/System/Library/Extensions
Posted April 24th, 2010 @ 11:27am by Erik J. Barzeski
Somehow, my /System/Library/Extensions folder has grown to 214 items. Just curious - how many do you have on your computer? How in the world do I know if I need to load all of these? Can you clean some out? Why would you need or want to?
FWIW, /Library/Extensions is empty.
Again, how many do you have? The full entry contains my list for the Mac Pro on which I'm typing this (10.6.3).
ACard62xxM.kext ACard68xxM.kext ACard671xSCSI.kext ACard6280ATA.kext ACard6885M.kext ACard67162.kext Accusys6xxxx.kext ALF.kext AmbrosiaAudioSupport.kext Apple_iSight.kext Apple16X50Serial.kext AppleACPIPlatform.kext AppleAHCIPort.kext AppleAPIC.kext AppleBacklight.kext AppleBluetoothMultitouch.kext AppleBMC.kext AppleEFIRuntime.kext AppleFileSystemDriver.kext AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib.kext AppleFWAudio.kext AppleGraphicsControl.kext AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext AppleHDA.kext AppleHIDKeyboard.kext AppleHIDMouse.kext AppleHPET.kext AppleHWSensor.kext AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient.kext AppleIntelGMA950.kext AppleIntelGMA950GA.plugin AppleIntelGMA950GLDriver.bundle AppleIntelGMA950VADriver.bundle AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext AppleIntelGMAX3100GA.plugin AppleIntelGMAX3100GLDriver.bundle AppleIntelGMAX3100VADriver.bundle AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext AppleIRController.kext AppleKeyswitch.kext AppleLPC.kext AppleLSIFusionMPT.kext AppleMatch.kext AppleMCEDriver.kext AppleMIDIFWDriver.plugin AppleMIDIIACDriver.plugin AppleMIDIRTPDriver.plugin AppleMIDIUSBDriver.plugin AppleMikeyHIDDriver.kext AppleMobileDevice.kext AppleMultitouchDriver.kext AppleOnboardDisplay.kext ApplePlatformEnabler.kext AppleProfileFamily.kext AppleRAID.kext AppleRAIDCard.kext AppleRTC.kext AppleSEP.kext AppleSmartBatteryManager.kext AppleSMBIOS.kext AppleSMBusController.kext AppleSMBusPCI.kext AppleSMC.kext AppleSMCLMU.kext AppleStorageDrivers.kext AppleTyMCEDriver.kext AppleUpstreamUserClient.kext AppleUSBAudio.kext AppleUSBDisplays.kext AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext AppleUSBMultitouch.kext AppleUSBTopCase.kext AppleVADriver.bundle AppleXsanFilter.kext ArcMSR.kext ATI1300Controller.kext ATI1600Controller.kext ATI1900Controller.kext ATI2400Controller.kext ATI2600Controller.kext ATI3800Controller.kext ATI4500Controller.kext ATI4600Controller.kext ATI4800Controller.kext ATIFramebuffer.kext ATIRadeonX1000.kext ATIRadeonX1000GA.plugin ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver.bundle ATIRadeonX1000VADriver.bundle ATIRadeonX2000.kext ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle ATIRadeonX2000VADriver.bundle ATISupport.kext ATTOCelerityFC.kext ATTOCelerityFC8.kext ATTOExpressPCI4.kext ATTOExpressSASHBA.kext ATTOExpressSASHBA2.kext ATTOExpressSASRAID.kext AudioAUUC.kext AudioIPCDriver.kext autofs.kext BJUSBLoad.kext BootCache.kext CalDigitHDProDrv.kext cd9660.kext cddafs.kext CellPhoneHelper.kext CHUDKernLib.kext CHUDProf.kext CHUDUtils.kext Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext DRI_iSCSI_Initiator.kext DSACL.ppp DSAuth.ppp DVFamily.bundle EAP-KRB.ppp EAP-RSA.ppp EAP-TLS.ppp EPSONUSBPrintClass.kext GeForce.kext GeForce7xxxGLDriver.bundle GeForceGA.plugin GeForceGLDriver.bundle GeForceVADriver.bundle HighPointIOP.kext HighPointRR.kext hp_designjet_series.kext hp_Deskjet_io_enabler.kext hp_Inkjet_io_enabler.kext hp_Inkjet1_io_enabler.kext hp_Inkjet3_io_enabler.kext hp_Inkjet4_io_enabler.kext hp_Inkjet5_io_enabler.kext hp_Inkjet8_io_enabler.kext hp_io_printerclassdriver_enabler.kext hp_Laserjet_io_enabler.kext hp_Officejet_io_enabler.kext hp_Photosmart_io_enabler.kext hp_PhotosmartPro_io_enabler.kext hp_qc_io_enabler.kext ICAFWKodakProDriver.kext ImmersionForceFeedback.kext IO80211Family.kext IOACPIFamily.kext IOAHCIFamily.kext IOATAFamily.kext IOAudioFamily.kext IOBDStorageFamily.kext IOBluetoothFamily.kext IOBluetoothHIDDriver.kext IOCDStorageFamily.kext IODVDStorageFamily.kext IOFireWireAVC.kext IOFireWireFamily.kext IOFireWireIP.kext IOFireWireSBP2.kext IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext IOGraphicsFamily.kext IOHDIXController.kext IOHIDFamily.kext IONDRVSupport.kext IONetworkingFamily.kext IOPCIFamily.kext IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily.kext IOSCSIParallelFamily.kext IOSerialFamily.kext IOSMBusFamily.kext IOStorageFamily.kext IOStreamFamily.kext IOSurface.kext IOUSBFamily.kext IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext IOVideoFamily.kext iPodDriver.kext iTunesPhoneDriver.kext JMicronATA.kext L2TP.ppp LexmarkUSBMerge.kext LogitechForceFeedback.kext mcxalr.kext msdosfs.kext ntfs.kext NVDANV40Hal.kext NVDANV50Hal.kext NVDAResman.kext NVSMU.kext OSvKernDSPLib.kext PPP.kext PPPoE.ppp PPPSerial.ppp PPTP.ppp Quarantine.kext Radius.ppp Sandbox.kext SLAB_USBtoUART.kext SM56KUSBAudioFamily.kext SMARTLib.plugin smbfs.kext SMCMotionSensor.kext SoftRAID.kext System.kext TMSafetyNet.kext TrustedDataSCSIDriver.kext udf.kext ufs.kext USBOverdrive.kext VaraAudio.kext webcontentfilter.kext webdav_fs.kext
Donate Life
Posted 08 May 2010 at 12:01pm #
Here’s a diff to mine:
- AmbrosiaAudioSupport.kext
- DRI_iSCSI_Initiator.kext
+ EyeTVAfaTechHidBlock.kext
+ EyeTVCinergy450AudioBlock.kext
+ EyeTVCinergyXSAudioBlock.kext
+ EyeTVEmpiaAudioBlock.kext
+ EyeTVVoyagerAudioBlock.kext
- SLAB_USBtoUART.kext
- TrustedDataSCSIDriver.kext
- USBOverdrive.kext
- VaraAudio.kext
Posted 08 May 2010 at 12:30pm #
I think that this is pretty normal. Just for comparison: I have 197 extensions in there.
Posted 08 May 2010 at 8:35pm #
mine
< AmbrosiaAudioSupport.kext
107,109d105
< CHUDKernLib.kext
< CHUDProf.kext
< CHUDUtils.kext
< DRI_iSCSI_Initiator.kext
< SLAB_USBtoUART.kext
< TrustedDataSCSIDriver.kext
< USBOverdrive.kext
sony_prs.kext
Posted 08 May 2010 at 10:23pm #
I have 222.
As to "How in the world do I know if I need to load all of these?"
`kextstat` will tell you what's actually being loaded. (combined with | wc -l to count, for me on a 2008 Air it's 109)
"Can you clean some out? Why would you need or want to?"
I wouldn't - I can't think of a reason to do so, these are kernel extensions which are only loaded as needed, and removing things is just liable to break things.
Posted 09 May 2010 at 4:49am #
Patrick, there is only one reason to remove an extension I can think of: a 3rd party kernel extension that breaks things and freezes the Mac.
I don’t know how the situation after major OS upgrades is. Does the OS move 3rd part kexts into a safe place or does it load and crash on major incompatibilities?
Posted 09 May 2010 at 8:14am #
[quote comment="61882"]`kextstat` will tell you what's actually being loaded. (combined with | wc -l to count, for me on a 2008 Air it's 109)[/quote]
Ah, 146 here.
[quote comment="61882"]I wouldn't - I can't think of a reason to do so, these are kernel extensions which are only loaded as needed, and removing things is just liable to break things.[/quote]
Mostly what Ralph said, but also because I don't want to keep things around that may cause problems eventually, and I'm a big fan of being tidy in general.
Though I've since learned to give up on my ~/Library/Preferences directory... eek. I don't dare look in there or I'll probably end up wasting four hours.
Posted 11 May 2010 at 8:48am #
I have 214 in my /System/Library/Extensions too. I have 6 in /Library/Extensions.
Posted 11 May 2010 at 6:00pm #
I also have 214:
obsidian:~ tim$ ls /System/Library/Extensions/ | wc -l
214
Here are the differences:
obsidian:~ tim$ ls /System/Library/Extensions/ | diff /tmp/erik.sorted -65a66
> AppleInternal
112d112
FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext
162a164
> KLog.kext
177d178
< SLAB_USBtoUART.kext
185,187d185
< TrustedDataSCSIDriver.kext
< USBOverdrive.kext
release-osx-10.3.x.kext
214a214
> zfs.kext
"AppleInternal" is an empty directory with a 2007 timestamp. Perhaps it came from some developer seed of Mac OS X?
that "release-osx" thing appears to be a PL2303 driver
Posted 11 May 2010 at 6:01pm #
grr, I didn't turn my angle brackets into HTML entities, so the comment system mangled it..
obsidian:~ tim$ ls /System/Library/Extensions/ | diff /tmp/erik.sorted -65a66
> AppleInternal
112d112
< DRI_iSCSI_Initiator.kext
120a121
> FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext
162a164
> KLog.kext
177d178
< SLAB_USBtoUART.kext
185,187d185
< TrustedDataSCSIDriver.kext
< USBOverdrive.kext
< VaraAudio.kext
209a208
> release-osx-10.3.x.kext
214a214
> zfs.kext
Posted 15 May 2010 at 11:16pm #
Mine has 211 entries.
Posted 03 Feb 2011 at 4:53am #
I wouldn’t try to twaddle with this unless you absolutely know what you are doing. I’ve sent both Windows and Macs to their graves by twiddling with system files that I thought I don’t need. The guy at Apple told me simply to “clear my cache”...