removing a kext from prompt

[holden caulfield]

I tried to patch my broadcom wireless device, but it gets stuck at the grey apple screen.

-v gets stuck with "VID: family specific matching fails"

 

I suppose if I remove that .kext then it should be OK again -

 

but how can I do this??

 

when I try "rm /system/library/extensions/IO80211Family.kext" it says "IO80211Family.kext is a directory."

 

Any way to get that out of there????

'

[jbjonas]

try reading 'man rm'

hint: use the -R flag

[holden caulfield]

 

Thanks for the tip - - still havent gotten it - - and this is because I'm the noob of all noobs - -

when I try the rm -R option, I get:

override rwxr-xr-x 755/wheel for /system/library/extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/Info.plist?

 

how do I say "yes"???

how do I confirm this???

 

"y" doesn't do it

 

I'm sorry I'm such an idiot here - but I'm honestly trying to learn!

 

(consider it one more post toward Mashugly's Ipod)

 

thanks!

[jbjonas]

Ha Ha.

Ummm, lets see... You're just at a terminal prompt right?

If so, then you will need to log in as root to have proper permissions to delete that file.

type "sudo su" enter ("super-user")

then enter your root password

Now if you try your rm -R command you should have permissions. Be carefull in terminal when using commands from root. I've never done exactly what you're doing, so I don't know if you should copy the .kext first to a neutral directory as a backup just in case or not... I would guess that if you're turning off that driver you can just delete it with no worries. Worse that can happen is reinstall, right?

good luck

[holden caulfield]

thanks for the help... yes.. worse case scenario is a re-install... I'd like to avoid it, though- as it takes FOREVER - very slow install

 

anyway- I am trying to do this from outside os x - - - I can't boot in- - it hangs now at the grey apple logo screen - - ever since I put that kext in there

 

so at the darwin bootlaoder I boot with the -s option - - this is where I am trying to do this - -

 

I'm somewhat familiar with terminal (having worked with some other kexts -- ) I'll try to sudo -s at the prompt there - - unless you have any other suggestions...

[jbjonas]

maybe you'll have better luck in booting from your install DVD (if that's how you did it) and opening terminal from the tools menu (without installing)

[holden caulfield]

I cant even boot with the install DVD - I get the "you must reboot your machine" error.

I suppose what I really dont know how to do is 1) confirm the rm -R - or somehow have the privelages to take it out of root wheel - it never really removes it...

 

is there something I can do besides rm???

 

I can sudo -s at this prompt - though it changes my prompt, it still doesnt allow me to rm the kext -

 

arugh

[jbjonas]

Sorry in advance for the tremendous post everyone...

well, if you're using -s at the boot prompt, then you're already in superuser (root) mode. So don't worry about the sudo stuff. maybe this will help you, if you haven't seen it already. The output from 'man rm'

I would specifically try -d, -f or maybe a combiniation of the two. You'll see that my previous suggestion of -R would implicitly include the -d

 

 

RM(1) BSD General Commands Manual RM(1)

 

NAME

rm, unlink -- remove directory entries

 

SYNOPSIS

rm [-dfiPRrvW] file ...

unlink file

 

DESCRIPTION

The rm utility attempts to remove the non-directory type files specified

on the command line. If the permissions of the file do not permit writ-

ing, and the standard input device is a terminal, the user is prompted

(on the standard error output) for confirmation.

 

The options are as follows:

 

-d Attempt to remove directories as well as other types of

files.

 

-f Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirma-

tion, regardless of the file's permissions. If the file does

not exist, do not display a diagnostic message or modify the

exit status to reflect an error. The -f option overrides any

previous -i options.

 

-i Request confirmation before attempting to remove each file,

regardless of the file's permissions, or whether or not the

standard input device is a terminal. The -i option overrides

any previous -f options.

 

-P Overwrite regular files before deleting them. Files are

overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff,

then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted.

 

-R Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file

argument. The -R option implies the -d option. If the -i

option is specified, the user is prompted for confirmation

before each directory's contents are processed (as well as

before the attempt is made to remove the directory). If the

user does not respond affirmatively, the file hierarchy

rooted in that directory is skipped.

 

-r Equivalent to -R.

 

-v Be verbose when deleting files, showing them as they are

removed.

 

-W Attempt to undelete the named files. Currently, this option

can only be used to recover files covered by whiteouts.

 

The rm utility removes symbolic links, not the files referenced by the

links.

 

It is an error to attempt to remove the files ``.'' or ``..''.

 

When the utility is called as unlink, only one argument, which must not

be a directory, may be supplied. No options may be supplied in this sim-

ple mode of operation, which performs an unlink(2) operation on the

passed argument.

 

The rm utility exits 0 if all of the named files or file hierarchies were

removed, or if the -f option was specified and all of the existing files

or file hierarchies were removed. If an error occurs, rm exits with a

value >0.

 

NOTE

The rm command uses getopt(3) to parse its arguments, which allows it to

accept the `--' option which will cause it to stop processing flag

options at that point. This will allow the removal of file names that

begin with a dash (`-'). For example:

rm -- -filename

The same behavior can be obtained by using an absolute or relative path

reference. For example:

rm /home/user/-filename

rm ./-filename

 

SEE ALSO

rmdir(1), undelete(2), unlink(2), fts(3), getopt(3), symlink(7)

 

BUGS

The -P option assumes that the underlying file system is a fixed-block

file system. In addition, only regular files are overwritten, other

types of files are not.

 

COMPATIBILITY

The rm utility differs from historical implementations in that the -f

option only masks attempts to remove non-existent files instead of mask-

ing a large variety of errors. The -v option is non-standard and its use

in scripts is not recommended.

 

Also, historical BSD implementations prompted on the standard output, not

the standard error output.

 

STANDARDS

The rm command is almost IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible, except

that POSIX requires rm to act like rmdir(1) when the file specified is a

directory. This implementation requires the -d option if such behavior

is desired. This follows the historical behavior of rm with respect to

directories.

 

The simplified unlink command conforms to Version 2 of the Single UNIX

Specification (``SUSv2'').

 

HISTORY

A rm command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

 

BSD January 28, 1999 BSD