SwissNineFive

Q: Filevault 2 does not start with encryption

Trying to encrypt my 2011 MacBook Pro SSD with FileVault 2 (Mountain Lion), I get the message: FileVault failed - start up file was not written (FileVault fehlgeschlagen - Startdatei wurde nicht geschrieben)?! - Checking and fixing rights and volume did not help, also not a new installation of Mountain Lion. Always same procedure: After I get the unlock key, I click to new start and after a few seconds the message appears and FileVault 2 ends. - Does someone know, what to do? Thanks for any help!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, filevault 2

Posted on Aug 13, 2012 6:57 AM

Close

Q: Filevault 2 does not start with encryption

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2
  • by ajberlin,

    ajberlin ajberlin Aug 26, 2012 9:01 AM in response to ajberlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 26, 2012 9:01 AM in response to ajberlin

    I finally solved the problem: I made a back up, erased the hd and restored 10.8 from a usb stick. in 10.8 i activated filevault. after the encryption was done i started the migration assistant and migrated the data from the back up. everything is looking ok now. I don't know what the reason for the problem was, but that seems to be a solution.

  • by ajberlin,

    ajberlin ajberlin Aug 27, 2012 8:37 AM in response to ajberlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 27, 2012 8:37 AM in response to ajberlin

    But be aware: If you switch off filevault and want to reactivate it, there will be the original problem again!

  • by PDipp,

    PDipp PDipp Sep 14, 2012 3:08 AM in response to ajberlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 14, 2012 3:08 AM in response to ajberlin

    Are you sure that the problem reappears on a "clean" system after turning file vault off and on? (not that I want you to try this...) Because then it would be a widespread problem and I still do not find too many people complaining about it.

     

    But thanks for reporting your solution! Before I do this though, I'll give 10.8.2 a chance to fix this!

  • by Wolke63,

    Wolke63 Wolke63 Oct 2, 2012 7:41 AM in response to SwissNineFive
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2012 7:41 AM in response to SwissNineFive

    Yep - have the exact same problem. With my last machine and 10.7.x everything worked fine without even thinking about having to wipe the whole disk. This is simply unacceptable. And it's the THIRD heavy bug 10.8 (.2) hits me with ...

     

    # 1 # Parental protection in 10.8 was completely messed up, increasing the time left for the kids plus some login problems plus plus plus - and kids tempt to be quite impatient, when they cannot access their games :-)

    # 2 # wakeup-issue plus combined installer for 10.8.2 from 10.8 terminates with an error message

    # 3 # filevault doesn't work

     

    That's three completely disfunctional features un 10.8. - im curious, what I'll find next.

  • by PDipp,

    PDipp PDipp Oct 2, 2012 9:09 AM in response to SwissNineFive
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2012 9:09 AM in response to SwissNineFive

    I could finally solve the problem for me without wiping the drive. The first problem was that filevault would not start and then the iTunes 10.7 upgrade terminated with an error.

     

    Apparently I had some bad kernel extensions that the app Launch2Net had probably installed when I had used it in 2010. The Launch2Net uninstaller did not remove those extensions. I manually deleted the following extensions from

    System/Library/Extensions/

    NM_MultiModemDriver.kext

    NovatelWirelessUSBCDCECMControl.kext

    NovatelWirelessUSBCDCECMData.kext

    SierraDIPSupport.kext

    SierraFSRSupport.kext

    SierraHSRSupport.kext

    SierraIPDirect.kext

    USBDeviceSwitch.kext

     

    After removing them, the iTunes 10.7 upgrade finished without an error. At this point, I did not activate filevault, because 10.8.2 just came out. I installed the 10.8.2 combo update after booting in safe mode, repaired permissions and reset the PRAM. Now filevault started and completed without a glitch.

     

    Now I can't say whether the Kext removal or the 10.8.2 update (or both) solved the filevault problem, but I suspect the Kext problem to be the culprit.

  • by Wolke63,

    Wolke63 Wolke63 Oct 2, 2012 9:31 AM in response to PDipp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2012 9:31 AM in response to PDipp

    Hi PDipp - Many many thanks. This solved my issue. I do have launch2net installed. And I had an issue installing the 10.8.2 combo update before - simply resultet in an error ...

     

    I did the following:

    # remove the kext files you named plus reboot

    # after that i reran the 10.8.2 combo update. This time it would finish wto failure (first good experience)

    # after that rebootet again

    # and encryption / file vault started wto failure

     

    UNBELIEVABLE :-) Thanks!!!

  • by ajberlin,

    ajberlin ajberlin Oct 2, 2012 9:43 AM in response to Wolke63
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2012 9:43 AM in response to Wolke63

    launch2net is the problem!!!! uninstall it and it is solved. it worked right away.

  • by ritterkunibert,

    ritterkunibert ritterkunibert Nov 25, 2012 6:46 AM in response to ajberlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2012 6:46 AM in response to ajberlin

    Thank you so much. Had the same problem, deinstalled the "Vodafone Mobile Broadband" application with its drivers. Problem solved

  • by billfromrenton,

    billfromrenton billfromrenton Dec 21, 2012 12:45 AM in response to SwissNineFive
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2012 12:45 AM in response to SwissNineFive

    PDipp pointed me in the right direction. In my case it was a Logitech extension.

     

    Console showed:

     

    12/21/12 12:36:03.913 AM com.apple.kextcache[437]: Prelink failed for com.Logitech.Unifying.HID Driver; aborting prelink.

     

    As soon as I ran "sudo mv LogitechUnifying.kext/ ~" I was able to run Filevault without the "Boot file not written error message".

     

    Bill

  • by DeutschDelf,

    DeutschDelf DeutschDelf Jan 5, 2013 3:31 AM in response to billfromrenton
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2013 3:31 AM in response to billfromrenton

    I had the same issue and doing the complete uninstall of Vodafone Mobile Broadband" fixed it for me - I did not even have to reboot first.

  • by Aveline2013,

    Aveline2013 Aveline2013 Feb 14, 2013 2:29 AM in response to SwissNineFive
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 14, 2013 2:29 AM in response to SwissNineFive

    This fixed the problem for me:

    cd /System/Library/Extensions

    sudo mv Vodafone.kext VodafoneFilter.kext ~/Desktop/

  • by Peter Giessel,

    Peter Giessel Peter Giessel Apr 9, 2013 11:32 PM in response to PDipp
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 9, 2013 11:32 PM in response to PDipp

    I couldn't figure out which extension was the problem, so I solved it by booting the recovery partition, opening the Terminal and typing:

    mv /Volumes/DeviceName/System/Library/Extensions/ /Volumes/DeviceName/Users/UserName/Old_Extensions/

    cp -rf /System/Library/Extensions/ /Volumes/DeviceName/System/Library/Extensions/

     

    Hope that helps someone who can't find the offending kext.

  • by siameagle,

    siameagle siameagle Apr 15, 2013 2:49 AM in response to PDipp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 15, 2013 2:49 AM in response to PDipp

    Thanks for PDipp. After I uninstalled Launch2Net, Filevault re-encrypted my drive without any hiccups.

Previous Page 2