Complete rookie question regarding boot loader

[CheddarBott]

I installed iATKOS' "fool proof" distro on my desktop the other day, however i believe something went wrong. Every time i boot up the machine, i have to have the disc in the drive. Then when it starts up it asks if you want to run the installer or not. if i dont want to run the installer, it starts up leopard as expected. However, when i boot up my machine without having the disc in, then the white screen with the apple appears, and the loading circle keeps spinning. now dont get me wrong, i love that spinning loading circle, its mezmorizing, but after a while it starts giving me a headache. And it never actually starts up leopard. I am under the belief that i am simply just running leopard off the live os disc, instead of actually having the os installed on my machine. However, i did install it, on my fat32 partitioned hdd, yadda yadda. i followed all those steps. Another thing that leads me to believe that i am just running the disc and not an installed version is the fact that the resolution is limited to only 1024x768 (or something close to that).

I am wondering what there is i should do. I am not interested in dual booting this machine anymore, i dont have any other os installed on any connected drive. i just want to be able to start up my machine without having the disc in, and have it start up leopard. What should i do?

 

Another thing, when i go to system preferences and select startup disc, the only image that appears is the 'network startup'.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated. thanks in advance

[Coadey]

First, just check that your BIOS isn't set to boot first/only from CD.

 

Then you may need to install the PC_EFIv8 bootloader onto your drive:

 

http://netkas.org/?p=41

 

And/or flag your partition Active/Bootable using "fdisk".

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=22844

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Boot without DVD

 

if you see the darwin bootloader press F8

 

type in -v

 

Report back

[Ianxxx]

I installed iATKOS' "fool proof" distro on my desktop the other day, however i believe something went wrong. Every time i boot up the machine, i have to have the disc in the drive. Then when it starts up it asks if you want to run the installer or not. if i dont want to run the installer, it starts up leopard as expected. However, when i boot up my machine without having the disc in, then the white screen with the apple appears, and the loading circle keeps spinning. now dont get me wrong, i love that spinning loading circle, its mezmorizing, but after a while it starts giving me a headache. And it never actually starts up leopard. I am under the belief that i am simply just running leopard off the live os disc, instead of actually having the os installed on my machine. However, i did install it, on my fat32 partitioned hdd, yadda yadda. i followed all those steps. Another thing that leads me to believe that i am just running the disc and not an installed version is the fact that the resolution is limited to only 1024x768 (or something close to that).

I am wondering what there is i should do. I am not interested in dual booting this machine anymore, i dont have any other os installed on any connected drive. i just want to be able to start up my machine without having the disc in, and have it start up leopard. What should i do?

 

Another thing, when i go to system preferences and select startup disc, the only image that appears is the 'network startup'.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated. thanks in advance

 

The fact that osx starts to load without dvd tells me your bootloader is installed fine.

I would guess from what you say that you have a graphics problem

without the dvd press any key at boot and boot with -x

If this gets you into osx, then you need to sort out the kexts for your graphics card.