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mach_kernel document appeared

This morning a file appeared in my documents titled, "mach_kernel". The file says it was created and edited on Sept. 29, 2013, at 2:34 pm , yet the first time it appeared in the documents file is this morning, When I went to trash it, because it had no info, Finder asked for my password before I could move the file to the trash, this is not usual and I am afraid it is some type of virus, because my computer has been slow lately. Help!

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 8, 2013 7:19 AM

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74 replies

Dec 24, 2013 5:42 AM in response to Shooroopski

Sounds like you're in recovery mode. It would probably be easiest to just reinstall Mac OS X from there. This will install on top of your existing system, and will leave everything else alone. Your documents, installed apps and such would be unaffected. (Of course, if you don't have backups, something could go wrong there.)


This will replace the missing mach_kernel file.

Dec 24, 2013 6:03 AM in response to Shooroopski

you sure there is no way to move that file from trash using terminal ?


Well, there is, but it will require some work. The basic form of the command is as follows:


mv /Volumes/"Your HD Name"/Users/yourshortusername/.Trash/mach_kernel /Volumes/"Your HD Name"/


The "Your HD Name" part should be replaced with the name of your computer's hard drive, and it should be in quotes if it contains any spaces or other odd characters. You should also replace "yourshortusername" with the short form of your user name, which is the same as the name of your home folder.


The difficulty is that if you don't type everything just right, you could end up doing something unpredictable, including losing track of that file entirely.


In addition, I suspect that the owner, group and permissions on that file might have been changed as a result of moving it into your trash. Repairing permissions in Disk Utility after moving the file back should correct that.

Dec 24, 2013 6:12 AM in response to thomas_r.

That is not correct. That is only the case if he actually wanted to downgrade to 10.6. He can still reinstall 10.8.5 using recovery mode, if he so chooses, without erasing the hard drive.

The problem is that in my area ( Bali island ) there is no broadband internet at all, so downloading the whole system will take life. Some other way ?

I'll just step out and let you resolve the foregoing then.

mach_kernel document appeared

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