/var/db/BootCaches.playlist 2:no such file or directory appeared after Mavericks update

Question

/var/db/BootCaches.playlist 2:no such file or directory appeared after Mavericks update

Hi all,

I have tried to upgrade my iMac 2009 running 10.6.8, 3.06GHZ, 4GB ram machine and hit upon a grey load up screen and nothing more after the update. I have worked back through everything I could find in these forums as the bellow:

1. Completed all of the grey screen advice from Apple bar a full wipe and rebuild, but have left this as the last resort

2. Launched again from back up and reloaded Mavericks only to get the same problem

3. Tried to launch in Safe mode and the computer quits half way through the status bar and will not launch into Safe mode

4. Corrected all disk permissions in Disk Utility

5. Checked my EFI update and am running the latest version

6. Tried resetting the NVRAM but computer will not work from the keyboard shortcuts

7. Run Verbose mode where I could see the problem with loading Bootcache which produces the following script /var/db/BootCaches.playlist 2:no such file or directory

8. Created a carbon copy backup also and am now considering a full wipe

I have updated to Mac Book Airs in the last few weeks, and after the computer auto restarts the program then moves to a new processing screen where it finalises writing script, this point never happened on my iMac and after it restarted it just hung on the grey screen with the Apple logo. It is definitely in the Bootcache problem as this is one of te last processes and matches the amount of time the computer starts working before it heads into the grey hanging screen of death. This is definitely something that mavericks script alters, moves or deletes as I have seen this problem littered across the forums as well as the in ability for Safe mode now to work.

I am back up and running 10.6.8 at current and downloading a new version of Mavericks (more fool me). It could be a drive corruption but am unsure, but the computer s working well on 10.6.8 and has done for a very long time. Has anyone solved this yet, as t s driving me crazy!!!

Any Jedi's out there, I would be most indebted to you!

M-A

iMac (24-inch Early 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 2, 2014 3:08 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 2, 2014 5:06 AM in response to Mark-Anthony80

Here is an interesting turn. I am creating a Mavericks install startup disk on a USB and during this I need to open my terminal app to view hidden files to build it. I am receiving the following message:

cannot open terminal.app user shell set to an illegal

I have gone back to repair permissions in the disk utility as seem to be missing my com.apple.Terminal.plist files and although I am repairing permissions, the same permissions in disk utility keep coming back up.

I would love to wipe nowbut my optical drive is not great and am worried about it failing, 10.5 disk worked but 10.6 will not be read at current. Feels like a wipe is needed and a fresh start, any one have any ideas?

M-A

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 2, 2014 9:10 AM in response to Mark-Anthony80

Hi all,

Well I thought I would re-post as have found a solution.

I created a bootable USB version of Mavericks using this article here which was very informative: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/apple-in-the-enterprise/how-to-create-a-bootabl e-usb-to-install-os-x-mavericks/

I then rebooted via it, this again caused the grey screen of death as I thought it would, from reboot to reach this screen I held the Option Button. Before I did this I took a cloned copy of the hard drive and also backed-up again to Time Machine. Have over 470GB of music, photos and films, so yes was being a little over precautious.

I then rebooted and went into recovery mode (Cmd and R) and erased my hard drive.

I then rebooted once again but booted from my Mavericks USB version now with a clean hard drive, and set-up completed as expected with no problems. Its working beautifully at current but am yet to migrate files using the migration assistant, but once I have the new Mavericks version of my machine backed-up I will complete the migration, fingers crossed!

A few days of pain, but was a good learning experience. It was more difficult than it should be to created a bootable USB, but luckily I had another mac to work on and a decent back-up drive.

Hopefully helpful to others!

M-A

Reply

Answer 3

May 9, 2014 7:10 AM in response to Mark-Anthony80

Hi Mark-Anthony,

glad to see you managed to solve the issue.

It's an old post but I had the same problem as you and I wanted to share my solution, just in case someone else has this problem and doesn't want to erase the disk.

The problem for me turned out to be an incompatible extension, Asepsis (didn't even know it was there). Mavericks moved the extension to an "incompatible software" folder, but the system keep tryinig to load it.

Steps:

1- Restart the computer in sigle user mode: cmd + s when starting

2 - Mount the drive in read/write mode: mount -uw /

3 - Remove the file: rm /etc/launchd.conf

4 - Restart normally

Source: https://getsatisfaction.com/binaryage/topics/asepsis_1_2_doesnt_want_me_to_boot (3rd response) In my case deleting the extension wasn't necesary since the OS already moved it.

Reply

Answer 4

sfinetti

Level 1

0 points

Jun 6, 2014 2:50 AM in response to cgomezsantos

Man, you really saved my day with this post! 🙂🙂🙂

Removing the /etc/launchd.conf file got my Retina MBP boot again.

Thanks, really, A LOT! 🙂

Reply

Answer 5

Jun 7, 2014 12:04 AM in response to cgomezsantos

cgomezsantos, your reply completely saved me. I'm working on a customer's MacBook, and after upgrading from 10.5 to 10.6, it was stuck at the Apple logo. After managing to get 10.8 installed over 10.6, the issue still persisted, and when I came across your solution, I tried it out, and it immediately worked! Can now get this laptop running Mavericks! 🙂

Reply

Answer 6

leunig99

Level 1

0 points

Jun 27, 2014 1:23 AM in response to cgomezsantos

I created an account just to thank you for posting this fix cgomezsantos - THANK YOU!was looking at a completed erase otherwise...

Reply

Answer 7

PaulQi

Level 1

0 points

Jun 27, 2014 11:16 AM in response to cgomezsantos

It works very well, thanks very much.

Reply

Answer 8

Jun 30, 2014 8:55 PM in response to cgomezsantos

THANK YOU!!! cgomezsantos!!!! you save my day!

It works very well to me

It was all caused by updating old MAC OS X to Mavericks

Reply

Answer 9

naillik

Level 1

0 points

Jul 17, 2014 7:08 AM in response to cgomezsantos

Thanksssssssssssssssssss

Reply

Answer 10

Jul 22, 2014 10:11 AM in response to cgomezsantos

Adding to the list of many THANKS!

Reply

Answer 11

Jul 24, 2014 3:35 PM in response to cgomezsantos

cgomezsantos, thanks a lot for reposting. I was almost starting to reinstall after having tried a number of other "solutions" on the Interent. Hope others having the same problem find this post as well.