jessjx Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 - my system is an HP Pavillion DV4150 - I was able to install from DVD created from MacOSX_10.4.4DVDPATCHED_Myz.iso - Added scousi's kext using Macdrive - deleted cache at /usr/sbin/... - none of the AppleGeneric kext entries were present to be deleted, same goes for Extension.. - booting with options "platform=x86pc" rd="disk0s3" -v (booting with no options yields same) - continue to get message "Still waiting for root device" please help if you can. been at this for days. thanks. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
quickslvr1287 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 so just checking do you have it on a partition on a drive or do you have OSX installed to a separate drive? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-80824 Share on other sites More sharing options...
seano Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 If this is any help, this is what I did to over come this issue I experienced trying to get the same message to go away! System: P4 630 model (3.0ghz, 2MB L2, skt775) Intel 915GUX Mobo Onboard vid and sound 250GB SATA NEC 1100A DVD/+RW (in addition, 1x40GB PATA HDD) Right, first thing I did, was to reset the BIOS to default settings, then change the SATA settings to Legacy, and making the channels correspond to where the drives are connected to on the mobo Then, Put the DVD drive and 40Gb PATA drive onto the same channel, with the DVD drive as MASTER and the PATA as SLAVE. (reason for this, is this mobo only has one IDE channel!) Then, connected the SATA drive to channel 0 on the mobo. Boot from 10.4.5 (universal version) DVD. Since there is a PATA HDD present, OS X seems to want to boot properly from the DVD, this will then allow you to use the Disk Utils to format the SATA drive etc. Also, another thing I did, was use Hiren's boot CD and use one of the FDISK tools to ensure the SATA drive has an active partition set, otherwise, OS X has no idea what to do with the drive. Hope this helps - its not a tutorial, just what I did to over come the issues you are experiencing. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-80849 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 22, 2006 Author Share Posted March 22, 2006 >> so just checking do you have it on a partition on a drive or do you have OSX installed to a separate drive? Partition. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-80975 Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimBob Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 I got the same error until I moved my install to either the 1st or 2nd partition. The third partition did not work (that's when I had the error, on the third partition). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-81330 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 23, 2006 Author Share Posted March 23, 2006 I moved the phyical position of the osx install partition from third to second on the drive (using Disk Director), but I still get hung on "Still waiting for root device" when booting. Thanks for the suggestion, I thought it might be the one. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-81473 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 23, 2006 Author Share Posted March 23, 2006 Does it make a difference that the partition is still listed as HD(0,3) when I am at the Darwin boot selector? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-81720 Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJerman Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 I got this the first time I tried to install. My DVD drive was Secondary Slave (no Secondary Master becuase I had removed a drive at one point and never changed the jumper, Windows didn't care), and I changed it's jumper to Secondary Master and it worked just fine. There have been many people who have said check your jumpers and I agree. It sounds like you already have it installed though, so I don't know if this helps at all. Good luck. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-81830 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 23, 2006 Author Share Posted March 23, 2006 Yes, I do have it installed already, just trying to get a successful boot into OSX now. BTW, I did change the jumper setting on my hardrive from cable select to master, but I haven't bothered opening the laptop case to check DVD jumpers. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-81891 Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainecrab Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 Install in VMWare first then try to run native. This finally got my network working. After about 12 installs Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-81940 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 24, 2006 Author Share Posted March 24, 2006 I think I'm going to give up on this laptop for a while and try to get it going on its own disk (instead of a partition) in my xeon workstation. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82034 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 24, 2006 Author Share Posted March 24, 2006 This really sucks... I've now installed OSX on an empty drive installed as a master in my Dell Precision 650 workstation. Same exact message: "Still waiting for root device". Is this message related to any of the info displayed when using -v as a boot flag? There is a failure with AppleIntel8245XEthernet. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82067 Share on other sites More sharing options...
seano Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 Some Laptop BIOS's are evil. Is there an updated BIOS available for the laptop? You know what sticker on the laptop that says "Designed for WindowsXP" often a portion of the BIOS is actually dedicated to just that... supporting XP. There maybe certian features in the BIOS that need turning off, like some USB features... also, make the Plug and Play OS installed feature to OFF, as with all *nix / BSD based systems, they like this feature off to manage IRQ's themselves.... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82086 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappadoc Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 This is really a big problem as like you I tried everything without success... I also boot from DVD install and repair disk (no repair needed) and permission but "Still waiting..." ok i can reinstall OS X but I want to know why this error occured and how to fix that the wiki tech faq didn't fix it... Is there anybody out there who can make a very generic bootable cd or dvd that let us mount and access to the hd in single mode... or tell us how to make it? Thanks. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82094 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappadoc Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 YES! Here what i ve done to boot OS X after this damned "Still waiting for root device" ! 0- Boot your XP and uninstall the daemon tools (if any) 1- open /Windows/System32/ folder 2- remove dtscsi.sys and sptd.sys (bug from previous daemond tools uninstallation) reboot (see how to uninstall the Daemond Tools manualy for details Remove Daemond) 3- download MacDrive 6 trial and install it - reboot 4- mount the mac disk 5- check the boot.plist file: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist 6- in this file i found garbage text on my Graphics Resolution key, something like this: <string>10280îº1024x@60</string> 7- fix this with the correct string (i.e. 1280x1024@60) 8- now open folder: /System/Library/Extensions/IOATAFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins/ 9- rename AppleOnBoardPCATA.kext to AppleOnBoardPCATA.kext_disable 10- reboot OS X with -s option 11- at the OS X prompt rebuild the kextcache: /sbin/mount -uw / cd /System/Library/ rm Etensions.kextcache kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions exit 12- you're normaly booting OS X now (slowly cause generic ATA driver) and you should be able to check your config, kext, disk and permissions oufffff!!! Hope this helps! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82191 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 24, 2006 Author Share Posted March 24, 2006 No luck, I have none of these files on my system, nor the errant resolution entry. Booting with -s also led to "Still waiting for root device". I've seen a lot of threads that talk about placing the HDD and DVD on the same IDE channel as master and slave. I have the HDD on IDE1 alone as master. My DVD burner and CD Burner are on IDE2 as master and slave. Intel E7505 chipset, Xeon processor. Help! I'm starting to feel foolish about the amount of time I've put into getting OSX to run on a pc. I could have been working/billing with these same hours and made more than enough to buy the latest top of the line Mac. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82252 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zman3 Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 I was getting that error turned out the hard drive i was using was to old and had to have s.m.a.r.t. enabled in the bios for the computer to see it but osx kept giving that waiting for root device {censored} so i used a differant drive ,also my scsi card wouldnt let osx start after install but after the first time i put the card back in and it worked Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82329 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 25, 2006 Author Share Posted March 25, 2006 Still trying hard to make this happen... I'm still stuck on "Still waiting for root device". Does anyone spot any red-flags in my system configuration? Computer Model Precision WorkStation 650 BIOS Vendor Dell Computer Corporation BIOS Version A03 BIOS Date 07-21-03 Processor Manufacturer Intel® Xeon CPU 3.06GHz Clock Speed 3.1GHz Manufacturer Intel® Xeon CPU 3.06GHz Clock Speed 3.1GHz Memory Memory Slot 1 [DIMM_A] 512Mb Memory Slot 2 [DIMM_B] 512Mb Storage Drive Type Size C: NTFS 231.8Gb F: HFS+ 74.50Gb Hardware Type Description DVD/CD-ROM Drives _NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S Disk Drives ST380011A 74.50Gb Promise 1+0 Stripe/RAID0 SCSI Disk Device 231.8Gb Display Adapters ATI FireGL X1 128Mb ATI FireGL X1 Secondary 128Mb Floppy Disk Drives (Standard floppy disk drives) Floppy disk drive IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers Intel® 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CB Primary IDE Channel Secondary IDE Channel Keyboards USB Human Interface Device Mice and Other Pointing Devices HID-compliant mouse Monitors Dell E172FP - Dell Computer Corp. Dell E172FP - Dell Computer Corp. Sound Devices SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio USB Controllers Intel® 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C2 Intel® 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C4 Intel® 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C7 Intel® 82801DB/DBM USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller - 24CD I need some luck. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82629 Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingHat Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 >> Promise 1+0 Stripe/RAID0 SCSI Disk Device 231.8Gb That's going to be your problem. It's pretty likely that OSX doesn't have support for Promise RAID controllers. As far as I can tell, it really doesn't (considering a few of my motherboards have onboard promise controllers, none of which seem to work) Your best bet is going to be finding an old PATA hard drive and giving that a shot. Also I have no idea how well supported the E7505 chipset is, but I have a feeling you'll have problems with lack of driver support (missing sound, LAN, etc). You have your work cut out for you. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82787 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 25, 2006 Author Share Posted March 25, 2006 The drive you mention is not the one I have OSX installed on. It is actually kind of hard to pick out in the hardware list I posted 'ST380011A 74.50Gb'. It's an ATA Drive on IDE1. I get the "Still waiting for root device" message whether I boot to this disk direct, or via the Acronis OS selector. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82950 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 25, 2006 Author Share Posted March 25, 2006 >> Promise 1+0 Stripe/RAID0 SCSI Disk Device 231.8Gb That's going to be your problem. It's pretty likely that OSX doesn't have support for Promise RAID controllers. As far as I can tell, it really doesn't (considering a few of my motherboards have onboard promise controllers, none of which seem to work) I removed the controller card for the drive you mentioned. Same problem remains. Thanks for the input though. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-82958 Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedape Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 I am getting the "Still waiting for root device error" when I begin the install process. I understand that I need to: 1) Set my DVD drive to secondary master. 2) Set my hdd to primary master. How can I do this on a laptop? Do I need to physically open the laptop to change jumpers or is there some sort of app that can do it? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-83865 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 28, 2006 Author Share Posted March 28, 2006 At last, success! Installed on my Precision 650 Xeon through Vmware, but am able to native boot as well. First installed 10.4.4, then did 10.4.5 update. Not sure if the order of install or vmware had anything to do with this success though. Up until now I had never checked the Maxxus Ownage option in the installer (kick myself). I'm thinking this is what finally did the trick. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-84260 Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakedape Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 I too installed first via VMWare, but I couldn't boot natively. Where is this Maxxuss Ownage option? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-84792 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessjx Posted March 29, 2006 Author Share Posted March 29, 2006 Within the installer I used there was a set of options beneath a group called Hacks or something like that (cant recall from the top of my head).. its the same area where you check off the 10.4.5 upgrade and AMD support options. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/12753-still-waiting-for-root-device-ive-tried-everything-i-think/#findComment-84894 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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