Answer to problem of AudioIPCDriver.kext giving problems after moving syste

The discussion listed below was archived and never answered, apparently. I have run into the same problem after moving the contents of my system to a newer, larger disk and running into extensive permissions problems. (Why, Apple, do you make it hard to get permissions right when doing system disk upgrades?)

Anyway, the solution is as follows. Of course, repairing permissions on the new drive is an essential first step. Once this is done, if you are still getting kext "improperly installed" warnings after starting up, do as follows. Open up a Terminal session and type

cd /System/Library/Extensions
sudo chown -R root:wheel AudioIPCDriver.kext

I think this is likely to be a problem only on the Mini, but can't verify that.

I also ran into the same problem on the mouse driver. The same solution fixed it up

sudo chown -R root:wheel AppleHIDMouse.kext

Finally, I noticed that the ownership of the sudo file in /var/run was wrong (set to me, not root). The solution here was

sudo chown -R root:daemon /var/run/sudo


Here was the original discussion:

Randy65

Posts: 3
From: Atlanta
Registered: Feb 1, 2006

Error message after Restore
Posted: Feb 1, 2006 6:27 PM

I installed a new hard drive on a PowerBooK G4. I restored from the old hard drive onto the new. Everything works well except I get an error message every time I restart saying that the system extention AudioIPCDriver.kext was not installed properly and I need to reinstall. I haven't a clue what program this extention belongs to. Everything is working perfectly so far as I can tell, but I still get an error message that bugs me. Any idea how to cure this problem.

G4 Laptop Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Rich JG


Posts: 709
Registered: Dec 14, 2003

Re: Error message after Restore
Posted: Feb 1, 2006 9:24 PM in response to: Randy65

A search on my machine shows that the full path is /System/Library/Extensions/AudioIPCDriver.kext . Also, this is a directory (or folder).

Is there any chance that you can try to drag this folder from the old hard drive to the new and see if the problem goes away?

Alternatively, you could probably restore that folder from your Tiger DVD with the aid of an app called Pacifist.

EMAC G4 1.0 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4)



Randy65

Posts: 3
From: Atlanta
Registered: Feb 1, 2006

Re: Error message after Restore
Posted: Feb 2, 2006 5:25 AM in response to: Randy65

I installed a new hard drive on a PowerBooK G4. I
restored from the old hard drive onto the new.
Everything works well except I get an error message
every time I restart saying that the system
extention AudioIPCDriver.kext was not installed
properly and I need to reinstall. I haven't a clue
what program this extention belongs to. Everything
is working perfectly so far as I can tell, but I
still get an error message that bugs me. Any idea
how to cure this problem.

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I have the full path and have confimred that the extension still exists on my new hard drive, but is apparently installed improperly

I will give Paclist a try.

Thanks again.

G4 Laptop Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Lennart Thelander


Posts: 2,563
From: Helsingborg, Sweden
Registered: Dec 3, 2001

Re: Error message after Restore
Posted: Apr 3, 2006 6:03 AM in response to: Randy65

I have exactly the same problem. The hard drive was re-partitioned, so the "original" no longer exists. Instead I copied the folder over from another Mac, but it didn't help. PowerMac G4, 933Mhz, Mac OS 10.4.5.

I also tried running the Mac OS 10.4.5 Combo update and running Cache Out X, to no avail.

iMac 17 FP G4 800MHz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 80GB + 160GB FW drives