system extension cannot be used AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext

I've tried all of my devices, (iPhone, iPad, etc) and have not found any problems. I did try and reinstall the new iTunes and got the same message. Just going to leave it alone for now since everything seems to be working fine. Have to believe Apple knows about the problem by now and we'll see a new update in the next day or two.

bwanabonga wrote:

Funny thing isn't it - the bloody vendor in this case is none other than Apple, so perhaps a representative will eventually comment here, or there will be a bug fix?

Apple support does not monitor these forums or participate in any way, shape or form. I'd expect a dot release to be rolled out over the next few days to resolve the issue.

There's more to it than this IMHO. Here is my explanation:

If I go back in my Time Machine backups and restore the previous version before I installed iTunes 11.4, the version of that same kext was also listed as being "7.0" despite being older and twice the size (120400 bytes vs. 63024 bytes in the 11.4-installed version).

(The older version is "BuildVersion 305" and "SourceVersion 122000000000000"; the new 11.4 version is "BuildVersion 417" and "SourceVersion 113000000000000".)

The real problem is this:

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature used to contain

-rw-r--r--+ 1 root wheel 172 Jan 31 2014 CodeDirectory

-rw-r--r--+ 1 root wheel 92 Jan 31 2014 CodeRequirements

-rw-r--r--+ 1 root wheel 1745 Jan 31 2014 CodeResources

-rw-r--r--+ 1 root wheel 4064 Jan 31 2014 CodeSignature

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext/Contents used to contain symbolic links down into there:

lrwxr-xr-x+ 1 root wheel 28 Jun 12 2012 CodeDirectory@ -> _CodeSignature/CodeDirectory

lrwxr-xr-x+ 1 root wheel 31 Jun 12 2012 CodeRequirements@ -> _CodeSignature/CodeRequirements

lrwxr-xr-x+ 1 root wheel 28 Jun 12 2012 CodeSignature@ -> _CodeSignature/CodeSignature

When iTunes 11.4 was installed via Software Update/App Store, it removed CodeDirectory/CodeRequirements/CodeSignature but it did not remove the corresponding symbolic links. Presumably that is what triggered the "cannot be used" pop-up message.

Trashing the kext and installing it from the downloaded 11.4 .dmg does not create the symbolic links, thus avoiding the problem.

Obviously rolling back to the previous (Jan 2014) kext will fix the problem as well as the symbolic links point to files that exist.

(I'm really curious to know what happened between BuildVersion 305 and BuildVersion 417 that caused it to shrink nearly by half. It looks to me like the Code Signing stuff got ripped out - Lord knows why.)

Nice analysis. I opened a terminal window, changed directory to /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature and then deleted the bad symlinks:

sudo rm CodeRequirements CodeSignature

Then I ran the downloaded iTunes 11.4 installer. It didn't throw any errors this time, so, hopefully, the kernel extension will now be happily locked and loaded.

Cheers.

Trane Francks wrote:

hopefully, the kernel extension will now be happily locked and loaded.

No, the short answer is that trying to load the kernel extension throws errors. So, going that step further, I nuked the extension completely and reinstalled iTunes. Attempting to load the extension still throws errors. Restoring the extension to an earlier version and rerunning the new iTunes installer ALSO results in load errors, BUT, the contents of the extension itself are now a mix of old and new.

Very curious.

Gaia:AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext trane$ cd Contents

Gaia:Contents trane$ ls -l

total 40

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 28 Nov 4 2013 CodeDirectory -> _CodeSignature/CodeDirectory

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 31 Nov 4 2013 CodeRequirements -> _CodeSignature/CodeRequirements

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 28 Nov 4 2013 CodeSignature -> _CodeSignature/CodeSignature

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 3202 Jul 30 05:48 Info.plist

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Sep 11 07:11 MacOS

drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 204 Sep 11 07:11 _CodeSignature

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 473 Jul 30 05:48 version.plist

Gaia:Contents trane$ ls -l _CodeSignature/

total 32

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 172 Feb 1 2014 CodeDirectory

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 92 Feb 1 2014 CodeRequirements

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 3668 Jul 30 05:48 CodeResources

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 4064 Feb 1 2014 CodeSignature

Interesting, but I think I need to wait for Apple to fix this.

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext failed to load - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found; check the system/kernel logs for errors or try kextutil(8).

Bah, humbug. 🙂

Just tried your solution, Trane. Glad it worked for you but unfortunately the installer threw the same error message again for me. Aside from the message it seems to have completed normally and I can use iTunes as normal. Haven't got iPhone with me to test connecting that.

Have sent feedback to Apple so they're at least aware it's happening. Based on number of people reporting this error, it surely must be a problem with iTunes 11.4. I don't have the expertise (or the skills, frankly) to explore more deeply myself. I'll wait for Apple to ride to the rescue with a fix/new point release.

Trane,

"Restoring the extension to an earlier version and rerunning the new iTunes installer ALSO results in load errors, BUT, the contents of the extension itself are now a mix of old and new."

You don't want that 🙂 You don't want the old and the new mixed.

I trashed the old kext and downloaded iTunes 11.4 and installed it from the downloaded .dmg - it did not create any symbolic links in the newly-created kext, and I did not get any pop-up error message about the new kext like I had previously when done via Software Update.

To make a long story short:

Trash the 11.4-installed kext, and either reinstall iTunes from the downloaded .dmg version or else roll back to the (entire) old/previous version of the kext.

Greg Earle wrote:

Trane,

"Restoring the extension to an earlier version and rerunning the new iTunes installer ALSO results in load errors, BUT, the contents of the extension itself are now a mix of old and new."

You don't want that 🙂 You don't want the old and the new mixed.

I trashed the old kext and downloaded iTunes 11.4 and installed it from the downloaded .dmg - it did not create any symbolic links in the newly-created kext, and I did not get any pop-up error message about the new kext like I had previously when done via Software Update.

To make a long story short:

Trash the 11.4-installed kext, and either reinstall iTunes from the downloaded .dmg version or else roll back to the (entire) old/previous version of the kext.

Alas, doing that results in attempting to load the kernel extension throwing errors. It's clear that the installer from the download DMG versus the Software Update DMG are behaving differently (one throws the extension error, the other does not), but either installer leaves my system with an unloadable kernel extension. That is true whether updating the kernel extension from the iTunes 11.3 version or replacing the deleted extension outright.

Hi, Loner T ! Thanks for your response... Yes, I running on Snow Leopard, version 10.6.8... I just finished the Itunes installation and I got this error message too. But I afraid this error could cause anotherissues on the operational system or on Macbook... In this time, the system looks normal...

Just adding that I have the same problem. Running Mavericks on 27" iMac. I've searched the web and read many forums about this problem. Some people seem to think they fix it because they don't get the repeat extension warning after a "fix" and re-download of iTunes. In most cases I've seen off a number of different forums someone duplicates the said fix (with the same hardware) and they get the error again. So, I can't believe there is a true and tested fix at this point out there, not to mention Apple refuses to address the issue with so many peeps in distress over it.

How can you address issues on an Apple forum , of this magnitude, and no one from Apple gives a **** enough to say anything? I'm lead to believe that we have to fix it ourselves, follow what others say worked for them. I don't know about going into the Terminal, deleting & typing code into it, but I guess if I don't I'll suffer consequences later if not sooner?

Thanks Apple for the direction, no advise from you. Have to go it alone, real nice, gee which "fix" of the dozen I've read about should I try 1st? Any hints, no- you wouldn't want to ruin the party! Well, I don't know what Terminal is but I know how to get there, that seems to be where the action is, no choice but to do as the others do cause no help from mother....

P.S. I'm under Apple Care so when I totally screw it up I'll just send it back, then you can fix it "hands on"

I am also having the same problem with the error message. I am running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I also am not able to sync my iPhone 5. Now the SYNC Buttom is grayed out when I connect my iPhone with the USB cable. It will also not sync via WiFi. Is there a fix on the way or do we have to do something else?

^I don’t understand these last two posts. *Scratches head*

Either remove /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext and re-install iTunes 11.4 from the downloaded .dmg version, or else remove it and replace it with the previous version of the same kext, like from a Time Machine backup.

Reboot the system afterwards. (Smarter people can just try reloading the kext and not reboot, but a restart will also do that for you.)

Either method should work. Theoretically, at least 🙂

(When I get home from work I will try to sync my 3 iDevices to verify. At home I am on 10.6.8. I got the error when I used Software Update, and used the “Trash the old kext, download the iTunes 11.4 .dmg from the Apple downloads site, re-install iTunes from it” method. No popup error.)

I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and when I did the 11.4 iTunes update, I got the same system/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext error. My iTunes no longer sees my iPhone or my iPad.

I thank all those who are trying to give answers for a fix, but I'm hesitant to do a theoretical fix and start monkeying around with system files when I don't know the ramifications. Apple needs to get a fix put up for this ASAP. It seems to be pretty widespread.

Think I may suffer this error message as it seems very very wide spread and starting to happen after the latest iTunes update, last time I messed with a kext file after getting this sort of message I ended up a non booting drive (

Also I cannot download the latest iTunes from the Apple website, it just does not download.

So I am waiting for Apple to move on this.