Upgrade two partitions from 10.4.8 to 10.4.9 with 8.9.1 kernel

[BladeRunner]

I have two primary partitions on my internal hard drive. The first - used for test & maintenance is 20 GB. The second - used as the main production system is 100 GB. Both were built the same way. I installed 10.4.4 and upgraded using the Apple delta upgrades for 10.4.5 to 10.4.8 following the FAQ instructions on the semthex blog site. I was running with the semthex 8.8.1 (sf9) kernel.

 

First attempts at upgrading to 10.4.9 with the 8.9.1 kernel all failed on reboot - kernel panic with 0=Divide Error message. Then, I found a bios adjustment fix at: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=45969

 

I erased and restored my first - test - partition to the 10.4.8 condition and applied the JaS 10.4.9 update from the Demon. The reboot ran like a champ! Problem solved, or so I thought. My test partition is now running quite well at 10.4.9 with the 8.9.1 kernel.

 

I erased and restored my second primary partition. I upgraded with the same JaS 10.4.9 upgrade. The second partition will not boot correctly. I can boot to first stage single user with -s. If I then enter "sh /etc/rc" the system runs for a while and then reboots.

 

If I try to boot the second partition to the GUI I see the Gray Apple Screen -> Blue Screen -> Blank Screen -> Blue Screen and after a delay the Mac OS X progress box. That's where it stops - forever.

 

Does anyone have any idea why the two partitions should react differently?

 

Is anyone successfully running the 8.9.1 kernel in a partition other than the first?

 

Any ideas on how to correct this problem would be *greatly* appreciated.

 

Edited - update - new information:In an effort to learn whether the second partition was causing the problem - and to be sure the two systems were the same, I created an image of the first partition and restored it to the second partition.

 

It ran just fine! No boot problems. Obviously, there is something wrong with the base 10.4.8 install on the second partition.

 

There must also be a difference in the kernels since the upgraded main system will run correctly using the semthex 8.8.1 sf9 kernel. Using the 8.9.1 kernel it fails with "crashed coreserviced" error messages.

 

I am going to archive my data and reinstall from scratch using the JaS 10.4.8 DVD. Maybe the update will work correctly then.