goodfellaz Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 I've tried both the 10.4.6 and 10.4.8 Jas ISO's with no success in native booting the installation . Keep getting the "Still waiting for root device error." First, I will post my specs: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, Intel DG965WH Motherboard, 2GB DDR2 667, Pioneer and Plextor DVD-RWs, WD Raptor 74GB SATA, 2 x Maxtor 200GB SATA, WD 80GB EIDE, GeForce 7800GT OC 256MB. I think I have ruled out the possibility of a bad burn on both of the DVDs. My laptop (Sony Vaio SZ120PB - Centrino Duo) has 10.4.8 JaS installed and working like a champ (besides the fact that the wireless is Intel 3945 and not supported). The 10.4.6 is installed and running fairly well on my AMD x2 3800+ system with A8N-SLI motherboard. However, neither of these install DVDs work on my Intel Dual Core desktop. I had read a ton of threads on the forum, and tried several fixes. At first, I had heard about problems with SATA. So I bought an 80GB EIDE, but still have the same root device error. My motherboard only has one IDE channel, so I paired the HD and DVD on the IDE, with HD as Master and DVD as slave. Still not working. Tried DVD as Master and HD as Slave. Still not working. Tried both on cable select, same problem. I even disconnected all the SATA devices to see if it would detect the drive. Still doesn't work. Running the installer with the -v, -s, and -f switches don't help either. I was able to get the 10.4.6 installed using VMWARE from my Windows XP partition, but it will not boot natively, gets the same error. Can anyone tell me what I need to do to get this install working and most importantly, booting natively. I believe that since the install was successful under VMWARE, that my core hardware has to be compatible. Thanks in advance. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 Rough shot in the dark - the ATA/SATA controller is ICH8. Potentially, OSX cannot support ICH8 without adding the device id to the IOATAFamily.kext. But it may work for SATA. So, using VMWare, try installing to a SATA drive. If that boots, then you need to find the device id for the ATA controller and add it to the IOATAFamily.kext so that your IDE hard drive and DVD drive can be recognized by OSX. VMWare talks to hardware through the Windows drivers, so VMWare may succeed where OSX fails. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242186 Share on other sites More sharing options...
spatimouth Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 Have you tried booting into single user and checking if the partition is flagged for boot? I don't remember the commands 100 percent but you user the -s option run fdisk -e /dev/"somethingsomething" and then print to check if your partition is marked as boot. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242189 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 Have you tried booting into single user and checking if the partition is flagged for boot? I don't remember the commands 100 percent but you user the -s option run fdisk -e /dev/"somethingsomething" and then print to check if your partition is marked as boot. "waiting root device" error happens after the point of determining if the device is bootable. It is happening on both his DVD and hard drive/partition. It is a hardware problem. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242205 Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodfellaz Posted November 26, 2006 Author Share Posted November 26, 2006 Is it the IDE/SATA controller that is the culprit then? And why is VMWARE able to install to it and run? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242304 Share on other sites More sharing options...
kle500 Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 Is it the IDE/SATA controller that is the culprit then? And why is VMWARE able to install to it and run? I have exactly the same problem on the same Motherboard using the (Jas 10.4.8 install DVD), but i did try Jad 10.4.6 DVD on my P4 3.0 Northwood, and it went smoothly. Problems on my P4 is that i have Matrox G550 card, not supported for different resollutions. I just want to make a PC just to use Dvd Studio Pro, and i just wanted to try before i buy a real MAC ( i have 2 old ones). Vmware didn't worked for me (can't boot from CD problem) Regards Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242496 Share on other sites More sharing options...
R_M_F Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 I get the same error after it searchs for USB connections I think My board:http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=618 My CPU:http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu/showchart.aspx?mmID=852378&familyID=1&culture=en-US Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242540 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 Is it the IDE/SATA controller that is the culprit then? And why is VMWARE able to install to it and run? Based on experience since I don't have access to your machine, I believe that OSX has a problem with the IDE side of the controller but should work with the SATA side of the controller. Try installing to the SATA drive from VMWare. VMWare uses Windows drivers to talk to the hardware. That is why VMWare is used a fallback installation method. Since Windows includes a lot more drivers to cover a lot more hardware, it has success. OSX only provides drivers for a limited set of hardware because it is designed to only work on real Macs. http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=11314 After you get installed, you can add your IDE device id to the proper kext and get your IDE devices (DVD drive and IDE drive) working again. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242552 Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodfellaz Posted November 26, 2006 Author Share Posted November 26, 2006 Well, I'm totally confused now.....replaced my Intel Motherboard with a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 because it is on the 10.4.8 compatibility list, and bought a IDE->SATA adapter for my DVD-RW. Still getting the "Still waiting for root device" error. Now I've replaced my board with a model on the full compatibility list, and my DVD-RW is one that Apple ships in their machines (Pioneer DV-111D). Any ideas? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242732 Share on other sites More sharing options...
R_M_F Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 i'm getting crazy! I did what the wiki said: " rd=disk0s1 -v" Now i can pass the "still waiting thing" but i get a kernel panic!!! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242791 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 i'm getting crazy! I did what the wiki said: " rd=disk0s1 -v" Now i can pass the "still waiting thing" but i get a kernel panic!!! If this is happening after installation, what patches did you select in Customize during installation? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242797 Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodfellaz Posted November 27, 2006 Author Share Posted November 27, 2006 yea....unfortunately my problems are pre-install..... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-242819 Share on other sites More sharing options...
R_M_F Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 my problem is also on pre-installation... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-243262 Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDJ Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 I am in the same boat...I tried booting darwin with -f and it gets past the waiting for root but freezes on the loading the user profile line... I have been able to Boot, the one time it reboots your computer after the install but once i reboot it never will boot again into MAC os X Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-245485 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 I am in the same boat...I tried booting darwin with -f and it gets past the waiting for root but freezes on the loading the user profile line... I have been able to Boot, the one time it reboots your computer after the install but once i reboot it never will boot again into MAC os X What packages did you choose in the Customize window? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-245488 Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDJ Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 What packages did you choose in the Customize window? Just the AMD one...I am running a Turion 64 2.0ghz...I tried a bunch of different variations of what to check off...no matter what was checked or unchecked after the initial install it would reboot and boot up os x os x would work great but once i select reboot, and try to boot back in, it gives me the waiting for root Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/34191-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-245546 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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