how to disable firewire (kernel module ?)

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how to disable firewire (kernel module ?)

Since a few days my macbook pro will not sleep/wake any more and booting all of a sudden is taking ages, well several minutes in any case.

I searched several forums, tried resetting PRAM, SMC .. whatever I could find and even did a full reinstall of Leopard, alas all to no avail; the problem persists.

Then I came across a forum post discussing a link between these symptoms and a hardware failure on the firewire interface. I wanted to check it and opened up "About this MAC" and navigated to the firewire section where I noticed a red text stating "can not list firewire devices" and a minute later I was prompted to reboot after a kernel panic occured.

In the debug (included below) I also see a clear reference to firewire.
So I am assuming indeed the firewire on my macbook pro is faulty.
Since I never use firewire I was wondering : is there a way to disable firewire in Leopard ? e.g. deleting some firewire kernel module ?

I would hope this would solve my sleep/wake and slow boot issue.

Thu Nov 27 19:49:30 2008
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001A8CEC): Kernel trap at 0x007efc12, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x80010033, CR2: 0x00000000, CR3: 0x00f7d000, CR4: 0x00000660
EAX: 0x00000000, EBX: 0x040b49b0, ECX: 0x0737a864, EDX: 0x00010001
CR2: 0x00000000, EBP: 0x4638bca8, ESI: 0x040409c0, EDI: 0x04040780
EFL: 0x00010206, EIP: 0x007efc12, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x00010010
Error code: 0x00000000

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x4638bab8 : 0x12b0fa (0x459234 0x4638baec 0x133243 0x0)
0x4638bb08 : 0x1a8cec (0x4627a0 0x7efc12 0xe 0x461f50)
0x4638bbe8 : 0x19eed5 (0x4638bc00 0x216 0x4638bca8 0x7efc12)
0x4638bbf8 : 0x7efc12 (0xe 0x48 0x10 0x3e0010)
0x4638bca8 : 0x3ef201 (0x40b49b0 0x4036a80 0x49a804 0x0)
0x4638bce8 : 0x40ab86 (0x4040780 0x4036a80 0x4638bd28 0x3eea60)
0x4638bd08 : 0x40e49b (0x3bc1c00 0x4036a80 0x3bc1c04 0x3bc1c00)
0x4638bd28 : 0x43aab4 (0x3bc1c00 0x4036a80 0x600000 0x19c9c0)
0x4638bd78 : 0x1880a3 (0x3bc1c00 0x594b4ac 0x594b4c0 0x11d975)
0x4638bdb8 : 0x12d17e (0x3bc65ac 0x594b490 0x0 0x0)
0x4638bdf8 : 0x126257 (0x3bc6500 0x0 0x18 0x4638bee4)
0x4638bf08 : 0x1974c2 (0x4638bf44 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x4638bfc8 : 0x19f4a3 (0x451a0e0 0x0 0x1a20b5 0x580c6b0)
No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbffff1f8
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP(1.7.1)@0x7ea000->0x7f2fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily(3.4.4)@0x6ed000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily(1.6.1)@0x5d1000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: ioreg

Mac OS version:
9F33

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.5.0: Wed Sep 3 11:29:43 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.7.58~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro2,2 (Mac-F42187C8)

Macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 27, 2008 11:19 AM

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Answer 1

Clarkson Author

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Nov 28, 2008 11:10 AM in response to Clarkson

for thread completeness and hoping others with the same problem might find this useful : I have been able to solve this issue

# mv /System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleFWOHCI.k ext/ ~
# reboot

So as root move this kernel extension to a different location and reboot.
My Macbook Pro now boots fast again, I can once again just close the lid and have it go into sleep and open the lid again and have it wake up instantly.

Only firewire obviously does not work anymore (which I do not use anyway) which is also visible in "About this Mac" where the firewire entry simply states : "No FireWire ports can be detected."

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Answer 2

Nov 28, 2008 4:23 PM in response to Clarkson

it seems the early 2007 macbook pro has been suffering from this issue. my computer suddenly started having sleep/wake issues, and coincidentally the firewire interface intermittently functioned. when FW worked, the computer seemed problem free. when the firewire was undetected, that is when all the problems occurred.

it seems that apple has discovered the black screen/ sleep-wake problems were associated with the nvidia 8600 chipset and are now offering free repairs even for out of warranty items.

It is my feeling that another issue which is equally important is the logic boards failure to detect the FW interface and its subsequent problems affecting the sleep / wake cycle and long boot up times with black screen upon opening the lid may prove to be another concurrent and frequent problem.

After more research and after more users narrow down sleep/wake issues with failed FW and failed boards, apple should then do the proper recourse and offer a fix, and refund those of us who had to pay for the fix.

lets see what happens, I could have also restored functionality of my MBP by disabling the FW, but this wasnt an option for me because is still use the FW port. I hope apple addresses this issue properly.

cheers!

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Answer 3

Feb 10, 2009 5:33 AM in response to Clarkson

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has made progress with this issue in any way. I'm having the same problem with my Macbook Pro 2.16GHz. The firewire port has gone bad and it is severely affecting the system.

I can boot Leopard into safe mode no problem. However when I boot up normally, leopard will freeze shortly after the login screen. Usually about 5 seconds after the login screen comes up.

I have disabled all of the firewire related extensions in /System/Library/Extensions. But there is obviously something that is probing the hardware and hitting the firewire port, or possibly another problem that I'm not aware of. The only time the machine will boot is when I have an external DVD-Rom drive connected on the firewire port... but only when it does NOT have a disk inserted.

At this point I'm interested to see if anyone has had any luck with Apple on this. I have not contact Apple but I am about to do that. I'm out of warranty, but this problem obviously is related to a system board defect.

Cheers
Scott

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Answer 4

Mar 27, 2009 7:11 AM in response to Clarkson

This thread has sorted my problem. Thanks Clarkson!

I blew up the firewire port on my Macbook with a faulty harddrive. I was gutted. It took about 5 or 10 minutes to boot up each time. I took it into the apple store and, as I thought, to repair it would mean a complete new motherboard at a cost of over £600! Further to this the "Genius" at the bar didn't know a way of speeding up the boot time.

Simply delete the following .kext file

/System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext

This seems to stop the OS looking for the port.

The boot time seems pretty much back to normal and i've ordered a Sonnet Firewire Express card for £40. Hopefully it will all be good. Thanks again Clarkson

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Answer 5

Clarkson Author

Level 1

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Apr 25, 2009 12:47 AM in response to RabidMuso

Glad to hear it solved your problem as well.

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