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OS X Mavericks installations fails after reboot, stuck. Safe mode does not help

Quick Summary: Installation of Mavericks gets stuck after reboot, no safe mode boot, only recovery console works.

Update: Currently following procedure http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570?viewlocale=en_US

I have upgrade 4 out of my 5 machines, but the most important iMac 27" mid 2010 went through with the installation and then got stuck on a grey screen with the apple logo and a spinning wheel for 6 hours.

A few restarts did not help.

Started from recovery a new download and install. But it ended up in the same end.

Trying safe mode/boot, but does not finish
Going back to recovery and try repair disk, does not help
Going to recovery using terminal resetpassword and then setting the permissions for all login accounts back, no good.
Going to recovery and using terminal to check /var/log of the mounted Macintosh HD.
log shows at the end "The installation was successfull"
System.log shows
- com.apple.kextd: Failed to send personalities to the kernel.
- Error: Couldn't send kext personalities to the IOCatalogue.
- Exited with code: 71
- Throttling respawn: Will start in 8 seconds.
Resetting NVRAM/PRAM and reboot, waiting so far stuck but I still hear some disk activity, waiting a little bit longer.

Any help?

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 11:30 AM

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 11:32 AM

1. Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC).

2. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion/Mountain Lion

Boot to the Recovery HD:

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

Repair

When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

3. Re-download and reinstall Mavericks.

View in context

33 replies

Oct 23, 2013 1:49 PM in response to rouven Schmidt

Hi Rouven,

What's your status and attempts?

My latest experiments are going into /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Libarary/LauchDaemons and LaunchAgents and remove my custom plists. But I'm not sure if it will cause other issues as I'm supposed to use launchctl unload on a running system.

So I moved more items away and I let the system work, it's very funny as the network and other parts work and I have not been able to spot the error that does not allow me to log in!

Where are the Guru's when you need them, hope they are not in Guru Meditation.

The internet should provide much more detailed knowledge at fingertips and educate us on how to become the best MAC troubleshooter and not go through all sorts of half wisdom.

Let me know if you find out something.

I give it another half hour and then I'm going to most probably do a clean erase and use the startup disk and give it a try. Then afterwards I will have to do a restore that takes probably the full night and I'm not sure that it will do everything I want and that I won't end up at the same.

Tomorrow I'm also going to call support again. Maybe they will give me some seasoned professional and not level 1 support guy that let's you try the same procedure that takes will lead you after 2 hours into the erase install anyway.

Oct 23, 2013 2:24 PM in response to patrick.weichmann

for me it seems to be the kextd (which should never exit), but it does with error 71.

I stop going deeper as I have not come across more detailed troubleshooting information going to do a erase disk install.

Oct 23, 2013 2:27 PM in response to patrick.weichmann

Hey Patrick,

i tried pretty much the same things you did. Oddly enough, I successfully upgraded 4 Macs as well before this problem occured - so the 5th Mac is always doomed! 😉

So far, my troubleshooting was as follows:

- booted from recovery partition and repaired permissions

- booted from recovery partition and re-installed the system

- reset NVRAM / PRAM

- reset SMC

- reinstall from external HD

No success whatsoever. I'm kinda hesitant to do a clean install (last backup from august - yeah, i know :/).

Oct 23, 2013 2:31 PM in response to rouven Schmidt

Hey Rouven,

Did you go into terminal in the recovery partition?

It would be interesting what your /Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/log/system.log shows.

Do you have also an iMac 27" mid 2010 or some other model?

If you have access to terminal you should be able to copy all data from one disk to another before doing the clean install. I'm not sure, but I think the recovery console will show all disks, at least it showed my install disk. But I was lucky to have the time machine running all the time and I keep the huge iphoto libarary on an external disk anyway.

Oct 23, 2013 2:35 PM in response to rouven Schmidt

I can confirm that whatever disk I use and attach during the recovery console is writeable (HFS), so you could still save your data.

I'm going to do the erase now, I still hesitate but I have to do it now.

Oct 23, 2013 2:37 PM in response to patrick.weichmann

I do have an iMac 27" mid 2010, but this was one of macs that upgraded perfectly well. The problem is a MacBook Pro Mid 2010.

Give me a second to look into system.log.

Oct 23, 2013 3:18 PM in response to patrick.weichmann

Ok, after 24 hours I have now Mavericks up on running, but only a clean erase disk installation saved my fifth installation.

This is really bad, as it will take another few hours to restore the data and then make sure everything is as it should be. The system had been running and I couldn't figure out why it was stuck. There is just not enough information around on how to troubleshoot and get it going.

Oct 23, 2013 3:20 PM in response to patrick.weichmann

Oh no - a clean reinstall is not an option right now 😟

Anything in particular you want me to look in system.log? Quite a lot in there …

Oct 23, 2013 3:25 PM in response to rouven Schmidt

Do you have a repeating pattern at the end something that I mentionend along the lines?

Such as kextd exiting with error 71, but without proper deep understanding I don't think you can solve it, since the support document steps won't help besides the clean install.

Just share what you have in your system.log since the last boot and maybe someone else will take over and provide some insightful tips.

But anyway, back up your data using another mac os x installation on usb disk or using recover partition. But I don't know about all user settings and profiles, I only care for my documents and all the VMs and iphoto etc. libraries.

Good luck.

pampusik

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2013 5:53 PM in response to patrick.weichmann

I have the same problem, and none of the traditional quick fix steps seem to help. Interestingly, the screen on my late 2008 MBP flashes orange before the system halts. Anybody else getting that, too? Thoughts?

Oct 25, 2013 3:51 AM in response to patrick.weichmann

I had the same problem with a MBP 3,1 and solved it by getting rid of some seemingly incompatible kernel extensions. Instructions are below, but needless to say that this might damage your system beyond repair and I take no responsibility.

(1) Boot up in single-user mode (hold Apple + "s" right after the startup sound).

(2) Mount your OS X disk r/w (follow the instructions for fsck and mount given at the prompt)

(3) List all your kernel extensions in reverse chronological order:

ls -lta /System/Library/Extensions

(4) Move very old kernel extensions (or even better those that you know you've installed and don't require any longer) to a backup directory. Note that if you move a required up-to-date kernel extension, you will break your system - so better be careful.

mkdir /extensions.bak

mv /System/Library/Extensions/VeryOldBrokenExtension.kext /extensions.bak/

(5) reboot

(6) Here's a list of kernel extensions that I moved away. Maybe we can find the culprit if you do the same on your system:

ATTOCelerityFC.kext

ATTOExpressPCI4.kext

ATTOExpressSASHBA.kext

ATTOExpressSASHBA3.kext

ATTOExpressSASRAID.kext

Accusys6xxxx.kext

BJUSBLoad.kext

BJUSBMP.kext

CiscoVPN.kext

EPSONUSBPrintClass.kext

FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext

HuaweiDataCardACMControl.kext

HuaweiDataCardACMData.kext

HuaweiDataCardActivateDriver.kext

HuaweiDataCardDMM.kext

HuaweiDataCardDriver.kext

HuaweiDataCardECMControl.kext

HuaweiDataCardECMData.kext

HuaweiDataCardHidPort.kext

HuaweiDataCardJUBusDriver.kext

HuaweiDataCardJUCDCACM.kext

HuaweiDataCardJUCDCECM.kext

HuaweiDataCardJUCDCNCM.kext

HuaweiDataCardJUNetwork.kext

JMicronATA.kext

LexmarkUSBMerge.kext

ProlificUsbSerial.kext

SMARTBoard.kext

SMARTLib.plugin

SMART_Board_cable.kext

WTG-OptionHS.kext

WTG-OptionMSD.kext

WTG-OptionQC.kext

WTG-SierraHSRKicker.kext

WTG-SierraHSRSupport.kext

WTG-SierraSupport.kext

WTG-SierraSupportKicker.kext

WTG-SierraSwitch.kext

ZTEUSBCDCACMData.kext

ZTEUSBMassStorageFilter.kext

heimdall.kext

hp_Deskjet_io_enabler.kext

hp_Inkjet1_io_enabler.kext

hp_Inkjet3_io_enabler.kext

hp_Inkjet4_io_enabler.kext

hp_Inkjet5_io_enabler.kext

hp_Inkjet8_io_enabler.kext

hp_Inkjet_io_enabler.kext

hp_Laserjet_io_enabler.kext

hp_Officejet_io_enabler.kext

hp_PhotosmartPro_io_enabler.kext

hp_Photosmart_io_enabler.kext

hp_designjet_series.kext

hp_fax_io.kext

hp_io_printerclassdriver_enabler.kext

hp_qc_io_enabler.kext

Let me know how it goes.

Oct 26, 2013 7:25 AM in response to patrick.weichmann

I am having the same problem with my 2009 mbp 13. It is the only Mac. I tried the usual single user mode check disk, reset nvram but hey didn't help. I will try out neurodroid's steps above.

Oct 26, 2013 8:49 AM in response to neurodroid

Too bad it doesn't seem to work for me...

Tec Team

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2013 6:37 AM in response to patrick.weichmann

OK so clean install restore from time machine

Oct 31, 2013 1:03 AM in response to patrick.weichmann

I did the upgrade from 10.8.x and I have the same problem, after the installation has ended, reboot stuck on white screen with the spinning wheel on it. This is my only mac (rMBP 15'' 2012) and i didn't back it up. I can't perforn a clean install because that will be too messy to set it up back. And I really need the system working, as soon as i can.

OS X Mavericks installations fails after reboot, stuck. Safe mode does not help