OS X 10.6.8 freeze: Had to update Hands Off!
After installing the OS X 10.6.8 update, my Macbook Pro was freezing at boot time; The little spin wheel under the Apple logo would stop spinning. After re-installing the update, it got worse. I got kerne panics while booting. I finally discovered that Hands Off! 1.2.4 was the problem, and I fixed it by upgrading to 1.3.1. I had the chance to have an old copy of my hard drive though and I could boot my machine from that drive. Here is a trace of what happened on my side:
- After upgrading to OS X 10.6.8 through Software Update, my Macbook Pro froze while rebooting. The little spinning wheel under the Apple logo at boot time stopped spinning and nothing was happening anymore.
- I then booted from an external drive and I downloaded the update again from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1400 and re-installed it;
- At this point, things got worse. I got a kernal panic when my machine rebooted. There was something about com.metakine.handsoff.driver in the dump on the screen. So this gave me a hint on what the culprit could be.
- I was fortunate enough to be able to boot in Safe Mode (by holding down the Shift key while booting);
- After booting in Safe Mode, I started Hands Off! which warned me that there was a new version, and I installed it.
- I was then able to reboot normally (not in sae mode) without kernel panic;
- I started Hands Off! and completed the installation (There is an extra installation step that occurs when starting a new version for the first time).
- Now, things seem to be working fine, and I am crossing my fingers that I won't discover any other problem due to the 10.6.8 upgrade;
MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 15"; HD 500 Gb, 7200 RPM; 4 Gb RAM;