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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 31, 2013 1:23 AM in response to alicankaralar

pic related, screenshot of verbose mode.

Jan 18, 2014 5:31 PM in response to alicankaralar

Oh, I think I see the problem. They've got a stupid cyber-nanny software censor running. My adjectives got my post deleted. fine. I will sanitize it for your delicate eyes.

I have the same problem. Safe Mode doesn't help. Recovery Mode just brings me around in a viscous circle. I'm stuck at the [adjective deleted] Apple logo with the spinning whirlygig below ... forever. I've tried repairing permissions. I've tried EVERY option the Disk Utility gives me. I've tried booting from both a Lion CD and a Snow Leopard CD. All of them, every single one, hangs at the same point.

At this time, I am now recommending to all of my clients that they do NOT install Mavericks. My own is the third Mavericks install -- all on iMacs, interestingly enough -- that I've seen fail in much the same way. Unless someone can show me a way to fix the [expletive deleted] thing -- other than booting in Target Mode and removing all of my clients' sensistive data before going to the [expletive indicating the opposit of a genius] Bar in the Emeryville Apple Store -- I'm going to conclude that Mavericks is irretrievably broken and should never be installed, except by people who enjoy roulette.

Jan 18, 2014 5:44 PM in response to OrnotBitwise

Come on Apple: admit it. There really is a problem with the Mavericks install. Oh, it works for most users, certainly, but there is a very significant minority of Mac users whose machines are rendered unbootable by the "upgrade".

the question is: how do we FIX it? What is the workaround? Or isn't there one?

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