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Screwed my system boot. Help please?


rsilves
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I never know if this kind of topics should be here or in the "Post installation discussion". Admins please move it if you feel necessary.

 

So. I did screw my system boot. I had a 10.5.6 system, initially installed with a Kalyway 10.5 DVD, then updated. So the bootloader is the one which comes in that DVD.

If you need an explanation of WHY did I screw my boot, read this. If not, jump to the XX> below.

A friend came with her Hackintosh to see if I could make it work. It booted but couldn't reach to load the desktop (kept showing the grey spinball and refreshing that light-blue screen). I wanted to change the kernel. I connected her hard drive to my computer, opened the Voodoo installer, chose her drive, and it gave an error. So I thought I should maybe (dunno why, I'm dumb) reinstall EFI on her drive, so I opened OSX86Tools and select the Efi Install tool, chose her drive, installed, ran FDISK :S.

Her drive now does the same as always. Mine doesn't boot.

 

XX>

I did something weird with OSX86Tools or with the Voodoo installer. My symptoms are these:

(Kalyway's) bootloader loads. But instead of waiting 5 seconds and then booting, it doesn't wait and just shows the partition list (same as when I press a key before those 5 seconds). Drive has 2 partitions: "Hackintosh" and "Backup". List shows:

hd(0,1)

hd(0,2) Hackintosh

hd(0,3) Backup

Hackintosh is selected.

I press enter and it somehow flashes. Like,.. the screen refreshes but the same screen appears. So I tried reconfiguring the bootloader (using fdisk from the install DVD). Same problem.

THEN I noticed that in that instant when I press enter and the screen refreshes, for a fraction of a second there is an error message, which is only read if you keep ENTER pressed and start deducing.

I read "Can't find mach_kernel.voodoo". AHA! I booted from an Ubuntu Live CD and I can see that the mach_kernel.voodoo is missing in my drive. Booted from Kaly's DVD and copied the voodoo kernel from my friend's drive to mine.

Now, same thing happens with bootloader, except that the new hidden message is "Mach-0 file has bad magic number" (I always said Mac had some kind of magic part in it, now I found it! :P)

 

Well... this is where I reached. I don't know if I should try to edit com.apple.Boot.kext and make it boot from the mach_kernel.old, or what should I try to change.

 

Hope someone can help me. Thanks to everyone!

Rodrigo Silvestri

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Well, I found the solution!!

After trying lots and lots of different things:

I reinstalled the Voodoo kernel. Using the Install DVD, I mounted the DMG from Disk Utility, then copied the System.kext and mach_kernel.voodoo files, and that was all.

 

Bye,

Rodrigo

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After restarting without the Kaly's 10.5.2 install DVD inserted in the computer, I realised that now I depend on it to boot.

I hate that :)

Any way to fix it? I tried running fdisk again, from the system and not from the DVD. Also tried booting Kaly's 10.5.0 installer and running fdisk from there.. no difference.

 

Thanks,

Rodrigo

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  • 4 weeks later...

The only fix I found for this problem was keeping the Kalyway Install DVD inside the dvd reader every time I turn the computer on.

If I don't, the system doesn't find a bootable drive (actually, it just ends up with a blinking underscore), then I have to put the DVD and restart.

 

I tried rewriting the MBR many times with the install DVD using fdisk and it doesn't change anything. Also tried from the booted system.

 

It seems to be so simple,.. I still think it is, and that someone can help me here! It's just a matter of luck :)

 

I cannot just reinstall, it was so complex to make it work, that I prefer to keep working this way until the next major update comes out (Snow Leopard).

 

Thanks,

Rodrigo

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The only fix I found for this problem was keeping the Kalyway Install DVD inside the dvd reader every time I turn the computer on.

If I don't, the system doesn't find a bootable drive (actually, it just ends up with a blinking underscore), then I have to put the DVD and restart.

 

I tried rewriting the MBR many times with the install DVD using fdisk and it doesn't change anything. Also tried from the booted system.

 

It seems to be so simple,.. I still think it is, and that someone can help me here! It's just a matter of luck :P

 

I cannot just reinstall, it was so complex to make it work, that I prefer to keep working this way until the next major update comes out (Snow Leopard).

 

Thanks,

Rodrigo

 

To make your OS X system volume active follow the procedure here...... :)

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  • 1 month later...

I'm still having the same problem.

Tried different methods of rewriting mbr (using fdisk) without success.

It seems that it should be so simple... just writing some words in the Terminal. But it doesn't change anything...

 

Thanks to everyone who can help me.

Rodrigo

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