List all third party kernel extensions
Aug 3, 2010 - 5 Comments
If you’re troubleshooting a machine it can be helpful to list what kernel extensions are activated, particularly third party kexts. Here’s an easy way to list all third party kexts, using the command line:
kextstat | grep -v com.apple
Of course you can always list all kernel extensions (Apple’s official Mac OS X kexts included) by just typing:
kextstat
[...] came across this little hint over at OSXDaily, a site I visit quite often because of the variety of topics [...]
Thanks to Bill Ellis. Used kextstat to see what was installed and removed the software. My Display Sleep function stopped working with the OS X 10.7 install this morning. Now it works. I removed VirtualBox by its own uninstall program.
[...] most people won’t need this application, or have any need to tweak with kext files and kernel extensions. This is usually the realm of deep troubleshooting and Hackintosh installations, but not necessary [...]
“don’t need this…” poster:
I found that old software I thought I had removed left broken and old kexts in my system. This tool helped me isolate them and remove them.
I bet any user would be well served by an app that searches for kexts that no longer have their associated app in the system, and remove them. Product Idea! You’re welcome…
I have been creating kernel extensions by myself and I have found I can load an extension with com.apple.kext.falsekext as CFBundleIdentifier, and other as com.apple.driver.falsekext as Identifier. When I use kextstat and grep to detect third-party extensions, it is not listed. How can I detect this third party extensions that could affect my system and contains com.apple into his CFBundleIdentifier??