blinking cursor - no efi? or why i cant boot
i installed my rev1 amd version dvd to a internal sata connected through sb600 chip from ati. i tried it already with mbr and now i'm on guid. after reboot the system shows a blinking cursor and do nothing. i can access my system only from…
- Primary Author
- @xan Published 2008-01-30
- Collection
- Leopard 10.5
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- 6,236 historical reads · 25 curated field notes (from 28 dispatches) · 2008-01-30 – 2008-01-31
- Credited Voices (6)
- @xan (16)@Puttabong (7)@naquaada (2)@R0GUE@roisoft@Acidrain9
- Hardware Reference
- AMD Desktop Processors ↗ AMD Radeon GPUs (QE/CI) ↗ SATA III & NVMe SSDs ↗
i installed my rev1 amd version dvd to a internal sata connected through sb600 chip from ati.
i tried it already with mbr and now i'm on guid.
after reboot the system shows a blinking cursor and do nothing. i can access my system only from booting with dvd and rd=diskXsY .
what is it? i tried to install efi but it didnt work. 2 weeks ago i successfully installed the same rev1 dvd on a external usb2.0 hdd on the same machine!
and after intallation i could successfully install and config efi ! and everything worked.
whats the problem with efi now? can someone help me please. and to zeph: best mac release ever! keep up the perfect work with your team.
specs:
amd x2 am2 3800+
msi k9a platinum with sb600 southbridge
4GB ram
3 satas internal
ati x1900XT
Synthesized Community Field Notes
25 technical responses curated from 28 original dispatches
Use MBR at first, GUID isn't working. You have to install the SB600 drivers somehow.
my sb600 drivers are injected in the iso! they installs fine so i can see and use the sata at installation. but AFTER installation i cant boot without the DVD and rd=… command
and as i said, mbr is not working either on the sata. same problem.
the curious about it: on the external usb2.0 hdd everything works fine with mbr & efi & sb600 drivers
Have you already checked the wiki? It's described how to fix booting problems: http://osx86.wikidot.com/known-issues ↗
which point would help me? cant see a booting fix
xan, boot the DVD and use the Terminal to perform these steps:
This is how to fix booting for GUID + EFI!
## Replace X and Y according to your system.
## You can also check the diskXsX Id in Disk Utility, by selecting a Disk and pressing the Info Button.
## Explanation: p -> print; f -> flag; w -> write
mount -uw /
diskutil list fdisk -e /dev/rdiskX p f X w y
diskutil unmount /dev/diskXsY cd /usr/i386/standalone/ umount -f /dev/diskXsY ./startupfiletool /dev/rdiskXsY ./boot_v8 dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1 diskutil unmount /dev/diskX dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/diskX bs=400 count=1
Reboot, enjoy
@Puttabongyou have to boot DVD install routine to access terminal and diskutil! no -s or something like this! This is how to fix booting for GUID + EFI! <----- not working with guid! fdisk said that it cant finde MBR bla bla... so i decided to reinstall the whole sys with MBR! (remeber: now i'm on MBR!) mount -uw /
diskutil list fdisk -e /dev/rdiskX p f X (x = 1 ? for active?) w y q
diskutil unmount /dev/diskXsY cd /usr/i386/standalone/ (you mean /usr/standalone/i386) umount -f /dev/diskXsY ./startupfiletool /dev/rdiskXsY ./boot_v8 (hat to use this command from USB flash drive, have no boot_v8 in the /usr/standalone/i386/ ! ) dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1 diskutil unmount /dev/diskX dd if=boot0…
reboot
after this procedere i have a darwin loader (YES! first success)
but then i have a still waiting for rootdevice!
what do i miss? is my step by step wrong? Puttabong can u give a step by step for MBR? thnx in advance
Do you have MBR? This Tutorial was for GUID. I'll give the MBR commands in a second as well.
However, regarding "still waiting for root device": is your leopard hdd mounted as Master?
what is better? make the system on GUID or MBR? a lot of say that MBR is less pain in config / install. is that right? as i said, some of the commands with fdisk don't work with guid system.
my hdd is a sata and there is no master/slave anymore
I personally have use with GUID + EFI.
GUID is more improved than MBR, for example one can make & edit partitions without loosing / having to delete data!
Here's how to fix MBR boot without EFI:
@Puttabong// rdiskXsX: you have to know the proper partition names and replace them with X. In my case, it would be rdisk0s1, first HDD, and first partition, on which leopard has been installed, which you need to make bootable. You can also check this in the Disk Utility. Hit enter after each terminal line to execute the…
i will try the MBR fix now, before i reinstall to GUID again. just to know if its work. BUT: MBR without EFI... hmmm EFI is a must in the MAC world or isnt it? for smooth internet updates etc. or am i wrong?
(AFAIK i installed MBR WITH efi on my hdd usb2.0 ide 2 weeks before.)
Revision 1 doesn't have EFI included, so you most likely haven't installed it, unless you followed a Guide to do so!
Rev.2, which is not yet released to public, is meant to be installed as GUID + EFI, I guess.
EFI is not a must, but it's an improvement for the system.
Better Performance and stability because of apple stock kexts, everything runs very smooth, working system updater etc.
Actually without EFI I had nice system performance, but with EFI it's just as smooth as a real Mac.
5 ->
mount -uw /
mount -t hfs /dev/diskXsX /Volumes
device busy
skipped step 5 and rebootet after everything now i have "still waiting for root device"
Is your Leopard Harddrive mounted as Master? What does your BIOS tell you when booting?
i have sata! no master / slave anymore. everything should be master
as i did the step by step, my leopard was the disk1s1
i have also a 2 other satas. the other one is disk0 and disk2
now i will install leo with GUID - then i will do the first step by step for GUID+efi
xan, am I wrong? Sorry, is EFI actually already included in rev.1, as well?
I don't think it is. I thought if you use RC1 then you will have to install EFI manually!
This is how to install EFI to use it with GUID for RC1/Rev.1!
Get a copy of pc_efi_v80 and save it to a FAT external harddrive / pendrive
boot with the dvd open a terminal and type diskutil list diskutil unmount /dev/diskXsY cd /volumes/"YourVolumeNameHere"/pc_efi_v80 umount -f /dev/diskXsY ./startupfiletool /dev/rdiskXsY ./boot_v8 dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1 diskutil unmount /dev/diskX dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/diskX bs=400 count=1
Here's another tutorial for EFI, which works for amd AND intel:
forum.osx86 scene.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2520
I suggest that you use MBR with Rev.1, until the second Release is available! It's a lot easier.
It won't take very long until it is released to public, and it has EFI and many fixes included for an easy installation!
is it normal, that after GUID installation that i have 2 partitions on the hdd?
1 200MB EFI partition
2 40GB Leopard partition ?
Puttabong's step by step for GUID+EFI boot with the dvd open a terminal and type diskutil list diskutil unmount /dev/diskXsY cd /volumes/"YourVolumeNameHere"/pc_efi_v80 umount -f /dev/diskXsY ./startupfiletool /dev/rdiskXsY ./boot_v8 dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1 diskutil unmount /dev/diskX dd if=./guid/boot0…
Here's another tutorial for EFI, which works for amd AND intel: forum.osx86 scene.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2520 diskutil list diskutil unmount diskXsY cd /Volumes/bootloader/pc_efi_v80 ./startupfiletool /dev/diskXsY ./boot_v8 dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/diskXsY bs=512 count=1 dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/diskX bs=400 count=1
there is a difference between Puttabong and the other guid: the one make rdisk the other one only disk
whats right now?
@Puttabong: u were right, there is a difference between Master and Slave on Sata! the board is looking for the right connectivity and switch between master/slave. i'm definitely on master now!
Puttabong;
Will EFI be installed automatically with Rev 2, or will it be an optional install at boot time? Also, does it really make a big difference to smoothness and stability? I personally feel that Leopard doesn't quite seem as 'solid' on my x86 hardware as it does with my other, lower powered PPC Macs.
Puttabong, any comments to my previous post, the difference between the 2 guides?
R0GUE, it's optional, you can choose EFI during the install process, but I'd recommend it.
I have experienced much better system performance with EFI. I know the reason why.
With the use of EFI, RC2 is able to use the apple stock kernel and kexts, and they work very well
together, as they are concerted. Selecting GUID + EFI and the proper chipset and graphic
settings, will give many systems a perfect out of the box install.
Also, read some other posts about EFI that I posted into the Discussions, I think I was talking about
improvements compared to PCBIOS.
so the guy made a mistake with disk and rdisk ? forum.osx86 scene.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2520
on line: ./startupfile…
need rev2 asap to many problems playing around with rev1 ! ! !
zeph go for it! (maybe someone give a more or less date-tipp when it will be released? or the status what u all working on or plan to release with rev2)
Xan: if you are still getting just the flashing cursor on boot this worked for me
download gparted live cd and boot it
changed osx drive to Boot
Sources & Contributor Provenance (6 credited usernames · Thread #133)
| Username | Dossier Contribution | Dispatches | Active Window |
|---|---|---|---|
| @xan | Primary Author | 16 | 2008-01-30 |
| @Puttabong | Core Contributor | 7 | 2008-01-30 |
| @naquaada | Contributor | 2 | 2008-01-30 |
| @R0GUE | Contributor | 1 | 2008-01-30 |
| @roisoft | Contributor | 1 | 2008-01-30 |
| @Acidrain9 | Contributor | 1 | 2008-01-31 |