myFix 1.3

This release adds one major new feature – a graphical front-end. This should make it simpler and easier for novice users to run, and also serves as an installer/updater to the terminal version – a feature which even advanced users will appreciate.

This feature also includes a bugfix – the i386 build worked great in Snow Leopard and Lion tests, however, it would not run on the Lion Install USB – the Lion Install USB is only capable of running x86_64 binaries. Thus I have compiled both the terminal version and the GUI as universal binaries to support both i386 and x86_64 environments.

– Download link removed due to critical error in GUI front end, see this post for more information.

Please make sure to review the release notes for myFix 1.0-1.2 for a complete explanation of features.

A complete list of the changes from myFix 1.2 are as follows:

  • -Compiled as universal i386/x86_64 binary
  • -Created graphical front-end
  • -Graphical front end will prompt to install/update terminal version if terminal version is missing/out of date
  • -Terminal version now uses new method to create line breaks for improved appearance

myFix 1.2

This version is now deprecated, consult the downloads page for a link to the latest version.

This release is a bugfix for users who want to run myfix on legacy intel and OS X 10.5 systems that can only run i386 code. I sometimes forget that some people use i386 only kernels, such as legacy intel kernels used for first generation atom systems or core duo’s. Thus in my haste to get myFix released I compiled it as an x86_64 binary, which will run fine for anyone on a Snow Leopard or Lion vanilla kernel, but people on Leopard or legacy intel systems will get a “Bad CPU type in executable” error when they try to launch myFix. Additionally I noticed some bugs in my /Extra/Extensions.mkext generation for users running myFix under OS X 10.5 “Leopard” so I fixed those too.

Please make sure to review the release notes for myFix 1.1 and 1.0 for a complete explanation of features.

A complete list of the changes from myFix 1.1 are as follows:

  • -Compiled as i386 binary rather than x86_64 binary
  • -Corrected some syntax errors for users running myFix under OS X 10.5 “Leopard”
  • -Added running kernel version and arch to output logs to help with debugging in future bug report submissions

myFix 1.1

This version is now deprecated, consult the downloads page for a link to the latest version.

This release adds a function which resolves a common issue that people have faced in the past… SleepEnabler problems and SleepEnabler related kernel panics after running OS X Software Updates.

When myFix is run it will test to see if /Extra/SleepEnabler.kext exists – if it does it will automatically define the correct pmVersion in your /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist or /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist (org.chameleon.Boot.plist is the new location for this boot configuration file on all new builds of chameleon). Additionally if the target is the root device (the device your OS is currently running on) it will automatically configure the flags that you would previously have to open System Preferences > Energy Saver and check the boxes for manually (which previously, if left unchecked, would result in a reboot on wake from sleep).

This function is compatible with most xnu-sleep-enabler builds. The obvious advantage to including this feature in myFix is that you will no longer have to remove or replace SleepEnabler.kext when updating to a new version of OS X. You can simply run myFix before rebooting, after an update, or from your USB Installer.

This function currently supports 10.6.0-10.6.8 and 10.7.0 pmVersions, if you are running a different version of OS X than this it will set pmVersion=0 to disable SleepEnabler completely. I will release updates to myFix that will add support for newer versions of OS X as they become available.

Please make sure to review the full release notes for myFix here.

A complete list of the changes from myFix 1.0 are as follows:

  • -Added fix SleepEnabler function
  • -Added check for Boot.plist
  • -Cleaned up output log slightly

myFix 1.0 (pfix 4.0)

This version is now deprecated, consult the downloads page for a link to the latest version.

This is a complete rewrite of the pfix utility and the beginning of something more. pfix 3.1 was a solid performer, I received no bug reports, but truth is it was a little messy. I had seen many issues with the way kextd/kextcache functions in Snow Leopard and users rebooting prior to the system prelinked kernel caches being completely built. So to ensure fail proof operation I coded it to build all of the caches manually, not just the Extensions.mkext. This wasn’t the ideal way to do things, but it required minimal time on my part to simply fix bugs in 3.0/2.x rather than rewrite it in a new format.

That said, with OS X 10.7 about to be officially released to the wild it was time for a rewrite, not only to clean up the old code but to expand functionality to the new version of OS X.

One of the biggest complaints I received about pfix 3.1 was that it took so long to execute… Why wait so long when you can just chown/chmod and then touch /System/Library/Extensions? Well the reason is simple really – it is not the fault of pfix – it is the fault of Snow Leopard’s kextcache. It takes a ridiculously long time to rebuild the system prelinked kernel caches if there is a problem with them or they don’t exist after having been deleted. If you were to simply touch /System/Library/Extensions and then reboot imediately, kextcache would not be finished and it will take you up to 15 minutes to boot your system, if it boots at all. Good news is, Lion doesn’t have this problem.

So what have I changed? Well not only will myFix detect the OS version it is running on, but it also detects the OS version of the target and adjusts the functions and syntax for mkext creation accordingly. I have extended support for it to run on Leopard and Lion. I have dropped support for running it on Tiger. I have also added full support for Leopard and Lion as target’s. So now you can use myFix from Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion to repair any Leopard, Snow Leopard, or Lion volumes.

Additionally instead of running all the commands manually I let kextd/kextcache do it’s job – after the initial permission repair (and optional diskutil repairPermissions) it will simply touch /System/Library/Extensions – and then it will WAIT until kextcache is finished. In some cases it will still take a while for kextcache to finish, but by waiting it will let you, the user, know when it’s safe to reboot so that you do not reboot your system prematurely and have a problem. In most cases however it will actually finish quite quickly. By adding the optional flag to skip the diskutil repairPermissions step it will go even faster, however, I do suggest you let diskutil repairPermissions run as chmod 0755 is *NOT* the correct permissions for many of the files in /System/Library/Extensions.

What did I mean by “and the beginning of something more”?

myFix will be more than simply a Permissions & Caches utility. In the future I will be adding additional functions to myFix. Stay tuned…

So without further adieu let me present you with myFix 1.0

Basic Usage: myfix [option]
Example Usage: myfix -v 1 -t /

Option       GNU long option       Meaning
-h           –help                Show this message
-s           –skipsystem          Don’t repair /system/library/extensions
-d           –skipdiskutil        Don’t repair permissions with diskutil
-v <level>   –verbose <level>     Set kextcache output’s verbosity level
-t <path>    –target <path>       Path to target partition to run myfix on

A complete list of the changes to the pfix functions from pfix v3.1 are as follows:

  • -Completely re-written from scratch with much cleaner syntax and improved functionality
  • -Target OS version detection
  • -Added skip diskutil repairPermissions flag
  • -Added support for OS X 10.5 Leopard and OS X 10.7 Lion targets
  • -Improved support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
  • -Removed support for OS x 10.4 completely

pfix v3.1 Released

This version is now deprecated, consult the downloads page for a link to the latest version.

This release corrects a minor bug that was reported by several users when pfix was run under OS X 10.5.x “Leopard”. I took the opportunity to clean up a few other things while I was at it.

Changelog:

v3.1:

  • -Corrected minor syntax errors for correct operation of pfix under OS X 10.5.x “Leopard”.*
  • -Improved syntax usage to adhere to expected syntax and ensure error free operation in the future.
  • -Corrected minor typo and altered some of the displayed information for clarity.

v3.0:

You may review the full v3.x release notes here.

* When pfix 3.0 was run under OS X 10.5 “Leopard” it was reported to display an “kextcache: illegal option — q” error. Apparently the -q “quiet” option either does not function correctly or is not available on the previous version of kextcache that is available under Leopard. As a result completely quiet operation has been disabled when pfix 3.1 is running under 10.5, it will simply use -v 0 (lowest verbose mode) instead. If you desire a different level of verbosity use the -v # flag as described in the pfix –help output. (# being any number between 0 and 6 as described in the man page for kextcache).