HoochShepherd Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 If anyone could help that would be stellar!! I'm trying to install SL on my rig. I've tried SnoLeo and Iatkos with out being able to boot the dvd. Hazards boots and installs with out a hitch, but I get this "Still waiting on root device" error on boot. I'm only able to boot with the oldest chameleon version, so I'm obviously using that. I'm using the vanilla preinstalled kernel. Nothing seems to be working to get past this though. I use to use iPC with the voodoo kernel for leopard and can still install that if it helps at all.. Below is my system. EVGA Nforce 780i FTW Quad Core Duo Q9550 EVGA GTX260 2x2 gigs Gskill ram (4 total) Both my optical and my hard drive are Sata. Thanx for any help. I'm so close, and once I get booted I can tweek it myself.. Just getting there is an issue apparently! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaLd0n Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 You'll see "Still waiting for root device" when OS X can't talk to your drive controller, either because you haven't installed the right driver for it, because your PATA drives are jumpered/cabled wrong, your drives are attached to an unsupported controller (then you're out of luck), or SATA is not set to AHCI mode in the BIOS. Most modern motherboards have a secondary SATA controller from JMicron, Silicon Image or Marvell. The SATA ports of the secondary controller are normally colored differently (white or orange) than those of the primary controller (usually red). Check your motherboard manual to see which ports belong to which controller. There are drivers for OS X for the most common secondary controllers, but the main controller (Intel ICHx or Nvidia nForce) is usually the more compatible since Apple use Intel ICHx and nForce as well. If you have problems with drives not being recognized, either plug them into a port on the main drive controller, or find and install drivers for the "off-chipset" drive controller. For PATA (IDE) drives, try a different jumper setting and/or cable position, and make sure you're using 80 conductor cables. If you have two IDE ports, put each device at the end of it's own cable and jumper it as master device. There's very limited support for PATA drives in OS X (IIRC no modern Macs have PATA devices?) so you'll probably need a community provided driver to get your PATA drives running. Again Intel and Nvidia are the easiest to get working. The Chameleon bootloader official download includes some injector or "legacy" kexts for many common PATA and SATA controllers. If your board has a Marvell 6xxx controller, you need AppleVIAATA or SuperVIAATA.kext. There are also nForceATA and ATIATA kexts out there. Older Intel boards with ICH5 might need a patched AppleIntelPIIATA.kext. Intel ICHx or nForce SATA controllers in AHCI mode (set in the BIOS) are the most compatible and easiest to get working. Gringo Vermelho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoochShepherd Posted July 17, 2010 Author Share Posted July 17, 2010 First off, thanx for the crazy quick reply! Secondly, I don't think I can technically set my controllers to AHCI mode in my bios. But with that being said, I have NVidia Sata controller (not Jmicron or anything) so that being the case technically I shouldn't need to do anything.. But no matter what I try to do its a no go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts