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[help]Odd Vista/OSX dual-boot problem

choobs

By choobs,
in Multi-booting and Virtualisation

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choobs
choobs
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Posted

Hello All,

 

I recently installed OSX on my Inspiron 1525. Mostly, it's gone fine, but I have run into one weird problem: When I boot, the Windows bootloader asks if I want to go to Vista or OSX (as I've set it up to). I choose Mac OS X, then it brings me to the Darwin bootloader. The problem is that the Darwin bootloader is defaulting to the Vista Partion instead of the OSX partition. If I hit F8 and choose the OSX partition, then it boots fine. I don't understand why I can't get Darwin to just load OSX automatically.

 

Here is what I did to get this up and running initially, and what I've done for troubleshooting.

 

I shrank my existing Vista partion down and installed OSX using a Kalyway 10.5.2. After the install, the computer would not boot. I booted off my Vista install CD and used the "Repair Startup" function and go back into Vista. I used EasyBCD to create a Mac OS X startup option. The path it pointed to was \NST\mac.mbr or something similar. I rebooted, and chose MAC OS X. I waited for Darwin to countdown to zero, expecting to see the gray Apple logo, but instead was dumped back to the Windows Bootloader. I chose OS X again and hit F8 and found that Darwin was choosing the Partition with Vista instead of the OSX partition. I manually chose OSX and it booted fine.

 

I've tried two things to fix this. First, I used fdisk to set the MAC partition as primary, but that caused the computer to not boot at all again. I fixed the startup again and it went back to the way it was. Then, I tried editing the Boot.plist file. The original /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist had "Kernel Flags" key, but the sting was empty. I added this: rd=disk0s5, so now it looks like this:

 

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>rd=disk0s5</string>

 

I'm used "diskutil list" to confirm I was pointing to the right partition and I am. This didn't have any effect on Darwin, it is still defaulting to the Vista partion at "disk0s3". I changed the timeout setting in the Boot.plist file to make sure it had an effect, and it did. I'm really not sure what could be causing this behavior.

 

Any suggestions? I'd be happy to provide any other required info if necessary.

  • 2 weeks later...
avddreamr
avddreamr
Posted
Posted

As far as I know, darwin will default to the active partition. So you will always have to select osx if it's not the active partition.

Make sure you have

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>N</string>

N being the number of seconds you want the "press f8 or any key to select options"

 

I have not been able to in my installation to get vista to boot directly from darwin boot loader if it has not been set up as a primary partition.

If i change the osx partition to active (it is the second partition on the single disk in this system).

Windows will not boot, forcing me to reset the windows partition to active using a command propmpt in either os, and then having the vista install dvd repair my installation.

 

I decided to use EASY BCD, the out come is as follows, i can select osx by selecting osx on the windows boot manager, then pressing space at darwin boot prompt followed by the down key.

 

The delay ammounts to 5 seconds. Since both o/s boot in about 30 seconds, this i a significant delay. But it is a mild annoyance. I would imagine that having a dual disk installation will simplify woes.

 

If you find you get the command 32 error, and cannot repair with the vista install disk. Enter the command prompt from the install disk, and type diskpart, list disk , select disk (N) (N where you have vista), if you are using single disk , then select disk 0, then list parition (again where you have vista) in my case select partition 1, active , write, exit. boot from cd, repair, boot into vista, you may have to reboot one more time, then install easybcd. You're done.

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