Currently Mist will error-out on the splash screen if (i) no internet connection is available and (ii) the downloaded version of geth differs from the one advertised in the bundled clientBinaries.json.

From #1534:

There seems to be a case where this fix does not suffice.

If the default config - shipped with ethereum-client-binaries - differs from the current version (e.g. of geth), I think it will try to download the older version (see clientBinaryManager.js#L181-L184). Also we can't keep the default config up-to-date on shipped installations.

Proposals

1. Disable version check of already downloaded node if clientBinaries.json can't be received from github
2. Store version of currently downloaded version in local DB

I would prefer (1).