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SOLVED - Still Waiting for Root Device - Lion on Dell Inspiron 531


Turaiel
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I installed iATKOS L2 to my Dell Inspiron 531's hard disk using a machine that was already running Snow Leopard, then did the following:

Here's the guide I followed to get Lion installed (I used the moderate method): http://www.insanelym...pic=278181&st=0

 

When booting, I use the following flags (and sometimes variants of it):

mach_kernel -legacy -v arch=i386 npci=0x3000

The reason for the mach_kernel is that I don't currently have the bootloader on the disk working, so I'm using a boot CD.

 

My problem right now is that when I boot, it gets stuck on the infamous "Still waiting for root device". My BIOS doesn't have any IDE mode options, or any SATA options where I can select AHCI. I've attached a picture of the screen when the boot fails.

 

Here are my system's specifications:

  • Model: Dell Inspiron 531
  • Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (Dual-core/SSE3)
  • Motherboard: Asus/Dell M2N61-AX with nForce chipset
  • ATA Controller: nForce MCP61 (03F6:10DE)
  • Audio: nVidia HD Audio (0014:10DE)
  • Network: nForce Ethernet (03EF:10DE)
  • Graphics: nVidia GeForce GT 430 (0DE1:10DE)
  • BIOS Version: Phoenix AwardBIOS 1.0.13 (Dell)
  • Distribution: iATKOS L2 (10.7.2)

I'm not sure whether this forum approves of using iATKOS or not, but I didn't see anything saying otherwise, so I assume I'm safe for now. Let me know if I've violated any rules.

post-963367-0-24553600-1343254130_thumb.jpg

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Hate to bump, but I really need help here.

Also, does it matter that the optical drive is on a different ATA controller than the hard drive? This computer model has one for each pair of ports.

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Just tried that, now I'm getting:

 

AppleNForceATA: sata phy reset done.

AppleNForceATA: Found 1 units.

AppleNForceATA: NVIDIA nForce MCP 61 Serial ATA by MeDevil (CMD 0x960, IRQ 21, BM 0xc408)

Previous Shutdown cause: 3

AppleNForceATA: warning: phy connection failed. status=0x0000000

AppleNForceATA: warning: phy connection failed. status=0x0000000

AppleNForceATA: found 0 units.

AppleNForceATA: found 0 units.

Loading VoodooHDA 0.2.1 (based on hdac version 20090401_0132)

controller: NVidia MCP61 (vendor ID: 10de, device ID:03F0)

warning: couldn't set recording source to microphone

Codec #0: Realtek ALC888 (vendor ID: 10ec, device ID: 0888)

warning: found invalid min/max dB (using default -22.5 -> 0.0 range)

NVDAGF100HAL loaded and registered.

AppleNForceATA: warning: phy connection failed. status=0x0000000

AppleNForceATA: warning: phy connection failed. status=0x0000000

AppleNForceATA: found 0 units.

AppleNForceATA: found 0 units.

0 0 AppleUSBCDC: start - initDevice failed

AppleNForceATA: found 0 units.

mbinit: done [64 MB total pool size. (42/21) split]

Pthread support ABORTS when sync kernel primitives misued

rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: BFEB7CCF-0F62-3266-897D-A941739965C3

From path "uuid", Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string<key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>

AppleNForceATA: found 0 units.

Still waiting for root device

Still waiting for root device

...

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Clearly your set up does not like your audio kext. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720, which is an older model than yours. However, you might want to experiment with different IOPCIFamily.kexts in order to find one that lets you see your SATA drive.

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One thing:

 

Before changing IOPciFamily kext you have tried to boot with "npci=0x2000" ?

If negative,try to return at original IOPciFamily and boot with this flag.

 

Don't use the flag npci if you're using the modified IOPciFamily.

 

By the way i recommend everytime to prepare an usb dongle with the installer and no use of IAtkos and similar.

In this way you will circumscribe the problem doing step by step .

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry I didn't respond when I said I would. I was suddenly asked to join a programming project and only recently finished. Alright. I think I got farther without npci, but I'm not entirely sure. This time I got a kernel panic, which is attached.

 

UPDATE: Suddenly the system started working, but it won't recognize my keyboard. I tried removing the audio kexts, since I read there are issues with those and keyboards with iATKOS L2, but to no avail. I'll keep working on it tomorrow.

post-963367-0-91343800-1345487998_thumb.jpg

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My hard drive keeled over last night, so I won't be able to continue for a while. Since booting without npci solved the issue that led to the creation of this thread, I'm going to go ahead and say it's solved. Thanks for all the help!

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