After Mavericks in-place upgrade, in-house SUS offers multiple incremental updates as "Recommended."

[bradtchapman]

Here is the overarching question:

What could cause the software update mechanism to present multiple recommended updates, instead of just the latest edition?

We have JSS 9.65, but this problem has existed since at least 9.61. We have a package for an in-place upgrade of Mavericks 10.9.2 (13C1021), which is tied to a Self Service policy. There is also a JSS policy that enforces our in-house software update server (a mac Mini), and another policy called "Install Software Updates" that runs at next check-in: "softwareupdate --install --recommended" . It gives the user 60 minutes to comply before a forced reboot.

A couple of hours after the 10.9.2 in-place upgrade, I am getting calls from users saying that their computers are "stuck at the gray Apple."

Fortunately these machines are alive and responsive to SSH, so I logged in and tail'ed the system log. All I see are kext's failing to load, services crashing, etc... so my first thought is a corrupted installation. "sw_vers" also shows 10.9.2, which doesn't make sense if an update was installed.

"softwareupdate --list" shows the following:

Finding available software

Software Update found the following new or updated software:  
   * OSXUpd10.9.3-10.9.3  
    OS X Update (10.9.3), 450679K [recommended] [restart]  
   * OSXUpdCombo10.9.4-10.9.4  
    OS X Update Combined (10.9.4), 935562K [recommended] [restart]  
   * OSXUpdCombo10.9.5-10.9.5  
    OS X Update Combined (10.9.5), 959090K [recommended] [restart]

And this is the installation history in /var/db/receipts:

-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    174718 Apr 30 18:28 com.apple.pkg.BaseSystemBinaries.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel   1991269 Apr 30 18:28 com.apple.pkg.BaseSystemBinaries.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    174322 Apr 30 18:28 com.apple.pkg.BaseSystemResources.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel   7608158 Apr 30 18:28 com.apple.pkg.BaseSystemResources.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel     10011 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.Essentials.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel  41754709 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.Essentials.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       393 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.JavaTools.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel     80281 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.JavaTools.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel      1209 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.BSD.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel   7214096 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.BSD.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       621 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.X11redirect.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    106239 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.X11redirect.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       521 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.OxfordDictionaries.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    449794 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.OxfordDictionaries.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       594 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.MediaFiles.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    122637 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.MediaFiles.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       604 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.JavaEssentials.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    223253 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.JavaEssentials.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       526 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.AsianLanguagesSupport.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    133827 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.AsianLanguagesSupport.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       528 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.AdditionalSpeechVoices.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel     81634 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.AdditionalSpeechVoices.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       841 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.AdditionalEssentials.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel   3422320 Apr 30 18:29 com.apple.pkg.AdditionalEssentials.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel      1794 May  1 13:16 com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.9.3.13D65.delta.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel   3968336 May  1 13:16 com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.9.3.13D65.delta.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel      3618 May  1 13:16 com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.9.4.13E28.combo.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel   7914132 May  1 13:16 com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.9.4.13E28.combo.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       884 May  1 13:16 com.apple.pkg.update.security.10.9.2.13C1021.2014.002.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    842151 May  1 13:16 com.apple.pkg.update.security.10.9.2.13C1021.2014.002.bom
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel       707 May  1 13:16 com.apple.pkg.Safari7.0.3Mavericks.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root  wheel    911473 May  1 13:16 com.apple.pkg.Safari7.0.3Mavericks.bom

The SUS is a Mac Mini running Mavericks. Is this a problem with SUS, or with the client, or with something in the in-place upgrade?

[bradtchapman]

BTW, I was able to fix all of the affected machines via SSH by running:

softwareupdate -i OSXUpdCombo10.9.5-10.9.5; reboot

[bradtchapman]

Also, I think I broke JAMFNation's style sheet:

optional image ALT text

[bradtchapman]

The build number for 10.9.2 after an in-place upgrade is 13C1021.

Is this a hardware specific build?

edit: it is. MacBook Air 11-inch, early 2014. Thank you, MacTracker.

[bentoms]

@bradtchapman why not deploy 10.9.5?

[GabeShack]

bentoms has a good point. But i think you can also clear out out-dated updates from your SUS with

sudo swupd_syncd -removeDeprecated

Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

[bradtchapman]

@bentoms The server is not under my control. I'll mention it to our CCA; I don't think he's had the time to Compose a package for the 10.9.5 installer.

@gshackney Thanks for the tip as well. That sounds like a quick fix for this particular issue, and will help us get more systems done faster until one of us has time to Compose a package properly.

[bentoms]

@bradtchapman "Compose a package" ? It should just be a drag & drop of the "Install Mac OSX Mavericks.app" into Casper Admin.

[bradtchapman]

@bentoms Wow, it's really that simple? Awesome! I've only had my CCT cert for a week and we didn't cover Casper Admin in depth, particularly when it comes to OS installations.