[Collection] Treatment to Leopard (DVD) booting issues

[SamsonT]

Most of the OSX86 new comers would face one or more booting issues before they are able to see the warm welcome from Leopard. It's pretty normal but sometimes discouraging. Here I summarize the treatments to these issues as many as possible. But I understand this is far from completeness, if you know any other booting issues AND fix, please help to perfect this post.

 

To find out where the problem is, it's always good to boot with -v flag(by pressing F8 when prompt and type "-v") to see what's behind the spinning but non responding Mac boot screen.

 

Symptom 1. Instantly reboot right after booting from the installation DVD or Leopard

 

What went wrong: CPU/Kernel relevant

 

Solution would be different base on different causes.

 

Solution a(Only works for dual core CPU) :

 

Press F8 and type "cpus=1" after "boot:" and press Enter

 

Idea: To disable one core of your CPU to add compatibility.

 

Solution b:

 

Use another kernel. If you're booting from a Apple retail DVD/Installation, you'll need the magical boot132 method, see more details on this post. If you're booting from Kalyway/iDeneb/iPC/iATAOs...installation, you can change the kernel easily by entering the installation again and customize different kernel.

 

Idea: trying these selections first might save your time

 

Intel Core architect CPU+Intel Chipset+10.5.1~10.5.6---vanilla kernel

Intel Core architect CPU+nvidia chipset+10.5.6----------vanilla kernel

Intel/AMD CPU+non intel chipset+10.5.1~6--------------Voodoo kernel 9.5, StageXNU 9.4, Sleep 9.2

 

Symptom 2. Stuck at Using xxxx buffer headers and xxxx cluster IO buffer headers

 

What went wrong: ACPI configuation in your motherboard

 

Solution: Go back to the DVD installation screen and customize and select ACPI fix.

 

Idea: Replace the AppleACPIPlatform.kext and AppleAPIC.kext with older version

 

Symtom 3. Still waiting for root device... show up endlessly as you wait longer

 

What went wrong: OS X doesn't recognize your SATA disk

 

Solution: Enter the BIOS setup, and choose AHCI mode for your disk. If it doesn't work, patch your Kalyway/iDeneb/iPC/iATAOs installation DVD with the newest nforce PPF patch

 

Idea: This will let your SATA drive runs as PATA mode which OS X would regconize. Note, the bios changes may cause your Windows installation failed to boot, to boot Windows, you might need to change back.

 

Symtom 4. Kernel Panic (in 4 languages the system told you that you need to restart the computer)

 

What went wrong: Kernel panic may caused by different reasons. Maybe incompatible kext installed, unsuitable kernel, or CPU relevent BIOS settings.

 

Solution would be different basing on different causes.

 

Solution a. Kernel panic ending like

 

Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies)

com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin(3.1.5d3)@0x339ba000->0x339c5fff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.4.1)@0x2e24d000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.2.0)@0x2e263000

dependency: com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily(3.1.5d3)@0x3397a000

 

Go inside BIOS setup, disable Intel EIST

 

Solution b. Kernel panic relevant to

 

AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement

 

Go back to Installation DVD, customization, click IntelPMDisabler or Disabler fix.

 

Idea: Kernel panic usually relates to incompatible kext, kernel, or CPU settings inside BIOS, you should know what cause it by looking Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies) at the bottom of the screen.

 

Again, more symptoms AND fixes are welcome.

 

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Tips:

 

Quick OSX86 installation without burning a DVD: Using Leopard installation helper 0.3. Wait for about only 15 min to finish a new install. Especially useful when trying different version of installation like Kalyway/iDeneb/iPC/iATAOs...

 

Keep Windows installation untouched to get help from this forum easily.

 

Use System Profiler Utility to identify malfunctioning kext.