Skip to main content

Removing an old driver from /System/Library/Extensions

Neil Clayton
  • Updated

This article explains how to remove a driver from /System/Library/Extensions.

Catalina

In Catalina, this is a protected directory. So we have to use the 'recovery' mode to do it. Don't worry! This is not magic. It's just that Catalina includes "protections" that make this folder non-writable by us otherwise.

Let's begin.

Here's what we're going to do:

  1. Reboot into recovery mode
  2. Get to a Terminal
  3. Manually remove the driver using terminal commands
  4. Reboot

Here we go:

  1. Reboot into recovery mode. Simply done by restarting you mac, and holding Command (⌘) – R while you hear the chime. You will see:IMG_5307.jpg
  2. Choose terminalIMG_5308.jpg
  3. Now, you have to "cd" to the right place. 
    1. Catalina splits its "system don't touch this" stuff from the "hey, this is your data".
    2. We have to find the former "don't touch this" area!
  4. For me it was /Volumes/Catalina SSD.  It'll be different in every case. If you've not changed your drive name, it'll likely be /Volumes/Macintosh HD
    1. To check, enter: 
      df -h
    2. For me, this gave:IMG_5310.jpg
    3. So the one I want is "/Volumes/Catalina SSD". For you it might be "/Volumes/Macintosh HD". 
      1. It's important to note that the example system above is running from an external SSD. One that I named 'Catalina'.  Hence the 'Catalina -- data' and 'Catalina SSD' names. Those will most certainly be different on your machine.
    4. Execute a "cd /Volumes/<your volume here>" in terminal.
    5. Note: the next command does NOT use a leading / (slash) on the pathname. That's important!!!
    6. You know you're in the right place when: ls System/Library/Extensions gives lots of "stuff", see:
    7. You want the non "-- data" volume. 
  1. Copy/Paste the command below: note: no leading / here. very important.
    sudo rm -rf "System/Library/Extensions/iShowU Audio Capture.kext"
  2. Check the folder is gone, using 'ls'  
    ls -al "System/Library/Extensions/iShowU Audio Capture.kext"
    1. This should return "No such file or directory". If it does, great! You're done.
  3. Restart your mac.

At this point, after the mac has restarted, the old driver is no more.

Please continue what you were doing :)

Mojave

In Mojave, this can be done very easily as an administrator.

You want to remove /System/Library/Extensions/iShowU Audio Capture.kext/ (the entire folder).  This is easily done using 'sudo' from a Terminal.  Open Terminal, and copy/paste this:

sudo rm -rf "/System/Library/Extensions/iShowU Audio Capture.kext"

Note the use of double-quotes surrounding the .kext name. We need to do this because the kext has spaces in its name. 

You will be prompted for your password. Use your normal account password.

Deleting_System_Library_Extension.gif 

Related articles

Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • David Moheban

    I get a ‘Sudo: command not found’ error message in recovery terminal. What could I be doing wrong?

    0
  • samehfr

    I get a ‘Sudo: command not found’ error message in recovery terminal. What could I be doing wrong?

    ترددات النايل سات

     
    0
  • Neil Clayton

    'sudo' is always lower case

    0
  • untrue forestay
    • Edited

    thanks for your guidance

    0
  • M Deng
    • Edited

    I have to say thank you for something my problem.
    my MacBook air can not get into the system after installing some driver, and this really helped a lot. One reminder, the sudo code doesn’t work on my MacBook Air, so I just tried to remove the sudo and use the codes behind, it works.

    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.