Kernal Panic after deleting all Extensions!

R

RedMac

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Hi all

I'm new here, and as I'm a windows user you may notice my terms aren't as MAC OSX users are.

I believe I've done something bad to my MAC!
I've deleted all the extenstion (copied them on the desktop) as I was facing lots of crashing applications (almost all programs on my mac crash from time to time: Photoshop, Acrobat, Illustrator, Quark, and even World of Warcraft).

someone suggeted that it's becasue of some kind of corrupted extension, so I thought I'll start from fresh and see which one is!

anyway, now I get the Grey kernal Panic window which doesn't allow me to do a thing when the MAC starts
I've searched a bit and foud that I can access the firmware, which I succeded in..

I just need to know if there's a way to use the firmware (in a way similar to the DOS commands: copy c:*.* c:\library\extentions) or any similar way to copy the extentions from the desktop folder back in place!!!!

plz help me as I have a big project to work on and I can't do a thing now!


I have a G4 with 1.7 GB RAM, and dual 1.2GB CPU.. running on MAC OS X 10.3.9 (latest update)
I don't have access to the OS cds & don't have a network nor any kind of utilities to rely on.. I'm working on a PC now to access this forum and check if anyone can help..

plz help me get it back running ASAP

Many thanks for your support
 
It sounds like the person giving you advice was giving you advice for a Macintosh operating system that died years ago (OS 9). Back in the days, you could remove all your extensions and still boot -- but OS X is not OS 9, and those extensions are required for a functioning system.

You might want to try booting from an external drive if you have one, or trying an Archive & Install from the installation CDs.
 
thanks for your reply "ElDiabloConCaca"..

I believe you're right, cuz I didn't see him work on an OSX which makes sense!

back to your suggestion, is there any other way that can help me get the files from the desktop and copy them back to the Extexions folder?

I don't have an external drive, and don't think I can get the CDs for awhile (kept in the IT department).. is there another software that I can download and use to fix this issue (on PC as I don't have another MAC)?

I know I sound silly (as I said, doesn't know much about MAC tech) but can't I get the essential extensions from somewhere/someone and copy them in a way on their folder?

guess MCSE doesn't help me much down here.... anything might help guys?
 
The only way you're going to fix this is doing an Archive & Install like ElDiablo said. You need the OS disks to do this.
 
The problem is that in order to get access to that drive, you need to be able to boot the computer in order to access it -- so, you need some way to boot the machine... either by external hard drive, CD/DVD, or perhaps even another hard drive in that machine. It's a good reason to always keep a secondary way to boot your computer handy (like an utility, say, DiskWarrior or Drive 10, or epecially the OS installer disks).

Got any other Macs laying around there? You could install the drive as a secondary (or tertiary, whatever) drive and then use that Mac to copy the files back to their proper locations.

You either have to find another way to boot the Mac, or have access to another Macintosh computer to fix this.
 
guess I'm out of choices now.. I'll have to contact the IT dep to get the OS X cd.

is the OSX Panther CD bootdable? as I recall they were an upgrade from OS X

is there a way to create a bootable CD with any mean? from any other third-party application? is there such thing?

I really appriciate your help here guys.. I have to work more on the tech side of the MAC.. it's really bad to work behind this great machine and never know such thing about it!
 
great.. thanks for the tip..

but just to be sure.. shall I type "Open CD" in the firmware command to insert the cd? (after holdeing option+comnd+o+f)?

cuz I can't do a thing when I start.. just stuck with a grey screen (do you MAC people call it the Grey screen of Death as the blue one in windows :) )
 
Just put the CD in and powerup an hold the C key. It should boot off the CD.
 
what I meant was that I can't open the CD tray as pressing the Eject button doesn't affect!

anyway, I think I managed to eject the CD tray earlier with this command after holding that combination

[EDIT]: and does the installation affect my older files on the Hard Disk? I mean will I loose my files/settings/etc....

thanks "bobw"
 
hmm... If I read what you said right, you said you copied your extensions to your desktop? or did you delete them all together? I don't know for sure, but if you still have them on your computer, it is possible to do something, but, like I said, only if you have those files still on your computer. I don't know for sure, but tr holding down command-S when your computer starts up. If a command line interface starts up, you're good. Otherwise, stop reading. If the command line comes up (not like the firmware one, it should be black with white text). Hmm...the UNIX command is pretty similar to the DOS one...mv file1 [file2] dir. First, change the directory to your desktop (cd /Users/username/Desktop/) With this, list all of the extension files in place of file1,etc. (file1 file2 ... etc) and then name the extension directory (/Library/Extensions/) in place of dir. So, you might type in mv Blah.kext This.kext Another.kext /Library/Extensions/ . I hope this works... And also, there are most likely ways to do all of this in OpenFirmware, but those commands are way more advanced. Oh, and if you need to see what files are present, try ls which will list all of the files in the directory you've selected.
 
thanks "thebiggedbig" for your suggestion, but unfortunatly it didn't work!

I tried the command-S and I got a a black background with white text.. but it had the same panic error which was a dead end.

the only option as "bobw" suggested was reinstall system files, which I did by starting the system with CD boot (using the Alt-Command-O-F buttons while pressing the start button.. how many hands do you need when using a MAC)

which worked by reinstalling the MAC OS X Panther over my old system files, and it entually worked although I needed to reapply all updates again and reinstall most of the applications I had (Quark, NAV.. etc)

I didn't loose my files/documents/settings which was good but I feel the system is slower now.. although it should have a fresh system files!


the whole concept of me deleteing all the extensions was because I was facing a sudden crash in all of my applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, WoW,.. you name it), system is fine it rarely crashes.. but all other application do from time to time.
I don't know if there's a solution to this problem.. but I'm sure that it wasn't the way it was before!

if someone's facing same crashes and found a solution please let me know!

as for the the rest who helped me to get my system back running, I really thank you for all your help and time, so if you need anything in Windows you know who you can contact :)
 
I assume no one is facing the crashing problems in his/her MAC? it's really strange that every now and then most of the applications starts craching.. the most annoying is when playing World of Warcratf, which crashes a lot.. I can't go on a continious playing for more than 10-15 min!

tried reinstalling most of the applications, I installed Panther againg a fter I lost my extensions.. but still no joy!

any suggestions?
 
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