zzzero Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 (edited) I have read many threads pertaining to this problem, but I have not been able to find a solution. I have tried for about 2 weeks now to get this working, but I can't get any further than where I am. I am using a Toshiba Satellite 5205-S703, which is not on either the compatible or incompatible list. It has a Pentium 4m 2.0Ghz processor that supports sse2, 1gb of ram, 2 hard drives (one internal, and one in an removable bay), built in WiFi card, and an nVidia 560 go video card, a i845MP North bridge, 82801CAM ICH3-M South bridge. I am unable to go into the BIOS, it is a software based configuration utility that is practically useless. I cannot boot to the DVD, when I do it gives me the "Waiting for root device" error. I am able to install using vmware, but I get the same error when I try to boot from the hard drive. I have tried using the -f, -x, -s, -v flags, rd=diskXsY, platform=X86PC, I have swapped hard drives (so the osx drive is internal or in the removable bay) I have tried both with and with out PCMCIA cards in the slot, I have tried messing with kext's (I wasnt exactly sure what I was doing) I installed the update things that come on the install DVD for Intel SSE2. I have tried so many things, but I still cannot get it to boot natively. I have tried JaS Mac OS 10.4.7, 10.4.3 8f1111, and 10.4.6. I think it may be a problem with either my PCMCIA, my USB, or my IDE controller, but I could be way off. Thank you so very much for taking the time to read this, and if you have any ideas I could try, that would be great. Edited December 28, 2006 by zzzero Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
walterav Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 (edited) It might be the way you partitioned your harddrive... any other bootloaders? which install dvd are you using...? It can also be the USB, are you able to set any usb options in bios? otherwise try installing to an usb device... Edited December 26, 2006 by walterav Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-261929 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzero Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 (edited) It might be the way you partitioned your harddrive... any other bootloaders? which install dvd are you using...?It can also be the USB, are you able to set any usb options in bios? otherwise try installing to an usb device... Before I install OSX on the drive, I use partition magic to put an NTFS partition on the whole drive. I install using the HFS+ all on one partition on the single hard drive. I am using the default darwin boot loader, and I am using primarily the JaS 10.4.7 Intel/AMD ISO. But I have used others with the same outcome. There are no USB options in the bios utility thingy. I know the touch pad uses usb, but I dont think my laptop allows for booting to USB. It only allows, CD/DVD rom, Internal Hard Drive, Removable bay, lan, and floppy. Edited December 26, 2006 by zzzero Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-261931 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Eyre Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 From what i remember, some Intel Pentium 4 M Processors did not work with anything over osx 10.4.1, as there is something on the chip, this was the case on my HP Compaq NX8220, or what ever the model number was, it would either say waiting on root device, or kernal panic yours faithfully Ben Eyre p.s i am not saying this is the same as your laptop. but just be aware you could have a incompatibull laptop Processor Wise Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-261945 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Eyre Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Haveing said that, it looks like your ide controler, isnt in the IOATA kext, on the dvd, edit the IOATAFamiley.kext with your device id, and burn to another dvd, i sujest you use winiso or something like that to manipulate the file inside the dvd, then reburn and try again, that could be the reason Ben Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-261948 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Your USB is interfering. Go to BIOS and set USB to legacy mode or turn it off completely. Otherwise, disable it as follows: Boot to single user mode (F8 followed by -s) and type: mount -uw / cd /System/Library rm -rf Extensions.mkext Extensions.kextcache cd Extensions mkdir Extensions.back mv IOUSBFamily.kext Extensions.back/ reboot Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-261964 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzero Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 Your USB is interfering. Go to BIOS and set USB to legacy mode or turn it off completely. Otherwise, disable it as follows: Boot to single user mode (F8 followed by -s) and type: mount -uw / cd /System/Library rm -rf Extensions.mkext Extensions.kextcache cd Extensions mkdir Extensions.back mv IOUSBFamily.kext Extensions.back/ reboot Thanks for responding, I cannot go into my bios, so I did the 2nd option. Because I cannot boot into the native part, I had to boot into single user mode in vmware. I entered those commands and they got rid of quite a few errors when I boot, but I still have the "Still waiting for root device" error. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-262339 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzero Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 (edited) Haveing said that, it looks like your ide controler, isnt in the IOATA kext, on the dvd, edit the IOATAFamiley.kext with your device id, and burn to another dvd, i sujest you use winiso or something like that to manipulate the file inside the dvd, then reburn and try again, that could be the reason Ben Thanks for the advice:) I couldnt find a place to put it in the Info.plist directly in the IOATAFamily.kext. However my IDE controller's information was already in the AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext underneath the IOATAFamily.kext Edited December 26, 2006 by zzzero Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-262433 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzero Posted December 28, 2006 Author Share Posted December 28, 2006 (edited) Does anyone have any more ideas I could try? I really want to see if I can get this to work. Edited December 30, 2006 by zzzero Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-263206 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzero Posted January 1, 2007 Author Share Posted January 1, 2007 bump Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-265948 Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSMD Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 No progress? I've tried installing 10.4.7 with no success though. I'll try 10.4.8 as it gets dloaded hoping it would do. Most likely it has smth to do with hardware. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-278688 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowles Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 have you tried booting with the flag -f, this worked for me Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/36851-still-waiting-for-root-device/#findComment-278836 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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