M1 Mac / Monterey "Preparing for installation..." Stuck

[mattpeckham]

Hi all,

I'm trying to install CMBN on a new Mac M1 Pro running Monterey, and managed to get past the Gatekeeper issue, but now the installer is stuck on "Preparing for installation..." (see below). I've let it sit for hours, and nothing. When I check the Force Quit option (cmd-opt-esc) the Installer is listed but no indication it's hung.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Matt

[Schrullenhaft]

There are some 2D graphical issues with Mac OS Monterey (that actually started with 'Big Sur') and they MAY affect the appearance of the installer. It's possible that the game is actually fully installed - look for a folder in your 'Applications' folder, in this case it should be 'CM Battle for Normandy. If that exists then try to launch the game by double-clicking the 'CM Battle for Normandy' icon/app within that folder (a white star in an olive drab roundel) and see if it runs.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Schrullenhaft

[chuckdyke]

ignore

Edited December 29, 2021 by chuckdyke
want to delete

[mattpeckham]

1 hour ago, Schrullenhaft said:

There are some 2D graphical issues with Mac OS Monterey (that actually started with 'Big Sur') and they MAY affect the appearance of the installer. It's possible that the game is actually fully installed - look for a folder in your 'Applications' folder, in this case it should be 'CM Battle for Normandy. If that exists then try to launch the game by double-clicking the 'CM Battle for Normandy' icon/app within that folder (a white star in an olive drab roundel) and see if it runs.

Interesting, I wasn't aware of those visual issues. I took a look, however, and unfortunately there's nothing related to CM in in the Applications folder. I did have the demo installed beforehand, so had seen the star/roundel icon. I removed that before installing the "CMBN Mac v403 Installer.pkg" file after purchasing it.

I just noticed something when "Force Quitting" the installer again just now. The icon for the installer is the same as the icon for the iOS App Installer when I run a Spotlight search for "installer" (see the topmost whiteish icons in the two screens below). Maybe that's not relevant? But could it be that the wrong "installer" is bring triggered for some reason?

 

[mattpeckham]

I appear to have solved the problem. I was scanning for others having the issue more generally (with other apps) and found an Apple support thread (on an unrelated app - it wasn't CM-related) advising that the person restart Mac OS in Safe Mode, then try the installer. I did so, and it sailed right through. When I restarted (again) to back out of Safe Mode, the CM folder was present, and the game appears to be running fine (well, more than fine - whatever sorcery they worked in the 4.0 update seems to have dramatically improved scrolling around the battlefield, tiny maps to large ones!).

Still not sure why the installer was locking in normal mode, but perfectly happy that all seems well at this point!

 

Edited December 29, 2021 by mattpeckham

[Redwolf]

The safe-mode thing is strange.

Are you running some form of antivirus by a chance?

[mattpeckham]

It's a good question and I had the same thought, but I just got the Mac and hadn't installed AV software yet, so nothing like that. I am running AdGuard for Safari (nearest software neighbor) but I tried disabling it to no avail. I'm not running anything unusual, just a file sync tool for a cloud storage service (Sync) and 1Password. I tried disabling those as well, but no effect.

Here's the Apple thread that led me to Safe Mode.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5166967

It's from 2013 though, so a fluke that it applied here.

[Redwolf]

Hmmm. I am on Monterey now, but all my installs have been "inherited" from before the update from Catalina. So I never tried an install here.

Monterey is a strange beasts with lots of subtle breakages. Wish I went to Big Sur instead.

[Ultradave]

I'm stumped. I've done several installs since installing Monterey, both CM and other software, and haven't run into any issues that weren't already there in Big Sur. I'm on a 3 year old MacBook Pro though and not a M1, so that may make a difference. 

The Big Sur graphics glitches appear to be OpenGL related, and shouldn't affect the progress of installation. They are that the progress bar and background don't appear when loading a scenario, and the progress bar does not appear after pressing the red button to submit moves, and the license additional products window acts very wonky (that's a technical term). It flashes and jumps, making it a pain to enter serial numbers. I've submitted a bug report in the beta system for those but so far no joy.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Dave

[mattpeckham]

No worries. I had the serial number entry flashing/jumping issue you mention Dave, but in-game, all seems well. I also have some artifacting on objects when shaders are enabled in scenarios, but disabling shaders seems to make it go away.