DEPNotify Set-up Helper broke my Mac

[AVmcclint]

We are not using DEPNotifyer at this time but I thought it would be a good idea to try and learn what I could about it. It looks neat. I found DEPNotify Set-up Helper and thought that was a neat way to configure it but I did NOT install DEPNotifyer and I don't remember setting anything in DEPNotify Set-up Helper, however, after I restarted my Mac, it is stuck in a DEPNotify screen and I cannot get out of it. I let it sit for a couple hours and it never lets me in. I can't force quit it either.  I booted up into recovery mode but I can't find any LaunchDaemons or LaunchAgents that might control where this launches.  Can anyone tell me how to kill this and stop it from taking over my Mac?

[mainelysteve]

Have you tried Command + Control + x? It may depend on that being enabled, but that's the default method to quit a depnotify instance. Additionally Depnotify needs to be called either manually in terminal or via launchagent so one must exist somewhere. Have you looked in the users Library folder i.e. ~/Library/LaunchAgents? You can also boot into Recovery mode and rename or remove the execution flag on the depnotify.app bundle.

[AVmcclint]

I didn't know about Command+Control+X. That worked to give control back to me!  I have searched everywhere on the hard drive and can't find any copy of it anywhere.  Neither Spotlight nor the locate command find anything other than the setup helper app that says DEPNotify

[mainelysteve]

I have witnessed that occur if the "done" bom file in /var/tmp is never created. That could be from a script that allows it to run in a test mode or the lack of a complete task.

[AVmcclint]

I deleted the DEPNotify Set-up Helper app and restarted but it still keeps bringing up the DEPNotify screen! I can't find the app anywhere. regardless of if there's a "done" file, the executable has to be somewhere on the computer but short of erasing and reinstalling the whole OS from scratch, I can't find a permanent solution to this. :( Is there some super secret location or file name or process I should be looking for?

[AVmcclint]

Interesting... I looked in /var/tmp/ and found a depnotify.log file that had no data in it. The owner of the file is _securityagent.  Why could the locate command not find that there?  I added "Command: Quit: The process is now complete." I also created 3 .done files (agreement, provisioning, and registration) and rebooted. I among able to login without doing command-control-X but there is something that flashes very briefly before proceeding to login.  SOMETHING on the drive is still trying to call DEPNotify (that still doesn't exist on this drive anywhere!).  The DEPNotify documentation doesn't really say where the app installs, but I've looked in /Apps, ~/Apps, /Apps/Utils/  and every other place I can think of.

[mainelysteve]

The setup helper app is separate from the actual depnotify binary so it could be anywhere. Did you try the reset script linked on the Setup Helper's Github page?

[AVmcclint]

I ran that script but it makes it happen all over again.