Q: 20-inch iSight SSD Booting Issues
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Mar 26, 2013 11:52 AMby rccharles,I'm puzzled too.
I bet it needs a reset. Got confused over the hd switch.
somehow machine is forgetting startup info.
-- new battery???
-- set to someother boot device. set back to force refresh.. Try after reset if necessary.
-- try reset. look in firmware variable to see if startup device is set correctly.
Sometimes if volumes don't appear in Startup Manager (what you get when you hold down the Option key at startup), you need to reset the Mac's PRAM, NVRAM, and Open Firmware. Shut down the Mac, then power it up, and before the screen lights up, quickly hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys, until the Mac has chimed twice more after the powerup chime. Then, before the screen lights up, hold down Command-Option-O-F until the Open Firmware screen appears. Then enter these lines, pressing Return after each one:
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all
"The reset-all command should restart your Mac. If so, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings."
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1812?viewlocale=en_US
How to eject a cd from the internal cd drive:
eject cd
List of devices:
devalias
List of variables:
printenv
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Mar 26, 2013 1:44 PMby _Peach,Thanks for the response.
I'm thinking it's possibly a battery issue too, but further troubleshooting has yielded me the following results:
I opened the computer back up and installed another spare HDD I had (not the computer's original drive). After installing a fresh 10.5, the system booted properly to the HDD without issue.
In additon to a possible battery issue, I'm thinking maybe the computer just doesn't like the SSD, but can't really figure out why. I have seen numerous cases with people installing SSDs in the same system without issue. The SSD I installed is a Crucial M4 512GB drive.
The SSD did appear in the volume manager at startup while holding down the Option key. It was the only way i was able to boot to it before.
I have resetted the NVRAM, PRAM, and set the OpenFirmware to default settings after pulling the HDD I tested out of it. After connecting the SSD, the same issue persists. I am only able to boot to it by holding down the Option key at startup.
Before I try to find a battery for this machine, do you think it's possible that there would be compatibility issues with the SSD?
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Mar 26, 2013 2:46 PMby rccharles,HelpfulBefore I try to find a battery for this machine, do you think it's possible that there would be compatibility issues with the SSD?
If it boots correctly to the hdd, I'd find it hard be the battery. Doesn't cost too much to try. I've read where some ssd devices do not work n the g5. You searched to see if the ssd works fine in your model of g5?
see what the bootable device is set to. there seems to be two likely variables.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
# press return to run the command.
# little terminal command will print our your firmware variables.
nvram -p
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Here is a picture of the battery that you need. Verify from the pictures on the web page.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/BAA36VPRAM/
I'm not a heavy in this area.
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Mar 26, 2013 3:37 PMby _Peach,It seems the issue may be with the G5 not fully supporting the higher end SSDs. The G5 I have doesn't seem to be completely compatible with SATA III, but supports SATA II. I find it strange that I can still boot to it though though the Startup Manager
I was able to find the battery I needed and it didn't fix the issue. It makes sense since the HDD booted without problems. I suppose I had a sliver of hope that I wouldn't have to get a different drive. I wasn't aware of compatibility issues with SSDs. I figured as long as it had a SATA connection it would function properly. It's a bit frustrating as I am able to boot to it, but just not in the conventional way. I should have done a bit more research before purchasing a drive to put in that machine.
Digging around a bit, I think I may try a lower end 3Gbps SSD and see what results I can come up with.
I appreciate your time.
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Mar 26, 2013 4:20 PMby rccharles,Good luck. an oddity indeed.
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If you like playing. Could install Linux/Ubuntu on the machine. It has a boot loader. Which you boot to then it would select the OS. You could default to X.
Could play around with boot parms via nvram.
How to boot cd from open firmware:
http://blog.litot.es/2006/03/02/boot-from-cd-in-open-firmware/
I hadn't been able to fathom the syntax... until I listed a bunch of os's. Used startup of system perferences to select disk/media then click on lock then
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
nvram boot-device Now, we can guess meaning:
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@0:12,\\:tbxi
| | Partition/location
| on device
|
0 = master
1 = slave
for ata internal device
Why set nvram variable? I've had open-firmware based Pegasos PPC and it simply had boot command, so instead of:
setenv boot-device ud:3,\:tbxi
should be enough to write:
boot ud:3,\:tbxi
my setup,boot my internal harddrive Tiger partition:
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@0:12,\\:tbxi
my setup, boot my internal harddrive classic 9.2.2 partition
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@0:10,\\:tbxi
boot from Mac OS 9 cd???
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@1:9,\\:tbxi
boot 10.2 install cd
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@1:9,\\:tbxi
boot hardware test cd
boot-device mac-io/ata-4@1f000/@1:9,\\:tbxi
boot from external firewire hd with Tiger installed
boot-device fw/node@1d202009c115c/sbp-2@c000/@0:10,\\:tbxi
boot from external firewire cd/dvd drive Tiger DVD
boot-device fw/node@50770500071002/sbp-2@4000/@0:3,\\:tbxi
boot from external firewire cd/dvd drive 9.2.2 install cd
boot-device fw/node@50770500071002/sbp-2@4000/@0:9,\\:tbxi
boot from external firewire cd/dvd drive Hardware test
boot-device fw/node@50770500071002/sbp-2@4000/@0:9,\\:tbxi
network startup
boot-device enet:bootp
mac $ sudo pdisk -l
Password:
Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/rdisk0'
#: type name length base ( size )
1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
2: Apple_Driver43*Macintosh 56 @ 64
3: Apple_Driver43*Macintosh 56 @ 120
4: Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh 56 @ 176
5: Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh 56 @ 232
6: Apple_FWDriver Macintosh 512 @ 288
7: Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh 512 @ 800
8: Apple_Patches Patch Partition 512 @ 1312
9: Apple_Free 262144 @ 1824 (128.0M)
10: Apple_HFS Apple_HFS_Untitled_1 2254440 @ 263968 ( 1.1G)
11: Apple_Free 262144 @ 2518408 (128.0M)
12: Apple_HFS Apple_HFS_Untitled_2 146538496 @ 2780552 ( 69.9G)
13: Apple_Free 6982440 @ 149319048 ( 3.3G)
Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=156301488 (74.5G)
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Drivers-
1: 23 @ 64, type=0x1
2: 36 @ 120, type=0xffff
3: 21 @ 176, type=0x701
4: 34 @ 232, type=0xf8ff
pdisk: No valid block 1 on '/dev/rdisk2'
Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/rdisk3'
#: type name length base ( size )
1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
2: Apple_Driver_ATAPI*Macintosh 8 @ 64
3: Apple_HFS Mac_OS_X 5531656 @ 72 ( 2.6G)
4: Apple_Free 10 @ 5531728
Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=5531738 (2.6G)
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Drivers-
1: 4 @ 64, type=0x701
mac $Robert
