How to disable or remove legacy system extensions?

[madihavu]

I can't believe in this rabbit hole now but I'm almost shaking at this point.

I tried installing VirtualBox on my work Mac to try out Rocky Linux to simulate a RHEL server for local testing, but all the pop-ups I've seen from Monterey, even based on recommendations, are terrifying me, and I just want to revert what I've done.

So VirtualBox, to run Rocky Linux, apparently needs Oracle's "legacy system extension" to work right, which I tried to enable, and apparently did, but it needs a restart, and I'm just not understanding all of the warning pop-ups I'm getting from the Mac.

I'm sort of a newb with this on Mac, so I just wanna rewind it. However, I'm not seeing how.

The option to add the extension changed to telling me to restart, but there's no option to remove it. I've uninstalled VirtualBox using its uninstall tool (which gave me an "unidentified developer" warning, which I figured out how to override, but I have no idea what it actually did beyond apparently uninstalling VirtualBox.

Maybe the warnings are just scaring me for no good reason, but if Apple's giving me all of these warnings, and I'm not experienced with this, I can't tell what I should/shouldn't be doing.

Can someone tell me how to rewind this installation of the "legacy system extension"?

I went into the Settings > Extensions section, and there's only something there about Parellels (which my boss installed last year), not about Oracle or VirtualBox.

 

[TonyAguila]

I can't believe in this rabbit hole now but I'm almost shaking at this point.

I tried installing VirtualBox on my work Mac to try out Rocky Linux to simulate a RHEL server for local testing, but all the pop-ups I've seen from Monterey, even based on recommendations, are terrifying me, and I just want to revert what I've done.

So VirtualBox, to run Rocky Linux, apparently needs Oracle's "legacy system extension" to work right, which I tried to enable, and apparently did, but it needs a restart, and I'm just not understanding all of the warning pop-ups I'm getting from the Mac.

I'm sort of a newb with this on Mac, so I just wanna rewind it. However, I'm not seeing how.

View attachment 4344
The option to add the extension changed to telling me to restart, but there's no option to remove it. I've uninstalled VirtualBox using its uninstall tool (which gave me an "unidentified developer" warning, which I figured out how to override, but I have no idea what it actually did beyond apparently uninstalling VirtualBox.

Maybe the warnings are just scaring me for no good reason, but if Apple's giving me all of these warnings, and I'm not experienced with this, I can't tell what I should/shouldn't be doing.

Can someone tell me how to rewind this installation of the "legacy system extension"?

I went into the Settings > Extensions section, and there's only something there about Parellels (which my boss installed last year), not about Oracle or VirtualBox.

Please provide us with your Mac’s model identifier. Go to  -> About This Mac and click on System Report…

The next window will open with Hardware Overview. Copy the information on the second entry, Model Identifier. This will make it easier to identify your system without you bothering to look up the information elsewhere.

Is the VirtualBox app still on your Mac (in Applications, probably), or did the uninstaller remove it altogether? I ask because you need to purge it from your system using a utility like AppCleaner. To rid your system of the app and other related files (extensions, settings, libraries, etc.) you just drag the main app to AppCleaner and it will locate all these files and ask if you want to remove them. That’s it.

AppCleaner is freeware, and it is presently my go-to utility for removing unwanted apps. If you don’t have it, you can go to,

FreeMacSoft

Then select AppCleaner and click DOWNLOAD.

If the VirtualBox app is no longer on your Mac, you may have to reinstall it in order to run AppCleaner on it. If it’s simply in the Trash, you should be able to move it back into your Applications folder.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, you could try rebooting into Safe Mode first and rerun the VirtualBox uninstaller. It might just work. In Safe Mode, system extensions are not loaded, so if the uninstall failure was because of one or more VirtualBox extension running in the background, the Safe Mode approach should now allow the removal of those extensions.

 

[madihavu]

model identifier

MacBookPro16,1

Is the VirtualBox app still on your Mac

I don't know how to answer this question anymore with Mac Since using Mac several years ago, I've heard that uninstalling an app is just deleting it from the Applications folder... but that hasn't been true in all cases. Some apps still have things installed or running in the background, some of which has to have an uninstall app run to remove them, some has to be done manually... and then there's two different Applications folder, one for the Mac (I guess?) and another for the user (am I even stating this correctly?). It's honestly more confusing than Windows.

Case in point: I thought I deleted everything VirtualBox, but now I notice there's an app in Macintosh HD > Applications named VirtualBox.pkg. I thought this was just an install file. It has an icon like a cardboard box with gel cube coming out of it. Do I just delete this? Is this an indication that I need to hunt around for more files to just get rid of VirtualBox? I know Oracle installs a bunch of networking drivers or something, and a bunch of other weird stuff I don't understand, but I haven't had issues installing or uninstalling VirtualBox on Windows.

a utility like AppCleaner

See, here's an ironic problem with this... having to install an app to get rid of an app. How do I know what crap this app's gonna install? Am I gonna have to install another app to actually uninstall this app? Am I going to get a crapton of warnings from macOS about installing or running AppCleaner? Like... why is it so hard to uninstall apps on Mac?! This should be easy, right? I'd think so especially with how "secure" Mac is supposed to be.

you may have to reinstall it in order to run AppCleaner on it

Oh brother... really, Mac should be more robust than this. There should be a button or a checkbox to uninstall the app completely. This shouldn't be left up to user manual file handling or 3rd-party apps. I'm feeling like this is a security issue at this point.

Anyway, I'll have to do more research. It seems like an endless quest just to do some simple things on a Mac at this point.