MP 1,1-5,1 How do I delete an app (LuLu) that has bricked my MacPro??

[greg97]

I've had the Lulu app on my system (the one in my bio) for quite some time but never really needed it until lately. I installed it, set my 'allowed/blocked' rules, and it seemed to work fine for a couple days. When I went to reboot my MP though, it came back up (after entering my password) with the Lulu rules screen and a movable mouse, but otherwise nothing was accessible on my desktop... no matter how many times I rebooted, my MP was bricked. I was able to find one forum on Github where other users of certain versions of this app (I'm not sure which one I have) have also caused their systems to be bricked:
https://github.com/objective-see/LuLu/issues/113.
I posted there but no one has replied, which is why I'm trying on here. There were several solutions on there about going into Recovery mode and using Terminal commands to delete Lulu. I tried these but none of them worked. I'm no expert in Terminal commands and I believe I was entering the name of my HD correctly into those commands, but perhaps I was making a mistake (even though it came back with no errors). The name of my HD is ' MacPro NVMe '. Perhaps an expert in these commands could take a quick look at the thread and come back with some written out commands that i could try that incorporated the name of my HD so that I knew I was doing it the right way?
Btw, as a secondary solution (and subsequent problem), since I don't have another drive to boot from (which would allow me to delete the app from the original drive), I attempted to create a bootable Mojave drive on a USB to boot from (NOT an installer boot drive which I already have and used to get into Recovery mode!). The only problem is that when I was in Recovery mode and used 'Install MacOS' and installed Mojave onto another USB, as part of the process it rebooted the system afterwards, but unfortunately it rebooted back into the bricked drive. So I went into Disk Utility to check and it said that the Mojave USB was created, however when I go into Startup Disk, the only disks that appear are my 'Install USB' and 'MacPro NVMe'. So why would this method of creating a USB boot drive not work???
There has got to be a simple solution to delete this obviously unstable version of Lulu that has rendered my MP useless. What am I missing? I am desperate to get my MP back! Please help! Thanks!!!

 

[h9826790]

safe mode?

 

[greg97]

safe mode?

I tried safe mode, but when the desktop finally comes up it’s the same, nothing is accessible, minus the fact that the Lulu rules window is now gone.

 

[h9826790]

Do you have any spare hard disk? Hard drive works much better than USB drive if you want to install an OS onto it.

There are few possible ways to fix that, but in your case, may be just install a clean OS onto a spare hard drive is the easiest.

 

[BrianBaughn]

To get to your drive the name of it would be entered in a Terminal command as:

MacPro\ NVMe

A backward slash before space.

 

[greg97]

To get to your drive the name of it would be entered in a Terminal command as:

MacPro\ NVMe

A backward slash before space.

One of the commands in the thread would be then:

rm "/Volumes/MacPro\ NVMe/var/db/auth.db"

Another set I tried was:

1). cd /Volumes/MacPro\ NVMe/Library/Extensions/
2). rm -r LuLu.kext

Unfortunately neither of these commands worked???

 

[greg97]

Do you have any spare hard disk? Hard drive works much better than USB drive if you want to install an OS onto it.

There are few possible ways to fix that, but in your case, may be just install a clean OS onto a spare hard drive is the easiest.

I do have an old drive that hopefully will cooperate on which I can install Mojave…
Two questions, this old drive has an older version of Mac OS on it…if I didn’t want to delete all the old files on it, would I be able to partition this drive into, for instance, a 100gb section and put Mojave on there and then boot from that section?
Also, why wouldn’t the USB method work?
It seemed to install it fine on there, but afterwards it wasn’t being recognized as a startup disk?

 

[BrianBaughn]

One of the commands in the thread would be then:

rm "/Volumes/MacPro\ NVMe/var/db/auth.db"

Another set I tried was:

1). cd /Volumes/MacPro\ NVMe/Library/Extensions/
2). rm -r LuLu.kext

Unfortunately neither of these commands worked???

When you cd into Extensions try the "ls" command to see if the kext is even in there. "ls" shows a list of what's in the directory.

cd /Volumes/MacPro\ NVMe/Library/Extensions/
ls

 

[greg97]

Now that I know how to properly write my HD name in Terminal I re-entered some of the commands that I found on the Github forum. First I tried rm /Volumes/MacPro\ NVMe/var/db/auth.db and rebooted but that didn't work. Then I tried another suggestion on how to do a search for the LuLu.kext by first typing
'cd /Volumes/MacPro\ NVMe' , then typing in 'find ./ -name LuLu.kext' (which should do a search of the whole drive, correct?). After taking a good few minutes of searching, it came back as nothing (it just went to the next command line). So apparently Lulu.kext doesn't exist on my system anymore, yet when I reboot it continues to open up Lulu at login with the Rules screen on the desktop!? Is there any other file that I could search for or a way to search for any file that contains the name 'lulu' to get rid of this thing? Thanks!

 

[greg97]

BTW, I also just tried 'rm "/Volumes/MacPro\ NVMe/Applications/LuLu.app" ' and it came back with 'No such file or directory'. So again it's trying to tell me that the app doesn't exist on my system, but why then does it keep logging into it and locking my system every time I do a reboot?? This is SO frustrating!!

Update: I did a 'cd' into my Applications folder and then did an 'ls' ....it came back with a list of all my app and the LuLu.app was listed!?!?!? So why didn't the command above work? Is the syntax correct??

 

[BrianBaughn]

"rm" is for files and applications are directories. "rmdir" is for directories.

Terminal isn't something to mess around with. I'd pursue the external HD option. You should be able to add a partition to that old drive if the space is there.

I was thinking that you might be able to create a new user account on the internal drive but LuLu could likely muck that up, also. But if you want to give that a shot:

Single user mode - LogiWiki

We have Apple MacBook and iPhone Diode readings and general fault finding information compiled by the leaders in this area

logi.wiki

 

[greg97]

Okay so I ran the command ' rm -rf "/Volumes/MacPro NVMe/Applications/LuLu.app" ' and I think I achieved a partial success. I ran 'ls' on my Applications folder afterwards, and the LuLu.app had disappeared! So I rebooted and the Lulu rules box was no longer on my desktop! HOWEVER, my MP was still bricked because I still had no functionality other than being able to move my mouse around. This thing is driving me insane! Is there anything else command-wise that I could try? There must some hidden files that still need to be deleted?
Therefore I'm going back to plan B - to create a bootable Mojave disk. I have an old external drive that I've partitioned off (64gb) and I'm loading Mojave onto it so that I can hopefully boot into it and have access to my internal drive. However, since I've now deleted the lulu.app, how would I go about trying to find any hidden files or last remnants of the app that are obviously still causing problems? Thanks!

 

[greg97]

.

 

[greg97]

Terminal isn't something to mess around with. I'd pursue the external HD option. You should be able to add a partition to that old drive if the space is there.

Do you have any spare hard disk? Hard drive works much better than USB drive if you want to install an OS onto it.

There are few possible ways to fix that, but in your case, may be just install a clean OS onto a spare hard drive is the easiest.

When trying to install Mojave on the partition I created on the external drive, it did exactly the same thing as before when I tried to do it on the USB - when it reboots after doing the 10 min install it just goes right back into Recovery Mode?? I do a Startup Disk to see if it's there but it's not. However when I do Disk Utility it does show up?? It's like it isn't finalizing the Mojave installation somehow, since as I recall from doing installs before, when it reboots it's supposed to go into a welcome screen and a few more screens of setup before going to the desktop. What do I need to do to get the Mojave install to work?? Thanks!

 

[h9826790]

When trying to install Mojave on the partition I created on the external drive, it did exactly the same thing as before when I tried to do it on the USB - when it reboots after doing the 10 min install it just goes right back into Recovery Mode?? I do a Startup Disk to see if it's there but it's not. However when I do Disk Utility it does show up?? It's like it isn't finalizing the Mojave installation somehow, since as I recall from doing installs before, when it reboots it's supposed to go into a welcome screen and a few more screens of setup before going to the desktop. What do I need to do to get the Mojave install to work?? Thanks!

Just want to confirm if you perform a deep NVRAM reset yet?

 

[greg97]

Just want to confirm if you perform a deep NVRAM reset yet?

If by “deep” you mean letting it chime three times before letting go (cmd-alt-P-R), then yes. However now, although the Lulu rules box is gone and I have no functionality, all the folders on my desktop have disappeared….it’s one thing after another!

 

[greg97]

Update: Just to let everyone following know, I ended up having to wipe the drive and migrate everything back with Time Machine. So far everything looks good. Thanks again for all of your assistance!!