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What does verbode mode actually tell you?

K

komatsu

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 19, 2010
547
45
I am troubleshooting a non-booting OS X (Sierra) here and put it into Safe / verbose mode.

There is a lot of output from verbose mode but what should I be looking for in terms of finding
the problem file which is causing the boot problem?

There is a lot of output from verbose mode - what should I be looking for?
 
sorry that should read:

What does verbose mode in OS X actually tell you?
 
Why not post a screenshot? Much easier. ;)

I believe the log is also kept in /var/log/kernel.log after a verbose boot, so you might want to post the output here from the Console app.
 
Last edited:
File uploaded now.

Hoping someone can shed some light on this.

BTW, this is the screen where bootup halts.
 

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komatsu said:
File uploaded now.

Hoping someone can shed some light on this.

BTW, this is the screen where bootup halts.
Click to expand...

Is that battery polling thing the last line it displays or is there anything after that?

A failing or failed battery will not cause any problems with the startup process.

More likely to be the 'kextd wait' line that's causing it.

Have you installed or updated any software recently? Does it start up or at least go further in safe mode? (Hold down shift when powering on)
 
mysteryGenius said:
.

More likely to be the 'kextd wait' line that's causing it.

Have you installed or updated any software recently? Does it start up or at least go further in safe mode? (Hold down shift when powering on)
Click to expand...

no new software installed recently.

That is as far as system goes.

It is my suspicious also that the 'kextd wait' is the cause. Anybody know what this could be?
 
SMC won't cause a boot issue like that but can't hurt to try.

Try clearing out anything from the following directories:

/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons

~/Library/LaunchAgents

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING IN /System/Library/

Once those folders are cleared try another safe boot.
 
mysteryGenius said:
SMC won't cause a boot issue like that but can't hurt to try.

Try clearing out anything from the following directories:

/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons

~/Library/LaunchAgents

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING IN /System/Library/.
Click to expand...

ok how do I use delete these when the system is not booting?
 
komatsu said:
ok how do I use delete these when the system is not booting?
Click to expand...

You need to either start from an external OS or use Single User mode to delete them.

To use single user mode, start the machine holding CMD+S. It will look like verbose mode but will stop at a command prompt.

At this prompt type the following lines EXACTLY, press Return at the end of each line (when you hit return you should get a new blank line with no errors, if you don't, try again).

mount -uw /
rm -rf /Library/LaunchAgents/*
rm -rf /Library/LaunchDaemons/*
shutdown -r now

When the machine restarts hold down the Shift key at the chime until you see the apple logo.

PS. Messing things up in Single User mode will almost certainly cause more harm than good so tread carefully!
 
I tried this.

All commands executed without error.

But, unfortunately, the MacBook cannot boot.

This problem seemed to have coincided with the system being in
Target Disk Mode.

Any more suggestions would be appreciated.
 
You don't need to disable launch agents. Booting into safe mode takes care of that (shift key).

Can you boot into recovery?
 
Ok here is an update.

Did a clean re-install of Sierra and then using Migration Assistant brought over
Applications
+
Data
+
Settings

Guess what...EXACT same problem

So again back to the drawing board. I wiped HDD again and did another re-install. Boots up perfectly now
but data still needs to be migrated over from the backup disk.

So to prevent problem again, what do I NOT migrate over (using Migration Assistant) ?

a) applications
b) data
c) settings
 
komatsu said:
Ok here is an update.

Did a clean re-install of Sierra and then using Migration Assistant brought over
Applications
+
Data
+
Settings

Guess what...EXACT same problem

So again back to the drawing board. I wiped HDD again and did another re-install. Boots up perfectly now
but data still needs to be migrated over from the backup disk.

So to prevent problem again, what do I NOT migrate over (using Migration Assistant) ?

a) applications
b) data
c) settings
Click to expand...


You will have to try a process of elimination but I would start with settings.
 
Just the system-wide settings in /Library, probably also the stuff in /etc. I think you can at least move over the user directory, probably also the applications.
 
ok thanks Kallt, but these are system-wide settings like what? Can you give an example?
 
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