[SOLVED] Can't boot with any bootflags after patching kext

[skyswimmer]

My e6430 has been running nice with Yosemite for sometime now, thanks to the help of this forum and Jake lo in particular.

Then I decided to try patch the the cellphonehelp.kext in S/l/E from a guide here to get WWAN working, I did as followed in the guide spending alot of time on every step as I know it only takes one error to cause problems, and the last thing I wanted was to mess up my nice running Yosemite which has everything working on it from an expresscard 34 PCMCIA & a usb 3 hub with full speed. Finally after doing the patch to Cellphonehelper.kext i ran a repair permissions & rebuild cache with kext wizard,and on reboot i came into problems & cannot boot to desktop.

 

I have tried various boot flags in the hope I could get to login and rectify what I did wrong such as repairing the system cache from terminal, but none of the flags will work. I've tried single user -s , safe mode -x, boot without kernel cache -F, system cache -f and combinations of these which I'm not even sure if I should do that.

 

Ive searched here and other places for results on my errors listed in verbose mode but none seem to match my errors. They don't seem to be the usual "waiting for dmos" type of errors, very different from the errors when i was originally getting osx running & post install with main devices. I have searched high & low but can't find any related info on my errors.

As you can see from my attached screenshots, the first line refers to an error parsing the contents of the info.plist of the cellphonehelper.kext, obviously my mistake in patching it. Then the errors refer to “cant open CFbundle for S/L/E RTL8192SUB.kext†and this is repeated until “error 107 rebuilding S/L/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/startup/kernel. Then the last line being “GforceSensors (pcl1) :

 

I know this is part of the challenge we all face in trying to get osx running with our devices, and I am determined as always to learn from these challenges as they come , but I am very limited in my knowledge of understanding computer code language so I would greatly appreciate your help in getting my system running right again.

[Hervé]

People really should stop using those tools that provide no error log to their users. In addition the manual commands required have been listed all over this forum a trillion time; I don't know why they're not being used...

 

Which bootloader do you use? Clover or Enoch? Depending on version, I understand the former may no longer booting with our cache, whilst you can with the latter.

 

From you description, it seems you've indeed screwed up your cache, probably as a result of incorrectly acting your CellPhoneHelper kext. Once you clarify the situation re: bootloader and attach your missing screenshots (use "More Reply options" button to attach pictures), we'll be able to move forward and maybe make progress.

[skyswimmer]

Sorry , the Screenshot is added now, couldn't do it from Ubuntu on another computer I was using, had to do it on my phone. It's true the command lines for repairing permissions and rebuilding cache is easy to get, intact I have them and I have used them , I just thought kext wizard could do it just as well, but in future I'll do it from terminal.

 

I'm using the Darwin v5.0.132/chameleon v2.3 bootloader.

 

Looking forward to ur analysis of my errors in screen shot, the correct term for this is osx boot log ?

[Jake Lo]

Did you use a text editor to modify the info.plist file?

That could be the cause of the corrupt file. You need to use Xcode or Plistedit Pro.

[skyswimmer]

That's exactly what I did, I used text editor , mistake number two now revealed !

[Jake Lo]

Looks like you're using Chameleon, try booting with 

 

-v -f -x

[Hervé]

A text editor is perfectly Ok to patch the Info.plist file of CellPhoneHelper; that's what I use. The common mistake is to do a copy/paste of a patch that's not applicable to the given OS X version you run on your Hack. Apple modifies the syntax and parameters of this kext in almost every version of the OS...

 

Where do you keep your add-on kexts such as FakeSMC and PS2 controller? You're using regular Chameleon so it's either /S/L/E or /L/E but if you attempt to boot without cache a system where critical add-on kexts such as FakeSMC are placed in /L/E, you will always fail because Yosemite and above ignore /L/E when you boot without cache.

 

In that case, you may attempt to recover the situation by booting the USB installer up to the main installer screen and then try to fix your actual installation through Terminal. You could proceed as follows:

1) delete the patched CellPhoneHelper kext from /S/L/E:

sudo rm -Rf /Volume/<OS X partition name>/S*/L*/E*/CellPhoneHelper.kext

2) manually repair permissions and rebuild the cache:

sudo chmod -Rf 755 /Volume/<OS X partition name>/S*/L*/E*
sudo chown -Rf 0:0 /Volume/<OS X partition name>/S*/L*/E*
sudo touch -f /Volume/<OS X partition name>/S*/L*/E*
sudo /Volume/<OS X partition name>/usr/sbin/kextcache -Boot -U /Volume/<OS X partition name>/ -K /Volume/<OS X partition name>/S*/L*/Kernels/kernel

If you get an error at the end, repeat the last 2 x commands with line recall.

 

Once you've recovered, I would advise you to migrate from good old Chameleon to Enoch. Reason for this is that recent versions of Enoch have improved features:

1. to apply some limited number of kernel patches on-the-fly
2. to call on kexts placed in /E/E and inject them through a special boot parameter. You can combine this to placing add-on kexts in /L/E (from where kexts are cached) so that if you screw up your cache, you can boot without cache whilst retaing add-on kexts injection from /E/E. It totally supports kexts experimentation.

[skyswimmer]

@ Hervé, Thanks for this in depth instruction. I will try this now, but I don't have my USB installer , I'm out of my country and only have my mobile phone and this laptop, unless I find another computer to make another USB installer, or is it possible to boot with single user mode and run terminal commands from the flashing cursor appears after the log finishes loading ?

 

I don't know if fakesmc and ps2 controller is in s/l/e or l/e but I will try both with the commands you have me.

 

When I was doing the cellphone helper patch I didn't copy and paste as the guide very well explained to add the device/vendor IDs according to your system so I typed in all the parts, I admit it was confusing, computer code boggles my mind but I tried my best to understand it. If I'm not mistaken you wrote that guide ? Anyway I'll be back to that guide when I get past this obstacle 😊 I will definitely read up on enoch and understand more about it , sounds good as u say.

 

@ Jake Lo, no success with those boot flags.

[Hervé]

Yes, you can try to remove the CellPhoneHelper kext via single user mode. Try and boot with -s flag, type the displayed mount command (you can ignore the fsck one) and run the following commands:

rm -Rf /S*/L*/E*/CellPhoneHelper.kext
chmod -Rf 755 /S*/L*/E*
chown -Rf 0:0 /S*/L*/E*
touch -f /S*/L*/E*
kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

If you get an error 77, re-type the last 2 x commands. Once cache has rebuilt, just type:

exit

and the system should continue booting with the repaired cache.

[skyswimmer]

@ Herve, it worked !!! Im writing this from my Hackbook now

 

I spent about 1 hour to get it right but it worked, ran into problems such as identifying my volume & OS X Partition name as "diskutil list" wasnt working, i removed the CellPhoneHelper.kext easily, but i got problems repairing the cache as i then got errors about another kext "RTL8192SU8" as you'll see in my screenshot. I took a gamble and removed that too as i was sure it was the kext for my wifi usb adapter, and i guessed that it got corrupted in repairing of permissions and rebuilding cache through kext wizard. So i removed it, wrote the command lines you provided and the system booted, i was absolutely delighted & relieved to be back into my Hackbook with everything working, well except for the wifi adapter, for now !

 

So once again, this forum, this community and experienced contributors like you & others have offered your free time to to guide people like myself through the walls we hit on the way to making OS X run on our PC's & Laptops. Its been a somewhat nerve wrecking but enjoyable learning experience. Thank you all very much!