Apple fixes El Capitan kernel issue in supplemental security update

AppleInsider · January 17, 2017 9:20PM

Apple on Tuesday issued a supplemental security update for OS X 10.11.6, fixing a kernel issue for El Capitan users that causes affected Macs to 'occasionally become unresponsive.'

Available from the Mac App Store , as well as through Apple's support pages, the supplemental update is a free download weighing in at 623.9 megabytes, and can be used by any Mac running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan with Security Update 2016-003 installed. Security Update 2016-003, originally released in December, has been reissued at the same time and measures 717 megabytes in size.

Aside from the kernel panic issue, little else is known about the contents of the update. Apple is expected to provide more details after it updates the official security updates page.

Users of macOS Sierra are still waiting for Apple to release the next update for the operating system, with the fourth and latest beta released last week.

bitmod · January 17, 2017 10:06PM

I hope this fixed the issue. Was having it happen every other day. 5k imac

bwh1248 · January 17, 2017 11:09PM

I've been having problems with a 2008 iMac occasionally hanging at startup. Could this kernel issue be the cause of that?

mknelson · January 17, 2017 11:14PM

I've had a weird issue with my nMP - sometimes when I'm using Firefox (and only Firefox) the mouse and then shortly afterwards the keyboard will stop working - the only recourse is to restart the computer. Media will keep playing.

Not sure if this is the same issue.

lkrupp · January 18, 2017 12:15AM

mknelson said:

I've had a weird issue with my nMP - sometimes when I'm using Firefox (and only Firefox) the mouse and then shortly afterwards the keyboard will stop working - the only recourse is to restart the computer. Media will keep playing.

Not sure if this is the same issue.

No.

mknelson · January 18, 2017 12:19AM

lkrupp said:

mknelson said:

I've had a weird issue with my nMP - sometimes when I'm using Firefox (and only Firefox) the mouse and then shortly afterwards the keyboard will stop working - the only recourse is to restart the computer. Media will keep playing.

Not sure if this is the same issue.

No.

And then I remember I'm running Sierra. So, definitely No.

kiowavt · January 18, 2017 2:48AM

Sierra became unresponsive for me today. Restart was the only way out, and disrupted a segment of my workday. Trackpad does not move cursor. This happens about once every week or two.

zoetmb · January 18, 2017 4:55AM

I'm not having those problems on my new MBP with Sierra, but whenever I wake the computer from sleep Outlook and several other previously open apps tend to crash. They relaunch in about a second or two, so it's just a minor annoyance, but on the other hand, there's no excuse for this because it didn't happen under El Capitan on my old MBP.

macpro · January 18, 2017 3:40PM

zoetmb said:

I'm not having those problems on my new MBP with Sierra, but whenever I wake the computer from sleep Outlook and several other previously open apps tend to crash. They relaunch in about a second or two, so it's just a minor annoyance, but on the other hand, there's no excuse for this because it didn't happen under El Capitan on my old MBP.

I wonder why all those above mentioning issues with El Capitan are not using macOS Sierra? It's been very solid for us (and I use the Developer betas mostly). Yes I've seen similar mail issues with my wife having to use Exchange on all her Apple gear for work as well as Apple's iCloud for personal use all within Mail. The solution is always to quit her Mail prior to closing her Mac lid. There's something not working between Microsoft servers and macOS fort sure.

edited January 2017

buffyzdead · January 18, 2017 3:50PM

This give me hope.

I have been having issues on my 2008 24" iMac.
A workhorse all these years but the last 6 months, it locks up shortly after boot up.

Not my primary machine but still a useful machine.
If this works, after a few months of use to verify, I will then install Sierra on it.

edited January 2017

curtpusa · January 18, 2017 4:02PM

BuffyzDead said:

This give me hope.

I have been having issues on my 2008 24" iMac.
A workhorse all these years but the last 6 months, it locks up shortly after boot up.

Not my primary machine but still a useful machine.
If this works, after are months of use to verify, I will then install Sierra on it.

Your 2008 24" iMac will not install Sierra. Need late 2009 or newer to install Sierra.

ibill · January 18, 2017 4:39PM

I believe I have been having this very problem with El Capitan on a mid 2011 Mac Mini. I thought it began when I updated to Safari 10, but not sure about that. I have not applied the update yet, but hopeful it will resolve the problem.

cadrmr · January 18, 2017 5:16PM

My late 2015 27" 5K on El Capitan has had all sorts of stall/unresponsive issues lately (getting worse with time and I've had my iMac less than 1 month! -- in fact the worst unresponsiveness yet occurred today while I was starting to look at the info on the update! In fact there have been several times that my iMac has shutdown without any warning (before or after). Running Disk Utility, apple hardware tests, etrecheck and Onyx have revealed nothing. I was about to shutdown, remove, burnish and reseat the 24gb ram (16 from OWC) because I thought if the hard drive's not failing (will wonder still if this update doesn't resolve all the problems above that have been increasingly more frequent and severe), then maybe the RAM is .... at this point, time will tell. I will try to remember to update and add new comments either way after I give it some time. Thanks and would appreciate hearing from others who have had similar issues. BiG Thanks to AppleInsider for providing me the discount link plus the code for the extra $75 off of my new iMac (2TB fusion, 3.3ghz, 8GB RAM) back before xmas. Got it from the AI Adorama link in the price guide and except for those bizarre occurrences, I am totally loving it!!! GREAT DEAL as I notice the price has already gone up since I bought it. I was worried I'd still be paying to much! :-)

daven · January 18, 2017 6:48PM

MacPro said:

zoetmb said:

I'm not having those problems on my new MBP with Sierra, but whenever I wake the computer from sleep Outlook and several other previously open apps tend to crash. They relaunch in about a second or two, so it's just a minor annoyance, but on the other hand, there's no excuse for this because it didn't happen under El Capitan on my old MBP.

I wonder why all those above mentioning issues with El Capitan are not using macOS Sierra? It's been very solid for us (and I use the Developer betas mostly). Yes I've seen similar mail issues with my wife having to use Exchange on all her Apple gear for work as well as Apple's iCloud for personal use all within Mail. The solution is always to quit her Mail prior to closing her Mac lid. There's something not working between Microsoft servers and macOS fort sure.

Because Sierra won't run on older Macs like my Early 2009 iMac.

I'm in the 'been having problems' with hangs in El Cap. I resorted to wiping the disk and re-installing from the latest backup because I couldn't even restart the existing installation. I assumed it was a problem with my drive but maybe not. I'm installing the patch now. Wish me luck and I hope the rest of you are lucky too!

buffyzdead · January 18, 2017 8:58PM

Your 2008 24" iMac will not install Sierra. Need late 2009 or newer to install Sierra.

Oh but it will, my good sir.

There exists the good work of two gentlemen, that created a workaround to install Sirera
WITHOUT Issue, on an entire range of "unsupported" Apple computers.

I have been running Sierra, including all subsequent updates through the Apple Store, without issue.
I even installed a supported wireless card, in my 2009 Mac Mini for 100%, full, wireless functionality.

Check it out:
http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-10-12-sierra-unsupported-macs-thread.1977128/

and the actual tools:
http://dosdude1.com/sierrapatch.html

Apple fixes El Capitan kernel issue in supplemental security update

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