New MacBook Pro firmware supports Thunderbolt Display, Lion Recovery

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Apple has issued an firmware update for 2011 MacBook Pro models that contains enabling support for the as yet unavailable new Thunderbolt Display and also adds support for Lion Recovery for reinstalling Mac OS X over the Internet.



The update for early 2011 Thunderbolt MacBook Pro models "resolves issues" with the new Thunderbolt Display and improves the performance of notebooks when operating in Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode, features that were also release for MacBook Air users in a parallel firmware update issued yesterday.



However, the MacBook Pro update also "enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection," a feature formerly unique to new Air models and new Mac mini systems, both of which first shipped this summer alongside an announcement of the new Thunderbolt Display.



Apple's new 27 inch display is the first to incorporate Thunderbolt cabling, which it uses to provide a single signal cable that supports video, audio for its built in speakers, and a digital interconnect for the display's three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port and a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt devices.







MacBook Air models support one Thunderbolt display, while 2011 MacBook Pro notebooks and other Thunderbolt-based Macs with discrete graphics can support two of the displays.



Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    MacBook Air models support one Thunderbolt display, while 2011 MacBook Pro notebooks and other Thunderbolt-based Macs with discrete graphics can support two of the displays.



    I thought the 13" MBP also only supported one external display.
  • Reply 2 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    However, the MacBook Pro update also "enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection,"



    That's excellent news. I performed a clean install of Lion onto a new SSD (after moving the internal drive into a Data Doubler), and it doesn't appear to have installed a recovery partition. I suppose it's somewhat superfluous as I booted from a thumb drive to install Lion in the first place. I could simply boot off it again to run the diagnostics tools if ever I had a need to.



    Still, I'm glad to see Apple adding this kind of support to 'older' hardware
  • Reply 3 of 13
    Hmmmm.....no update for me. I have the latest 17 inch model.
  • Reply 4 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post


    Hmmmm.....no update for me. I have the latest 17 inch model.



    I tried to do a software update and it didn't need one so I downloaded it from the first page for the article but I haven't tried installing it yet.

    Macbook Pro 2011 13 inch
  • Reply 5 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post


    Hmmmm.....no update for me. I have the latest 17 inch model.



    Same here...
  • Reply 6 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rockstheparty View Post


    Same here...



    The update worked go to the main page of this article and download it then install it.

    Michael
  • Reply 7 of 13
  • Reply 8 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I thought the 13" MBP also only supported one external display.



    Tha't correct.
  • Reply 9 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by djames4242 View Post


    That's excellent news. I performed a clean install of Lion onto a new SSD (after moving the internal drive into a Data Doubler), and it doesn't appear to have installed a recovery partition. I suppose it's somewhat superfluous as I booted from a thumb drive to install Lion in the first place. I could simply boot off it again to run the diagnostics tools if ever I had a need to.



    Still, I'm glad to see Apple adding this kind of support to 'older' hardware



    I installed from a USB drive as well and I didn't notice a recovery partition. However I turned on FileVault and now I have Cmd-R on startup...



    MacBook Pro 13" 2010 here.
  • Reply 10 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Apple has issued an firmware update



    Typo of the day
  • Reply 11 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    I installed from a USB drive as well and I didn't notice a recovery partition. However I turned on FileVault and now I have Cmd-R on startup...



    MacBook Pro 13" 2010 here.



    To see if you have a Recovery HD partition, start Terminal, and type 'diskutil list', <return>.

    This will list all disks and their partitions.
  • Reply 12 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by prw View Post


    To see if you have a Recovery HD partition, start Terminal, and type 'diskutil list', <return>.

    This will list all disks and their partitions.



    Thanks! Surprisingly I do have one. I've used diskutil to force-eject drives before, but didn't think to use it to list partitions. I assumed it would show the same thing as Disk Utility, but it must be a 'hidden' partition that the GUI doesn't show.
  • Reply 13 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by prw View Post


    To see if you have a Recovery HD partition, start Terminal, and type 'diskutil list', <return>.

    This will list all disks and their partitions.



    Cool! This is what I have (Core Storage is related to FileVault):



    /dev/disk0

    #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

    0: GUID_partition_scheme *320.1 GB disk0

    1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

    2: Apple_CoreStorage 319.2 GB disk0s2

    3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

    /dev/disk1

    #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

    0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *318.9 GB disk1
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