Bizarre Kernel Panic

[nerdrockpa]

recently, my computer's been locking up a lot and or freezing. i took it to my local mac store where the genius bar told me to do an archive and reinstall. i did that about 2 weeks back and that fixed my problems but then caused new ones with safari. safari wouldn't open. so, i uninstalled safari, reinstalled it, and voila. it works like a charm. for the last few days, however, my computer has been unable to complete many simple processes. it runs so slowly that i can't even check my e-mail. i decided to repair permissions but couldn't get that far. too slow. it locked up. when i went to reboot, i got this gem of a kernel panic:

"dyld: -sh can't open library: /usr/lib/libncurses5.dylib (no such file or directory. errno = 2)
apr 22 15:21:27 init: single user shells terminated restarting."

unfortunately, now i can't restart. my tech tools c.d. won't reload. i'm assuming that this is a kernel panic, but what can i do from here if i'm unable to load anything?

thanks.
richie

 

[pncc]

recently, my computer's been locking up a lot and or freezing. i took it to my local mac store where the genius bar told me to do an archive and reinstall. i did that about 2 weeks back and that fixed my problems but then caused new ones with safari. safari wouldn't open. so, i uninstalled safari, reinstalled it, and voila. it works like a charm. for the last few days, however, my computer has been unable to complete many simple processes. it runs so slowly that i can't even check my e-mail. i decided to repair permissions but couldn't get that far. too slow. it locked up. when i went to reboot, i got this gem of a kernel panic:

"dyld: -sh can't open library: /usr/lib/libncurses5.dylib (no such file or directory. errno = 2)
apr 22 15:21:27 init: single user shells terminated restarting."

unfortunately, now i can't restart. my tech tools c.d. won't reload. i'm assuming that this is a kernel panic, but what can i do from here if i'm unable to load anything?

thanks.
richie

OS X does NOT have problems like this under normal conditions. I would bet that your hard drive is seriously corrupted and/or damaged. I would backup and wipe the drive completely.

 

[rtdgoldfish]

The only time I have gotten a kernel panic like this was after I tried to install a downloaded copy of a Tiger beta. Not saying you did this, I have no clue what that message means, I just got a similar thing and here is my solution:

I had to reboot my iBook in FireWire Target mode connected to my Mini. Then I put the Panther install CD in my Mini and started the installer. The Mini restarted and I told it to do a clean install of Panther on the iBook which shows up as a firewire drive in the installer. After it was done, disconnected the iBook and restarted it. Worked like a charm. Decided I would wait until Tiger came out to try it out.

Of course, this solution only works if you have another Mac. If you don't have another one or have a friend with a Mac, I have no idea what you can do.

 

[nerdrockpa]

The only time I have gotten a kernel panic like this was after I tried to install a downloaded copy of a Tiger beta. Not saying you did this, I have no clue what that message means, I just got a similar thing and here is my solution:

I had to reboot my iBook in FireWire Target mode connected to my Mini. Then I put the Panther install CD in my Mini and started the installer. The Mini restarted and I told it to do a clean install of Panther on the iBook which shows up as a firewire drive in the installer. After it was done, disconnected the iBook and restarted it. Worked like a charm. Decided I would wait until Tiger came out to try it out.

Of course, this solution only works if you have another Mac. If you don't have another one or have a friend with a Mac, I have no idea what you can do.

this isn't an option for me. would you assume that, in all likelihood, my less-than-a-year-old mac is cooked? the genius bar seemed to think that it was a relatively minor software issue but gave no advice other than archive and reinstall. also, if i back up on an external hd, will that back up all of my errors as well?

 

[rtdgoldfish]

this isn't an option for me. would you assume that, in all likelihood, my less-than-a-year-old mac is cooked? the genius bar seemed to think that it was a relatively minor software issue but gave no advice other than archive and reinstall. also, if i back up on an external hd, will that back up all of my errors as well?

If your Mac is less than a year old, give Apple a call. It is still under AppleCare for the first year. They should be able to give you some advice. Or take it back to the store and have them do the install. I believe they should do this since it is less than a year old.

If you just back up your data on an external drive, you should have no problem. Only problem might be if you want to save any applications, they will require a new install if they are corrupt or something. Once you have backed up your documents, music, movies, etc. do a clean install. Wipe the drive and reinstall from your system CDs or DVD.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Will it start up in single user mode?

 

[nerdrockpa]

Will it start up in single user mode?

nope.

 

[robbieduncan]

Will it start up in single user mode?

That is what it is trying to do!

To OP: Your Mac is trying to boot into single user mode. What you are seeing is not a kernel panic. A file on your hard-drive has become corrupt (or worse deleted). It is required for any sort of shell to start. Without it your Mac will not boot into anything from the harddrive. Why a CD boot does not work is beyond me.

 

[nerdrockpa]

That is what it is trying to do!

To OP: Your Mac is trying to boot into single user mode. What you are seeing is not a kernel panic. A file on your hard-drive has become corrupt (or worse deleted). It is required for any sort of shell to start. Without it your Mac will not boot into anything from the harddrive. Why a CD boot does not work is beyond me.

i just tried to boot in single user mood. the computer spit back "dyld: -sh can't open library: /usr/lib/libncurses5.dylib (no such file or directory. errno = 2)" over and over until i turned it of manually.