Mac Mini not behaving :(

[barry_m2]

Hi All,

Apologies my first post is a cry for help. I've used your forums loads in the past and always been able to resolve issues, but this time I'm stumped!

2012 Mac Mini, decided to upgrade it to Mojave and have hit a wall!!

Update seemed to be going well but looking up at the screen after a few mins of letting it do it's own thing, I noticed an error on a black screen... Your computer restarted because of a problem... blah blah blah...

Now, it just reboots, apple logo appears, a progress bar pops up underneath about a quarter of the way complete, then it reboots its self after about 5 seconds. Does this 5 times then the stop sign appears.

I've tried pulling the power, leaving it, pressing the ON button and it just jumps straight to the apple logo and update bar, no chime at all (tried this a dozen times now), so I can't even get in to recovery mode.

Anyone had this problem before, what did you do to resolve it?

Ta

 

[Raz0rEdge]

You are experiencing a Kernel Panic. Did the upgrade to Mojave complete and you are having these issues after that or during the installation? What version of macOS were you running before and did that have any of these issues, even occasionally?

If this is happening post installation, you should try going into Safe mode by holding down the SHIFT key during startup to see if that will get you to a working environment. If it does, you can then grab the Kernel Panic logs and we can try to diagnose the issue for you.

Hopefully you have a back (time machine or otherwise) that you can revert back to if need be.

 

[barry_m2]

I have a feeling it didn't actually complete. I wasn't watching it, but it certainly never made it to the log on screen.

It was fully patched version of High Sierra I was upgrading from. No previous issues at all, ever, with that OS.

I can't get in to any kind of mode, Safe mode, recovery mode, boot options etc.. It doesn't take any notice, it doesn't chime when I turn it on either. I can get into single user mode (+S) but it just runs through a load of scripting, then errors out again. I do have time machine backups, just can't get to the recovery mode to do the restore!

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If the installation never finished, the machine is likely trying to restart/continue the installation each time and running into issues. It is strange that the installation would render the Recovery Console unusable, I would've thought that it would mess with the previous OS' recovery console once the new one has been successfully installed.

So CMD+r isn't getting you into the recovery console. If you have access to another Mac, you can use that to build a bootable USB with High Sierra on it and then use that to get High Sierra back on your Mac Mini and then evaluate if you want do to the Mojave upgrade or not. Your 2012 is likely at the bottom end of supported machines, so you might want to stay with High Sierra and upgrade the machine itself when it comes time to do so.

 

[barry_m2]

If I was to create a bootable USB drive, how would I boot to it, I can't get any of the command options to work.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

To boot from a USB or other media, you would usually hold down the OPT key. That feature should be built into the BIOS/Firmware of the Mac Mini and not something an OS upgrade should mess with. So you should be able to get back to that screen (hopefully ).

 

[barry_m2]

Aarrghh, no, OPT key does nothing either

As soon as I power it on (even after leaving the power cord out for 10 mins) it just jumps straight back to the same apply logo with progress bar, then eventually stop sign

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I don't remember if you get the disk selection menu if you don't have multiple choices and you gotta be quick with the OPT key after power on.

 

[barry_m2]

Yeah, I know you gotta be quick, it won't work. Like I mentioned before, it just seems to jump straight to the update (I'm assuming) as it doesn't give the chime when I turn it on, it just jumps straight to the Apple logo and progress bar which starts about a third of the way through... then restarts... and repeat...

Is there anything I can do in single user mode at a command prompt, its the only thing I can appear to get in to!?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

That is very odd. I'm not sure there is any way of getting to the recovery console from the single user mode Terminal. If the boot option (holding down OPT) was working, you'd be given the choice of either booting into Macintosh HD or the Recovery HD which would have taken you to the recovery console (maybe) to do a time machine restore.

I've hit a limit to the things I know to try in recovering from this state. Perhaps others will have ideas for you to try.

 

[barry_m2]

Yeah, really odd isn’t it! I’m quite competent with this sort of stuff, but it’s really got me stumped so far!

Just checked my time machine and thankfully I have a backup of all my media (phew)!! So just need to work this out

 

[ferrarr]

Ae you using a wired or wireless keyboard?

 

[barry_m2]

Wireless. Going to try a usb one later, had to pic one up as I didnt have one at home

 

[barry_m2]

Tried with a wired keyboard and still the same. It doesn't accept any keyboard commands other than CMD+S for single user mode, which just throws up a load of code and continues booting.

I just need to somehow get it out of this rebooting loop!

 

[barry_m2]

Just a little update to this thread...

This morning I fired up the Mini again and somehow managed to get in to the Recovery menu (no idea how). The progress bar climbed a little further than is was last night then it went straight to the Recovery menu. Not sure if that was because it knew there were problems, or it was my frantic key pressing!!?

Anyhow, I selected to re-install the OS, it took a couple of hours but appears to have installed fine now.. (had my g/f message me) so will look in to this further when I get home.

Will I still be able to see in any of the log files, anything relating to the Kernel Panic despite it appearing to install from the start again?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If you ended up restoring back to your previous OS, then you likely don't have the logs if that ended up erasing the HD along the way. If it didn't erase the contents of the drive, then maybe the logs are there for you to pick up.

 

[barry_m2]

Hmmm, well, it was installing Mojave, so I'm assuming it just carried on with the upgrade rather than a fresh install. Well, I hope so anyway!!

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Oh OK! So it was the Mojave recovery console. Well if that's the case, you should check Console to see if you have any panic logs or anything. But it's entirely possible that it was just broken and now that it's finished installing properly, it might not present that issue again.

 

[barry_m2]

I'll have a look later when I get home, if I have time. It's only used as a Plex server, and apparently it's sitting at the log in screen of the account I created for Plex, so I'm hoping it's just upgraded rather than done fresh install.
I'm pretty sure a fresh install would wipe out all user accounts?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Yes, a fresh install would wipe out all previous info, accounts, apps, settings and so on.