Remove Promise kext on macOS Monterrey with FileVault 2 on M1 iMac

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  • Last Post 28 January 2022
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Jim Kelley posted this 27 January 2022

I previously had a Promise Pegasus2 R6 but a few months after upgrading to an M1 iMac I donated the Pegasus2 to charity.  I thought I had uninstalled everything properly but I found there is still /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext 

I've tried removing it by booting to Recovery and in terminal running csrutil disable, rebooting and removing the kext but I get the following:

 

% sudo rm -rdf /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext

Password:

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeResources: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents/MacOS/PromiseSTEX: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents/MacOS: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents/Resources/PROMISE.icns: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents/Resources: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents/Info.plist: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents/version.plist: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext/Contents: Operation not permitted

rm: /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext: Operation not permitted

 

or

 

% sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil unload -p /System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext

Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=3 "Error occurred unloading extensions: Missing extension with identifier com.promise.driver.stex : Could not find: Extension with identifier 'com.promise.driver.stex' not found" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Error occurred unloading extensions: Missing extension with identifier com.promise.driver.stex : Could not find: Extension with identifier 'com.promise.driver.stex' not found}

 

System Informations shows it's not loading, but for sake of a clean system I would like to remove it.  Does anyone have suggestions on how to do so?

 

thank you!

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R P posted this 27 January 2022

Hi Jim,

The  macOS /System folder is a managed by the OS and protected. This is where the drivers included with macOS are stored and you won't be able to delete anything there. Third party drivers are stored in the /Library/Extensions folder. You can delete everything in the /Library/Extensions folder.

If I recall correctly, that STEX driver in /System/Library/Extensions is actually the x86_64 driver and there is no possibility that it can be loaded, so I would not worry about it.

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  • Jim Kelley
Jim Kelley posted this 28 January 2022

oh ok, that's good to know.  Thank you for the clarification, definitely puts my mind at ease. 

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