Help: Resolving Kernel Panic/Stop Sign/Prohibitory Sign

Question

I believe there is a serious issue affecting my MBP and I need help identifying the specific cause.On normal start up, when presented with the login screen, the Apple Logo turns into a prohibitory or stop sign (circle with a line across). The spinning circle remains spinning. I found other threads in the community where users faced the same issues, and I have applied the suggested solutions to no success. Here is what I tried:SolutionResultSafe Boot (Shift only)Prohibitory sign on login (issue persists)Safe Boot, Advanced (Shift+CMD+V)"Still waiting for root device" at end of log, prohibitory sign pops up (Screen Capture: http://db.tt/KgbX8oWN)Reset VRAM/NVRAMIssue persistsDisk Utility - Verify"Unable to bootstrap transaction group 4000: bad mlv address" (Verify Disk Failed)Disk Utility - Repair"Unable to bootstrap transaction group 4000: bad mlv address" (Repair Disk Failed)Reinstall Mac OSXThe HDD doesn&#x27;t show up on the list...only the recovery partition, which is locked.The harddrive was recently replaced (slightly over a year old), and did not make any "clicking" noise prior to this.Message was edited by: wisemanleo

wisemanleo · Answer

Additional information:Here is the output of diskutil list and diskutil coreStorage list:-bash-3.2# diskutil list/dev/disk0   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         499.2 GB   disk0s2   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3/dev/disk1   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *1.4 GB     disk1   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk1s1   2:         Apple_Driver_ATAPI                         2.0 KB     disk1s2   3:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X Base System    1.4 GB     disk1s3/dev/disk2   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk2/dev/disk3   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk3/dev/disk4   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk4/dev/disk5   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk5/dev/disk6   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk6/dev/disk7   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *6.3 MB     disk7/dev/disk8   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *2.1 MB     disk8/dev/disk9   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *1.0 MB     disk9/dev/disk10   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk10/dev/disk11   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk11/dev/disk12   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER   0:                            untitled               *1.0 MB     disk12-bash-3.2# diskutil corestorage listCoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)|+-- Logical Volume Group B73F6C29-D635-4351-83BB-26386F129704    &#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;&#x3D;    Name:         XAVIER    Sequence:     1    Free Space:   0 B (0 B)    |    +-&lt; Physical Volume 435E5334-F800-4DDF-8354-FD56206877C6        ----------------------------------------------------        Index:    0        Disk:     disk0s2        Status:   Failed        Size:     499248103424 B (499.2 GB)-bash-3.2#

Linc Davis · Answer

You tried to activate FileVault, and it failed to activate for some reason. What backups do you have?

wisemanleo · Answer

Linc, thanks for the quick response. I have a cloud backup with Backblaze.Re: FileVaultInteresting...haven&#x27;t played around with FV settings recently.

Linc Davis · Answer

I&#x27;m assuming you know that your backups are trustworthy and that you can restore from them no matter what happens. If that assumption is wrong, you may lose all your data.Try again to activate FileVault. After you reboot and log in, the "Status" shown in the diskutil output should change to "Converting." If you get an error message, post it.If you don&#x27;t want to use FileVault, the procedure is different, but for that you&#x27;ll need a local mirror backup. The one you have is inadequate.

wisemanleo · Answer

I can&#x27;t actually login without experiencing the prohibitory sign that appears some time after entering my password. Is there a way to do this from the CMD+R start up, perhaps via terminal?Also, my FileVault should already be activated from at least a year ago....does the log show I attempted a re-activation?

Linc Davis · Answer

How are you connecting to this site?

wisemanleo · Answer

Via the CMD+R startup, I can access Safari in the OS X Recovery system. I should note that I am running Lion 10.7.5, not the mistakingly noted 10.5.5 in the footnote above.

Linc Davis · Answer

See if you can convert the CoreStorage volume on the internal drive by selectingFile &gt; Turn Off Encryption...from the menu bar.If not, copy the boot volume to an external drive using the Restore tab in Disk Utility. Search its built-in help for the term "Duplicate" if you need details. Then boot from the copy.You&#x27;ll need to destroy the logical volume group in the shell. The command is this:sudo diskutil cs delete B73F6C29-D635-4351-83BB-26386F129704This action will destroy all data on the volume. You should then be able to reinstall OS X, boot as usual, and restore from your backup in Setup Assistant.

wisemanleo · Answer

I see. Looks like it will have to be the second option. Will report back with the result.

wisemanleo · Answer

Linc, how do I run sudo commands while running off of an external boot volume?After booting from external to the recovery system and running Terminal, sudo returns a "command not found" error.

Linc Davis · Answer

You don&#x27;t need sudo in Recovery.

wisemanleo · Answer

Right, so I can proceed with Disk Utility&#x27;s native Erase function?PS. Would you mind sharing how you knew this was a FileVault issue? Thanks.

Linc Davis · Answer

Right, so I can proceed with Disk Utility&#x27;s native Erase function?Yes, but you should already have an empty HFS volume in place of the CoreStorage volume.Would you mind sharing how you knew this was a FileVault issue?From the diskutil output.

wisemanleo · Answer

Erase/Reinstall worked.Which line in the diskutil output specifically showed this was FileVault related? How can this be prevented from happening again?

Linc Davis · Answer

Status:   FailedI don&#x27;t know why it happened.

Solution	Result
Safe Boot (Shift only)	Prohibitory sign on login (issue persists)
Safe Boot, Advanced (Shift+CMD+V)	"Still waiting for root device" at end of log, prohibitory sign pops up (Screen Capture: http://db.tt/KgbX8oWN)
Reset VRAM/NVRAM	Issue persists
Disk Utility - Verify	"Unable to bootstrap transaction group 4000: bad mlv address" (Verify Disk Failed)
Disk Utility - Repair	"Unable to bootstrap transaction group 4000: bad mlv address" (Repair Disk Failed)
Reinstall Mac OSX	The HDD doesn't show up on the list...only the recovery partition, which is locked.