Big Sur Beta 5 Constant Kernel Panics

What sqrabs suggested worked for me with one change: I had to run step 4 a couple of times, each time rebooting back into safe mode, until "systemextensionsctl list" showed that thing finally gone. Then rebooted to normal mode. All awesome now. Thanks, sqrabs!

I too, have this train wreck after upgrading to latest Beta early yesterday morning. I have had only minor issues with the previous revs. With this rev, I am experiencing kernal panics every time about 20 sec after booting finishes, and I log into my account. I try to hit the error log send to Apple button before each crash.

The error logs points every time to “endpointsecurityd”. So, net net, I am able to replicate this ridiculous issue.

I don't even have to log into account to have the reboots happen. About 20 seconds after boot up is completed and account log in screen is presented POOF! reboot. I guess the good news is that it faithfully reboots and gets to log in screen, then repeats itself... but I digress...

Interestingly, my Bootcamp with Windows 10 boots very quickly and without issue.

I also tried to disable Norton suite just for fun, but their techies said one can only launch it to disable things in normal mode. Which of course is currently impossible. So, they recommended trying to drag to trash in Safe mode. But, this has not solved the issue.

I also tried the terminal commands that sqrabs posted, (but terminal wouldn't recognize the initial commands in recovery mode). But since it seems to work for others, I will give it another try.

I also tried install via recovery mode. It didn't help.

So, I guess we just wait for something from Apple to fix this.

I cannot believe that Apple actually tested this before sending it out. AND with all of us sending in our reports and reporting through feedback assistant, has anyone heard anything from Apple? Acknowledgement? works arounds, patch, anything?

I have been an Apple die hard since 1984. I have never, ever had a debacle like this one. I have never feared installing betas on my main MAC before, and have not had any major issues, but I got seriously bit this time for sure...

Update:

I tried the systemextensionsctl uninstall 9PTGMPNXZ2 com.symantec.mes.systemextension routine mentioned below and it says the extension is gone. But like was pointed out below, it also took me about 4 times before it removed the extension...

But rebooting into Normal yields same result: reboot, crash, reboot, repeat.

Downloaded and ran the Mac removal tool twice (RemoveNortonMacfiles) from Norton/Symantec website

But rebooting into Normal yields same result: reboot, crash, reboot, repeat.

error log: panic
Process name endpointsecurityd

Thank everyone for the process and tips below. If anyone has any other ideas, please let us know.

Good luck folks.

Have a MBP Pro 16
Followed the instructions. The extension was gone.
Rebooted but the panic error re-occurred.
Rebooted to safe mode.
Ran Cleanmymac to remove system junk then trash bins.
Rebooted and now it works flawlessly.
Did have to run the utility to delete Norton files again - some stragglers were not deleted the first time but this had no effect on the machine working.
Hope this helps others.

@RM9981 thanks fir the fix worked perfectly especially when I followed the instructions in the Norton uninstall scrip

iMac 2017. Tried to reinstall the OS by internet (macOS High Sierra was suggested!) but the system goes always to the recovery page, safe mode does not work anymore. Never had any Symantec software on the computer.

I went in last night and erased the HD an installed Catalina. Maybe when this is resolved I'll try Big Sur again.

Nothing worked for me, finally gave up and did a clean instal of Catalina, what a waste of a weekend. Bravo! Apple

I have uninstalled Symantec but the crash continued.

At last, I wrote a script to auto check and kill 'endpointsecurityd' process, it worked as a temp solution:

Code Block bash
#!/usr/bin/env bash
function kill_endpoint_security {
  local endpoint_security_process=`ps -ef | grep 'endpointsecurityd' | grep -v 'grep'`
  if [[ "$endpoint_security_process" != "" ]]; then
    local endpoint_security_pid=`echo $endpoint_security_process | cut -d " " -f 2`
    if [[ "$endpoint_security_pid" != "" ]]; then
      kill -9 $endpoint_security_pid
      echo "kill endpointsecurityd pid: ${endpoint_security_pid}, result: $?"
    fi
  fi
}
while true; do
  kill_endpoint_security
  sleep 1
done

(may in the safe mode)save the script and add execute permission to it (chmod +x <filename>), then run sudo ./endpoint_security_killer.sh after the system boot as soon as you can.

Thanks  RM9981,

My problem was the same, I followed the exact steps of you and it's been resolved.

i did everything successfully. Extension is gone. Removed files. Reboots persist.

• -How can I get past security warning “unknown developer” to run removenortonmacfiles? Thanks.

Once it tells you that you cannot run it due to it being from an unknown developer (Semantec is unknown??), go to System Preferences/Security & Privacy/General. Click on the lock icon in the bottom left hand corner and login. There should be an allow button to let the script run.

I tried everything I found posted and nothing worked but:

Here is what seems to have finally worked for me. I erased my hard drive using recovery. I was able to connect through wifi and boot from my laptop, then used the migrate tool to move my data over. I uninstalled Norton 360 since so many think that was the problem. I restarted afterwards and everything was fine. I changed my option to update automatically to manual updating. I haven't done a complete shut down yet but hoping all will go well.

Looks like the culprit on my end was Norton Symantec. After following the steps and removing it, no more crash and reboots after login.

I'm on macOS Big Sur Version 11.0 Beta (20A5354i), 13 inch MBP 2017.

Same problem, i follow the 12 step from "RM9981", and everything OK!

Has Symantec Endpoint Protection been installed on your Mac? Sorry asked and answered.

@RM9981 thanks. I has made an attempt to remove Symantec.
systemextensionsctl uninstall 9PTGMPNXZ2 com.symantec.mes.systemextension was taking a lot os time to complete.

however systemextensionsctl reset helped. I did not have any other extensions

For those who still can't get their Mac to work after following the 12 step process by RM9981 try the following that worked for me:

Check Security & Privacy under System Preferences and go in the Privacy Tab. Make sure there are no more Symantec or Norton files with access in the "Full Disk Access" and "Files and Folders" sections. I still had two processes hiding there even after running the cleaning programs and removing system extensions.

Also, as bbaale suggested, run the command systemextensionsctl reset even if there are 0 extensions left.

For those of you who can't access Safe Mode and your Mac keeps rebooting into Recovery Mode, try clearing PRAM by pressing the power button and then press command-option-p-r. This should lead you to the login screen instead of Recovery Mode and from here you can restart your machine into Safe Mode and follow the steps to remove Symantec files and extensions.

Hope this helps!

This is what worked for me. I too was having the kernel panic issue but I was able to get around it. I did a clean install of Catalina. Once Catalina was installed, I then installed the Big Sur Public beta profile and installed Big Sur Public Beta. Once that installed and everything worked fine, I installed the Big Sur Developer Beta and installed that. It installed Beta 5 and the boot issues were gone. It is working perfectly.

RM9981 this whole sequence worked for me. MBP 2017 13

RM9981,12 steps
As bbaale : systemextensionsctl uninstall 9PTGMPNXZ2 com.symantec.mes.systemextension was taking a long time and I control c out of it. And 'systemextensionsctl list' show 0 but still panic. The 'systemextensionsct reset' is the magic for me.

For anyone who also want to sleep better, 'csrutil enable' in recovery mode and everything still works.
Seems Norton Security is the deep state.

Update: After a lost weekend in hell with this, I had come to terms with starting over with Catalina if there was no patch this morning. But then I saw bbaale's comment about the reset (systemextensionsctl reset). Last ditch effort to try this.... And it worked!!! I have rebooted it multiple times, and left it running for the last few hours & no crash and reboot.

So, the processes offered below did not work for me until the addition of the reset command.

Thanks community for all of your ideas. Special thanks to bbaale,RM9981, Bullwyf, & Sqrabs.

Cheers!

Update: The "12 steps" didn't work for me, but just did the "reset" and it WORKED! (i did also check permissions just before that and found norton was still in there for full disk access, which i removed. But maybe the reset would have undone that also.)

One weekend with no sleep and then the 12 steps and reset - great - everything is fine again thank you guys.

For those of you who can't access Safe Mode and your Mac keeps rebooting into Recovery Mode, try clearing PRAM by pressing the power button and then press command-option-p-r. This should lead you to the login screen instead of Recovery Mode

🙏 Only this helped me to take control of the computer. Then needed to erase previous system volume (it was unrecoverably damaged) and install Catalina. No more interest for playing with any beta versions.