Help please! Installed wrong kext, now won't boot.

[mtmelvin]

I built my first Hackintosh in December. I am using the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H. I installed OS 10.6 from disc using Unibeast. Then I created a bootable thumb drive to update to 10.8.2. At that point everything was working properly except audio. Then I ran Multibeast and checked only the appropriate audio kext and then audio was working fine. This computer was running very stable until recently.

When I updated to 10.8.3 audio stopped working again. So I ran Multibeast again and checked off what must have been the wrong kext. I think it was a Voodoo universal or something. I wasn't careful about making that selection because I didn't realize the wrong selection might prevent boot up. Foolish. Anyway, audio worked again but it was not really working correctly. I kept hearing this hissing and occasional distortion. After living with it for a while I went a looked up which kext I should be installing (Realtek ALC898 is what the board uses, apparently) and re-ran Multibeast making what I think was the correct audio selection.

I'm assuming that having both of these kexts installed is why I'm now having a problem, but I'm a total rookie so I could be wrong. But the computer will no longer boot. It sticks on the grey screen and displays a bunch of text. "org.voodoo.driver.VoodooHDA(2.7.3)" seems to be what is indicated as a problem, if I'm interpreting it correctly.

I did a little reading on unix and kext removal and attempted to remove the Voodoo kext in Single User Mode. I found it in System/Library/Extension and removed it. After some stumbling I think I finally got it removed. I listed the directory and it was gone. But when I rebooted the computer it reappeared. So at this point I'm stumped. I don't know what to do next except reinstall the OS, and I really don't want to do that.

If any kind person can offer some advice I would greatly appreciate it. I have been reading a lot in this forum looking for anything that might relate but I'm starting to feel helpless.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. And many thanks to all who contribute to this great site.

 

[RehabMan]

I built my first Hackintosh in December. I am using the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H. I installed OS 10.6 from disc using Unibeast. Then I created a bootable thumb drive to update to 10.8.2. At that point everything was working properly except audio. Then I ran Multibeast and checked only the appropriate audio kext and then audio was working fine. This computer was running very stable until recently.

When I updated to 10.8.3 audio stopped working again. So I ran Multibeast again and checked off what must have been the wrong kext. I think it was a Voodoo universal or something. I wasn't careful about making that selection because I didn't realize the wrong selection might prevent boot up. Foolish. Anyway, audio worked again but it was not really working correctly. I kept hearing this hissing and occasional distortion. After living with it for a while I went a looked up which kext I should be installing (Realtek ALC898 is what the board uses, apparently) and re-ran Multibeast making what I think was the correct audio selection.

I'm assuming that having both of these kexts installed is why I'm now having a problem, but I'm a total rookie so I could be wrong. But the computer will no longer boot. It sticks on the grey screen and displays a bunch of text. "org.voodoo.driver.VoodooHDA(2.7.3)" seems to be what is indicated as a problem, if I'm interpreting it correctly.

I did a little reading on unix and kext removal and attempted to remove the Voodoo kext in Single User Mode. I found it in System/Library/Extension and removed it. After some stumbling I think I finally got it removed. I listed the directory and it was gone. But when I rebooted the computer it reappeared. So at this point I'm stumped. I don't know what to do next except reinstall the OS, and I really don't want to do that.

If any kind person can offer some advice I would greatly appreciate it. I have been reading a lot in this forum looking for anything that might relate but I'm starting to feel helpless.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. And many thanks to all who contribute to this great site.

If you really removed it, boot with "-f" and see if that helps. The issue might be that even though you removed it, it is still in your kernel cache and you probably neglected to invalidate the kernel cache by doing 'touch /System/Library/Extensions'...

If "-f" works, then be sure you really removed it, and then rebuild kernel cache with Kext Wizard. Then reboot and see if you can boot with cache.

 

[mtmelvin]

Thanks RehabMan. It won't allow me to boot with "-f."

If I again boot into single user mode and look at S/L/E then the kext is there, even though it wasn't after I attempted to remove it.

I don't know what "touch /System/Library/Extensions" is all about. I will read up on it now.

 

[RehabMan]

Thanks RehabMan. It won't allow me to boot with "-f."

If I again boot into single user mode and look at S/L/E then the kext is there, even though it wasn't after I attempted to remove it.

I don't know what "touch /System/Library/Extensions" is all about. I will read up on it now.

If "-f" didn't work, then you really didn't remove it, or there is another/additional problem...

Let's say your kext you want to remove is called XX.kext

In single user mode you should be able to:

# change volume-name-of-your-hfs-partition-on-hdd to whatever the volume name is
# if you're unsure...
ls -l /Volumes
# then on to the real work...
rm -rf /Volumes/volume-name-of-your-hfs-partition-on-hdd/System/Library/Extensions/XX.kext
touch /Volumes/volume-name-of-your-hfs-partition-on-hdd/System/Library/Extensions

 

[mtmelvin]

OK, maybe I never actually removed VoodooHDA.kext. I thought I had. I tried to do it again and I see "Read-only file system" is returned.

I am using 'sudo rm -R VoodooHDA.kext'

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks again.

 

[mtmelvin]

Ah, ok. Thanks, I see your second reply. I will try that.

 

[RehabMan]

Ah, ok. Thanks, I see your second reply. I will try that.

It is best to do some of these things in Terminal from the OS X Installer. Boot your Unibeast USB like you're going to install, but then go to Terminal from the Utilities menu.

 

[mtmelvin]

Sorry, I don't know the partition and 'ls -l /Volumes' didn't return anything. It just says :/ root#

 

[RehabMan]

Sorry, I don't know the partition and 'ls -l /Volumes' didn't return anything. It just says :/ root#

It should list your volumes... At least it does on mine. And then it will prompt you for the next command 'root#' Are you sure you didn't miss the line where it listed the name of your volume.

Also, in single user mode you have to mount root as r/w (to be able to make changes), with:
/sbin/mount -uw /

It is a bit of a pain. Like I said, it is easier to do these things in a Unibeast Terminal session...

 

[mtmelvin]

Ah ha! I got it to remove, I think. I did '/sbin/mount -uw /' before I navigated to /S/L/E and then removed VoodooHDA. Then I typed 'exit' and it booted.

So, now I'm not sure what to do next really. I've got no audio. I suppose I need to run Multibeast again but I don't want to make the wrong selection again.

Previously I selected only:

Drivers & bootloaders
>Drivers
>Audio
>Realtek ALC8xx
>Without DSDT
>ALC898

I thought that was going to be the right choice but that's what got me into trouble.

So, suggestions? If the Voodoo driver is gone do you think it's safe to install the ALC898 kext?

Thanks so much for your help.