Kernel panics and kexts are related?Solved

Happy to help,

Kernel panics often occurred in our Beta testing environment for macOS Big Sur. However, a specific KEXT loaded by an application and its incompatibility with Big Sur caused the device to misbehave.

Verify if your software is running a Kernel Extension and check its compatibility statement with Big Sur.

Kindly reach out to the Hexnode Community for further queries.

Catherine George
Hexnode UEM

Removing the kext solved the issue.

Hello @yfke,

Welcome to Hexnode Connect,

Kernel Extensions policies are still supported on Mac. However, unlike its previous versions, macOS Big Sur requires these KEXTs to have additional configuration settings to continue working. For example, whether you enable the User Override option on the policy, the user should approve it and restart the device to load it successfully.

Big Sur does not automatically convert Kernel Extensions to System Extensions. So, if your applications or software load a Kernel Extension for its functioning, they should probably be supporting System Extensions too by now. In that case, you may approve them using the System Extensions policy. Otherwise, for loading a Kernel Extension, the user should approve it and restart the device. This is how it works on macOS Big Sur.

Hope I was able to throw some insights into your question,.

Catherine George
Hexnode UEM

Is there anything with kernel extensions and macOS Big Sur?
I have some kernel extension approved via policies. Its perfect with Catalina. On big sur it prompts the user to allow the kernel extensions to be installed following reboot.
Should I replace kernel extensions policy with system extensions to approve these KEXTs? I understand system extensions and replacing kernel extensions on big sur.

What has Kexts got to do with a restart?

I decipher from Apple support https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/deployment/depa5fb8376f/web that third-party kernel extensions require user approval and device restart before it can load.
It loads the changes to the kernel.

Posting a doubt,
Should the user approve already approved kernel extensions? I mean the onces that were once approved before upgrade to Big sur.

Yes. That’s how it is done on Big sur.

Here’s this big issue with KEXT.
Im getting kernel panics but this time due to kexts that are already deleted.

macOS Big Sur seems to have too many issues with kexts. We had undergone this phase. And I understand we are not just the ones to have suffered.
I recommend you follow these steps. That’s hhow we recovered the device.

• Disable SIP in recovery mode.
• Reboot the device.
• On the terminal, run:
  sudo kextunload.
  sudo rm -rf extensions
  sudo kmutil clear-staging
• Reboot the device.
• Enable SIP.