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[HELP] Can only boot in safe mode (-x)!

iPixel

By iPixel,
in OSx86 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

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iPixel
iPixel
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Note: This issue is related to my laptop. For the detailed hardware specs, see the link in my signature. :-)

 

<Edit>

I can get my system boot now, but ONLY with -x.

If -x is not used, I get a "Still waiting for root device" message every few minutes, preventing my system from booting and forcing me to shut it down.

This applies to both the DVD (using iAtkos S3 v2, Hazard doesn't work) and the boot from the HDD. I could install without issues by booting into the DVD's safe mode.

I've tried disabling some kexts that don't get loaded in safe mode and deleted everything related to ATA (my SB800 doesn't support PATA, so I guess ATA stuff is quite useless).

Problem is still there... :(

 

Note: I managed to boot only two/three times without -x! However, whenever I tried to reproduce EXACTLY what I did, it wouldn't boot up anymore (unless using -x of course).

 

Conclusion: Something that does not get loaded in safe mode is preventing me from booting in normal mode 99% of the time. That "something" also gets auto-loaded by the iAtkos setup DVD, forcing me to boot the DVD in safe mode as well, when I need it.

I need to find out what that "something" is!

 

My configuration:

(Check my sig for my laptop's hardware specs)

Chameleon RC4 (Tried AnVal first, didn't work at all, so I used the setup dvd's tool to install Chameleon RC4 instead). (Edit: I switched to PC_EFI, didn't change anything though)

I checked Graphics enabler and Legacy Logo for bootloader options.

I checked all SATA/AHCI patches except the nForce ones. I have an AMD chipset so I don't really know which one to choose...

I checked two laptop options: battery and the cardreader.

I checked broadcom wireless drivers (got a bcm 4313). (Edit: Disabled them to see if that helped, but it didn't)

 

And some other details:

  • My laptop has an "Insyde H20" bios. Right now version F.23.
    This crappy type of bios does not allow you to modify settings other than the least important ones (date/time, password, boot order)... Special thanks to Hewlett-Packard for this.
  • I'm nearly sure, however, that AHCI is enabled, because the appropriate windows registry key is configured for AHCI (which ONLY happens when you install Windows while AHCI is enabled). Moreover, my AMD southbridge (SB800) only supports SATA devices, so IDE compatibility would be quite useless.
  • I contacted HP regarding the bios: They plainly refused to help or give information because "they don't support raid mode on their laptops" (my dog is more skilled than the person who replied that).

 

PS: I already got SL running perfectly, very stable, on my desktop, dualbooting with Win7, so I do know the frustration and patience it takes to get it working (yep, I'm writing from my desktop's mac!), but right now, I'm really out of idea's: ANY help/suggestion will be appreciated!

 

Thanks. :-)

Gringo Vermelho
Gringo Vermelho
Posted
Posted

You might be able to boot up your installation by booting from the install DVD.

Boot from the DVD and press F8 during boot to get to the boot prompt. Then type whatever rd=diskxyz you have to type.

 

The kernel extension that you added to your DVD did not get installed - or it's not the right one.

It is possible (though not very likely) that your DVD drive and your hard drive are not connected to the same controller, or operate in different modes. That means you would need another kernel extension to boot from your hard drive.

 

Was it an injector/legacy kext or a info.plist edit of an original Apple kernel extension?

 

If the former, you might be able to create a boot CD on your desktop Hackintosh that can boot the installation on your laptop.

iPixel
iPixel
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You might be able to boot up your installation by booting from the install DVD.

Boot from the DVD and press F8 during boot to get to the boot prompt. Then type whatever rd=diskxyz you have to type.

Thanks for your reply!

 

I just retried to boot from the DVD with "-v rd=disk0s3", sadly, it resulted in a "Still waiting for..." error. During the past few days, like I stated, I've spent a lot of time trying to boot up from the DVD. One of the flags I tried was disk0s3.

I didn't really understand what it meant with Root device... I thought it was the target partition on my HDD, but it seems to be the source of the OS to be loaded...

In the case of my DVD, it's disk1s3, apparently (never heard of a partitioned DVD though, but anyway).

 

Now, logically, when booting from the HDD (thus loading the OS found on disk0s3), the correct flag should be rd=disk0s3.

Maybe it's the correct flag, but it results in the same "Still waiting..." error.

 

The kernel extension that you added to your DVD did not get installed - or it's not the right one.

 

Well, I added a kext named "AppleOnBoardATA" (I may spell it slightly incorrectly) found in some post on these forums.

I added a modified "IOATAFamily" (may spell it wrong again, but I think that was the name), and renamed the old one to "IOATAFamily_ORIGINAL.kext", just in case I would still need it.

During the installation, they didn't get copied (or at least not the AppleOnBoardATA one), so, based on another post, I booted up from the DVD, went in the terminal, and copied them to /Volumes/Snow/System/Library/Extentions/ and adjusted the permissions ("chown -R root:wheel" and "chmod 755" on the files in the folder).

I rebooted, and tried booting with both -f and -x, but nothing helped.

I got those two kexts from a post talking about how to install on the SB700. I have the less common SB800, according to CPU-Z's report file (check my sig -> laptop specifications).

 

It is possible (though not very likely) that your DVD drive and your hard drive are not connected to the same controller, or operate in different modes. That means you would need another kernel extension to boot from your hard drive.

Haven't thought of this yet... I'm not sure if/how I can find that out.

I checked the hardware manager in windows (Chameleon still lets me boot up windows without trouble, fortunately).

I took a screenshot of something that might be interesting:

detailsv.jpg

(I added translated blue labels)

If Windows is not wrong, I seem to have only one SATA controller (from AMD), and no IDE controller (my laptop is only a few months old, so I guess that's not very surprising).

The two other windows tell the following about my DVD drive and my HDD:

They have a different bus number (DVD = Bus 2, HDD = Bus 1), but they have the same Target ID and LUN (whatever that may be).

 

Was it an injector/legacy kext or a info.plist edit of an original Apple kernel extension?

 

If the former, you might be able to create a boot CD on your desktop Hackintosh that can boot the installation on your laptop.

I'm not sure if the AppleOnBoardATA was an injector or legacy kext, but the modified IOATAFamily is probably a legacy one (I've seen it saying something like "Loading HFS+ File... IOATAFamily.kext ... xxx bytes").

Whether it was an info.plist or not is something I don't know... I haven't touched it, but I downloaded those two kexts from that post I can't find anymore...

 

A last detail that might be interesting: I have the Hazard SL DVD too, but I never got it working. On my PC it instantly rebooted (after offering to input options by pressing F8), and on my laptop it froze to a black screen at that same moment.

 

 

 

Anyway, thanks again for the info. I'm always open for any suggestion/help! (And if I manage to install mac on this laptop, I think I'll be able to install it on any other PC :thumbsup_anim: ).

 

 

<Edit> I just found some technical details regarding AMD's SB800 southbridge: http://www.amdzone.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=136030.

It states something interesting: As of the SB800, it no longer supports PATA! No wonder AHCI was enabled by default...

 

<Edit2> Actually (correct me if I'm wrong, but...), I just realized all those ATA-related kexts aren't that necessary, since my laptop is completely SATA based (no PATA support in the SB800...).

It also seems like (as stated in this post, just below the screenshot) I have only one SATA controller, which is recognized when booting from the DVD. So now I really have no more idea of what could cause that cursed "Still waiting for root device" error!

iPixel
iPixel
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Ok this is driving me really, really crazy... :wacko:

 

I restarted my laptop to try something else (forgot what, doesn't matter), and tried to boot again with -v only.

Surprise! "Got root device..."!!! A bit later, kernel panic: only showed hexadecimal stuff, i think it's related to VoodooHDA but that doesn't matter, KPanics are easy to solve.

 

Some exact details of what I did:

I restarted from Windows (not shutdown/start up, just restart).

There was the DVD in the drive, but I removed it while having the HP logo (the first screen you see when you boot).

I booted from the HDD (HDD is first in my BIOS' boot order) and went to Chameleon, where I hit a key and boot up Mac with -v.

 

Now, good isn't it? Well... No.

I tried to do EXACTLY the same (went back in windows, restarted, pulled out the dvd at the HP screen, etc.), tried it like 10 times, whenever I try to boot, I get the "Still waiting for root device" error again.

 

Please tell me what the :thumbsup_anim: is going on! It boots up once and stops at a KPanic, and now it doesn't want to detect the root device anymore!

Has anyone seen something like this? Or are the 8 cups of coffee I just took driving me a bit crazy?

 

For now, I don't care about the KPanic... I just need to find out how to get past that error. Now I KNOW there is a way to get past it!

 

Thanks again for any suggestion/help/info, and please excuse my crazyness (I guess you understand). :)

 

 

<Edit> YES! I managed to get to the KPanic again (same KPanic btw, but anyway)! But then again, I tried to do EXACTLY what I just did, but now I'm stuck with that error again...

If someone sees ANY logic in this, feel free to share it... I'm getting some more coffee... :trumpet:

Gringo Vermelho
Gringo Vermelho
Posted
Posted

LOL

 

It lives!

 

Try booting with your DVD and delete VoodooHDA from Terminal. Maybe it doesn't like your laptop's audio hardware or (if your laptop has HDMI output) it's getting confused trying to enable HDMI and HD audio at the same time.

 

Sometimes VoodooHDA and AppleHDA can also conflict and cause a panic. The solution for this is to move AppleHDA out of the way (or just delete it).

 

You'll have to boot up with -f to rebuild the extensions cache, otherwise the extensions you delete or move will just load from the cache and you'll have the same problem.

 

You can also do it the macho way and wipe the cache manually while you're in Terminal:

 

sudo rm /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext

 

It'll be rebuilt automatically on first boot.

 

Good luck.

iPixel
iPixel
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LOL

 

It lives!

 

Try booting with your DVD and delete VoodooHDA from Terminal. Maybe it doesn't like your laptop's audio hardware or (if your laptop has HDMI output) it's getting confused trying to enable HDMI and HD audio at the same time.

 

Sometimes VoodooHDA and AppleHDA can also conflict and cause a panic. The solution for this is to move AppleHDA out of the way (or just delete it).

 

You'll have to boot up with -f to rebuild the extensions cache, otherwise the extensions you delete or move will just load from the cache and you'll have the same problem.

 

You can also do it the macho way and wipe the cache manually while you're in Terminal:

 

sudo rm /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext

 

It'll be rebuilt automatically on first boot.

 

Good luck.

Thanks for your reply!

 

I GOT IT!!

 

I finally managed to boot up, three times in a row!

I removed VoodooHDA and all *ATA* -named kexts (since I don't need ATA support anyway).

I tried to boot with -v -f, but that didn't work. "Still waiting...".

However, booting with -v -x (or -x alone) ALWAYS seems to work! Moreover, WITHOUT KPanic (looks like VoodooHDA may have conflicted with AppleHDA indeed)!

 

Now I'm trying to find (I guess it's a particular kext) that is preventing my mac to boot up, because always booting with -x is slow (tries to mount other partitions, but macFuse seems to be disabled)...

I know it's not a kext named *ATA*, and it must be a kext that IS loaded when booting from the DVD (because I can nearly only boot from the DVD with -x). Furthermore, it's not a legacy/standard (whatever it's called) kext, because it does not load in safe mode...

 

The latest lines I see on the screen are related to VoodooPS2, when not booting with -x. Maybe this kext is preventing me from booting? I've tried to remove it, but couldn't find it in "/System/Library/Extensions/"... (I installed it to get my touchpad working)

 

Another thing could be (not sure at all though) that the Qoopz kernel isn't so compatible with my system... I never tried any other kernel though (on my desktop Legacy never worked, so I went Qoopz 10.3.0). Not sure if Legacy works on AMD CPU's, but if u think it can, I might try the legacy kernel as well (the closer to a real mac, the better :blink: ). I don't know, however, if booting in safe mode (-x) loads the legacy kernel or if it keeps the Qoopz kernel... If the latter, then switching kernel probably won't solve anything...

 

Feel free to suggest any kext which I have to remove (or something else that causes this issue?)...

iPixel
iPixel
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Well I tried booting with "mach_kernel", but it only left me with a black screen... Not sure if it's because the legacy kernel isn't compatible with my cpu (probably) or because it is not installed/not present in the root directory...

 

I've also switched to PC_EFI... Didn't change anything.

 

If someone knows a kext or something else (that doesn't get loaded in -x safe mode) that might be causing issues please don't hesitate to let me know!

 

PS: I edited my main post, since the issue has changed, and my main objective is to find out that thing that doesn't get loaded in safe mode and that's preventing me from booting in normal mode...

iPixel
iPixel
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Update:

I reinstalled mac once more, this time excluding as much options as possible: No extra drivers, disabled the "disabler" patch, and no bootloader extensions.

As always, the system restarted after the installation, and I managed to boot with -v!

I didn't stay long in my session (just switched wallpaper :) ) and restarted, just to make sure I had found the issue... but no!

I restarted, wrote the -v flag, pressed enter... and that :wallbash: <Insert 5 fat insults here> :censored2: "Still waiting for root device" came back!

 

This is driving me really crazy! It doesn't make sense, does it?! It works once, giving me fake hope, and won't work when I try it again! Argh!!!

 

Any help is greatly appreciated!

iPixel
iPixel
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Another update:

 

The more I try to understand, the less I do.

Yesterday I thought -x made me immune against the "Still waiting for root device" error. I was wrong.

It seems that booting up with -x does work, but not ALWAYS! My latest "-x" boots were: error message, succeeded, error message, succeeded. 50/50% :rolleyes:

 

However, no luck for every time I tried -v only (and every possible combination with -s and -f). I tried shutting down and starting up, and restarting from mac (after I booted in with the safe mode)... With/without external media...

 

I'm going to try booting without my USB mouse (maybe it conflicts with VoodooPS2)... Don't think that'll change much, but who knows...

 

 

 

I'm out of inspiration, I could REALLY use some ideas! Don't hesitate to suggest anything, it can't be worse that what I currently have...

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

iFIRE
iFIRE
Posted
Posted
Another update:

 

The more I try to understand, the less I do.

Yesterday I thought -x made me immune against the "Still waiting for root device" error. I was wrong.

It seems that booting up with -x does work, but not ALWAYS! My latest "-x" boots were: error message, succeeded, error message, succeeded. 50/50% :(

 

However, no luck for every time I tried -v only (and every possible combination with -s and -f). I tried shutting down and starting up, and restarting from mac (after I booted in with the safe mode)... With/without external media...

 

I'm going to try booting without my USB mouse (maybe it conflicts with VoodooPS2)... Don't think that'll change much, but who knows...

 

 

 

I'm out of inspiration, I could REALLY use some ideas! Don't hesitate to suggest anything, it can't be worse that what I currently have...

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

 

Look this: http://apple2pc.blogspot.com/2008/05/still...oot-device.html

iPixel
iPixel
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Thanks for your reply Osm@rbcn!

 

Went through all the comments on the page, and did what someone suggested: Adding AppleVIAATA.kext, AppleGenericPCATA.kext, AppleOnBoardPCATA.kext and AppleNForceATA.kext to IOATAFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins (the other needed kexts were already present).

I added my controller's hardware ID, 0x43911002 to AppleVIAATA's IOPCIPrimaryMatch string. I also noticed that string already contained, among others, the ID 0x43901002, which seems pretty similar to mine.

I chown'd and chmod'ed and made sure there was no Extensions.mkext in /System/Library.

 

Sadly, didn't change anything. Tried booting multiple times with and without -f. No luck. :(

 

I guess HP succeeded in making an anti-mac notebook, while basing their design on the macbook pro... how ironic!

 

Anyway, I'm still open to any suggestions! I'm not going to give up until I have a working mac! :shock::wallbash: :wallbash:

iPixel
iPixel
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I just found this webpage where someone describes a situation that seems to be very similar to mine: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.ph...for_root_device

[...] the first boot was OK, configure the OSX with keyboard, personal info, etc...But when you turn it off and on again, it freezes in the holy "Still waiting for root device". My solution was, start OSX with the -v -x flags, for my surprise it recognize the SATA disk and start in safe mode. [...]

I remember nearly each time I rebooted after the installation, I managed to boot in normal mode (with -v only!), but as soon as I rebooted again, I wouldn't be able to avoid the "Still waiting for root device" error, unless I used the -x flag...

 

Now I booted into safe mode and did what that guy just suggested (had to prefix each command with "sudo " however):

rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache (for me that file did not exist)

kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions/ (didn't work, the -k option is deprecated...)

kextcache -L -N -e (it searched a bit and wrote quite some lines on the screen)

 

After that I tried restarting, both with "-v", "-v -f", "-v -s", "-v -f -s" and every combination with "rd=disk0s3" but still no success!

Maybe the fact that the second command, "kextcache -k ..." didn't work could be the reason why the issue is still present? In other words, does someone know the new alternative to "kextcache -k ..."? I tried to check "kextcache -help" but I didn't understand much of it...

 

I also reinstalled with a new, clean iAtkos S3 V2 DVD (the previous one had modified kexts which I had found on the forums). But everything remained the same... :)

 

As always, any help, suggestion, remark, idea is greatly appreciated.

  • 2 weeks later...
iPixel
iPixel
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Awesome! Thanks for that file, I found the command that I think I was looking for...

REBUILD CACHES

sudo touch /Volumes/YOUR_OSX_HD/System/Library/Extensions

I'll try reinstalling and rebuilding the cache right after the install, because AFAIK I can boot up normally right after installing (after that, I always need -x :thumbsup_anim: ).

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