PowerBook G4 Mac OS X 10.5.8 will not boot after uninstall iPhone SDK 3.1.2

Question

Level 1

13 points

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X 10.5.8 will not boot after uninstall iPhone SDK 3.1.2

Hello Everybody,

Yesterday I installed the iPhone SDK 3.1.2 in my PowerBook G4 with Mac OS X (10.5.8) since I wanted to start playing with the iPhone simulator.

After the install which completed successfully I looked everywhere under /Developer for the iPhone Simulator and I could not find it.

However with Spotlight, the Search engine embedded in Mac OS X (10.5.8) I found an iPhone Simulator package 3.1 that was still under the mounted volume for the iPhone SDK 3.1.2. I did install this iPhone Simulator 3.1 package.

I was still having a hard time finding the iPhone Simulator and after a lot of digging under /Platforms I found the iPhone Simulator directory.
After some digging using a Shell window and using the UNIX "file" command I realized the iPhone Simulator binaries were for X86 and not for PowerPC.

I was so frustrated and since there were only left about 462 MB of space according to the "df -h" command in the Shell, I followed the instructions in the iPhone SDK 3.1.2 README about How To UNINSTALL the iPhone SDK 3.1.2.

It took a while analyzing a lot of packages in the output in the shell window
but at the end it said that the packages were removed successfully.
After the uninstall I had 2.9 GB of free space in my boot drive.

I shutdown my PowerBook G4 since it was late and I was going to bed.

Now, this morning around 10:00 am Eastern I powered on my PowerBook G4 and it is now 4:00 pm Eastern, 6 hours later and my PowerBook G4 has not booted, it still
has the white screen with a grey apple and the radial dial spinning which
usually takes a few seconds.

Can somebody please help me how can I solve this problem and boot cleanly and
successfully my PowerBook G4 running Mac OS X (10.5.8)?

I don't want to lose any of my files in the Boot Drive, although I've been using
Time Machine using as the backup drive a 750GB USB Seagate Drive.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Carlos

PowerBook G4 1GHz PowerPC G4, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Version 10.5.8

Posted on Jan 13, 2010 5:23 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 13, 2010 6:29 PM in response to Carlos A.

HI Carlos,

Try booting while holding down the Option key which should prompt the Startup Manager and you can select the startup disk. If that doesn't work...

Boot from your install disc and run Disk Utility.'

Insert your install disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart

While you have the Disk Utility window open, look at the bottom of the window. Where you see Capacity and Available. Make sure there is always 10% to 15% free disk space

If you cannot boot from your install disc, try booting in Safe Mode

What is Safe Mode

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

Carlos A. Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 13, 2010 7:54 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Hi Carolyn,

Thanks you, Thank you, Thank you!
🙂

Booting while holding down the Option Key worked!

🙂

Just in case, before I did that I removed my Time Machine backup 750 GB Seagate.

After I tried to power off and power on and I didn't have to hold down the Option key at the time of power on.

And finally I connected back my Time Machine Backup 750 GB Seagate drive and so far everything seems to be working.

Strange behavior. I though it was doing some sort of UNIX file system check (fsck) that was taking a long time.

By any chance, Do you have any idea how to remove the iPhone Simulator software?

It is pointless to have X86 binaries in my PowerPC system for some software I will never be able to use in this system, so since space is tight I'd like to free as much possible space.

I'd think there has to be something like pkginfo and pkgrm like in Sun's Solaris or rpm manager like in Linux.

Thanks again,

Carlos.

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