How to locate unused drivers (kext files) on the mac which I see exist using kextstat command

crashdriverkernel-panic

I've been receiving crazy kernel panics for years, and I've resolved to get rid of them once and for all.

I was recommended to remove all the 3rd party drivers that appear in the reports as they could easily be the culprits for the panic – one of those was the remote controller app by iospirit. I reoved the app as recommended by the devs, but I still see the drivers in the report, even though they're not supposed to exist any more on my machine!

This is what I see using textstat for the iospirit leftovers which I have not been able to locate:

kextstat | grep iospirit
  103    0 0xffffff7f8100d000 0x2000     0x2000     com.iospirit.CandelairIRBaseDriver (1) C2DBE90A-C38C-3012-8CEB-DF98F742553F 
  164    1 0xffffff7f81010000 0x2c000    0x2c000    com.iospirit.driver.rbiokithelper (1.33) 6A3D7305-1A0D-38C4-A832-D84B69F0C492 
  178    0 0xffffff7f83886000 0x2000     0x2000     com.iospirit.driver.AppleIRController (4001) DAF6B9AF-DF84-3081-9426-3B4FEDD14D09 

Any idea how I can find those iospirit driver guys?

Performing a simple search for iospirit on "This Mac" finds nothing 🙁

Thank you!

Best Answer

You can search for the bundle id with kextfind.

kextfind -case-insensitive -bundle-id -substring 'com.iospirit.' -print

The above should print a list of the kernel extensions (kexts) you've mentioned, including their paths.

Usually kexts are found in...
/System/Library/Extensions/
/Library/Extensions/
...or within Application packages and /Library/Application Support/.

There is also StagedExtensions, since the introduction of "User-Approved Kernel Extension Loading", where they can also be found in e.g.
/Library/StagedExtensions/Library/Extensions/

StackOverflow has a relevant question and answers about "StagedExtensions", including removal here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46535279/what-is-library-stagedextensions-for-and-how-to-remove-extensions

For more information on user-approved extension loading and their locations (mentioned above) see also this archived Tech Note from Apple about "User-Approved Kernel Extension Loading"