Kernel Panic during boot after NVinject install

[CandC]

So after a long and arduous journey to get my vostro 1500 up and running (MBR nightmare), I tried to install the graphics driver for NVidia cards and it comes back with a Kernel Panic.

 

So exactly what happened:

installed NVinject, said to restart

I restart gets to grey apple and says I have to restart (kernel Panic)

I boot in safe mode "-x" and it starts once, I am relieved that it may work.. I restart and it has the same problem and won't boot in "-x"

I read a lot online and the only thing I come up with is booting with the command "old_kernel", which works perfectly - with the graphics driver installed.

I try to find out how to restore the kernel and came up empty handed.

 

I am really new to this whole thing and have never really had to troubleshoot OS X before, so the commands are a little non-intuitive.

 

I don't even know how to unistall the NVinject pack I installed...

 

Let me know your thoughts.

 

Thanks.

[PlayingKarrde]

What's the kernel panic you are getting?

 

Sounds like it could be a geforce one. If so try this:

 

Boot with -s and type:

 

mount -uw /

mkdir /GeForce

mv /System/Library/Extensions/GeForce* /GeForce

reboot

[ilostmyunicorn]

Having the same issue here..

 

I tried your suggestion, PlayingKarrde, but I tried booting in -v and it stopped at

 

"AppleNForceATA: NVIDIA nForce MCP 51 by MeDevil (CMD 0x1f0, CTR 0x3f4, IRQ 14, BM 0x3080)"

 

Tried booting with -v and -F and it stops at

 

"wl0: Broadcom BCM4311 802.11 Wireless Controller" <- this line is directly below the "AppleNForceATA" one.

 

I'll try booting using the "old_kernel" now.

 

Edit: "old_kernel" method didn't work for me. Left me at the same "AppleNForceATA" line.

 

Erasing the partition and starting over feels more tempting now! >

[PlayingKarrde]

Try what I said before but replace Geforce* with NVinject.kext. Basically you are moving the NVinject.kext so it won't load.

 

I don't think it's a kernel problem personally.

[CandC]

I can't boot in '-s', it hangs at the same point as in '-v'. The error doesn't say anything about an nvidia controller error. I think the error is related to the shutdown update/fix that comes with the latest version of NVinject. I think the error says something about intel. I need to look at it again but it looks like a driver that is supposed to control the processor is hanging on boot. The old kernel seems to not have this problem.

 

The only way I can boot is with the old_kernel, a backup in the root dir, but I can't boot to remove mach_kernel and replace it with old_kernel. If I boot old_kernel I can't modify it. Seems like I might be stuck. Any thoughts on how to copy over the file?

 

I have a vostro 1500 for those who want to know. The shutdown doesn't work, or sound (yet), and I had to re-write the MBR to get past a HFS+ partition error on boot.

 

I will try to play around with '-f', maybe that will help.

 

Does anyone know a way to boot the old kernel with a '-s' parameter?

[inimicus]

Since the "default" kernel is mach_kernel, you can rename old_kernel this and boot as if you entered old_kernel at boot.

 

Make sense?

 

Like this:

 

Boot with old_kernel

 

Backup mach_kernel

cp mach_kernel mach_kernel.backup

 

Remove it.

sudo rm mach_kernel

 

Make old_kernel mach_kernel

sudo cp old_kernel mach_kernel

 

Now old_kernel and mach_kernel are the same, and mach_kernel is mach_kernel.backup.

 

Repair permissions to keep things happy.

diskutil repairpermissions /

 

There are more succinct ways of doing this, but separating out the commands tends to help noobitis.

 

If this doesn't work, you are still OK to boot with old_kernel as we have maintained the file here. The backup of mach_kernel will also help in the event of trouble.

 

If you ever are unable to boot in single-user mode (-s), you can always boot to the install disc and use Terminal from there. Your hard drive is located under /Volumes/[Volume Name] in this method.

 

As a rule of thumb, I never use any NVInject or similar graphics driver installer. Doing it manually ensures you know which files are modified and makes it easier to "Reverse" any ill effects.

[CandC]

I broke down and reinstalled. I know, for shame. I reinstalled the NVinject but left off the kernel patch and everything was great. Even got some sound working.

 

I was able to boot into single user mode (-s) using the old_kernel, but when I got there I didn't know my unix well enough anymore to copy/replace/find the needed files. It has been a while.

 

I realized that I didn't really have that much to lose in re-installing.

 

On a sidenote, why does it say it only takes 5 gigs to install and then it takes almost 10GB when you boot it? Is there a problem with my install or does the OS create a large swap file or other operating file when it boots? I put it on a 10GB partition on my laptop and now I only have like 700MB free.

[inimicus]

Strange, mine only takes 6.7GB default install.

 

Maybe additional apps? But I dunno which ones for over 3GB of space...

[th0rgal]

Hey! have you tried this Nvidia installer : http://scottdangel.com/blog/?page_id=20

It worked a treat for me with my old Latitude D800 (GeForce FX 5200 Go)