Specifically, it was a new version of Chrome’s Keystone updater that caused so many Macs to stop rebooting, according to this Chrome open bug post. When the update was installed on Macs that had disabled a security feature known as system integrity prevention and met several other conditions, a crucial part of the Mac system file was damaged, a Google employee said in the forum.

“This appears to be an issue with a new version of Google Keystone,” a different Google employee wrote earlier in the thread. “We have halted the rollout and are working on remediation right now.”

When your Mac gets a “varsectomy”

SIP, as system integrity protection is usually abbreviated, was introduced in 2015 in the El Capitan version of macOS (called OS X at the time). As its name suggests, SIP is designed to protect the integrity of the OS by, among other things, protecting certain files and folders from being deleted or modified, except by specific, authorized processes.

It would appear a bug in the Chrome update inadvertently attempted to modify parts of the macOS file system. When SIP was enabled—as it is by default—SIP worked as designed and prevented the change. When the protection was disabled, however, the file system was modified in a way that prevented Macs from rebooting. Specifically, according to the Chrome bug thread, the buggy Chrome update removed a crucial symbolic link pointing to the /var folder.

“This results in system instability that may include failure to launch new UI applications, failure to resolve hostnames in most already-running programs, and failure to reboot successfully,” one of the Google employees said.

The specific conditions required for the Chrome update to make this change are:

• SIP must be disabled (or not present, as is the case pre-OS X 10.11)
• The root directory, /, must be writable by the logged-in user
• A Keystone version containing the bug, 1.2.13.75, must be installed
• Keystone must update a product that it supervises.

The reason so many users of the Avid Media Composer program were affected, Mac enterprise blog Mr. Macintosh reported, is that some users of the film-editing software must disable SIP when using third-party graphics cards. The publication has dubbed the /var-killing bug “varsectomy.”

Google has instructions for restoring unbootable Macs here. The process involves booting into recovery mode and then opening a terminal window, which among other ways can be accessed from the utilities folder. From there, run the following commands:

1. chroot /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD # “Macintosh HD” is the default
2. rm -rf /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle mv var var_back # var may not exist, but this is fine
3. ln -sh private/var var
4. chflags -h restricted /var
5. chflags -h hidden /var
6. xattr -sw com.apple.rootless “” /var

Then reboot.

If everything goes right, the Mac will restart with the buggy Chrome update no longer installed and with the damaged file system repaired. It wasn’t immediately clear when a fixed version of the Chrome update will be available.

The post Chrome Stops Some Macs from Booting appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Q. My iPhone opens up web pages in Safari. Is there a way to change the default browser to Chrome?

A. The current version of the iOS software uses Apple’s Safari browserand does not allow you to select different browser apps to automatically open links. As Google’s own support pages for the iOS version of Chrome note, “You can’t make Chrome your default browser, but you can add it to your dock.” Adding the app to the dock — that strip of icons along the bottom of the screen — will not make Chrome jump up to open links you may get in a text or an email message, but it does keep the icon within thumb range when you’d like to start browsing.

To put Chrome in the iPhone’s dock, you may need to make room for it by moving another app’s icon first. In the dock, just press and hold your finger on the app you want to move until it begins to wiggle, then drag it up to a different part of the home screen. While the apps are still wiggling, drag the Chrome icon into the dock. Press the Home button to calm the icons.

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It is not impossible to change your iPhone’s default apps or tinker around with other settings, even though Apple’s official version of iOS prohibits such actions. However, to do that, you need to “jailbreak” your device and install unauthorized software on it. Apple deeply frowns on this activity and will not generally provide technical support for a jailbroken phone running someone else’s software.

Android users do have the option to choose a new default browser. To do so, open the Settings app, select Apps & Notifications and tap Advanced at the bottom of the screen. Select Default Apps, tap Browser app and pick the installed browser program you wish to use.

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