Shako Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 I was wondering if anybody has had any luck installing OSX on a Dell Inspiron 2650. I have installed it on 3 other laptops but it just won't go on the one I actually own! It has P4M 1.8ghz with SSE2. The error I get seems to be pretty common "Still waiting for root device". I have done everything in the wiki regarding that error and still no luck. Anyone else in the same boat as me? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Kahuna Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 When do you see the error? is it during/pre-installation or is it after you've attempted to install? Turn off USB Emulation, that caused a hangup on one system I installed on. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-21639 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben123 Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 I have the same laptop and have the same problem. There is no fix for the "waiting on root device" for this laptop that I have been able to find. I think it might be possible by getting the disk image thats out there and copying it over via USB through an enclosure, but I haven't tried that route yet myself. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-21653 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shako Posted October 12, 2005 Author Share Posted October 12, 2005 When do you see the error? is it during/pre-installation or is it after you've attempted to install? Turn off USB Emulation, that caused a hangup on one system I installed on. I see this error when I boot up from the DVD. In GUI mode the "thing" spins underneath the apple and then a circle with a slash through it appears over the Apple logo. In verbose mode it appears to be loading fine but then hangs and says "Waiting for root device". I will try turning of USB emulation if it is an option in BIOS but I don't remember ever seeing it in there before. Thanks for the advice. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-21805 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shako Posted October 13, 2005 Author Share Posted October 13, 2005 There is no option to turn off USB Emulation in Bios. The bios is a real pile of {censored}. It has about 3 options to it. Any body else have any ideas? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-21988 Share on other sites More sharing options...
gotama Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 i have the 2650, i have gotten it to boot all the way untill it tries to load the login window app, i think it is having problems with the video card. i can only get it that far with a platform= arguement at boot. runs in vmware fine though... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-25839 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xduffy Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 I have the same laptop and the same problem. Has anybody tried installain Darwin x86 first en then copying the osx specific files over? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-42283 Share on other sites More sharing options...
gotama Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 I installed darwin via vmware and also used a mounted osx dvd in vmware for the install(no dvd drive). i can get it to boot into single user mode, and also i can get the gui to load through vmware, but it still hangs when loading the gui natively. i am pretty sure it's got something to do with the {censored} video card, because i think it's crashing when trying to allocate the video memory. do any of you have the 32mb card in yours? mine is only the 16mb Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-51604 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xduffy Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 I have the 32 MB card, but it's still a no-go. I have the exact same issues as you describe... vmware = fine native = hangs on login window, never comes to any GUI Feels bad not being able to get all the way, especially since we're so close... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-53429 Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmat Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 What video is in this laptop? I have a Dell XPS m140 and the video works fine. It tries to find an external monitor at boot and will hang permanently if it's not there. If you plug in a monitor it gets past that and boots up fine. If you are hanging at a blue screen and haven't seen the white box come up with booting status, try plugging in an external monitor. Also, for those with problems booting from the CD did you try setting the parameter "rd=disk#s#" at the boot options prompt where those numbers represent the CDROM itself? They will be machine dependent. If your HD is disk0s1 (disk 0 slice 1-->partition 1 that is) then the CD might be like "disk1s1" Could be that it's having a hard time figuring out which device is the CD. Worth a try... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-53545 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xduffy Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 What video is in this laptop? I have a Dell XPS m140 and the video works fine. It tries to find an external monitor at boot and will hang permanently if it's not there. If you plug in a monitor it gets past that and boots up fine. If you are hanging at a blue screen and haven't seen the white box come up with booting status, try plugging in an external monitor. It's a Geforce 2 Go, and it boots alright, in single mode. The grey screen is visible, but the white box never comes. I've tried hooking up a external monitor, but it doesn't work either. It's like there's some bug in the VESA 3 implementation on these graphic cards... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-53615 Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. Bear Helms Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 I have first-hand experience the VESA support is incomplete (at best) in 10.4.3. It will ignore bit depth or refuse to go into totally valid modes without much apparent logic or reason. nVidia support for OSx86 is still lagging. If all it took was me compiling a Linux driver with Xcode, I'd do it for you - beyond that, too technical for me to figure out. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3402-dell-inspiron-2650/#findComment-53618 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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