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[ Waiting for root device, arghhh ] PLEASE READ

asdorel

By asdorel,
in OSx86 10.4 (Tiger)

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asdorel
asdorel
Posted
Posted

What the heck is osx trying to say when it gives the message "waiting for root device"???

 

Too many people are getting this error!!!! And yet there is no definite solution..

 

it's been two days since I've been stuck with this error, I really don't know what else to do other then to reinstall osx using another method.

 

I get the following error when I boot os x with -v. First, osx loads the .kext files that are in the extension folder, then it says "errors encountered while starting up the computer". It then says "pausing for 5 seconds". Then it resumes loading. It loads some stuff. Then it stalls, and after 1 minute "Still waiting for root device" message appears.

 

I tried deleting the .kexts inside the extension folder (i backed them up before doing this), I reboot and os x gives the same damn error.

 

Some .kext is giving the error, or maybe it's not a .kext, maybe it's something else, but what???

 

Some people have said that this error occurs because one has an unsupported controller or SATA hd. Yet I have a PATA HD, and my controller is the same controller that the other people with my same motherboard chipset who had success have (NFORCE 4).

 

I have my hd in the secondary MASTER slot, and my DVD-ROM drive in the primary MASTER. Could this be what generates the error?

 

ALSO, a person in irc told me to use xplode's vmware guide (the old one). After properly installing osx onto vmware, he told me to try to DD the vmware image onto another hd/partition (I don't have another hd), so as to make it NATIVE. Would this work?

 

FURTHERMORE!!!

 

I tried replacing ioatafamily.kext with the one in darwin cd (deleting extension.mkext and another file, as one user suggested me to do), I rebooted and OSX DID NOT DISPLAY THE WAITING FOR DEVICE ROOT. BUT AND I SAY BUT, IT DISPLAYED "KDP - WAITING FOR DEBUGGER" ERROR (can't remember the exact message, but it goes along those lines).

 

I REBOOTED, AND THEN THE ROOT DEVICE ERROR APPEARED AGAIN, EVEN IF THE .KEXT WAS REPLACED.

 

AND I TRIED REPLACING ALL OF THE .KEXTS WITH THE ONE IN DARWIN CD, BUT STLL NADA, IT DOES NOT WOOOORK!!!

 

PLEASE HELP, SAY SOMETHING, LETS WORK TOGETHER, TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE HAVING THIS ERROR (AND THIS ERROR SEEMS GENERIC TOO, SOME PEOPLE SOLVED BY SIMPLy DELETING A FILE, BUT I AND SOME OTHER PEOPLE CAN'T GET IT TO WORK BY DOING THAT!!

 

 

EDIT: I have a SSE3 CPU (athlon 64 3000+ venice core)

asdorel
asdorel
Posted
  • Author
Posted
Stop yelling and complaining and do the most obvious course of action, put the hd on ide0 and set it as master.

 

Hey I wrote some of the paragraphs in caps not because I wanted to emphasize my frustration, but because I wanted to keep them varied so as to not keep the users from reading all of the paragraphs :wacko::o

 

well, pardon my whining, it's just that I cannot do anything other than complain when I see people running 99% functional os x with almost identical hardware to mine :D

 

When you say ide0, do you mean put it in primary master? Before it was already in primary master (the dvd drive was in secondary master) and the error still occurred.

 

I however will try to put the hd in primary master, and the dvd drive in primary slave. Will that work? Who knows, but it's worth a try.

  • 3 weeks later...
mune
mune
Posted
Posted

Hey same problem here's!

 

I wrote in other two thread, sorry for the spam.. but I didn't find this thread before!

 

Ok so here's what I've done :

 

Installed the iso using th uneasy website gudie (with ubuntu)...

 

I have the "still waiting for root device" just after "USB event.. blabla"

 

I only have one HD maxtor 80 7200 set as primary (master not Cable Select) and on the second IDE controller, here's my BenQ DVD Drive... set as master too...

 

I've try to boot with : -x, -v, rd=disk0s1, .... always the same error...

 

Here's what I need to test : Someone talked about format the HD... At the begining, on my HD there was windows XP, and I just run with ubuntu and did the "dd" command...

Maybe I should format the disk before, like they said in the dual boot method...

 

Other thing I need to test is to change the DVD drive from second ide to the first ide, and put as a slave...

 

So, I'll try it and give you news back!

And if anyone as found anything... tell us, I'll try it!

 

Regards

benhenny
benhenny
Posted
Posted

I too have this problem when booting from the DVD. I have a single hard drive installed as primary master and the CD/DVD as the secondary. It reads from the DVD but stalls on Waiting for root device.

 

I'm using a P4 with SSE3 enabled.

 

I have also tried the other option of booting from the HD with the disk image successfully installed. It doesn't recognize the drive as a bootable media.

judy
judy
Posted
Posted
What the heck is osx trying to say when it gives the message "waiting for root device"???

It's trying to tell just that: It's still waiting for the root device (ie. the (hard)disk it's supposed to boot from) after a timeout. This means that it can't find or access the hard disk or CD. It basically can't find itself, so to speak. Well, and this can have as many reasons as there are PC configurations out there. Unsupported IDE controllers, wrong rd=... options, unusual bus configurations, whatever. So yes, this is a very generic error, and that's why so many people are seeing it.

mune
mune
Posted
Posted

Hey...

 

I've try this unsucessfully :

 

- I didn't connect my DVD Drive...

- I change the ide cable for my HD

- change the rd=...

- Use all the flag : -x -v -s

 

Thing to do :

- Try to erase the AppleTPM...key

- Try to boot with the Darwin disq... but after that,... what I'm suppose to do?

 

How can I find wich ide controller my mb is using?

How can I mount the Apple partition using Ubuntu? I've try :

 

modprobe hfsplus

mount -t hfsplus -o rw /dev/hda1 /mnt/macosx

 

But, I still mount it in read-only.... any idea?

 

Regards

gruefood
gruefood
Posted
Posted

I was getting the "waiting for root device" when trying to install release1 onto a VMWare Box. Nothing I did would make any changes until I filled up all IDE controllers with devices.

 

I had read on a google search that this, along with a bunch of other stuff, may help with the "waiting for root device problem". I ended up simply adding 2 more cdroms and setting them to auto so I had IDE0:0 as my hard drive, and IDE0:1, IDE1:0, and IDE1:1 as CDRoms. it then went very quickly past the part where it normally gave that dreaded message.

 

Not sure if this would help with actual hardware or not. The couple of times I've tried this on Hardware I didn't get that message.

 

Good Luck,

 

GF

macgirl
macgirl
Posted
Posted
What the heck is osx trying to say when it gives the message "waiting for root device"???

 

Too many people are getting this error!!!! And yet there is no definite solution..

 

Could you take a pic when it says "Waiting for root..."

 

There are a lot of extensions that can cause this.

 

Did you trying with safe boot (-x) ?

 

"Waiting for root device" means that the system does not have connection with the device that has the OS

mithrantir
mithrantir
Posted
Posted

I have the same message (still waiting for root device, what else?) right after it checks my Firewire device, i have MSI-K8N-Neo2 , athlon64 3500+ SSE2 and the hard drive is SATA, i have heard that you must make your bios to boot from the hd first (tried it, didn't work), i uninstalled my dvd roms, didn't work, tried rd=disk0s1 (also tried disk1s1 etc), didn't work. it's really pissing everyone off cause you know others who have managed to boot and you just can't. anyway, please help and i hope that my SATA controller is recognisable by os x (that's why i wrote my motherboard model)

Jwalk
Jwalk
Posted
Posted

Hi guys

 

Same problem with the Debugger messege , I can log in succesfully with -x parameter but it dosent work if i try to log in normally or with the -v parameter.

 

My Computer is a :

Chainatech nvidia 4 ultra

AMD 64 SSE2 (Whichister)

1024 MB RAM

using a 10 MB harddisk as primary master for mac os (i dissconnect the other hard disk when using this one)

PCIe ASUS ATI exalibur X600

 

by the way , on safe mode i managed to get the network to work with a PCI network card(didnt work with the onboard one). and there is no sound and the booting time is around 20 minutes !!!!!

 

Help guys , just wanna log in normaly not in safe mode and see if there is any differnce .

macgirl
macgirl
Posted
Posted
please help and i hope that my SATA controller is recognisable by os x (that's why i wrote my motherboard model)

 

No, it is not. nForces only work with PATA devices, read the forum.

 

Hi guys

 

Same problem with the Debugger messege , I can log in succesfully with -x parameter but it dosent work if i try to log in normally or with the -v parameter.

 

My Computer is a :

Chainatech nvidia 4 ultra

AMD 64 SSE2 (Whichister)

1024 MB RAM

using a 10 MB harddisk as primary master for mac os (i dissconnect the other hard disk when using this one)

PCIe ASUS ATI exalibur X600

 

Some extension can cause problems, specially ATI ones, get rid of them, alos CHUD*.kext, sound will work when you can boot and edit the proper kext.

  • 3 weeks later...
Aztekgod
Aztekgod
Posted
Posted

Relaxe people there is nothing wrong with your computers :D , it is your image, I have download it a couple of images and only one of them gives me that Error, another Image gives me another error and the other one it boots to the GUI intallaler or something like that it is really hard to know what it is cause it is really hard to read.... :)

bobd
bobd
Posted
Posted

I'm having the same problem. The grey screen w/ Apple logo comes, and loading circle, but it never loads. When i do -v, it says waiting for rooting device. -s and -x don't work either. My first master is hdd, second master dvd. I typed rd=hl-dt-st dvdram. didn't work :( Anything I could do? BTW, this image WAS used on my friends PC, without any problems. Thnx

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...
corsu
corsu
Posted
Posted

The answer to the "waiting for boot device" :

Put the hard disk on primary ide port with master jumper on

Put the DVD/CD on primary ide port also with slave jumper on

and then it goes on installing (slowly)....

 

there it is

works with OSX86 10.4.6 hotiso image

  • 2 months later...
bubugugu
bubugugu
Posted
Posted

i've been battling this waiting for root device error for over a week and i'm checking the forum everyday incase someone came up with a solution.

 

my prob is that i've got an unsupported IDE controller (a SiS 661FX chipset motherboard). I'm just using an ordinary ATA harddrive, and I don't think my motherboard has SATA support even.

i would like to know if someone is having the same problem as mine, and possibly a solution for it, or even direction of file where i might edit and work around this dreaded error.

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