Cerebro
Level 2 (382 points)
Mac OS X

Q: First Boot-Up Into El Capitan "Got Stuck"

I upgraded my 2010 MacBook Pro from Yosemite (10.10.5) to El Capitan, today, and had one, EXTREMELY, notable issue.

 

The installation seemed to go fine.  My computer, then, rebooted to launch into El Capitan.  I saw the familiar grey screen with the Apple logo and the progress bar.  The progress bar, quickly, went almost to the end (around 90%) and, then, it just got stuck there.  I let it sit for a good half-hour and it wouldn't advance any further.  Not sure what to do, I called Apple.  First, they had me try restarting.  No go.  The boot-up still got stuck at the same point.  Next, they had me boot to the recovery partition.  Upon loading the recovery partition, I did some poking around.  I launched Disk Utility and saw that it was the new version.  Opened Startup Disk and that informed me that my drive was running 10.11, so I knew the OS was installed (it just wasn't completing the boot).  The Apple guy I spoke to suggested that I, next, try reinstalling El Capitan from the recovery partition.  Knowing that this would take several hours, I was hoping for a different way.  I did some poking around online for solutions to "stuck" start-ups.  While in the recovery drive, I ran Disk Utility.  No problems.  Then, I shut down my computer.  I restarted while doing an SMC reset.  It, then, booted up fine.  I got the iCloud set-up window, the license agreement, and all of the other windows that one is supposed to see upon the initial boot-up for a new OS.  Then, my desktop showed up, so I knew I was good to go.

 

Everything else seems to be going smoothly.  I haven't tried everything, but all of my "mission critical" apps seem to be working fine.

 

Just wondered if anyone else had a similar problem?  Any ideas on what the hang-up could have, possibly, been?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), OS X El Capitan (10.11), null

Posted on Oct 3, 2015 4:13 PM

by Cerebro,Apple recommended
Cerebro Cerebro
Level 2 (382 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Poking around the forum, I noticed many other folks having problems booting up after installing El Capitan.  I'm thinking that THIS THREAD describes the issue, best.  It seems that the problem is, most likely, kext (kernal extension) related.  One poster in the, aforementioned, thread posted this solution from the OWC knowledge base:

If your Mac is randomly getting stuck during the boot process in Yosemite, it may be from unsigned extensions. This is most common with the Mac mini models.

First you will need to get it to boot before we can proceed.

 

Getting the Mac to boot:

1) Start the machine while holding down the Option-Apple-P-R keys

2) Wait until you hear the 3rd startup chime, then release the keys.

3) If that doesn't work try an SMC reset here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

 

Now for the fix after you get the machine to boot:

1) Open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities

2) Enter "system_profiler SPExtensionsDataType > ~/Desktop/kextList.txt" without the quotes and hit return(this will take a while to run).

3) There should now be a kextList.txt file on your desktop, open it and press both the "Apple(Command)" and "F" keys to bring up the find.

4) In the find field insert "Obtained from: Not Signed" Copy the destination to the .kext file to a list for use later. (Click next to cycle through all of them.) Example: /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext 

5) Browse your drive to /System/Library/Extensions and remove any of the unsigned kext files.

6) Reboot and you should be all set.

I mentioned in my first post that I did an SMC reset.  I guess I stumbled onto the first part of the equation.  I ran the Terminal command and found more than a dozen kexts on my system that were "not signed".  Based on the modification dates, the majority of this unsigned kexts predated my computer (suggesting that they were carried over when I upgraded from my previous computer).  I did my homework and determined that most of these kexts had no ties to any applications that I had, currently, installed and using.  So I concluded that they were safe to delete.  I moved them all to a different folder (just in case) and deleted them from the System Extensions folder.  I restarted my computer and it booted up without any problems.

 

Looks like I'm in the clear, now.  Hopefully, this is helpful to someone else.

Posted on Oct 5, 2015 6:45 AM

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Cerebro

Q: First Boot-Up Into El Capitan "Got Stuck"

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Cerebro,Apple recommended

    Cerebro Cerebro Oct 5, 2015 6:45 AM in response to Cerebro
    Level 2 (382 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 5, 2015 6:45 AM in response to Cerebro

    Poking around the forum, I noticed many other folks having problems booting up after installing El Capitan.  I'm thinking that THIS THREAD describes the issue, best.  It seems that the problem is, most likely, kext (kernal extension) related.  One poster in the, aforementioned, thread posted this solution from the OWC knowledge base:

    If your Mac is randomly getting stuck during the boot process in Yosemite, it may be from unsigned extensions. This is most common with the Mac mini models.

    First you will need to get it to boot before we can proceed.

     

    Getting the Mac to boot:

    1) Start the machine while holding down the Option-Apple-P-R keys

    2) Wait until you hear the 3rd startup chime, then release the keys.

    3) If that doesn't work try an SMC reset here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

     

    Now for the fix after you get the machine to boot:

    1) Open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities

    2) Enter "system_profiler SPExtensionsDataType > ~/Desktop/kextList.txt" without the quotes and hit return(this will take a while to run).

    3) There should now be a kextList.txt file on your desktop, open it and press both the "Apple(Command)" and "F" keys to bring up the find.

    4) In the find field insert "Obtained from: Not Signed" Copy the destination to the .kext file to a list for use later. (Click next to cycle through all of them.) Example: /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext 

    5) Browse your drive to /System/Library/Extensions and remove any of the unsigned kext files.

    6) Reboot and you should be all set.

    I mentioned in my first post that I did an SMC reset.  I guess I stumbled onto the first part of the equation.  I ran the Terminal command and found more than a dozen kexts on my system that were "not signed".  Based on the modification dates, the majority of this unsigned kexts predated my computer (suggesting that they were carried over when I upgraded from my previous computer).  I did my homework and determined that most of these kexts had no ties to any applications that I had, currently, installed and using.  So I concluded that they were safe to delete.  I moved them all to a different folder (just in case) and deleted them from the System Extensions folder.  I restarted my computer and it booted up without any problems.

     

    Looks like I'm in the clear, now.  Hopefully, this is helpful to someone else.

  • by nigel_f,

    nigel_f nigel_f Oct 5, 2015 9:49 AM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2015 9:49 AM in response to Cerebro

    Thanks for the above. I had made my own post about this earlier and after 48 hours of headaches trying to resolve this issue, this done the trick.

  • by lopin07030,

    lopin07030 lopin07030 Oct 10, 2015 5:43 PM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 10, 2015 5:43 PM in response to Cerebro

    excatly what i needed ... truely appricate your help with this

  • by jack_ryanIII,

    jack_ryanIII jack_ryanIII Oct 12, 2015 10:09 PM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 10:09 PM in response to Cerebro

    This worked for me, many thanks too.

  • by JohnPharaoh,

    JohnPharaoh JohnPharaoh Oct 16, 2015 1:27 PM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 1:27 PM in response to Cerebro

    I'm having big time trouble booting my macbook pro early 2011 after upgrade to ElCap from Yosemite!

     

    I'm trying to apply your solution, but my biggest problem is not being able to boot using Option-Apple-P-R keys

     

    Please advise!

  • by carlosip,

    carlosip carlosip Oct 18, 2015 1:15 AM in response to JohnPharaoh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 18, 2015 1:15 AM in response to JohnPharaoh

    Mine is MacBook Pro 15-inch, Early 2011, and I have Mac 2011 Office upgraded to 14.5.7, and other applications including Safari browser (I have no other browser) upgraded by clicking the installed applications and checking their websites one by one. I checked to ensure no more Apple Store upgrade.

    I also have FireVault off.

    But after installed El Capitan, at the first boot up after first power shut down, I still got the same problem of grey screen with no progress in progress bar.

    Apple Store could not solve the problem except asked me either to clean install or to wait for El Capitan patches or other applications upgrade gradually.

     

    Thanks for the insight from Cerebra and others, I tried all methods mentioned except removing some kexts as there are 38 kexts not signed (most belonged to HP printer and a Huawei driver (?). I do not know what are these so I did not try to remove any.

     

    I tried to boot up in Startup Manager (Option + Power on) but after I selected my only hard disk, it did not work to boot into El Capitan.


    Today I tried again to boot up in Command R to look for any more clues.

    After closing language, in the next screen, I clicked the top left Apple logo to bring up Startup Disk.

    In the screen shown, I selected my only hard disk shown once, then I clicked the top left menu to Quit Startup Disk.

    It took a short while before the top menu changed to show Language Chooser.

    I clicked Shut Down instead.

    After a few minutes, I boot up the Macbook normally and it could log into El Capitan and now everything is smooth.

     

    As there is no file to remove or no tweaks or terminal command to make, see if you can get your luck this way.

  • by JohnPharaoh,

    JohnPharaoh JohnPharaoh Oct 18, 2015 8:25 AM in response to carlosip
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 18, 2015 8:25 AM in response to carlosip

    @carlosip

     

    It got it to work, all thanks to the posts with details on how to remove the kexts files. I had the not-signed Huawei and HP ones too. After removing them, plus all the suspicious ones, everything worked just fine.

     

    Yet, while in the safe mode, I was able to use command line on files only in "read-only", though there were two commands on how to gain access in "read-write". I used the commands and did all the backup for the culprits. Now, I'm a happy camper.

     

    Thank you, everyone who took the time and effort to write down detailed answers to such big deal. You saved the day for me!

  • by NickTsiotinos,

    NickTsiotinos NickTsiotinos Oct 28, 2015 8:27 PM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 28, 2015 8:27 PM in response to Cerebro

    Thank you for posting - this worked for me and allowed me to install El Capitan and reboot. Cheers.

    Deleting the unsigned .ktext files worked.

  • by Remysingh,

    Remysingh Remysingh Oct 29, 2015 3:26 AM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2015 3:26 AM in response to Cerebro

    Awesome! It worked well for me. I just followed the above steps and deleted all the unsigned .kext files. Now, i'm able to reboot. Although, the Apple tech team was not aware of this issue when i called up their customer care. Not to mention they never suggested me to do a SMC reset. SAD!

  • by mervs10,

    mervs10 mervs10 Nov 4, 2015 3:26 PM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 3:26 PM in response to Cerebro

    None of this worked for me. I did the SMC reset and no matter what happens, my macbook is still stuck on the white screen with the progress bar about 90% completed. It's been like this for 4 days straight day and night. I've powered off and on a few times, but nothing changes. It is making extremely weird noises now...

    What do I do?

  • by Aitchb65,

    Aitchb65 Aitchb65 Nov 21, 2015 4:17 AM in response to mervs10
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Nov 21, 2015 4:17 AM in response to mervs10

    Having the same problem. Left the screen white on over night but it did not change. Shut down with button, unplugged, rebooted PRAM and the Apple logo appeared. Left it and then saw message "Installing.. 12 minutes left". Finished but restarted, then screen went grey and now is black. I hour later still black but I can hear the disk still working. Wait.... Wow!! Screen back on seems to be finishing. Now "completing: about 11 minutes remaining" (Gosh this is slow!) Completed, keyboard re plugged in but Mac wont see it 'cos I forgot to plug it back in! Shut down with button, unplugged, rebooted, had chime but nothing more. Having lunch (more exciting) and so far the Apple logo has NOT appeared. Disk drive working (can just hear it). Waited till well after lunch. Nada. Trying SMC restart. I.E. Unplug. Wait at least 15 secs. Reconnect. Wait 5 secs. Go. Chime. Logo. Bar at 80%. Screensaver for ElCapitan up. Looks good now. Will check for these kext lists but I'd have thought Apple would make the computer check for such things BEFORE allowing an upgrade. Back to work now.

  • by Fir Na Tine,

    Fir Na Tine Fir Na Tine Dec 3, 2015 7:47 PM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    Dec 3, 2015 7:47 PM in response to Cerebro

    Thanks that did the trick.

  • by Sheenobi,

    Sheenobi Sheenobi Dec 6, 2015 8:46 PM in response to carlosip
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 6, 2015 8:46 PM in response to carlosip

    Thank you!

  • by Honey_grams,

    Honey_grams Honey_grams Feb 22, 2016 7:22 PM in response to Cerebro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 22, 2016 7:22 PM in response to Cerebro

    My machine gets the grey screen and a progress line, and slowly boots showing the progress. It does this every single time that I boot the Mac Book Pro. Will it continue to do this?  How can I get it to do a quick boot like it did with the original software?