Cannot start shell at boot

[Olden]

Hi,

I've successfully installed MacOSX 10.4.6 patched to 10.4.7 on my Dell Inspiron (P4 3.0mhz, 1gb ram, SATA hd, ATI Radeon X300, Sound Blaster Live! audio).

Have it running with dual booting thanks to Acronis OS selector (what a great tool!) , and the system appears to be very stable.

Audio not working , resolution stuck to 1024x768 (I've managed to change it manually to 1280x1024 but no option in the preferences menu).

Ethernet worked fine after inserting my card ID and i'ts very fast.

Now I'm trying to get rid of mouse tearing issue, forcing the system to recognize my sound card properly...

Last night I've tried to install the ATIRadeon.kext from the Extensions_disabled10.4.6 folder on my install dvd, but the system crashed at boot saying <panic> missing references... etc.

I had this kind of problem other times and I always resolved pressing command+s at boot and deleting the bad file from the command line, but this time the shell does not start at all, neither if I select the -x option at boot before pressing command+s...

Is there antother boot option to use for having a shell command line?

[Rammjet]

Command-S only works on real Macs.

 

On a hackintosh, you must hit F8 at boot and enter your boot parameter (-x, -s, etc)

 

When the computer boots, the screen first turns black then grey with a spinning icon. As soon as the screen turns black, start tapping the F8 key, quickly and repeatedly until a command prompt appears.

 

Enter -s to enter single user mode (command driven interface) or -x to enter safe boot (has GUI but only key things are loaded). If you enter -s, be sure to type the "mount" command that is displayed on the screen in order to be able to access your disks.

 

For your video problems, learn to use the search function to find topics like this:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=22215

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=16763

 

and to learn about the Callisto drivers for ATI: http://omni.starchaser.org/callisto

[Olden]

Thanks, but still no way out. :-(

 

I'm able to enter the -x or -s options in darwin at boot, but nothing happens if I press F8 during boot.

With -s and -v modes, I simply have no time to try, 'cause the system hangs up within less then a second.

With -x options the boot is slow, but nothing happens hitting F8 same as pressing command+s.

 

I think I'll have to reinstall OSX another time...

[Rammjet]

I'm able to enter the -x or -s options in darwin at boot

 

What happens when you enter -s in Darwin at boot?

 

Your other option is to boot the install DVD into the installer. At the first page of the install, go to the Utilities menu and select Terminal. Do your business there, remove the DVD and reboot.

[Olden]

I've already tried using the shell from the installation dvd, but I don't know how to mount the right disk partition to operate on. Seems obvious to me that i have to tell the installation cd monitor shell that it has to browse the mac osx hd partition instead of the installation disk itself!

I really do not know the right commands to grab right access from there...

[Rammjet]

I've already tried using the shell from the installation dvd, but I don't know how to mount the right disk partition to operate on. Seems obvious to me that i have to tell the installation cd monitor shell that it has to browse the mac osx hd partition instead of the installation disk itself!

I really do not know the right commands to grab right access from there...

 

With the installation DVD booted, all of your partitions are mounted under /Volumes/(partition-name).

 

Just do a "cd /Volumes" and "ls" and you will see all of them and probably some RAM disks that the installation DVD sets up.

[Olden]

thanks , all done now... system is working again!

 

First thing I did when I came again my OSX is to remove all ATI drivers from the extensions folder.

One good result was that I have no more mouse tearing issues now.