Remove Intel brew on macOS Monterey (macOS 12)

[louy2]

On Macbook Pro 2020 with Apple M1, I have a copy of Intel homebrew migrated from my old Macbook, so I followed the official instruction at the time to install a separate copy of M1 homebrew, and alias the Intel copy to ibrew.

I updated to macOS Monterey last week, and today I've found out that ibrew fails with MacOSVersionError:

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os/mac/version.rb:28:in `block in from_symbol': unknown or unsupported macOS version: :dunno (MacOSVersionError)
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os/mac/version.rb:28:in `fetch'
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os/mac/version.rb:28:in `from_symbol'
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os/mac.rb:28:in `version'
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os/mac.rb:65:in `prerelease?'
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os.rb:38:in `<module:OS>'
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os.rb:7:in `<top (required)>'
	from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
	from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/global.rb:47:in `<top (required)>'
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb:31:in `require_relative'
	from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb:31:in `<main>'

The reason is simple enough: my Intel copy of homebrew is never updated, and it cannot handle the new version number. I am not sure if I can still update it. I have moved to use the M1 brew mostly, and my Intel brew has caused some linking errors, so I want to remove it completely, but without running it I don't know how to remove it.

How may I remove my Intel homebrew now?

[carlocab]

You can use the uninstall script at https://github.com/Homebrew/install#uninstall-homebrew. You don't want to run the snippet shown there (that will likely uninstall your /opt/homebrew installation). Instead, you want to download the script, make it executable, then run it with the flag --path=/usr/local. You may need to run it with sudo.

[henno]

I did use sudo.

[osalbahr]

Sorry, I just realized that you already did run the script as sudo but the behavior contradicts with the message that you got. I recommend opening an issue at https://github.com/Homebrew/install/issues

[henno]

In order to reproduce the bug, one must migrate from an Intel Mac which is doable but would require a spare Mac and a Time Machine backup and lots of time. I just installed brew again by executing /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)" and everything seems to be normal now.

[osalbahr]

@henno I’m curious, now that everything is normal, what happens if you re-run the uninstall script as sudo? I expect the same to happen.

Also, I think cp -r would be enough to simulate what happened with Time Machine. Someone can, for example, zip these directories and transfer them. Or, just manually creating the directories (with sudo) to simulate as if it were previously installed in an Intel mac. Regardless, I think this is a bug because you did use sudo and --path. And it is up to whoever sees the issue whether it’s worth the effort for them. That repo has many watchers and people periodically checking the issues.

I recommend opening an issue because I think it is a bug and the answer was selected by the OP which means it probably fit their need.

---

Side note: check brew help bundle for an easy way to get a list of all that you installed and be able to easily reinstall them. I think the original issue (wget) might be fixable by just brew reinstall wget. It might be already too late for that now unless you go back to the backup, just for future reference.

[yaohwu]

--path=/usr/local
help me a lot

[Bo98]

I am not sure if I can still update it.

ibrew update should work. It does all updating before it even starts the Ruby part.

(But updating is not necessary if you are planning to uninstall.)

so I want to remove it completely, but without running it I don't know how to remove it.

arch -x86_64 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/uninstall.sh)"

It will show what paths it is removing (it should be the ones under /usr/local) and ask for a confirmation.

[louy2]

Thank you and ibrew update worked, but the paths the command removes is under /opt/homebrew so I have canceled it.

Between the question and now I remembered I need the Intel one to manage my x86_64 Java installations so I need to keep the Intel brew for now.

[louy2]

I realized I can't use the Intel one to manage it anyway. XD

[victor-kwan-zh]

It works, thx...