg -target /
installer: Package name is MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update
installer: Upgrading at base path /
installer: Preparing for installation….....
installer: Preparing the disk….....
installer: Preparing MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update….....
installer: Waiting for other installations to complete….....
installer: Configuring the installation….....
installer: 	
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Optimizing system for installed software….....
#
installer: Running package scripts….....
#
installer: 	Running installer actions…
installer: 	
installer: Finishing the Installation….....
installer: 	
#
installer: The software was successfully installed......
installer: The upgrade was successful.
installer: The install requires restarting now.
/Volumes/MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update Manual $ 

Hey Joel,

While the above command did not report any strange things, it turns out that some messages are logged in the console / dmesg about authorization issues and this might indeed mean it is not SafeGuard related... Would you know how to solve this? I find numerours references on Google...

Thanks

ps. I tried repairing permissions in DiskUtility without any luck...

Sorry for the wait in the reply, I've been working LONG hours.  I hope I can help, these types of issues are a crapshoot because it's basically a DRM failure between hardware->EFI->OS X.  DRM problems with Apple suck and there isn't much you can do as far as I know if it isn't working.

Try these in order till you find what works, I've had to do similar stuff before.

1. VERIFY HARD DRIVE HEALTH.  use the manufacturers tools to verify smart, and do a LONG DST, this will take several hours to complete, do it anyway! Encrypiton can bring out and accentuate any hardware defects in a drive because it changes the way the OS handles each sector, and in the OS X version of SafeGuard it encrypts all sectors.  Just because a drive says it wrote something successfully and updated the sector doesn't actually mean it did with flaky drives FYI.  I can't stress this enough as a first step for low level OS issues or issues with Sophos SafeGuard.  If everything is good decrypt the drive and remove SafeGuard.  Does apple certified hardware like a superdrive work?  Can you boot from the USB Pico Drive or other USB media with the apple installer on it ?  If not you have a series EFI problem on that system.  As an experement you can use another mac to clone your system using TARGET DISK MODE, plug it into another mac using firewire, and take an image of the existing system, and clone that to another volume on an internal or USB drive, use that to boot and try updating that.  I've had that work before.

2. Boot into SAFE MODE, and repair the disk permissions, repair the filesystem.  Boot into normal OS and try the update again, see if your firmware updates.  It may be that one of the DRM kernel or EFI modules needs permission or filesystem repair to function correctly.  If you can't boot into safe mode natively, you can use another apple WITH THE EXACT SAME OS X VERSION YOU HAVE to repair your disk and filesystem permissions, remember you have to be decrypted and SafeGuard uninstalled first!

3. Boot into SAFE MODE and try the updates in that mode instead of the normal mode, another program that installs a kernel module you may not be aware of may be interfiering with the update process in some way, yes this does happen, and yes some programs you may not think need to actually install kernel drivers.  Not all drivers, or programmers for that matter are equal, and some just don't play nice with others.

4. Boot into SINGLE USER MODE and try the updates there just to make certain, if it fails there, you know it's a more serious problem.

5. Reinstall OS X 10.7 over your existing system and try all the updates again, make sure to cleanly uninstall any existing programs beforehand just to make sure that no remaining kernel module or apps might cause an issue.  If you have another Mac you can image that one instead over your system using target disk mode, just remember to back up your user folder if you do that.  Also using a netboot server if you have one set up and available works really well and much faster over a good gigabit ethernet network.

6.  Back up your user folder to an external drive or network location and wipe the whole thing, including the partition table, and install OS X 10.8 instead, This version fixed a few issues I've had with 10.7 before where an update along the way flaked and I couldn't update anymore or apple certified media or drives stopped being recognized.  Remember this is all native 64-bit and some programs will need to be updated to work correctly or install, including Sophos SafeGuard, Citrix, your A/V program, VMWare VMView for ESX Server, Some versions of Adobe CS, and a few other popular apps for OS X.

7. Part of the EFI area you can't touch that houses the lower level boot code is corrupt somehow and you might need to take this to the apple store (hopefully you have applecare) and get a board swapout.  I've had this happen with boards that came with a series of hardware defects you wouldn't notice until you tried to do some kind of low level firmware update, the OS updated fine, swaped out boards and it was fine after.

Hope this helps.  If you or anyone else knows a better awnser please share!  I make no claim at GURU status or that this will work in this situation, I've had similar issues and this and worked for me in the past most of the time, returning to apple is a last effort.