Editing com.apple.boot.plist

[awesome01]

I have edited and saved my com.apple.boot.plist so that the 3rd partition in my harddrive is supposed to boot up first, amongst Quiet Boot and Time Out(to 1). The only one that works is time out, the other two options I put in don't seem like they're working. I have gone back and checked for any errors many times.

 

I need to do this because I want to use EasyBCD's bootloader instead of Darwin bootloader. When I select mac under EasyBCD bootloader, it takes me to the Darwin loader, which automatically selects my Windows 7 partition, sending me back to my EasyBCD bootloader.

 

I have searched around and couldn't find any answers. Please, help!

[oldtopman]

See if (i've never used the darwin bootloader btw) changing things from the 3rd partition to other partitions would help. I know that in a lot of *nixes the partition number is the order in which the partitions were made, not where they are on the HD. In other words, change your .com.apple.boot.plist so it boots the 2nd partition, and if that doesn't work, change it so it boots the 1st partition.

[awesome01]

See if (i've never used the darwin bootloader btw) changing things from the 3rd partition to other partitions would help. I know that in a lot of *nixes the partition number is the order in which the partitions were made, not where they are on the HD. In other words, change your .com.apple.boot.plist so it boots the 2nd partition, and if that doesn't work, change it so it boots the 1st partition.

 

Thank you for your reply. I have just tried what you suggested but nothing has changed. It seems like my computer is ignoring the com.apple.Boot.plist during start up(minus the Time Out command).

 

Maybe I did something wrong that I'm not aware of. Here is my plist:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string></string>

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>1</string>

<Key>Quiet Boot</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>rd=disk0s1</string>

</dict>

</plist>

 

[edit]

Just noticed the typo on Quiet Boot(capital K in key) and that seems to have fixed it. However, now when I boot into my mac OS X, it tells me to restart the computer. The boot drive command is still not working, either.

 

[edit 2]

Yup, can't get into the OSX at all. I'm assuming this has something to do with the way I edited the boot.plist since it didn't do this before I got Quiet Boot working. Is there anyway to restore or change the boot.plist using the installation disk?

[u2mir]

bump?

 

I made a mistake and corrupted my boot.plist file using OSX86tools -- was trying to change the EFI strings for a new graphics card. (it was working OK with the old settings) but after I changed it, it now boots through the grey screen and then goes blank.

 

i saw that OSX86TOOLS made a backup of my old boot.plist. Could I get that back so I can have the system up and about again? How to do this? Please?

 

Thanks!

[Gringo Vermelho]

IIRC OSX86Tools creates a backup folder at the root of the system drive.

 

Oh, and..

There's your problem.

[u2mir]

IIRC OSX86Tools creates a backup folder at the root of the system drive.

 

Oh, and..

There's your problem.

 

 

hmm.. but how would I go about restoring the old boot.plist? Could you be a bit more specific? Sorry, It's been like 2 years since I made my system a hackintosh Leopard, so I'm a bit rusty. Step by step would be really helpful. Thanks!

[Gringo Vermelho]

If you can still boot into single user mode (-s, and you'll probably need -x too) you can copy it from the backup folder to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ overwriting the one that has the Device Properties string in it.

 

If not, you can boot from your install DVD, run Terminal.app and do it from there.

[u2mir]

That helps..

 

do you know where OSX86TOOLS tends to keep its backup copy? Which folder?

thx!

[Gringo Vermelho]

I don't remember, I haven't used osx86tools in a long long time.

 

It should be immediately obvious by the name of the folder. Please read post #5 again.

[u2mir]

resloved.

 

thanks for the help.

 

for posterity -- osx86tools does keep the backup in the SAME directory as com.apple.Boot.plist as bootbackup.plist.

 

do the following to restore a backup boot.plist:

 

1) boot with -s -x

2) very impt:

 

/sbin/fsck -fy

/sbin/mount -uw /

 

3) then:

 

cd /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

 

4) mv com.apple.Boot.plist com.apple.Boot.old

5) cp bootbackup.plist com.apple.Boot.plist

 

6) type 'exit' and then reboot system when the files close.

 

 

Thanks for your help Gringo, it was just enough to get me to figure it out