When booting in safe mode the Macbook doesn't seem to care that it can't use the touch bar, and continues the installation. It sees this as a critical issue and refuses to continue booting.
Thus, if you clear your disk and try to install OSX again, the Macbook will be unable to use the touch bar. However, the installer package for OSX doesn't properly install this software, and it also seems to be missing from internet recovery. This is shipped with the mac on your main disk. As it turns out, the new Macbook comes with software for the touch bar, called EmbeddedOS. This blog entry from Erik Gomez gives an in-depth explanation of the problem. Some users seem to get this problem after performing some update. If you Google the error, you see a lot of end users panicking with good reason. The error comes from a problem with the touch bar that comes with new Macbooks. What can go wrong? Well, after the installation I got an error message saying A critical software update is required for your Mac, and I couldn't continue with the installation.īoot in safe mode, and continue the installation.
This was done using recovery mode, wiping the disk, and performing a clean install. Last week I re-installed a Macbook Pro with a touch bar.
