MacOS – How to get rid of this Symantec-related error message in console

consoleerrormacos

I was forced by my company to un-install Synamtec Antivirus on a machine running OS X 10.6.8. Unfortunately, the person who uninstalled Symantec didn't know how to thoroughly get rid of the program. As a result, this error message pops up in the console about every 10 seconds:

4/8/14 6:09:30 PM   com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[351]  (com.nds.pcshow) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
4/8/14 6:09:40 PM   com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[351]  (com.symantec.quickmenu.application[554]) posix_spawn("/Library/Application Support/Symantec/SymQuickMenu/SymQuickMenu.app/Contents/MacOS/SymQuickMenu", ...): No such file or directory
4/8/14 6:09:40 PM   com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[351]  (com.symantec.quickmenu.application[554]) Exited with exit code: 1
4/8/14 6:09:40 PM   com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[351]  (com.symantec.quickmenu.application) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
4/8/14 6:09:40 PM   com.nds.pcshow[555] sh: /Users/dcjones3/Library/NDSPCShowServer/NDSPCShowServer.bundle/Contents/Resources/launch.sh: No such file or directory
4/8/14 6:09:40 PM   com.apple.launchd.peruser.503[351]  (com.nds.pcshow[555]) Exited with exit code: 127

What can I do to get rid of these error messages?

Best Answer

Symantec provides a utility for uninstall

Removing all Norton programs for Mac by using the RemoveSymantecMacFiles removal utility

Alternative Uninstall Methods

A bom file is a "B ill O f M aterials" receipt that includes a list of every file installed and the install locations. If your software was installed using an installer, chances are good that a bom receipt was also installed.

You should be able to find Symantec's bom file by opening /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app, and typing the command

  ls /private/var/db/receipts/ |more

and looking for a file with a name that includes "symantec," something like "com.norton.symantec.bom" or try this command instead

 ls /private/var/db/receipts/ |grep symantec

You can view the file, and get the list and locations of all files installed with the Symantec installer with the lsbom command like so (once you have the correct name of the bom file -- I am just guessing):

 lsbom /private/var/db/receipts/com.norton.symantec.bom

And you can then remove the files listed there by location manually one by one.

another way to uninstall

You are welcome to use my uninstaller script. The script will place all files installed into the user's Trash. Once you have installed the script's dependencies, xcode, macports, and rmtrash, you can use the script by copying it into a text file and saving it as "installer" somewhere in your $PATH, such as /usr/local/bin/ , and applying the command

 chmod +x /usr/local/bin/installer

Here is the uninstaller script:

 #!/bin/bash
 #uninstaller /private/var/db/receipts/com.url.name.of.app.bom
 #uninstall os x application installed with installer -pkg
 #using (user) provided bom receipt
 #place all installed files and directories in user's Trash

 lsbom="/usr/bin/lsbom"
 cd="/usr/bin/cd"
 sudo="/usr/bin/sudo"
 xargs="/usr/bin/xargs"
 rmtrash="/opt/local/bin/rmtrash"

 lsbom -fls "$1" | (cd /; sudo xargs rmtrash -u $USER)
 exit

Installing MacPorts and rmtrash is simple enough once xcode (for Mavericks 10.9 xcode_5.1.1.dmg) is installed. Install xcode, and then enter these commands in Terminal.app :

 curl -Ok https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.2.1.tar.bz2
 tar xf MacPorts-2.2.1.tar.bz2
 cd MacPorts-2.2.1
 ./configure
 make
 sudo make install #not war!
 cd ..
 rm -rf Macports-*
 sudo /opt/local/bin/port -v selfupdate
 export PATH=$HOME/macports/bin:$HOME/macports/sbin:$PATH
 export MANPATH=$HOME/macports/share/man:$MANPATH
 sudo port -vsc install rmtrash
 diskutil quiet repairPermissions /

MacPorts is worth getting to know as it is a mature package manager for OS X that maintains thousands of open source software commands, utilities, and applications, such as ClamAV for example, the finest antivirus software ever developed for *nix-based operating systems like Mac OS X. Apple even includes ClamAV with the Server versions of Mac OS X.

 port install -vsc clamav

Originally developed for scanning email for mail servers, it is unmatched antivirus. ClamAV has a pdf user manual.

Related Solutions

Causing an error with getpwuid in Console, and how can I fix it

This question from superuser sounds just like the one that your asking.

https://superuser.com/questions/194094/how-do-i-get-rid-of-com-apple-launchd-peruser-errors-in-my-log

The error that the person gets in that question is just about the same as the one as you are asking except that his UID is 501 where yours is 32752.

The answer i believe that might solve your problem is provided by the user JasKerr:

I can answer your last question, but it will take more work to solve the problem.

The peruser indicates a launchd daemon started by a userland process. The numeric suffix is the UID. In this case, an application attempted load a launchd job as user 501. That failed, since there appears to be no user 501 on your system.

Have you installed software recently? User management utilities changed in Leopard, so an installer intended for an older version (Tiger?) may not work properly in 10.5.6.

Start by taking a look at ~/Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LauchAgents, and /Library/LaunchDaemons. There may be a job that's UID 501.

If not, you could do a (brute-force) search for an application/file owned by 501:
    sudo find /Applications -user 501 | less
If anything turns up, that will point to the culprit.

MacOS – How to get rid of this context menu option

From: http://www.reggieashworth.com/appdelete

AppDelete keeps a .workflow file to provide a contextual menu item for convenience. If ever removal is required simply delete it from your /Library/Services folder. Or on Leopard your /Library/Workflows/Applications/Finder folder.

It appears you should be able to remove that menu item by deleting an item from one of the afore mentioned folders depending on which OS you have installed.