Unable to boot ANY Darwin/Chameleon variant

[outlaw69uk]

Ok, up until last night, I was running Snow Leo (10.6.4 and in 64bit) absolutely fine alongside Windows 7 64bit. I am howver running these on completely seperate HDD, and, was using Chameleon to boot ( as it would let me choose to boot into windows. As they are separate HDD, OSX is on a GUID, Windows on MBR, and, the OSX hdd set to be pimary boot device in bios.

 

Have had no problems at all then, last night, while in windows, i went to restart, and, nothing. Literally, a flashing line in the top left of the screen. Darwin didnt kick in at all. I have Leopard, Leopard install dvd and snow leopard install dv on anothr hard drive, and, using the boot 132 cd i can boot into leopard fine. (obviously not Snow)

 

If I set windows to be the primary boot drive, everything is ok and it boots, but, choosing either OSX install, nothing.Cant start up. Its almost as if Darwin/Chameleon is being blocked from starting.

 

To troubleshoot, I hav repartitioned/fomatted the OSX drive, reinstalled Snow Leopard, reinstalled Chamleon with correct kext etc, and, the same. It refuses to boot into the first menu (where you select drive/startup options.

 

Have looked at a few 'how to' threads and the like, and, not seen this. Since I have been runnin OSX for some time, I am good with getting it running, and, the correct kexts etc, but, this is stumping me, especially as it was working. Never had the need to ask a question before haha

 

Any ideas? Q6600 intel quad, Asus P5Q-EM, Nvidia geforce 8800 gts. pretty much

[outlaw69uk]

Update

 

Used disk clean in windows, and, re installed again. still nothing else. could windows have done an update that is preventing chameleon starting?

[outlaw69uk]

2 days, 20 views, no thoughts at all? damn, I would have thought this was interestin enough for someone, or common enough to be well known?

 

Well, latest update... did the HDD lose its "active" ness? Nope, Windows installed and booted on it fine.

 

Downloaded a "distro"? Iatkos or similar to see if that would install (As above, I always do retail installs, which have alwas workd), and, nope, those discs wont even boot.

 

Seems as though something is preventing ANY OSX variant boot... apart from, the Boot 132 cd that I used to use for leopard, which I can also boot into. But, I cant get that drive to boot from startup either.

 

Edit - Added PC spec to sig, seems almost the same as a moderator on here interestingly

 

Edit 2 - Sorry about the previous bump, was unintentional, far too used to just hitting fast reply on forums. Sorry peeps

[Alessandro17]

This issue doesn't make sense to me.

Even if you already managed to install once, let's start from the beginning.

 

Did you replace your BIOS with a modded one?

 

The only one I could find is here:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=123772

 

Did you configure SATA as AHCI?

 

You can find some (possibly) interesting info here:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...=204255&hl=

[outlaw69uk]

This issue doesn't make sense to me.

Even if you already managed to install once, let's start from the beginning.

 

Did you replace your BIOS with a modded one?

 

The only one I could find is here:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=123772

 

Did you configure SATA as AHCI?

 

You can find some (possibly) interesting info here:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...=204255&hl=

 

No, makes little sense to me, but, the last link you posted seems helpful. Perhaps the bios corruption that is mentioned there is the issue. Its the only thing that seems to make sense, as live discs (linux) and windows both boot fine. From our respective sigs, we have similar hardware, variations on a theme as it were.

 

ok, from the beginning.

 

Yes, I replaced the bios, originally with the one in the link (0202). Installed vanilla 10.5.6 Success.

Upgrade to 10.5.8 success as well

 

1 - About 6 months ago, I upgraded the bios to 1605, from a link in a guide to installing 10.6 on here somewhere. There was also a more recent version as well. I believe all were modded by "Smith".

 

edit - this thread - This Post

 

2 - 10.5.8 continued to run fine

 

3 - Installed vanilla 10.6.3 and, it was running, in 64bit mode fine.

 

4 - Last week, unable to boot. No errors, no warnings, no OS issues.

 

Common sense seems to dictate that I perhaps try to revert to the 0202 bios and test that? Do you think that the Shaumux bios in your link there would work on a P5Q-EM as well as a deluxe? Unsure how interchangeable/compatible these P5Q boards are in that sense.

 

In fact, reading through the link you posted, these below are common factors

 

1)BSODs in Windows, especially PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA errors. - YES, I had tons of these, regularly

 

3)Initial booting completely messed up. Unable to boot from a boot CD and various other errors. - having this now

4)"Delayed" start-ups after pressing the main power button. - yes, these too

[Alessandro17]

Common sense seems to dictate that I perhaps try to revert to the 0202 bios and test that?

 

Indeed. That came into my mind even before reading it from you. It would seem that Shaumux BIOSes are rock-solid.

I wonder if he has created a more recent version.

Do you think that the Shaumux bios in your link there would work on a P5Q-EM as well as a deluxe? Unsure how interchangeable/compatible these P5Q boards are in that sense.

 

Definitely not

 

In fact, reading through the link you posted, these below are common factors

 

1)BSODs in Windows, especially PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA errors. - YES, I had tons of these, regularly

 

3)Initial booting completely messed up. Unable to boot from a boot CD and various other errors. - having this now

4)"Delayed" start-ups after pressing the main power button. - yes, these too

 

So I suggest that you reverse to a Shaumux BIOS and follow my How To step by step.

[outlaw69uk]

Well, last night. Latest Shaumux Bios for my board. Installed that and, tried again with your bios config settings in the how to. I have had "some" joy here.

 

Maybe its due to our boards differing slightly, but, zero luck with the CPU options all disabled, in fact, that started giving me the delayed start up again which I havent had for a while. It does seem to suggest that the problem in the main was all down to a buggy bios file.

 

but

 

I did get the machine to boot from chameleon, RC5 I believe, but, now it has given me another odd problem, in that, when I boot into Leopard, i cant run any installers. When I try to run snow leopard, or leopard install disk (I have restored the DVD images to 10Gb partitions and install from HDD for speed), it just fails almost instantly, saying "cant expand files" or similar. There seem to be odd settings on HHDs as well, some have a padlock icon on them in the bottom right, and, its being problematic restoring images, so, essentially, I cant reinstall the OS now, although, it will fire up the bootloader. Think I need to have a good play with it. I may need to look at a couple of new HDD as well.

 

REALLY appreciate your help on this, and, have dropped you a link this morning

 

J

[Gringo Vermelho]

If you're getting page faults and can't expand compressed files, it's time to test your RAM.

 

Use memtest86 or the Windows 7 RAM tester. Boot from your Windows 7 partition, tap F8, select repair your computer. Once it's done loading, find the RAM tester, it's tucked away in some menu somewhere.

 

I have similar hardware as well, and I've never seen anything like what you're describing.

[outlaw69uk]

If you're getting page faults and can't expand compressed files, it's time to test your RAM.

 

Use memtest86 or the Windows 7 RAM tester. Boot from your Windows 7 partition, tap F8, select repair your computer. Once it's done loading, find the RAM tester, it's tucked away in some menu somewhere.

 

I have similar hardware as well, and I've never seen anything like what you're describing.

 

Hey, thanks for the reply

 

The page faults were part of the bios issue I believe, Allessandro helped with that, they no longer happen. I did a lot of memtest86 prior to originally posting as I thought that might be the problem, but, doesnt seem to be so far.

 

I think the OSX installer cant expand the files due to the drives permissions seeminly set to "custom" and, I cant change that. They are pretty much read only, which explains why I cant install to them. I havent seen it before, and, the small padlock icon on the drive icon is new. Ran out of time last night, but, I will repartition/format when I get back home from work.

[Alessandro17]

I think the OSX installer cant expand the files due to the drives permissions seeminly set to "custom" and, I cant change that. They are pretty much read only, which explains why I cant install to them.

 

Try to log in as root.

#sudo passwd root

Log out

You'll find that another user has been added: "other". Click on it and write: "root"

Now you can log in as root.

Of course you can also work as root from within your account.

[outlaw69uk]

Cheers, that worked.

 

Well, I am now thinking that something in Windows, possibly an update, has screwed thigns up. I cant get 10.5 retail disk to boot, even with the P5q boot 132 disc. 10.6 retail disk hangs on a grey screen, just before aurora kicks in. ideneb starts to install then fails, Snowleo DVD fails on install.

 

All the versions that get to the setup page, cant mount any non-mac drives

 

Plan for today, is format everything, and, start again! lol

[outlaw69uk]

Ok, Done that. Semi progress.

 

I can boot a Leo (10.5) DVD up to install point, and, disk utility seems to be working, in the main. Downloading new retail images at the moment, as, each install attempt is failing, with "failed to verify BSD"

 

Steering clear of distros, since, I got nowhere with the variants of those I tried.