Apple continues adding Lion Internet Recovery support to 2010 Macs

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014


Apple on Tuesday released several EFI firmware updates for its 2010 Macs to enable the Lion Internet Recovery feature to the older machines.



The Cupertino, Calif., company posted updates for its MacBook Air (Late 2010), iMac (Mid 2010) and MacBook Pro (Early 2010) models. The new firmware also comes on the heels of last month's MacBook Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac mini (Mid 2010) updates.



Each of the upgrades adds support for Lion Recovery over an Internet Connection. The feature first made its debut on last year's MacBook Air and Mac mini models, both of which lack optical drives allowing for more traditional recovery methods. Internet Recovery lets users start their Macs directly from Apple's servers. Macs released earlier in the year, such as the Thunderbolt MacBook Pro and iMac, received an EFI firmware update last fall to add the feature.



Tuesday's MacBook Air firmware update also addresses an issue where the system would sometimes restart when the power button was pressed immediately after waking from deep sleep.











Apple released Mac OS X Lion last summer. The operating system has seen a series of improvements since then, with the latest coming last week in the form of 10.7.3.



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    Wow, cool. I'm eligible.
  • Reply 2 of 20
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Wow, cool. I'm eligible.



    Yeah, my iMac is eligible as well, but what about my late 2006 Intel CPU MBP with 2G of RAM?



    Would it move like an elephant in a tar pit if I loaded Lion?
  • Reply 3 of 20
    It's not that bad. I have Lion installed on my MacBook Core 2 Duo (late 2006 model).
  • Reply 4 of 20
    Nice to have this support for more models. I wish they did the same thing for the firmware of PPC models, e.g., the lampshade iMacs which were notorious for collecting dust in their optical drives.

    Sadly, I don't expect the feature to extend beyond machines that can run Lion
  • Reply 5 of 20
    hope i will get this nice feature. I have a mid 2009 macbook pro.
  • Reply 6 of 20
    aizmovaizmov Posts: 989member
    Just got it for my MacBook Pro and Mac mini.
  • Reply 7 of 20
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I'm unclear what is making the role out to older Intel Macs so slow. Isn't it just a drive partition with a simple boot system?
  • Reply 8 of 20
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    I'm unclear what is making the role out to older Intel Macs so slow. Isn't it just a drive partition with a simple boot system?



    no. It's a changed firmware because it even works when the disk is dead or has been replaced. The Recovery partition on the start disk has been available for all Lion systems. This is beyond THAT.
  • Reply 9 of 20
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by florianvk View Post


    no. It's a changed firmware because it even works when the disk is dead or has been replaced. The Recovery partition on the start disk has been available for all Lion systems. This is beyond THAT.



    Ok, thanks. That makes sense.



    In my defense it's not yet 5am here and I haven't had my coffee.
  • Reply 10 of 20
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    The Mac originally had a sad face when it couldn't find a boot disk.

    Then a folder with question mark.

    Now it connects back to the mothership to get help.
  • Reply 11 of 20
    Does anybody actually want this capability? I don't. I want Apple to continue to supply recovery media with every Mac they sell. If they sell a Mac without an optical drive, then they should supply recovery tools on a USB thumbdrive.
  • Reply 12 of 20
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Curmudgeon View Post


    Does anybody actually want this capability? I don't. I want Apple to continue to supply recovery media with every Mac they sell. If they sell a Mac without an optical drive, then they should supply recovery tools on a USB thumbdrive.



    I don't agree with the modal verb should. If you have an optical drive you can make your own with a blank SL-DVD and Disk Utility. If you want it on a USB drive or SD card you can also make your own so long as it's 8GB*, or you can just buy the one Apple supplies. It's cheaper than the Mac OS X upgrade cost by $60 so consider it a net win over their previous sales method if you want to have the USB stick on hand.





    * You can use a 4GB stick/card but it does take a little finagling to get it to fit.
  • Reply 13 of 20
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    sweet! I think that covers my iMac. Now they just need to extend it back to the Spring 2009 Mac Pro and I'll be able to take over the world!
  • Reply 14 of 20
    cgjcgj Posts: 276member
    I may sound stupid here, but what was used before the EFI Firmware update? I see no difference on my iMac...
  • Reply 15 of 20
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CGJ View Post


    I may sound stupid here, but what was used before the EFI Firmware update? I see no difference on my iMac...



    They didn't have Lion Internet Recovery before. They only had the recovery partition on the hard drive. Internet Recovery is used when the entire drive is dead or you've swapped in a brand new hard drive.



    Seriously, why Apple doesn't just pop an 8GB NAND flash chip on every logic board and have the OS installed THERE is beyond me...
  • Reply 16 of 20
    cgjcgj Posts: 276member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    They didn't have Lion Internet Recovery before. They only had the recovery partition on the hard drive. Internet Recovery is used when the entire drive is dead or you've swapped in a brand new hard drive.



    Seriously, why Apple doesn't just pop an 8GB NAND flash chip on every logic board and have the OS installed THERE is beyond me...



    So we shouldn't see any difference UNLESS the drive is screwed?
  • Reply 17 of 20
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CGJ View Post


    So we shouldn't see any difference UNLESS the drive is screwed?



    Right. I don't even think you can get to this (as opposed to the standard recovery method) unless you put in a new drive.
  • Reply 18 of 20
    jfanningjfanning Posts: 3,398member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post


    Yeah, my iMac is eligible as well, but what about my late 2006 Intel CPU MBP with 2G of RAM?



    Would it move like an elephant in a tar pit if I loaded Lion?



    I have a 2.16GHz C2D 24" iMac with 3GB RAM, I find Lion very slow on it
  • Reply 19 of 20
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    can't wait to have the Lion firmware walked back to early 2008 iMacs
  • Reply 20 of 20
    Yup, got this on my MBP 13" 2010 model. Sweet.



    Assuming Telstra gets its act together and hooks up my DSL as promised in the next few weeks.
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