JAS 10.4.8 - needs cd to boot (Dual Boot)

[Rammjet]

In BIOS, do you have the OSX hard drive set to boot as first hard drive (after floppy and DVD)?

 

Not sure, but "missing operating system" is a Windows/DOS error, so sounds like Windows drive is trying to boot first and can't find what to boot. So set your OSX drive to boot before Windows drive and see if that works. If it does, then try using the Darwin bootloader in OSX to boot Windows by setting the Timeout parameter in boot.plist:

 

Setting the timeout parameter will force the Darwin (OSX) bootloader to appear so that you can choose OSX or Windows to boot.

 

Edit the boot.plist file at "/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist" and add the following:

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>10</string>

You can edit the file by dragging it to the Desktop and editing it with TextEdit, then dragging it back, answering the 2 resulting dialogs - Authenticate and yes to replace, then followed by using Disk Utility to repair permissions on the OSX partition.

 

Or you can do it via Terminal with this command:

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

With Timeout enabled, you should see the OS selection menu when you boot.

[tomazzzzzzzzzzz]

many thx for your answer

 

yes my hd is set to boot first

 

i tried what you said without success, so i decided to reinstall :

 

i only plugged 1 empty disk to the first sata port

 

i made a fat 32 part active with acronis, installed the 10.4.8 JaS > still didn t work :S

 

i made a fat 32 part active with acronis, used the disc utility on a 10.4.4 dvd to erase the part, then used the JaS 10.4.8 dvd to finish installation :

 

Now i m still not able to boot direclty from hd but i can see the boot loader !!!! " loading darwin. /.." then directly apple logo & nothing, only logo on a blank screen ...

when i type -v to boot i have a black screen

 

if i put the dvd on the drive it boot ( dvdrom USB : second boot device )

 

weird isn t it?

[NET]

trye doing that:

 

works with windows xp/and vista, but for vista it needs some more "playing"

 

boot your 10.4.7 dvd with -s

fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0 - for the first hard drive

flag x x-yours slice with osx (makes it active)

update

write

quit

reboot now

 

if using vista you will nedd another brain and than you will understand that wista is a piece of {censored} i U really really need windows, stick to good configured and secured with zine alarm instalation of XP pro with updates )

 

if U R steel so stupid and using wista you can ask for a help, i'll post the solution.

 

cheers

[tomazzzzzzzzzzz]

ROFL

 

if using vista you will nedd another brain and than you will understand that wista is a piece of {censored} i U really really need windows, stick to good configured and secured with zine alarm instalation of XP pro with updates )

 

if U R steel so stupid and using wista you can ask for a help, i'll post the solution.

 

don t know who need a brain here looool

 

who spoke about vista here ?

 

have you read the tread before posting ?

 

all of this have already been covered before without success ( fdisk ...)

 

& vista isn t a piece of {censored}, only users are ....i use it daily at work & it s far away better & stablest than xp

 

anyway vista doesn t have anything to do with the current tread ....

 

cheers

[real_sinjon]

Seen a few people with same problem I had, not seeing OS and only booting with DVD in drive. After trying most of the above I installed Acronis OS Selector from my Win XP installation. After restart Acronis bootloader takes over and gave me option to boot straight into XP or OSX. Works flawlessly for me, maybe worth a try.

[rufinus]

I have the same problem with AMD test DVD. Installs without problems, works like a charm, but would not boot without installer DVD.

I have 3 partitions:

10 NTFS 20 FAT32 10 OSX

 

OS X is Primary and active and still: "Missing operating system".

 

And i tried Acronis bootloader and Bootmagic. Nothing.

Edited December 15, 2006 by rufinus

[rufinus]

OK, managed to fix it. Almost.

 

Chain0 method worked, finally. Main problem: mind how do you write C:\chain0 in boot.ini !!!!!!!!

Name of the file and the path to it in boot.ini must be the same!! I mean both in uppercase or both in lowercase.

 

Now, there is still a problem. On startup i have 2 options: Win XP and MacOS. Choose XP -> no problem. Choose MacOS-> Darwin pops up and offers you to press any key for options. If you dont press any key -> back yo initial choice. Press a key -> 3 boot options, there you can choose WinXP or Mac. Choosing MAc works and loads OS X.

 

So here how i boot:

 

Start -> Win or Mac -> choose Mac -> press any key to choose in darwin Win or Mac (otherwise back to Win or Mac)

 

How can i hace only one bootloader menu? With 2 choices: Win and Mac? And thats it?

[Rammjet]

C:\chain0="Mac OS X"

 

The OSX/Darwin bootloader defaults to the partition that is active. Since you have the Windows partition active in order to run the Windows bootloader, Darwin bootloader defaults to Windows.

 

If you eliminate chain0, set the OSX partition active and run the Darwin bootloader, OSX will be the default and you will have to select Windows from the list.

[intrax]

OK, managed to fix it. Almost.

 

Chain0 method worked, finally. Main problem: mind how do you write C:\chain0 in boot.ini !!!!!!!!

Name of the file and the path to it in boot.ini must be the same!! I mean both in uppercase or both in lowercase.

 

Now, there is still a problem. On startup i have 2 options: Win XP and MacOS. Choose XP -> no problem. Choose MacOS-> Darwin pops up and offers you to press any key for options. If you dont press any key -> back yo initial choice. Press a key -> 3 boot options, there you can choose WinXP or Mac. Choosing MAc works and loads OS X.

 

So here how i boot:

 

Start -> Win or Mac -> choose Mac -> press any key to choose in darwin Win or Mac (otherwise back to Win or Mac)

 

How can i hace only one bootloader menu? With 2 choices: Win and Mac? And thats it?

 

Have same problem here installed 10.4.8 from TUBGirl iso (Myzar)... solved the boot problem native by using chain0... but that leaves the problem in vmware... so not able to boot the partition in vmware (no operating system found)...

 

All previous suggestions in this thread about how to solve simply don't work and if you are not very carefull will destroy your partition table resulting in losing the drive totally.. so beware !

 

I guess the problem is with diskutil not setting up the partition correctly if there was a HFS/OSX system on that partition before, because both diskutil 10.4.8 and 10.4.3 (tried both) have failed at setting up the partition correctly....

 

I think reformatting the partition in Windows to FAT32/NTFS en than returning to OSX and setting it up for HFS again will correct this situation...

 

Anyone tried that ?

[intrax]

Bump....

 

Anyone solved this without a reinstall ?

[ThePlague]

reinstall didn't work for me, only EasyBCD.

[intrax]

reinstall didn't work for me, only EasyBCD.

and without using a 3rdparty bootloader...

[Luminaire]

Intraz, you might wan't to try what Rammjet said a few posts ago;

 

The first "fdisk -u" is the OSX equivalent of fixmbr - trying to fix missing mbr.

 

Also, seems EasyBCD isn't just a bootloader. It fixes a lot of mbr problems too.

go check http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1.

Edited December 21, 2006 by xXGogetaXx

[intrax]

Intraz, you might wan't to try what Rammjet said a few posts ago;

fdisk -u didn't work for me...

 

problem is not in mbr, but in hfs+ partition....

Edited December 22, 2006 by intrax

[Rammjet]

From my observations, the Disk Utility on the 10.4.8 DVD has problems.

 

Format (erase) your partition using Disk Utility on an older DVD - 10.4.7, 10.4.6, 10.4.5. Then start the installation with the 10.4.8 DVD, but don't use Disk Utility and don't erase your partition again.

[Playerzoors]

Did you try to set the os x partition active?

[ThePlague]

I really didn't like Vista and now I will have to switch back to XP thus losing my boot configuration and will end up inserting the cd again to start osx as EasyBCD is for Vista only.

[intrax]

From my observations, the Disk Utility on the 10.4.8 DVD has problems.

 

Format (erase) your partition using Disk Utility on an older DVD - 10.4.7, 10.4.6, 10.4.5. Then start the installation with the 10.4.8 DVD, but don't use Disk Utility and don't erase your partition again.

Yeap, for a 2nd try I used 10.4.6 diskutil to erase the partition, however it had the same effect because 10.4.8 diskutil had erased it before. From my perspective I think you first have to reformat to fat32 once 10.4.8 diskutil has touched the partition...

Edited December 22, 2006 by intrax

[Rammjet]

From my perspective I think you first have to reformat to fat32 once 10.4.8 diskutil has touched the partition

If you partitioned the drive originally with Disk Utility, then yes, you would need to format as FAT32 to re-establish the boot sectors and MBR. But if previously formatted as FAT32 and then the partition is erased by Disk Utility, you should not need to reformat. Disk Utility installs 3 boot files - one to MBR at the start of the disk and 2 files to the partition itself. The bootloader is actually the 3rd file. For some reason, the 10.4.8 Disk Utility is not installing the files.

[intrax]

For some reason, the 10.4.8 Disk Utility is not installing the files.

Yes, that's exactly also my observation, but than why didn't the erase with 10.4.6 diskutil yield the correct result, because it just didn't.. the bootmanger was still not written to the partition and I'm still stuck with chain0 method ...

[Altus]

OK, I had the same problem, and I am happy to report that I FIXED IT by doing the following:

 

Starting point: single 80GB SATA drive previously partitioned and formatted using the 10.4.8 Disk Utility, which means fux0r3d partitions.

 

1. Booted off a Win98SE floppy.

 

2. Used FDISK to delete all partitions.

 

3. Used PartitionMagic to create one big FAT32 partition.

 

4. Booted off a 10.4.4 DVD.

 

5. Ran Disk Utility and a.) Erased the entire drive as MS-DOS filesystem, b.) Erased the entire drive as MacOS Extended Journaled

 

6. Booted off the 10.4.8 DVD and installed OS X. DO NOT USE DISK UTILITY HERE. JUST POINT THE INSTALLER AT THE MAC OS PARTITION YOU CREATED IN STEP 5.

 

7. Rebooted and the Darwin Boot Loader came up and booted OS X just fine.