Can't mount ANY volume for OSX86 installation

[jjohnson]

Hey everyone,

I am having trouble installing iPC OSx86 10.5.6 on my computer.

My specs are as follows (provided by System Profiler on install disk):

 

HP HDX16-1025NR

Intel ICH9-M AHCI Southbridge

FUJITSU MHZ2320BH G2 - 320 GB HD

Quanta 361B MOBO

Intel PM45 Chipset

 

When I get to the "Select a Destination" screen and go to Utilities -> Disk Utility, I am unable to mount any of my partitions on my HD. I have four partitions: Windows 7 / NTFS partition, Ubuntu ext3 and swap partitions, and a 45 GB HFS+ partition that I created in GParted.

When I try to mount the HFS+ (or ext3 for that matter) drive, it says, "The disk xxx could not be mounted. Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting."

The option to run First Aid on the volume is not allowed, so I tried to verify it. After verifying, it gives the error, "Verify Volume Failed: Unrecognized Filesystem".

I know that the filesystem for ext3 is valid because Ubuntu works perfectly.

The HFS+ drive should be fine too. I just created it in GParted (created and erased many times). Even after trying to erase the volume, it gives me the error.

(If it matters, the NTFS drive gives the error "Verify volume failed: Invalid request".)

While watching the installation disk start in verbose mode, I noticed that when it tries to mount or probe the different volumes, it says that it is unable to and returns the error (0xFFFFFFFA).

 

Any suggestions?

 

On a side note, thank everyone here for their hard work on the OSX86 project!

After

[jjohnson]

So I'm guessing that the problem isn't with the Intel SATA controller since it is listed in the package list here:

 

h??p://######.com/ipcosx86/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/ipcppf5packagelist.png

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

[jjohnson]

Bump

[vilpostus]

Try formatting the partition for OS X not to HFS+, but to FAT32. Boot to Windows. Make chkdsk of the FAT partition (just in case). Then in Disk Utility, format the FAT partition to HFS+.

[jjohnson]

it sitll won't mount the disk.

When verifying the disk, I now get:

"Invalid BS_jmpBoot in boot block: 000000

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed"

I tried to erase the drive, but the same error occurs.

[srs5694]

First, whenever posting this type of problem, be sure to provide some basic information. In this case, that includes, very importantly, precisely how your disk is partitioned -- GPT vs. MBR vs. hybrid GPT/MBR, and if MBR, which partitions (if any) are logical partitions.

 

Second, try Googling the error message "Invalid BS_jmpBoot in boot block." I did, and I got several hits. I haven't studied them all in depth, but several of them suggest that the problem is caused by incorrectly set partition type codes -- for instance, a GPT type code for HFS+ being changed to the type for a Basic Windows/Linux data partition. Precisely how to fix this problem depends on whether you're using GPT or MBR. It's entirely possible that GParted set the wrong partition type code (it's notorious for doing this, particularly for FAT and NTFS partitions on GPT disks; I don't know how it fares with HFS+ partitions). You should be able to correct this with the Linux fdisk utility for MBR disks, or my gdisk utility for GPT disks.

[jjohnson]

First, had I known that much about disk partitions and file systems, I probably wouldn't have posted this topic on this forum in the first place. Yes, I know a good bit about computers. I am majoring in ComSci as a freshman right now. I sincerely apologize that my ComSci 101 class hasn't taught me that there are GPT, MBR, and hybrid GPT/MBR types of partitions. If I knew that there were a difference, I assure you that you would have been the first to know. No, I'm not trying to be lazy and mooch for information instead of looking for answers myself. I actually did google my inital problem and my second problem for that matter. All of the pages that I saw gave information about systems where OS X was already (legitimately i.e. on an Apple machine) installed. I apologize if asking questions that I don't know the answer to on a forum is inappropiate; I thought that was its purpose.

[srs5694]

Quit being so sarcastic. If you don't know the difference between the partition table types, just say so without the sarcasm. If you care to learn rather than attack those who are trying to help you, know that MBR and GPT are two different methods of setting up partition tables. Which you've got depends on what tool you used to partition your disk, and perhaps how you used it. Since it seems you've got Linux installed, try typing "fdisk -l /dev/sda" at a Linux command prompt, as root. (You may need to change the device filename if you disk device isn't /dev/sda.) If your disk is a GPT disk, you'll see a single partition listed, of type 0xEE (EFI GPT):

 

   Device Boot	  Start		 End	  Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1			   1	   60802   488386583+  ee  EFI GPT

 

If you see multiple non-0xEE partitions, then it's an MBR disk. If you see a 0xEE partition and one or more other partitions, then it's a hybrid MBR/GPT disk.

 

From there you can look into partition type codes using Linux fdisk for MBR disks or my gdisk utility for GPT disks. Your HFS+ partition should be of type 0xAF in MBR. Its type on GPT disks is a long code that's usually translated to something else, and this is done differently by different utilities; gdisk reports it as AF00, but Parted (and I believe Apple's Disk Utility) looks inside the partition and reports the filesystem type, not the partition type code, which can make isolating partition type code problems difficult.

[jjohnson]

Apologies for the sarcasm, but I was only writing back in the manner that I interpreted your first post. I understood your post as you thinking that I was simply trying to be spoon-fed the solution without me making an effort to supply you with sufficient information.

Anyway, after I started digging around to find information about partition types, I figured out that I have a MBR partion. I then followed Das's advice and formatted the drive using FAT32. I had to define that partition as HFS+ in the fdisk partition table manager. I had to mark it as active and write a new MBR on my drive. Disk Utilities finally was able to mount that partition and install OS X.

So thank you Das for your advice.

And thank you Rod for your insight and for explaning the difference in the different partition types.

Truce?

[vilpostus]

Welcome!

 

We all trying to be helpful, though a misunderstandings take place now and then