Can't boot without DVD

[tcsac]

So, I've read through a bunch of topics, but haven't seen any quite like mine.

 

Hardware is a dell M4300. The install procedure goes just fine, everything is great. I'm using the TOH 10.5.0 install. Thing is, after rebooting, the system won't boot off of the internal hard drive. It just sits there with a blinking cursor. If I put the dvd in, and don't press any key, just let the countdown finish, it will then boot just fine off the HDD. It's almost like there's no MBR being installed. There is absolutely nothing else on the drive, and I've given OSX the entire disk to use. I've tried both with AHCI enabled and disabled.

 

Normally I wouldn't really care, having to have the DVD in to boot isn't a big deal. BUT, I'd like to be able to install the pc-efi stuff, and that requires booting into single user mode (which obviously isn't possible if I have to boot with the dvd in).

 

Any thoughts?

[PinkAdidas]

Same problem here but already tried to install the EFI patch....

[qbattersby]

Fortunately for both of you there is a solution, that is mainly why no one is responding, try searching the forums a little better, or you could try and read the brazilmac method about making a HDD bootable. I had the same problem as both of you and it is quite easily fixed.

 

Here is a link - Check it out

 

Go down to the part where it says ---------A note about this section------------

 

This method works, I found it easiest to copy the files required to a USB Key and booting the DVD to the installation and running terminal.

 

Good Luck, and please try searching the forum before posting

[PinkAdidas]

I followed the instructions booting it with my HD but it just keeps giving me a blank screen with blinking underline...any ideas why?

[tcsac]

Fortunately for both of you there is a solution, that is mainly why no one is responding, try searching the forums a little better, or you could try and read the brazilmac method about making a HDD bootable. I had the same problem as both of you and it is quite easily fixed.

 

Here is a link - Check it out

 

Go down to the part where it says ---------A note about this section------------

 

This method works, I found it easiest to copy the files required to a USB Key and booting the DVD to the installation and running terminal.

 

Good Luck, and please try searching the forum before posting

 

I've tried that and it didn't work. I found directions elsewhere, not that specific thread. I will go through that tonight and see if it works.

 

As for searching... every search I did returned upwards of 20 pages worth of threads. I got through 5 pages of before I gave up. Either I suck at searching or was half asleep (could be a combination of the two).

 

 

Thanks!

[xalexas]

Try to use Google sometimes. Take a look at this

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=69507

 

This has worked for me. apply patch 3-4 times, or follow instructions in thread.

[PinkAdidas]

Try to use Google sometimes. Take a look at this

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=69507

 

This has worked for me. apply patch 3-4 times, or follow instructions in thread.

xalexas thank you, I did Google, in fact I have so many things to do like EFI patch and Video/Network drivers that it gets overwhelming. Have patience with us eager ones

[RogerMac]

Hey guys,

 

I'm out of the tunnel since ten days, but I managed to get rid of the boot after three weeks of real nightmare.

And the nightmare doesn't dipends on the fact that the Brazilmac instructions are wrong. They are perfectly clear and exact. But there are four things to be considered:

 

1. most of the links in the original posts are not available any more, or are hosted on dead sites.

2. the procedure refers to a specific installation situation, and the file paths indicated may not correspond to the actual situation in which you will be operating.

3. the scripts that you find here and there suffer the same problem: different paths, different situation, nothing will work.

4. most of the members of the forum have been accustomed with pieces of these procedure since a year or so, and therefore they are very sapient. And they tend to answer like the famous "sybilla", letting us Hack Leopard beginners hanging from their words and erratically trying silly things.

 

So let me try to help you. I was exactly in your situation after installing a Brazilmac over a fresh 500gb disk on an Optiplex 755. Therefore I was missing the underlying 10.4.x installation that would have saved the process.

After the crack, my Hackintosh booted from HDD provided that a bootloader was inserted (i.e. the OSX 10.5 installation).

 

These are the steps I took. No merit for me, it is only an (i hope) more readable version of the brazilmac forum already indicated here.

 

 

a: my installation has been fresh made over an MBR partition. I suspect from what I read that this hadn't been possible if I installed over a plain GUID disk. To partition the disk as MBR run Disk Utility BEFORE the installation (from the Leopard installation disk) and, after init, go to "Partition" and "Options".

 

b: after installation and patching (described everywhere, and that you have completed correctly, otherwise you wouldn't be booting) you need to transfer over an USB key a package containing some essential tools: strtupfiletool, boot, boot1h and so on. Without these, you are stuck and the Brazilmac procedure won't work. Those files may be:

i. included in your distribution. If so, they are under /usr/standalone/i386. Not my case.

ii. dowloaded from the net. The best source, thanks to nateleav76, is here http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...mp;#entry488435. The link to be followed is: http://rapidshare.com/files/66741133/natel..._p5k3_patch.zip.

 

c. bootup from the install DVD after a power-off and power-on, with the USB key inserted. This can be obtained by hitting return during the bootup wait (otherwise it'll boot from the HDD). The reason for power off/on is that sometimes the HDD is not visible if you don't reset everything after a failed boot attempt. When you come tho the install window in which you can select the dest volume (you should have the USB AND the HDD visible) call a terminal window.

 

d: i wasn't able to run with success the nateleav automated scripts. Maybe because I had a different hacked release, different paths or what. My suggestion is to switch back to native Brazilmac method, WITH MUCH, MUCH CAUTION FOR THE PATHS. Please note that most of the command in the procedur NEVER give errors. If they can't address the files, thay don't tell you. And you end up with a not bootable machine.

 

e: FUNDAMENTAL: run the first part of brazilmac method. Note that I never had to sudo, since I believe that booting from the installation disk already grants you the administrative rights.

 

(sudo) fdisk -e /dev/rdiskX ( replace X and x with the disk/partition you will restore the image to)

fdisk: 1> update

Machine code updated.

fdisk:*1> f 1

Partition 1 marked active.

fdisk:*1> w

Device could not be accessed exclusively.

A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n] y

Writing MBR at offset 0.

fdisk: 1> q

 

f: Run the second part of the brazilmac patch, KEEPING ATTENTION TO THE PATHS:

Let's follow the guru step-by-step (and remember I never had to sudo anithing):

 

diskutil umount /dev/diskXsx

 

(venial path error)

 

(sudo) dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsx bs=512 count=1

 

Please note that in place of "boot1h" you will have to put the ABSOLUTE path of your boot1h file on the USB key or WHEREVER it is (i.e. (sudo) dd if=/Volumes/Myusbkey/Patch_folder/extras/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsx bs=512 count=1). Or more simply you'll have to cd to its directory and then digit: (sudo) dd if=./boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsx bs=512 count=1.

 

Next step:

 

(sudo) startupfiletool -v /dev/rdiskXsx boot

 

Here again, you need to specify the correct path for the command startupfiletool.

 

Next step:

 

(sudo) bless -device /dev/diskXsx -setBoot –verbose

 

Next step:

 

diskutil mount /dev/diskXsx

 

That's a venial path error from the guru...

 

Last step:

 

bless -mount /Volumes/YOUR_VOLUME_NAME -setBoot -verbose (Volume name is prob Leopard)

 

 

After running CORRECTLY this procedure my Hackintosh booted fine.

 

 

Hope to have been helpful

[OSXtotheZ]

I might be the only one. But I've found the search function on the forums almost completely useless. I always get better results using the search term + insanelymac in google to find things on this forum. Anyone else find the forum search function lacking?

[houe]

I have this same problem. Is this normal after installing ToH RC2? I have been fighting this for 3 days and i've done numereous Leo installs. Sometimes I'm able to boot up Leo when the ToH dvd in the drive and some installations don't boot but just start the install process over. I haven't been able to find a pattern, but its very frustrating. I've tried all 3 of the partition types. GUID, middle option (forget the name), and MBR. None work for me. I've even messed with trying to make the partiton active.

 

GA-965p-ds3 v1.0 with F12 bios

nvidia 7600gs

maxtor 320GB sata (supposedly its a relabeled 7200.10 seagate)

samsung sata dvd drive

[socal swimmer]

Hey i'm not sure if you guys already solved the error, but i'm assuming you have not.

 

I recently wrote a full install guide ( for teh GA P35-DS3P) and I covered the EFI installation (which should solve your problem). The following steps should work (unless your hardware is too old) regardless of the parition map. When I did it, I used GUID.

 

Here is the relevant section from my guide:

 

This assumes that you have an old computer that works (i used an eMac), and a new computer that you are installing (or already installed) leopard on. If you only have one computer, it will be harder (actually just slower).

 

-download EFI Pack from http://rapidshare.com/files/75234066/EFI_Pack.zip.html

-copy EFI Pack and brazilmac patch to thumbdrive (but keep thumbdrive plugged in to the old (working) computer

 

boot into dvd, and open disk utility

 

find the name you chose for your leopard hard drive(Mac OS X Leopard for me) in the sidebar and select it, then click info. write down the Disk Identifier (mine is disk1s2)

 

 

 

**go back to the old computer (let the new one be) If you have no old computer, just restart and boot into Leopard on your new one. and open up EFI.sh on thumbdrive/EFI Pack.

 

Find this line, and change to this: Patch="/Volumes/thumbdrivename/EFI Pack/pc_efi_v80" (change thumbdrivename to the name of your thumbdrive, duh)

 

find this: EFI="/dev/rdiskXsY" and replace X and Y with what you got from the disk identifier from disk utility on the new computer (so i put /dev/rdisk1s2)

 

find this: DRIVE="/dev/diskX" and change X to the number you got from disk identifier (so i put /dev/disk1)

 

now copy brazilmac patch to thumbdrive, open up 9a581PostPatch.sh

 

change to Patch="/Volumes/thumbdrivename/brazilmac patch/leopatch"

 

change to Leo="/Volumes/leopardvolumename"

 

--be smart (by changing "leopardvolumename" to the name of your leopard hard drive, same for thumbdrivename)

 

now save the files and eject the thumbdrive

 

**go to new computer, or if you only have one computer, reboot into the dvd and open disk utility

 

in sidebar of disk utility, click on your volume and click unmount

 

quit disk utility

 

now plug the thumbdrive into the new computer

 

go to Utilities -> Terminal

 

cd /Volumes <press enter>

 

cd thumbdrivename <press enter> (put a forward slash [ \ ] before all spaces, apostrophes, and other symbols)

 

cd EFI\ Pack <press enter>

 

./EFI.sh <press enter>

 

It should say stuff, but no errors. this is important. read through what it tells you, and make sure there are no errors. if you get something like "file does not exist" then check the path names. This is bad

 

if its all good, continue. if not, fix it.

 

i said "N" to the reboot so i could check for errors. now that there are none:

 

reboot <press enter>

 

wait a little while for it to reboot(maybe 3-4 minutes if it appears to freeze, and then pull the plug (no harm done, it will still work))

 

at bios post, choose boot disk (means pressing F12), and choose the volume with leopard on it

 

if everything is as it should be, you will get this: "System config file 'blahblahblah' not found" (actually you already installed, so you should NOT see this). This is GOOD! if you get "verifying DMI Pool Data" and it hangs, you are in bad shape. make sure you didn't miss any steps, or screw them up. Use common sense, i MAY have missed something (lol haha). if your good, move on.

 

Hope that helps!