[HOW TO] Remove iScroll2 when you get Kernel Panics on boot

H

HateEternal

Mac Metal Head
I recently installed the 10.4.1 update on my iBook G4 which had the iScroll2 driver installed on it. I got Kernel Panics before I got passed the gray apple screen. I assumed that the problem was iScroll because it was the only kernel extension i remembered installing. So I needed to remove it.

On the developers site he has a script that removes iScroll, in the script it shows all the files that need to be removed:

Code: 
/System/Library/Extensions/iScroll2.kext 
/Library/PreferencePanes/iScroll2.prefPane 
/Library/Preferences/name.razzfazz.driver.iScroll2.plist 
/Library/StartupItems/iScroll2 
/usr/local/bin/iScroll2Daemon 
/Library/Receipts/iScroll2.pkg

the script invokes sudo rm -R on all those files. So, to do this when you can't boot into your install you need to boot to a CD or external hard-drive (or I suppose you could boot your 'book into target mode if you have a second mac)

I used the 10.4 install disk because it has a Terminal application built in that you can access from the Utilities menu of the installer.

So grab your 10.4 disk, put it in and boot from CD by holding C. Once it boots click the next button to get to the install dialog and then select Terminal from the Utilities menu. Once Terminal opens you need to run these commands (note: when running os x off of the CD "/" is the root of the CD or DVD so we need to alter the files paths and add a "/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD" to the beginning of the file name because this is where the boot cd mounts the drive. Macintosh\ HD may not be the name of your disk so replace it with what you called your system hard drive.)

Code: 
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Extensions/iScroll2.kext
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/PreferencePanes/iScroll2.prefPane \
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Preferences/name.razzfazz.driver.iScroll2.plist \
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/StartupItems/iScroll2 \
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/local/bin/iScroll2Daemon \
rm -R /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Receipts/iScroll2.pkg

There is no need to use sudo because you are already a super user. If a file fails to remove you might want to cd into the directory and make sure it is not there, incase i typed it wrong. On my machine /usr/local/bin didn't exist so i skipped that one. It seemed to not make a difference.

After you deleted all those files reboot the machine and you should be all set!

This is a lot faster than reinstalling OS X and I am glad I figured it out.

Now maybe someone can tell me, can you mount the local drive as read and write in single user mode? If so there is no need to boot from the CD, you can just boot using command + s and do it there.
 
Yes, and it tells you when you first start up in single user mode. :p

First it tells you about fsck, then it tells you if you want to edit files, /sbin/mount -uw /.
 
Just for the record I have iScroll2 installed and it works fine with 10.4.1. Just for future searchers.
 
Just as an update, I checked to see what file I downloaded and it was v.24 which is the latest release. Perhaps an older version works with 10.4.1?
 
Also, iScroll2's homepage says:

"There are still some pretty major issues, though. With version 0.24, the StartupItem sometimes runs too early on in the Startup process, causing a kernel panic. If you experience this, boot your computer in safe mode (hold the shift key while booting up) and remove iScroll2 using the uninstall feature."

Seems like no single-user voodoo is required and a simple safe-mode startup does the trick, too. (If you have the uninstall command lying around.)

On the other hand, I'll just stay with version 0.21, since that works fine for me.
 
If safe mode lets you run system preferences I believe you can remove it through the preference pane (which basically runs the script)
 
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