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[How to] Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk in MacOSX


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Ok guys next step,ive installed now the correct Kernel for my Processor.Installation complete,booting with DVD and no sound (ive pciked correct audio driver) and my mouse isnt working (usb).So next step is to find drivers and change the KEXT files ? Yeah something like that : Besides here are my PC Specs:

 

CPU:intel core duo E6750 2,66GHz

Mobo:Asus p5k

Ram:2gb Kingston 800Mhz

HDD:sata2 300MB / Seagate 500GB

Graka:Asus HD3850 512 Ram

 

 

Regards

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rammjet,

 

Thanks so much for the detailed explanation here. I just seem not to be able to resolve this. I am very new to MAC, but couldn't stand Windows anymore.

 

I installed multiple different images on my Computer (Kalyway, iDeneb and other ones), which is a fairly new Sony Vaio, T9300 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB of RAM and all the other good stuff. I really just want to see if I like the OS. It has got to be better then F... Vista. If I do, the money is right there to buy a new MacBook Pro 17 inch man.

 

I either get still the b0: error or I get a white screen. But it never boots up for me. I followed your steps and I went through them about ten times and it never booted up. What am I doing wrong.

 

As said I followed your steps, verified that the correct disk is Active with a star next to it. It looks good at the beginning, but then it doesn't go. Is there anything else I might be missing?

 

Thanks, I hope you can help me.

 

The Dark Lord.

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of people who experience a b0 error on their first boot up after installation. Or the bootloader immediately takes them back to the Windows installation (on dual boot).

 

These people probably forgot to set the MacOSX partition "Active"

 

A common mantra provided here to newbies for setting up for installation is:

  • Make the partition Primary
  • Make the partition ID=AF (signifies an HFS partition)
  • Make the partition Active

There is a built-in Unix utility in MacOSX that can be used to set your partition "Active". It is called Fdisk

Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk

 

Words in bold below are things you must type (followed by Enter).

 

1. Boot your Mac OS X install dvd

2. Once the installer is running, go to the Utilities menu and open Terminal

 

3. Determine which disk your MacOSX partition is on

Type
diskutil list

 

Verify which disk number holds your partition (disk
0
, disk
1
, etc.)

 

4. Start using Fdisk

Assuming the MacOSX disk is the first disk ("disk0"), then

type
fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
<== use "rdisk" with your disk number here !!

 

Ignore the error "fdisk: could not open MBR file ..."

 

5. Determine which partition for MacOSX needs to be set "Active"

Type
p

 

Verify which partition is for MacOSX (1, 2, 3, etc.)

 

6. Set the partition "Active"

Assuming it is partition 1, then

type
f 1
<== use your partition number here !!

 

7. Save and exit

Type
write

 

Type
y
(yes you are sure)

 

Type
exit
(to quit)

 

8. Remove the install DVD and reboot

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Hey, i am having serious issues with this installation. I have made minimal progress.

I somehow got past the Boot0: MBR etc. but I still run into my orignal problem.

When my laptop loads, it stalls on boot. After running in verbose, i came across the same issue:

Still waiting for root device.

I am running this on my laptop. Single core, INtel, 1gb ram, 90gb HD, OSx86 10.5.6.

I might run a ealier version, but i would liek to make it work.

 

I am a noob- but i have tried most of steps on this thread, along with others. I have reformatted and primary partitioned the drive multiple times. There is only the primary HD in the computer. I havent been able to successfully boot into Mac yet.

 

Any requests? im dieing to get this working.

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So I have tried to search and search for an answer to the problem I am getting and I cannot find anything.

 

Basically right after the install verifies that the install disk is stable to continue installation, it says that it cannot install folder: volume/leopardOSX/basesystem.pkg.157FJXMZe

 

And like I mentioned I don't know what is happening because I cannot find in thing on it...

 

 

 

PLEASE HELP.

 

Thanks MUCH TO WHOMEVER!

 

Tyler

 

 

8800 GTS GC

Nvidia 650i Ultra MB Socket 775

6600 Intel Quad Core (SSE 3 I think)

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  • 2 weeks later...
There are a lot of people who experience a b0 error on their first boot up after installation. Or the bootloader immediately takes them back to the Windows installation (on dual boot).

 

These people probably forgot to set the MacOSX partition "Active"

 

A common mantra provided here to newbies for setting up for installation is:

  • Make the partition Primary
  • Make the partition ID=AF (signifies an HFS partition)
  • Make the partition Active

There is a built-in Unix utility in MacOSX that can be used to set your partition "Active". It is called Fdisk

 

 

Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk

 

Words in bold below are things you must type (followed by Enter).

 

1. Boot your Mac OS X install dvd

2. Once the installer is running, go to the Utilities menu and open Terminal

 

3. Determine which disk your MacOSX partition is on

Type
diskutil list

 

Verify which disk number holds your partition (disk
0
, disk
1
, etc.)

 

4. Start using Fdisk

Assuming the MacOSX disk is the first disk ("disk0"), then

type
fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
<== use "rdisk" with your disk number here !!

 

Ignore the error "fdisk: could not open MBR file ..."

 

5. Determine which partition for MacOSX needs to be set "Active"

Type
p

 

Verify which partition is for MacOSX (1, 2, 3, etc.)

 

6. Set the partition "Active"

Assuming it is partition 1, then

type
f 1
<== use your partition number here !!

 

7. Save and exit

Type
write

 

Type
y
(yes you are sure)

 

Type
exit
(to quit)

 

8. Remove the install DVD and reboot

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  • 3 weeks later...
There are a lot of people who experience a b0 error on their first boot up after installation. Or the bootloader immediately takes them back to the Windows installation (on dual boot).

 

These people probably forgot to set the MacOSX partition "Active"

 

A common mantra provided here to newbies for setting up for installation is:

  • Make the partition Primary
  • Make the partition ID=AF (signifies an HFS partition)
  • Make the partition Active

There is a built-in Unix utility in MacOSX that can be used to set your partition "Active". It is called Fdisk

Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk

 

Words in bold below are things you must type (followed by Enter).

 

1. Boot your Mac OS X install dvd

2. Once the installer is running, go to the Utilities menu and open Terminal

 

3. Determine which disk your MacOSX partition is on

Type
diskutil list

 

Verify which disk number holds your partition (disk
0
, disk
1
, etc.)

 

4. Start using Fdisk

Assuming the MacOSX disk is the first disk ("disk0"), then

type
fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
<== use "rdisk" with your disk number here !!

 

Ignore the error "fdisk: could not open MBR file ..."

 

5. Determine which partition for MacOSX needs to be set "Active"

Type
p

 

Verify which partition is for MacOSX (1, 2, 3, etc.)

 

6. Set the partition "Active"

Assuming it is partition 1, then

type
f 1
<== use your partition number here !!

 

7. Save and exit

Type
write

 

Type
y
(yes you are sure)

 

Type
exit
(to quit)

 

8. Remove the install DVD and reboot

 

 

 

Hi, I\m getting strange things about this issue. You can see the Apple partition in the "diskutil list" bu there are no HDS+ on my "p" command... Maybe I've installed the chamelion not properly? ;//

 

Best regards,

 

 

Last login: Thu Apr 23 15:12:43 on console

alex-zs-mac-pro:~ alexz$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *74.5 Gi disk0

1: Windows_NTFS 20.3 Gi disk0s1

2: Windows_NTFS 36.1 Gi disk0s5

3: Apple_HFS OSX 18.0 Gi disk0s6

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *3.7 Gi disk1

1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS Kalyway 10.5.2 DVD Intel_Amd3.7 Gi disk1s2

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *100.0 Mi disk2

1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk2s1

2: Apple_HFS Skype 100.0 Mi disk2s2

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *21.7 Mi disk3

1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS PCEFI_v9 21.6 Mi disk3s2

alex-zs-mac-pro:~ alexz$ fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0

fdisk: /dev/rdisk0: Permission denied

alex-zs-mac-pro:~ alexz$ sudo fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0

 

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss

or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your

typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

 

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

 

Password:

Enter 'help' for information

fdisk: 1> p

Disk: /dev/rdisk0 geometry: 9729/255/63 [156301488 sectors]

Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55

Starting Ending

#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1: 07 0 1 1 - 1023 254 63 [ 63 - 42636447] NTFS

*2: 05 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 42636510 - 113659875] Extended DOS

3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

fdisk: 1>

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/dev/disk0 contains your HFS+ partition

/dev/disk1 is your installation DVD

 

use: fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0

then set partition 1 to active (f 1)

 

I do all it's writed but when I boot I see MBR.....(something).....

...(something)...done

 

If i choose to put 1 as active I see windows operating systems but if i choose 2 (where osx it's installed) i got the error above.

 

What do I do wrong?

 

Thank's

 

Hey, i am having serious issues with this installation. I have made minimal progress.

I somehow got past the Boot0: MBR etc. but I still run into my orignal problem.

When my laptop loads, it stalls on boot. After running in verbose, i came across the same issue:

Still waiting for root device.

I am running this on my laptop. Single core, INtel, 1gb ram, 90gb HD, OSx86 10.5.6.

I might run a ealier version, but i would liek to make it work.

 

I am a noob- but i have tried most of steps on this thread, along with others. I have reformatted and primary partitioned the drive multiple times. There is only the primary HD in the computer. I havent been able to successfully boot into Mac yet.

 

Any requests? im dieing to get this working.

 

Waiting for root device error is because you need the nforce patch. I had the Boot0: MBR etc.

 

How did you fix it?

 

Thank's

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I do all it's writed but when I boot I see MBR.....(something).....

...(something)...done

 

If i choose to put 1 as active I see windows operating systems but if i choose 2 (where osx it's installed) i got the error above.

 

What do I do wrong?

 

Thank's

 

 

 

Waiting for root device error is because you need the nforce patch. I had the Boot0: MBR etc.

 

How did you fix it?

 

Thank's

 

Only if SubCool's MOBO has nForce chipset......otherwise the solution for the error will be different.....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks this was a real help an it said my partition was active an all but when I try to reboot it jus gives me a black blinking _ and my specs above should I leave it and see if it boots or is there sumting wrong?? Lol thanks in advance! :blink:

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There are a lot of people who experience a b0 error on their first boot up after installation. Or the bootloader immediately takes them back to the Windows installation (on dual boot).

 

These people probably forgot to set the MacOSX partition "Active"

 

A common mantra provided here to newbies for setting up for installation is:

  • Make the partition Primary
  • Make the partition ID=AF (signifies an HFS partition)
  • Make the partition Active

There is a built-in Unix utility in MacOSX that can be used to set your partition "Active". It is called Fdisk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where is the problem?

 

Setting Your Partition "Active" Using Fdisk

 

Words in bold below are things you must type (followed by Enter).

 

1. Boot your Mac OS X install dvd

2. Once the installer is running, go to the Utilities menu and open Terminal

 

3. Determine which disk your MacOSX partition is on

Type
diskutil list

 

Verify which disk number holds your partition (disk
0
, disk
1
, etc.)

 

4. Start using Fdisk

Assuming the MacOSX disk is the first disk ("disk0"), then

type
fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
<== use "rdisk" with your disk number here !!

 

Ignore the error "fdisk: could not open MBR file ..."

 

5. Determine which partition for MacOSX needs to be set "Active"

Type
p

 

Verify which partition is for MacOSX (1, 2, 3, etc.)

 

6. Set the partition "Active"

Assuming it is partition 1, then

type
f 1
<== use your partition number here !!

 

7. Save and exit

Type
write

 

Type
y
(yes you are sure)

 

Type
exit
(to quit)

 

8. Remove the install DVD and reboot

 

 

 

 

Hello, I did this like it's written then I restarted PC and on boot screen I got

 

boot0: MBR

boot0: done

 

I am stuck here. Where is the problem? Any Help appreciate

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi. I am having a weird problem.

I screwed up my MBR some months ago. After doing it, I tried many different methods of fixing it. Rewrote the MBR exactly how it is explained on this topic. Nothing helped.

If I select the wrong partition, it shows that b0 error, but if I choose the one I think is right, it shows the blinking underscore with NO b0 error.

This is the diskutil list output:

/dev/disk0
#:					   TYPE NAME					SIZE	   IDENTIFIER
0:	  GUID_partition_scheme						*232.9 Gi   disk0
1:						EFI						 200.0 Mi   disk0s1
2:				  Apple_HFS Hackintosh			  182.4 Gi   disk0s2
3:				  Apple_HFS Backup				  50.0 Gi	disk0s3

(Only copied the code of my booting drive, the partition is Hackintosh. There are 3 more -no bootable- hard drives with different names).

 

This is the print output after marking the partition active.

 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [	 start -	   size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [		 1 -  488397167] <Unknown ID>
2: 00	0   0   0 -	0   0   0 [		 0 -		  0] unused	  
*3: 00	0   0   0 -	0   0   0 [		 0 -		  0] unused	  
4: 00	0   0   0 -	0   0   0 [		 0 -		  0] unused

 

This also happened with a friend's hackintosh. Different haraware, different install DVD (mine was Kaly 10.5.0 and hers Kaly 10.5.2). But it was different, she had the b0 error from the first boot.

 

I tried choosing all of them with no results. Always type rdisk.

---------- Now (30 seconds ago) I noticed that if I reopen fdisk and use the print command (p), the partition table doesn't have an asterisk on it (having marked it active 30 more seconds ago).

Shouldn't it show the asterisk now?!

 

When I leave the Install DVD inside, the system boots normally. I was going to leave it like this until next major update, but now I want to test kernels, and for doing that I need to use the Darwin Bootloader, which doesn't appear when loading from DVD.

 

Also, there is an issue with my DVD drive, and if I forget a DVD inside it (mounted), Mac will try to send it to sleep after 15 mins and it gets stuck until next restart.

So these are my reasons for trying to make it work.

 

I hope you can help me.

I read before that a user used Windows to mark the Mac partition active. Can I do this? (I have a spare drive with Windows XP on it, not plugged now).

 

Thanks,

Rodrigo

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello, I'm installing Kalyway 10.5.1 to my external HD which is called Kebab. When I boot, I always get the b0 error which I've googled and the most topics say that I gotta set it to "Active"..

The external HD has got 2 different partitions, one is called MAC and the other one is called DOCUMENTS. The single external HD's "number ID" is called disk6.

 

I wrote the "p" command and I don't know which to choose and I don't wanna choose my system which I think is called disk0.. Please help! :(

 

EDIT: The external HD is 500 GB splitted on two partitions please HELP! I don't want to loose my windows system..

 

dsc00387-5qHMc.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Hey Rammjet, sorry I'm a few years late lol, but I followed your directions and I need help.

Of course, my game is a bit different - I'm using iATKOS v7 and the Terminal is something called bash-3.2

 

Anyways, I use "diskutil list" and it's evident my partition is on disk0, so I follow the next step, typing in "fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0". As soon as I press enter, all that comes up is "Enter 'help' for information', and the line begins with 'fdisk: 1>"

 

I am so confused... I hope this isn't a problem with the version.

 

Please help! Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

First of all, respect guys for this great forum.

I'm new to the osx86 stuff, i installed leopard 10.5.7 using iATKOS v7 DVD.

Everything went fine, but i had a flashing cursor.

 

I used the following advice to fix the flashing cursor:

http://apple2pc.blogspot.com/2008/04/blink...86-install.html

 

and after that i had the

boot0: done

boot0: MBR

problem like other users.

 

I tried exactly what the first post said and still it can't be fixed.

I only have one hdd mounted atm, with only one partition where i installed leopard.

i'm posting some screenshots and let me know if i'm doing something wrong please...

 

As you can see, here's exactly what i wrote:

diskutil list

fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0

p

f 1

write

yes

exit

 

2uptutz.jpg

 

what am i doing wrong here?

 

i remove the install dvd, reboot and same thing happens...

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hey.

 

 

 

 

I know how to install MacOS and XP dual-booted. I've done it many times. But I already had Windows installed and so I went ahead and installed MacOS afterwards. It's installed fine (the files) but I can't boot it. When the computer turns on it goes straight to Windows XP.

 

Now I've already known about using fdisk, I've tried it millions of times but it wont do anything. It keeps booting my Windows partition first every time. I haven't even managed to install my user account on MacOS because I can't boot it! I was getting the boot0 error, but I know that was an error on my behalf.

 

What do I do? I don't fancy installing it all again with Mac as s1 because it was a failed Snow Leopard upgrade that fudged this up and I haven't got any idea how to backup, then restore XP if it fails (I've tried Ghost and stuff before, I don't like it. I prefer Disk Utility using Restore. But I can't do it with the install disk because it can't recognize it.)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Okay everyone i think i sorta got a solution here, im not any sort of expert but i got it working through trial/error.

 

i am dual booting iatkos v7 and windows 7 on a dell inspiron 1521 amd.

 

i installed iatkosv7 then installed windows 7 and was stuck only loading windows 7. i could boot osx but i had to boot from cd and couldn't get a wifi connection for some reason.

 

so i followed the guide in this thread and got stuck at the blinking cursor screen or the mission operating system screen (depending on which partition i made active with the guide posted).

 

After a few days of googling and searching around i just figured id get creative. So, i loaded up my iatkos v. 7 install dvd and under "utilities" there an option "Chameleon v.2 installer"

so i ran the installer, followed the instructions and got the chameleon screen to boot instead of the blinking cursor.

 

But first go to utilities>disk utility select your mac partition and Unmount it.

then close disk utility

 

now open up chameleon v2 installer

wait a few seconds for the scripts to load

 

It will prompt you to do several things, i believe the first one is:

 

select disk (for me it was 0)

Type: 0 (or your selected disk)

then press enter

Type: Y DO NOT PRESS ENTER, by pressing y it automatically enters it for you.

 

now you will be prompted to enter partition number

i selected 2 because thats where my osx is installed. (why i selected this one i have no idea, but it worked)

so type 2 or whatever number you want to install it to. press enter

then type: Y again, AGAIN DO NOT PRESS ENTER

 

after this just follow the instructions and keep pressing Y. until it says "proccess complete"

or something like that.

 

Now close the terminal and quit the OsX installer.

 

a window will pop up that has a Restart button.

 

push it.

 

now you should get the chameleon screen again.

 

The first time i selected my mac harddrive from the chameleon screen, it timed out and restarted.

chameleon popped up again so i tried windows and i got some sort of hardware failure

BUT the third time i restarted i selected my mac partition again and it loaded fine!

however it was really weird and buggy, i could not select the little apple logo to restart or shutdown, the top bar would disappear every time and finder would reload... this is a different issue though i think.

 

-i just restarted again and i can click the little apple... maybe the more i restart the more efficient it runs?

 

everything seems to be working fine now except i get an error when trying to load windows.

"Status: 0xc000000e

Info: the boot selection ailed because a required device is inaccessible"

 

im going to try to repair this so we'll see what happens.

 

so try this, at your own risk obviously and let me know how it works for you.

 

~pointblankshotx

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  • 4 weeks later...

Try Easybcd.

In windows download and install easybcd

Open the program in the appropriate box select mac, name it (you choose) in the next drop down box select generic osx86, click load and save. reboot and you should be good to go.

 

Raz

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  • 3 weeks later...

Need your help and advise.

I am running SL 10.6.2 and boot using Chameleon v2 rc3 from a seperate partition "Cham" on same HD with 5 partitions (See Attachment).

Now booting from Cham some times encountered KP ( blue or black screen just before booting into SL)

 

Problem:

diskutil list shown a total of 5 partitions including EFI

With fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0 and p,

Only partition 1 is shown with unknown id. (See attachment)

Rest of partitions shown unused. So can't set my "cham" partition active.

I must have screwed something up.

 

What must I do to correct the problem so the proper partitons is shown in fdisk?.

Does the command "fdisk -u /dev/rdisk0" help to solve above the problem?

I like to get feedbacks from anyone who has tried repair MBR with this command.

 

TQ

post-25748-1259740311_thumb.png

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