Adding rd=disk0s2 in com.apple.boot.plist

[David Bartlett]

Editing com.apple.boot.plist

 

Where can I put the command "rd=disk0s2"?

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[macgirl]

Yo cand add it to the Kernel Flags

[David Bartlett]

I don't think it worked. Let me try it again. Has anyone had any luck?

[macgirl]

Why?

 

You can also type -v option and see if it is working.

[David Bartlett]

I accidently omitted the "rd=" command on my first attemp. Working now thanks.

[shila]

Hello,

 

I´m trying the same but with no luck!!! Can you please describe in detail what you have done!

When I add rd=disk0s2 to com.apple.boot.plist the partition doesn´t get recognized and the darwin boot loader jumps back to Windows. I boot with windows bootloader (chain0 Method), I have to select Mac OS X, than I get the Darwin boot loader and there I have to manually choose the second partition.

 

thanks in advance

shila

[macgirl]

Did your partition of Mac OS is Third also. Go to Terminal and type mount, see which device (/dev/diskXsY) is mounted as /

Also you can open Disk Utility and see the device.

[bluedragon1971]

Hello,

 

I´m trying the same but with no luck!!! Can you please describe in detail what you have done!

When I add rd=disk0s2 to com.apple.boot.plist the partition doesn´t get recognized and the darwin boot loader jumps back to Windows. I boot with windows bootloader (chain0 Method), I have to select Mac OS X, than I get the Darwin boot loader and there I have to manually choose the second partition.

 

thanks in advance

shila

 

I'm having the exact same problem. My OS X partition is disk0s3, and although I have this in my boot.plist file, it still wants to default to disk0s1 (my Windows XP partition). Disk0s2 is the recovery partition on my system. Manually selecting the OS X partition in the Darwin bootloader works, but it is annoying that it is not working as it should. I guess I could try re-arranging the partitions on the drive (to make OS X the first partition), but it seems that this should not be necessary.

[macgirl]

Post your complete com.apple.boot.plist

[David Bartlett]

This works for me. Hope it helps others.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>rd=disk0s2</string>

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1280x1024x32</string>

<key>Boot Graphics</key>

<string>Yes</string>

</dict>

</plist>

[bluedragon1971]

Post your complete com.apple.boot.plist

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Boot Graphics</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1280x1024x32@85</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>rd=disk0s3</string>
<key>Quiet Boot</key>
<string>No</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>4</string>
</dict>
</plist>

 

Pretty much the same as the one posted above.

[shila]

So,

for some people this seems to work for other not. Let´s try to find out what the problem is!

I installed OS X om my Laptop after creating a primary partition with Partion Magic, Windows was already on the laptop. I did a native install with the patched Marklar.iso! How did you insall?

 

shila

[David Bartlett]

bluedragon1971 - Does manually typing "rd=disk0s3" work at the bootlogger load the correct os?

[bluedragon1971]

bluedragon1971 - Does manually typing "rd=disk0s3" work at the bootlogger load the correct os?

 

Yes, but to get to the boot prompt, I have to select OS X in the Darwin bootloader anyway. That kind of defeats the purpose and doesn't really prove that the command is working.

[David Bartlett]

I was just wonderin if the command works for you at the Darwin Bootloader, incase your drive OS isn't on your third partitian. Get me?

[shila]

How did you install/partition your disk? As I wrote above I did it on a disk with win xp already installed and partitioned the disk with ratition magic!

Have you probably reformated your harddrives from OSX dvd and installed win after that?

When I set my osx partition aktiv I get a the message "operating system not found", I think this should also happen to you bluedragon1971?

[bluedragon1971]

I used Partition Magic to create an empty partition, then installed from a patched DVD. I'm absolutely certain that it's disk0s3 (confirmed via mount, Disk Utility, and the Darwin bootloader itself), but for some reason using the rd=disk0s3 in boot.plist doesn't seem to do the trick. Oh well, I can live with it.

[shila]

Hello agian,

 

for both of us who have prepared the disk with partition magic and installed from patched installer dvd it doesnt´t work!

I like to know how you did your install David?

[David Bartlett]

Brief Outline as I recall

-I installed the OSX files from my G5 to a removable drive.

-I took the drive out of the case and put it into my PC

-found the 6gb partitian and used some code found on this site to free up the rest of the space (created 2nd partitian)

-then I used Darwin to create the 2nd bootable drive

-transfered my system files over to the other partitan

 

edited the com.apple.boot.plist

[Cleggy]

This might be slightly off topic but it may help some people with boot problems.

 

I installed OSX on my Dell Laptop this morning using the Install DVD. I origninally tried to install it into a second partition on my hardrive but it always failed after the install. So I nuked the drive and installed it as the only OS and it worked fine. However this wasn't how I wanted the final solution to end up as this is my work laptop and I need XP.

 

Before installing OSx I had used a Bart PE Disk (More info) to create a ghost image of my drive on a network share. I then proceeded to install OSX using the bootable DVD into an 8GB partiton.

 

This booted fine after the installation (with the usual tweaks)

 

However now for the twist.

 

I used Bart PE with Norton ghost to create an image on a network share of the Mac *Partition* (note not the drive this time)

 

I then used Ghost to restore my Windows XP Drive but I left 8Gb of free space on the drive.

 

Ghost was then used again to restore the Mac Partition into the free space.

 

I rebooted the machine and Windows XP came up fine. In XP I copied a chain0 file to C:\ and then edited the boot.ini as follows:

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

c:\chain0="Mac OSX"

 

After a reboot I was able to select XP or OSX.

 

When I selected OSX after these changes the Darwin boot loader came up, I selected the OSX partition (it was defaulting to XP) and added the -v boot option to watch the progress. It didn't work and I got the dreaded "Still waiting for root device". No worries I thought, I'll just reboot with the following options to tell it which drive it should be using:

-v rd=disk0s2

 

This didn't work so I tried a safe mode boot -x and it worked first time. Now I was confused.

 

Anyway to cut a long story short it turns out that the Kextcache was the cause of my problems. The solutions was to remove the kext cache files at /System/Library/Extensions.mkext and /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache

 

The next reboot rebuilt these files and now I have a dual boot dell laptop with the partitons organised how I want them.

 

I hoped this helps someone as I trawled the forums and Google and didn’t find a reference to doing this procedure.

 

Cleggy

[David Bartlett]

Remeber to set your bootable disk in OSX's settings menu. I noted in my second install that both the bootable disk within OSX AND the darwin bootloader have to be set to the desired bootdrive