Still-Waiting-For-Root-Device Problem

[jeanpave]

Hi.

 

I am getting the "Still Waiting for Root Device" recurring message, when I try the latest iPC 10.5.6 DVD.

 

If I understand correctly, this can be because my hard-drive is not connected to the right IDE channel?! Is this right?

 

There's a DVD-ROM drive at IDE Channel 0 Slave, and the hard-drive is at IDE Channel 1 Slave.

Must the hard-drive be at IDE Channel 0 Master, in order for Mac OS X to stop complaining about the root device?

If so, is there a way around it, maybe, without going inside and rewiring it?

 

May I also ask what are the chances, if this is indeed the problem, that connecting the HDD to IDE Channel 0 Master will make the install finally work well? Could you give me a rough percentage, please? (I got more than one page of small writing to pass onscreen before getting to this error. The last line prior to the error was something about iTunes, I think...)

 

Thank you very much.

[michaspoli]

At first you should write your signature, that we know, what kind of hardware you use.

[jeanpave]

Sorry, I don't use a signature.

 

But here are the specs, if you want to know them:

- Processor: AMD Phenom II

- Video Card: Radeon 5770

- RAM: 8 GB

- motherboard: Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5

- trying to use: iPC Leopard 10.5.6

 

Thank you.

 

P.S. Oh, and I tried the usual tweaks: AHCI in BIOS, Legacy USB Disabled, command-line -v -x, command-line cpus=1, and so on.

[jeanpave]

Please, I'm just asking if it's a MUST, in my case, to switch the hard-drive to IDE Channel 0 Master, or at least to IDE Channel 1 Master.

 

If I mess around inside, it voids the warranty!

 

At the same time, if this is the ONLY way - somebody who's more knowledgeable than me should know this, and I'm just asking him to say a few words here... - to get rid of the "Still Waiting for Root Device", I'll do it.

 

I didn't try it already, you know, not just because of the warranty, but also because I'm thinking: "Are these Apple people morons? How can they create a Mac OS which can only be installed on IDE Master, and never even recognizes a Slave connection? And people are criticizing Microsoft for compatibility issues and support issues!... It just can't be true that that's why I get that error!!..." You know?

 

So, I really need some advice. Please.

 

P.S. Michaspoli, why did you ask to know my specifications, if you have absolutely nothing to say?

[Dellmantt]

Please, I'm just asking if it's a MUST, in my case, to switch the hard-drive to IDE Channel 0 Master, or at least to IDE Channel 1 Master.

 

If I mess around inside, it voids the warranty!

 

At the same time, if this is the ONLY way - somebody who's more knowledgeable than me should know this, and I'm just asking him to say a few words here... - to get rid of the "Still Waiting for Root Device", I'll do it.

 

I didn't try it already, you know, not just because of the warranty, but also because I'm thinking: "Are these Apple people morons? How can they create a Mac OS which can only be installed on IDE Master, and never even recognizes a Slave connection? And people are criticizing Microsoft for compatibility issues and support issues!... It just can't be true that that's why I get that error!!..." You know?

 

So, I really need some advice. Please.

 

P.S. Michaspoli, why did you ask to know my specifications, if you have absolutely nothing to say?

Firstly the Apple people are not morons. OS X is designed to run on Apple hardware (A Macintosh Computer) You are trying to run it on non Apple hardware which is technically illegal. So stop sooking.

Second Including your specifications is always helpful to anyone reading your thread, and it was good advice you got from Michaspoli. He didn't answer you, stiff, nobody is obligated to answer you. The whole tone of your last post will just alienate people, not get you help.

 

You say "There's a DVD-ROM drive at IDE Channel 0 Slave, and the hard-drive is at IDE Channel 1 Slave.

Try booting with the flag rd=disk0s1

[jeanpave]

Sorry, I guess I didn't realize people here were so fond of Apple and what it does (- you know what I mean). I thought people here were disappointed with Apple's closed-city mentality, as well, which is why this whole forum exists in the first place.

Anyway, I apologize if I offended you by dissing Apple. (Which, by the way, I didn't do openly, because I said, and I paraphrase: I can't believe that these Apple people would be morons! There was a question mark there, above, not a statement of fact.)

 

Getting back to the issue at hand, thank you very much for the suggestion, Dellmantt, but I tried that (rd=disk0s1). It still gave me the repeating prompt "Still Waiting for Root Device".

 

So, anyway, after your reply, I am reasonably convinced now that I don't have to re-wire the computer, at all. Apple did provide support for Channel 1 Slave, too, as can be seen from the disk0s1 scenario, so the problem must come from elsewhere. I just can't figure out from where.

[Dellmantt]

Sorry, I guess I didn't realize people here were so fond of Apple and what it does (- you know what I mean). I thought people here were disappointed with Apple's closed-city mentality, as well, which is why this whole forum exists in the first place.

Anyway, I apologize if I offended you by dissing Apple. (Which, by the way, I didn't do openly, because I said, and I paraphrase: I can't believe that these Apple people would be morons! There was a question mark there, above, not a statement of fact.)

 

Getting back to the issue at hand, thank you very much for the suggestion, Dellmantt, but I tried that (rd=disk0s1). It still gave me the repeating prompt "Still Waiting for Root Device".

 

So, anyway, after your reply, I am reasonably convinced now that I don't have to re-wire the computer, at all. Apple did provide support for Channel 1 Slave, too, as can be seen from the disk0s1 scenario, so the problem must come from elsewhere. I just can't figure out from where.

 

Putting Apple aside, and it was a gracious apology.

 

If you have tried all the boot combinations (rd=discXsX) and other things ACHI etc, and I assume you have done a search like this http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&...q=&gs_rfai=

 

One other thing to try is an external USB DVD drive. This most times works and as you say you don't want to rewire the computer.

[jeanpave]

First, I'm very sorry for the late reply. I've been swamped with work for the past 7 days, or so.

 

And thank you very much for the advice, but I think I'm going to give up. Trying the USB DVD-ROM thing, I get a "system config file /com.apple.boot.slist not found" error. They must all be IDE inside the computer (- I read the results of the insanelymac search, yes -), and the USB drive, well, I don't know what the hell its problem is, but I just don't have the knowledge.

 

Just my luck, you know! I can install Mac OS X easy like a breeze on a crappy computer from 2004, which I cannot use for any kind of work nowadays, but on the computer that actually has the power to run the applications I need, no flavour of OSx86 even boots.

 

(I'm never buying an Apple product, though. I'll burn in hell before I do that.)

 

Thanks anyway, man, and have a good one!

[Dellmantt]

First, I'm very sorry for the late reply. I've been swamped with work for the past 7 days, or so.

 

And thank you very much for the advice, but I think I'm going to give up. Trying the USB DVD-ROM thing, I get a "system config file /com.apple.boot.slist not found" error. They must all be IDE inside the computer (- I read the results of the insanelymac search, yes -), and the USB drive, well, I don't know what the hell its problem is, but I just don't have the knowledge.

 

Just my luck, you know! I can install Mac OS X easy like a breeze on a crappy computer from 2004, which I cannot use for any kind of work nowadays, but on the computer that actually has the power to run the applications I need, no flavour of OSx86 even boots.

 

(I'm never buying an Apple product, though. I'll burn in hell before I do that.)

 

Thanks anyway, man, and have a good one!

Que Sera, Sera

[jeanpave]

Very true.

 

P.S. Oh, by quitting, I just meant I'll use VMWare. I got enough RAM.

[duluxe]

Hi everyone,

I also got this infamous "still waiting for root device". After hours of searching over the forum and Internet, I gave up and decided to go here to post a question:

 

My system is ASUS F3SG laptop, here is a snapshot of its spec:

================

SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])

IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])

USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [uHCI])

....

================

The weird thing about my system is that out of about 20 attempts to boot , I got 1 success and 19 fails :-?? . Here are some methods I've tried so far :

1. BIOS settings : Sorry , this laptop's BIOS has limited options. In facts, I can't change anything

2. Used AHCI Fix ( AppleAHCIPort.kert and IOAHCIFamily.kert). Actually , in some rare occasion when I can boot into my system, I checked System Info->Serial-ATA and saw ACPI ICH8M ... or something like that. I'm confused that it works sometime but rarely :-??

3. Tried to delete extensions.mkert under /System/Libarary and delete all files in Caches folders under /Library as well as /System/Library but next reboot does not work.

4. Tried different combination of options at boot (e.g. -v -f -x platform=ACPI cpus=1 rd=disk0s6 acpi=off noapic ... ) but it's not working. Once I can log in the system, I noted down what I did to make it work and tried to repeat this "success" but I can't .

 

Another thing I want to mention is my system is triple boot ( Fedora-Vista-iDeneb 1.5.2 - not so sure about version of iDeneb) . My boot loader sequence is as following : First is GNU GRUB, second is Window Boot Manager , next is GRUB4DOS , and last is Chameleon v1.1.. ( that's the screen boot, I'm not sure the extract boot sequence ) . Maybe my boot sequence is : GRUB at the MBR , Easy BCD at the Vista partition, and Chameleon at the HFS+ partion.

 

Any help would be appreciate . I'm so frustrated . If you need more info please tell me , I will actively check this thread.