OSX 10.11 Stuck On Grey Screen After Login

After upgrading to El Capitan yesterday I ran into an issue where my computer would boot up going through the loading bar and display the login screen if  enabled.  Upon logging in, or automatic login, the system would hang at a grey screen.  After some testing with the network I figured out that it was not actually locking up and would respond to traffic.

To determine if your issues is due to the same problem wither SSH into the computer once booted if remote login was enabled or boot to Recovery Mode  and launch the Terminal.  Then run the following to see recently logged errors.

tail /var/log/system.log | grep 'Segmentation fault'

Or if using the Recovery Mode terminal the following thought the drive name may be different.

tail /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/log/system.log | grep 'Segmentation fault'

If either of these commands produce any results that you have found your problem.  The culprit is Unsigned Kernel Extensions or .kext modules.  In the good old days developers could just install these as needed to add code level kernel functionality but no for improved security OS X requires that all Kernel Extensions be signed by the developer.  This is overall a good thing because these are privileged and could easily lead to malicious behavior by untrusted sources.

Anyway the problem where is that the upgrade didn't disable the unsigned Kernel Extensions it found and instead just doest't load them.  This is fine and normally it would just mean that whatever applications depend on them would jus not work until updated but for whatever reason there are a few special cases that cause the login process to hang.  I ended up removing all the Virtual Box and Soundflower modules and then was able to boot without issue.  I have not tried to Re-install or upgrade wither yet but atlas my computer boots.

To remove these again go to the Terminal and do the following.  You will nee to authorize them with your administrative password.

sudo rm -Rf /System/Library/Extensions/Waco*
sudo rm -Rf /Library/Extensions/VBox*
sudo rm -Rf /Library/Application\ Support/VirtualBox/*
sudo rm -Rf /System/Library/Extensions/Soundflower*
sudo rm -Rf /var/folders/*

Again note the additional prefix if using the Recovery Mode ant that thedick name may be different.

sudo rm -Rf /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Extensions/Waco*
sudo rm -Rf /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Extensions/VBox*
sudo rm -Rf /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Application\ Support/VirtualBox/*
sudo rm -Rf /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Extensions/Soundflower*
sudo rm -Rf /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/folders/*

Finally just reboot and enjoy.

Using a Sophos UTM in Virtual Box

Sophos provides a free home user UTM.  This is a direct update to the older Astaro ASG that I was running.  I recently had to convert over to the new system.  I run it on my FreeBSd server so prefer to use Virual Box to run my VM's.  I ran into a bit of an issue getting the UTM onto the network, but now it's working perfectly.  Here are some simple instructions to get it working.

First of all register and download the VMware x86 or x64 zip file(not the ESX version).  Onew downloaded unzip this file and grab all the *.vmdk files.  The other files can be discarded.

Now go into Virtual box and create a new VM.  Select Linux as  the OS and configure it as desired with the following changes.

• Add a new IDE disk and browser for and select the base VMDK file. (The one without a -s###.)
• Add two network cards and change both to use Bridged Networking and change the device driver to Intel PRO/1000 MT Server.

This should be all that is needed to get things working, though I would suggest removing the audio hardware.  Also the UTM shouldn't need much memory, 350-500MB depending on the features you plan to enable.

Now you can boot up the VM.  If you plan to run it as a service you can but for now you need to start it directly in VirtualBox so you can get at the console. Once booted up the system will list and IP to access it at but this won't actually work due to our VM/Nic setup.  So instead go into the UTM's console and logging as root.  The password will be blank and you will need to change it.

Now on the UTM do the following to reconfigure the default network settings. Tab completion will work here.  Also be sure to substitute you settings for the following variables:
$ADDRESS (eg: 192.168.1.5) Internal Ip for the UTM.
$NETMASK (eg: 24) See here for help.
$BROADCAST (eg: 192.168.1.255) Subnet part of Ip filled in with 255 for the rest.
$NETWORK (eg: 192.168.1.0) Subnet of the Ip filled in with 0's.
$INTERFACE Use tab compleation for this and choose witch NIC you want as your internal.

cc
RAW
lock_override
OBJS

itfparams
primary
REF_ItfParamsDefaultInternal
address=$ADDRESS
netmask=$NETMASK
w
/

network
interface_address
REF_DefaultInternalAddress
address=$ADDRESS
w
/

network
interface_broadcast
REF_DefaultInternalBroadcast
address=$BROADCAST
w
/

network
interface_network
REF_DefaultInternalNetwork
address=$NETWORK
netmask=$NETMASK
w
/

interface
ethernet
REF_DefaultInternal
itfhw=REF_ItfEth$INTERFACE
status=1
w

exit

Each set of commands above will print out the new config when the w line is entered so you should be able to identify any errors or problems.  Once finished you can reboot the UTM by typing reboot.

Now if everything is working you should be able to navigate to https://$ADDRESS:4444 and setup the UTM. If you get any error about not being able to change your active connection then one of the settings above must not match or the the itfhw in the last step didn't get set right.

Configure VirtualBox Deamon

A while back I switched from VMware to VirtualBox(when switching to freebsd) and ran into a problem getting virtual machines to start on server boot. Virtual box supports background operation(headless mode) but freebsd does not come with and rc service for doing so. Included below is a freebsd version to accomplish startup/shutdown task as well as other common operations.

To install save this script into /usr/local/etc/rc.d/virtualbox and make it executable. Then add the following lines to your /etc/rc.conf as needed.

# Load the VirtualBox drivers and start any default machines.
vboxnet_enable="YES" # Enable drivers from package virtualbox-ose-kmod.
virtualbox_enable="YES"
virtualbox_autostart="ASG" # List of machine names to start on boot.
virtualbox_user="vboxuser"
virtualbox_group="vboxusers"

A few other notes: I actually set up a separate account for VirtualBox and the daemon supports this. Also please note that the autostart list is done by name and the names can not have spaces. You can also manually start and stop machines with the startvm and stopvm options.

/usr/local/etc/rc.d/virtualbox
#!/bin/sh
#

# PROVIDE: virtualbox 
# REQUIRE: LOGIN vboxnet

#
# Add the following lines to /etc/rc.conf to enable the virtualbox daemon:
#
# virtualbox_enable="YES"
# virtualbox_autostart="BOX1 BOX2"
#


. /etc/rc.subr

name="virtualbox"
rcvar=`set_rcvar`
extra_commands="status startvm stopvm"

start_cmd="${name}_start"
stop_cmd="${name}_start"
status_cmd="${name}_status"
startvm_cmd="${name}_startvm"
stopvm_cmd="${name}_stopvm"
poweroffvm_cmd="${name}_poweroffvm"

load_rc_config $name

virtualbox_user=${virtualbox_user:-"vboxuser"}
virtualbox_group=${virtualbox_group:-"vboxusers"}
virtualbox_autostart=${virtualbox_autostart:-""}

SU="su $virtualbox_user -c"
VBOXMANAGE="/usr/local/bin/VBoxManage -nologo"

virtualbox_start()
{
        echo "Starting ${name}."

        echo $virtualbox_autostart | awk -F , '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) print $i}' |  while read VM; do
            $SU "$VBOXMANAGE startvm \"$VM\" --type headless" 
        done
}

virtualbox_stop()
{
        echo "Stopping ${name}."
        $SU "$VBOXMANAGE list runningvms" | sed 's/.*"\(.*\)".*/\1/' | while read VM; do
            $SU "$VBOXMANAGE controlvm \"$VM\" acpipowerbutton"
        done

        wait_for_closing_machines
}

virtualbox_startvm()
{
        $SU "$VBOXMANAGE startvm \"$*\" --type headless"
}

virtualbox_stopvm()
{
        $SU "$VBOXMANAGE controlvm \"$*\" acpipowerbutton"
}

virtualbox_poweroffvm()
{
        $SU "$VBOXMANAGE controlvm \"$*\" poweroff"
}

virtualbox_status()
{

        $SU "$VBOXMANAGE list runningvms" | sed 's/.*"\(.*\)".*/\1/' | while read VM; do
            echo "$VM "
        done
}

wait_for_closing_machines() {
    RUNNING_MACHINES=`$SU "$VBOXMANAGE list runningvms" | wc -l`
    if [ $RUNNING_MACHINES != 0 ]; then
        sleep 5
        wait_for_closing_machines
    fi
}

run_rc_command "$@"