Boots in safe mode, stalls on normal boot

Question

Level 1

21 points

Boots in safe mode, stalls on normal boot

Running Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro 2009.

Pretty straightforward troubleshooting if you want to skip to the end, although how I got to this place might help:

About a month ago I had a massive system crash, the cause of which I cn only attribute to Flash (statistically 80-something percent of crashes come from this little twerp, right?) I could not perform a normal boot, so I looked at Verbose Mode and saw I was getting errors which I cannot quote verbatim leading me to believe I needed to free up space on my hard drive. So I did that in Safe Mode, and it still wouldn't boot in normal mode. I tried again and again and on the 3rd time with no real explanation it booted normally. For a while it would boot and after maybe 3 hours of uptime the Finder would start beachballing my cursor and slowly every app I touched would irreversably freeze. I would force quit Finder (which would never restart) and other things but ultimately everything was frozen except my cursor. The Apple Menu and Cmd+Opt+Esc wouldn't even come up.

I dealt with this for a while and figured I'd bust out TechTool, DiskWarrior for a permissions and directory overhall, and iDefrag (it was insanely fragmented). Well, after polishing my data to perfection I'm back to not being able to boot normally, but I know the disk utilities didn't kill my drive because I can still do a safe boot. Things seem pretty stable in safe mode, so there's a leech somewhere to salt.

So, what are the main differences between a normal boot and a safe boot? Are there some usual suspects I can flush out? Does anyone know how to do a complete purge of Flash's imfluence on my computer?

Should I post my boot logs from the console to help?

Mac Pro (Early 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.8), 32GB RAM, Radeon 4870, IntensityPro

Posted on Nov 28, 2012 5:55 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

John Galt

Level 10

140,964 points

Nov 28, 2012 6:09 PM in response to Eisen Feuer

Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components.

Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode

Certain activities are disabled in Safe Mode, but in general if you can boot in Safe Mode but not normally, then you have one or more third-party system modifications that are preventing your Mac from starting normally. Only you can know what you installed on your Mac.

Eisen Feuer wrote:

... Should I post my boot logs from the console to help?

Sure.

Reply

Answer 2

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Nov 28, 2012 7:42 PM in response to Eisen Feuer

Run through this list of fixes,

Step by Step to fix your Mac

forget TechTool (meh), Disk Warrior (not) and iDefrag (this has been known to mess up machines)

If you really want to defrag your Mac, nothing beats a clone, boot, reverse clone method + mapping off of bad sectors in the process, however your software needs to be working first. Clone crap you get crap. 😁

How to safely defrag a Mac's hard drive

Only thing I use in all my years is backup software (Carbon Copy Cloner) and OnyX cache (corruption) cleaning.

Not one software problem, only one drive suddenly died of mechanical causes in over 20 years. Machine runs fast as it can.

Why is my computer slow?

more of my claptrap here 😉

https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/?p er_page=50

Reply

Answer 3

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Nov 28, 2012 7:47 PM in response to Eisen Feuer

Does anyone know how to do a complete purge of Flash's influence on my computer?

How to install Flash, fix problems

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-mac-os.html

You also can use the free Easy Find to find all traces of Macromedia or Flash on your machine and delete it.

Reply

Answer 4

Eisen Feuer Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 28, 2012 8:49 PM in response to ds store

Thanks very much for the quick replies everyone, I'll get back to you all when I'm not miles away from my machine. I may have to skip Easy Find though because I also have Flash CS5 installed, not just Flash Player. 😉

Also, problems with iDefrag? I've used it forever flawlessly, and I'd have some trouble defragging a 4TB RAID with the cloning method.

Reply

Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Nov 29, 2012 4:39 PM in response to Eisen Feuer

I don't do RAID, but defragging a Mac isn't necessary. Wiping and recloning defrags automatically, just doesn't optimize.

Reply

Answer 6

Eisen Feuer Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 29, 2012 6:31 PM in response to ds store

Killing Flash and its caches alone from safe boot has allowed me to boot normally. I reinstalled Flash and I haven't had any hangs yet.

What a disastrous peice of software... I hope HTML5 eats it alive.

Also I've been looking at Onyx and this program scares the life out of me. Basically, "Your computer will become completely unresponsive for an indeterminate amounts of time".

After letting it 'verify' my hard drive for a full hour with only my cursor capable of operation, I restarted.

Reply

Answer 7

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Nov 30, 2012 1:00 AM in response to baltwo

baltwo wrote:

...defragging a Mac isn't necessary.

Well in most cases it's not needed, certainly not on SSDs, however if over time, say a year or two of many software changes to the hard drive it can become defragmented and not optimized. Which a defrag software could assist, but it really doesn't do that well of a job as it's not complete enough and people notice a slowdown over time so they do it again and again using the software approach on a live system and when it has a hiccup it hoses their machine.

Wiping and recloning defrags automatically, just doesn't optimize.

Ah, I beg to differ. If you reverse clone with Carbon Copy Cloner sometime, watch the file names, you'll see it starts via the alphabetical order of the filenames on the root directory.

The major folders of Applications, Library, System, Users get written in that order.

Hard drives are the fastest in what's called the "hot band" the area at the very beginning of the drive, where Applications folder will mostly go, this makes programs launch their fastest on hard drives with the fewest bounces and give a faster feel when launching them.

Library + System are next, which despite not being in the hot zone on a reverse clone, are still near the top of the drive and thus boot just about as fast, I haven't found much any difference in boot time, likely because it's so large on normal installs thus falls out of the hot zone area. Also many people sleep their machines, so this negates the boot up time.

What is especially good about the reverse clone method is the Users folder is written LAST, since these folders are subjected to the most drastic changes and occasional access, they can expand and contract into the slower 50% of the drive and thus keep away from affecting the performance of Applications and System longer.

Many PC users like to partition their drives, leaving a space between the OS + apps and the Users data, so when changes to the OS occur or apps, it keeps it all up near the front of the drive for better performance and thus avoids the lengthily defrag process they have to perform monthly.

Some defragging software doesn't optimize, but some do, however some do give the option to optimize for application or system/boot up performance.

I see the reverse clone method also as a bootable backup method, so it's basically combining functions plus it's much safer as a bootable copy is available at all times.

Reply

Answer 8

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Nov 30, 2012 1:09 AM in response to Eisen Feuer

Eisen Feuer wrote:

I'd have some trouble defragging a 4TB RAID with the cloning method.

RAIDs are notoriously unstable, software based RAIDs especially, RAID 0 even more so.

If you have bad sectors on the drive and/or corrupted data, this is going to cause issues regardless.

What a reverse clone does is copy all the data and put it back, if your having a issue with it then it's flagging a problem you need to address.

Reply

Answer 9

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Nov 30, 2012 4:08 AM in response to Eisen Feuer

I would like to stress the remark of ds store "certainly not on SSDs":

do not defragment SSDs this will shorten the life of the SSDs and also will slow down the processing seriously, because of the Trim or GarbageCollection on the SSD.

Reply

Answer 10

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Nov 30, 2012 11:39 AM in response to ds store

ds store wrote:

baltwo wrote:

Wiping and recloning defrags automatically, just doesn't optimize.

Ah, I beg to differ. If you reverse clone with Carbon Copy Cloner sometime, watch the file names, you'll see it starts via the alphabetical order of the filenames on the root directory.

Although alphabetized, I don't consider that optimized, but mainly agree with the rest of your assertions. As for SSDs, none here and, IMO, unnecessary with desktop machines, even if Apple's making a move to push the boundaries with their mythical AI-controlled fusion drives.😉

Reply

Answer 11

Eisen Feuer Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 6, 2012 11:19 PM in response to Eisen Feuer

Well, it's back to the same behavior again. The finder hasn't acted up in a while but now, out of many successful reboots, I'm just not booting. Here are my 'boot logs' as far as I understand them, this is what it says upon launching in Verbose Mode, I don't know if there's another log that could be made sense of:

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel Darwin Kernel Version 10.8.0: Tue Jun 7 16:32:41 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1504.15.3~1/RELEASE_X86_64

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel vm_page_bootstrap: 8164147 free pages and 191693 wired pages

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel kext submap [0xffffff7f80800000 - 0xffffff8000000000], kernel text [0xffffff8000200000 - 0xffffff8000800000]

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel mig_table_max_displ = 73

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=0 LocalApicId=0 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=1 LocalApicId=16 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=2 LocalApicId=2 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=3 LocalApicId=18 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=4 LocalApicId=4 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=5 LocalApicId=20 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=6 LocalApicId=6 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=7 LocalApicId=22 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=8 LocalApicId=1 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=9 LocalApicId=17 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=10 LocalApicId=3 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=11 LocalApicId=19 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=12 LocalApicId=5 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=13 LocalApicId=21 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=14 LocalApicId=7 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=15 LocalApicId=23 Enabled

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel calling mpo_policy_init for Quarantine

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel Security policy loaded: Quarantine policy (Quarantine)

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel calling mpo_policy_init for Sandbox

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel Security policy loaded: Seatbelt sandbox policy (Sandbox)

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel calling mpo_policy_init for TMSafetyNet

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel Security policy loaded: Safety net for Time Machine (TMSafetyNet)

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel MAC Framework successfully initialized

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel using 16384 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 64:87

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel ACPI: System State [S0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel PFM64 0xff10000000, 0xf0000000

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel [ PCI configuration begin ]AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: Turbo Ratios 0000

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: (built 16:44:42 Jun 7 2011) initialization complete

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel console relocated to 0xff10010000

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel PCI configuration changed (bridge=7 device=2 cardbus=0)mbinit: done (128 MB memory set for mbuf pool)

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel [ PCI configuration end, bridges 15 devices 50 ]

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 88DC9C93-CDA5-365C-9C90-153A9AB9951B

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib kmod start

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel handsoff: os version is 10.6

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib load succeeded

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: ready

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 823f built-in now active, GUID 0023dffffedda24a; max speed s800.

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleAHCI/PRT2 @2/IOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDri ver/ST31500341AS Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme/EisenDrive@2

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel BSD root: disk3s2, major 14, minor 14

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel jnl: unknown-dev: replay_journal: from: 56041472 to: 65273856 (joffset 0xbd64172000)

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 2GEYBMVP 0xbc2 0x3008 0x132

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 21000000D6B5 0x54c 0x1bd 0x5691

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel jnl: unknown-dev: journal replay done.

12/6/12 11:21:05 PM kernel Kernel is LP64

12/6/12 11:21:02 PM com.apple.launchd[1] *** launchd[1] has started up. ***

12/6/12 11:21:02 PM com.apple.launchd[1] *** Verbose boot, will log to /dev/console. ***

12/6/12 11:21:04 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.autodesk.backburner_manager) Bug: launchd_core_logic.c:6487 (24498):22

12/6/12 11:21:07 PM DirectoryService[18] Improper shutdown detected

12/6/12 11:21:08 PM kernel systemShutdown false

12/6/12 11:21:09 PM blued[24] Apple Bluetooth daemon started

12/6/12 11:21:12 PM kernel jnl: disk5s2: replay_journal: from: 98013184 to: 98045952 (joffset 0x2baa000)

12/6/12 11:21:12 PM kernel jnl: disk5s2: journal replay done.

12/6/12 11:21:12 PM configd[21] network configuration changed.

12/6/12 11:21:12 PM configd[21] setting hostname to "Omoikane.local"

12/6/12 11:21:15 PM mDNSResponder[25] mDNSResponder mDNSResponder-258.21 (May 26 2011 14:40:13) starting

12/6/12 11:21:16 PM com.apple.SecurityServer[65] Session 0x5fbff962 created

12/6/12 11:21:16 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Can't load /System/Library/Extensions/AmbrosiaAudioSupport.kext - no code for running kernel's architecture.

12/6/12 11:21:16 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Failed to load /System/Library/Extensions/AmbrosiaAudioSupport.kext - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found.

12/6/12 11:21:16 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Load com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport failed; removing personalities.

12/6/12 11:21:16 PM com.apple.SecurityServer[65] Entering service

12/6/12 11:21:16 PM configd[21] network configuration changed.

12/6/12 11:21:18 PM kernel Previous Shutdown Cause: 3

12/6/12 11:21:18 PM kernel Intel82574L::start - Built Jun 7 2011 16:42:50 -- running on device at Intel82574L::start - Built Jun 7 2011 16:42:50 -- running on device at

12/6/12 11:21:19 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Can't load /System/Library/Extensions/AmbrosiaAudioSupport.kext - no code for running kernel's architecture.

12/6/12 11:21:19 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Failed to load /System/Library/Extensions/AmbrosiaAudioSupport.kext - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found.

12/6/12 11:21:19 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Load com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport failed; removing personalities.

12/6/12 11:21:20 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Can't load /System/Library/Extensions/USBOverdrive.kext - no code for running kernel's architecture.

12/6/12 11:21:20 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Failed to load /System/Library/Extensions/USBOverdrive.kext - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found.

12/6/12 11:21:20 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Load com.usboverdrive.driver.hid failed; removing personalities.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Can't load /System/Library/Extensions/VaraAudio.kext - no code for running kernel's architecture.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Failed to load /System/Library/Extensions/VaraAudio.kext - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Load com.vara.driver.VaraAudio failed; removing personalities.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Can't load /System/Library/Extensions/VaraAudio.kext - no code for running kernel's architecture.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Failed to load /System/Library/Extensions/VaraAudio.kext - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Load com.vara.driver.VaraAudio failed; removing personalities.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Can't load /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/InternalModemSu pport.kext - no code for running kernel's architecture.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Failed to load /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/InternalModemSu pport.kext - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM com.apple.kextd[17] Load com.apple.driver.InternalModemSupport failed; removing personalities.

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM configd[21] bootp_session_transmit: bpf_write(en4) failed: Operation not permitted (1)

12/6/12 11:21:22 PM configd[21] DHCP en4: INIT transmit failed

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel DSMOS has arrivedNTFS driver 3.4 [Flags: R/W].

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioDevice[0xffffff804287e800]::initHardware(0xffffff804275ba00)Intel82 574L: Ethernet address 00:25:00:ee:2b:49

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel ** Device in slot: SLOT-1 **

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel Intel82574L: Ethernet address 00:25:00:ee:58:b0

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel IOBluetoothBNEPDriver: Ethernet address 00:25:00:c8:14:36

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel NTFS volume name NT300, version 3.1.

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel NTFS-fs warning (device /dev/disk0s3, pid 62): ntfs_system_inodes_get(): NTFS volume is dirty. You should unmount it and run chkdsk.

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel NTFS volume name BOOTCAMP, version 3.1.

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel NTFS-fs warning (device /dev/disk3s3, pid 59): ntfs_system_inodes_get(): NTFS volume is dirty. You should unmount it and run chkdsk.

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioDevice[0xffffff804287e800]::createAudioEngine()

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine[0xffffff80444efa00]::init()

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine::init SUCCEED

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine[0xffffff80444efa00]::initHardware(0xffffff804287e800)

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine[0xffffff80444efa00]::createNewAudioStream()

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine[0xffffff80444efa00]::peformFormatChange(0xffffff8044392600, 0xffffff8291df39f0, 0)

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine::createNewAudioStream SUCCEED

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine[0xffffff80444efa00]::createNewAudioStream()

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine[0xffffff80444efa00]::peformFormatChange(0xffffff80444efc00, 0xffffff8291df39f0, 0)

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine::createNewAudioStream SUCCEED

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioEngine::initHardware SUCCEED

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioDevice::createAudioEngine SUCCEED

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM kernel LPAudioDevice::initHardware SUCCEED

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.blackmagic-design.IntensityStartup[112]) posix_spawn("/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/Blackmagic DeckLink/IntensityStartup", ...): No such file or directory

12/6/12 11:21:23 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.blackmagic-design.IntensityStartup[112]) Exited with exit code: 1

12/6/12 11:21:24 PM kernel AppleTyMCEDriver::start coreVIDPID = 0x2c408086 Number of packages = 2 Number of cpus = 16 memory monitor trough PCI

12/6/12 11:21:24 PM kernel 00000000 ffffffff Intel82574L::timeoutHandler - link is down

12/6/12 11:21:24 PM kernel Ethernet [Intel82574L]: Link up on en0, 100-Megabit, Half-duplex, No flow-control, Debug [796d,4c08,0de1,0200,40a1,4000]

12/6/12 11:21:24 PM com.blackmagic-design.streaming.BMDStreamingServer[111] BMDStreamingServer listening on 127.0.0.1:13823

12/6/12 11:21:25 PM bootlog[101] BOOT_TIME: 1354861256 0

12/6/12 11:21:25 PM /sbin/nfsd[88] unrecognized export option: network

12/6/12 11:21:26 PM fseventsd[94] check_vol_last_mod_time:XXX failed to get mount time (45; &mount_time == 0x101880358)

12/6/12 11:21:26 PM fseventsd[94] log dir: /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 79D73755-F210-45AE-BE00-84085E45769A

12/6/12 11:21:26 PM fseventsd[94] check_vol_last_mod_time:XXX failed to get mount time (45; &mount_time == 0x101880358)

12/6/12 11:21:26 PM fseventsd[94] log dir: /Volumes/NT300/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 4233DF03-CAA7-4542-A8F4-0E6C584B7B70

12/6/12 11:21:28 PM xxx.qnation.PeerGuardian.kextload[106] Could not get ID for kernel control: No such file or directory

12/6/12 11:21:28 PM com.apple.usbmuxd[82] usbmuxd-296.3 on Jul 25 2012 at 00:28:37, running 64 bit

12/6/12 11:21:28 PM kernel kmod_get_info is not supported on this kernel architecture (called from pgstart)

Reply

Answer 12

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Dec 7, 2012 9:34 AM in response to Eisen Feuer

Run through this, it will fix it,

Step by Step to fix your Mac

but I also suspect Ambrosia, BlackMagic and PeerGuardian and there seems to be something wrong with the NTFS drive or driver

Reply

Answer 13

Eisen Feuer Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 7, 2012 9:44 AM in response to ds store

Going through my launchdaemons folder (that I didn't know existed until now)

Everyone suggests going through loginitems when this spectre is looming overhead. Man, all I have is two trials from Autodesk and this thing has a backend server, over 10 launchitems, FlexLM, the whole bit. They make sure if you install an autodesk app you'll have to dredge the depths to kill it.

Reply

Answer 14

Eisen Feuer Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 7, 2012 6:07 PM in response to ds store

I uninstalled Flash again, which allowed me to boot again. However, rebooting eventually got me hung up again so I spent a lot of time moving .kexts out of the System/Library/Extentions folder, tried to round up some suff in the launchagents and launchdaemons folders, and nothing helped. Things like com.google.keystone.agent.plist still give me grief in the boot logs, the computer had a fit of errors when I tried touching anything autodesk, so basically the kexts alone won't solve everything as they are tied to something somewhere.

I ended up wasting Peerguardian everywhere I could find it, I used BlackMagic's uninstaller, and I have no idea what Ambrosia is or what it does so I didn't hunt it down.

Restart, stuck somewhere in the Verbose wall-of-text.

Change *absolutely nothing*, Hold down the power button, restart again in Verbose mode (my default now)

And it boots fully, normally.

This problem is defining insanity. I understand ultimately there might be enough gunk built up over 7 years that there's something completely unexplicable hidden somewhere that nothing short of a full erase and reinstall can fix, but the fact that I can reliably boot in safe mode makes me feel like it's hanging right in front of me. I DID go through your full guide to see what's applicable. I really wish "Console program > System Diagnostic log file" as you listed would show in my Console app, I see nothing but blank there. Is there a way to refresh?

Reply

Answer 15

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Dec 8, 2012 1:05 AM in response to Eisen Feuer

Ambrosia is a software company that has the following apps:

Snapz Pro X

EasyEnvelopes

Soundboard

Hypnoblocks (game)

Mondo Solitaire for macs (game)

Mondo Solitaire for iPad (game.

I do not know these apps, but maybe there are incomplete uninstalls too if you used them once.

Reply