Booting to Darwin/BSD Screen

Hi

Your link doesn't work because of the extra '?' on the end, but I removed it and found a topic I had replied in.

If you are unable to login, start in Single User mode by holding down the Command (Apple) key and the 'S' key as you reboot (see Mac OS X: How to Start up in Single-User or Verbose Mode).

You will get a lot of white text on a black screen, which will end in a prompt like "root#". Then type:

/sbin fsck -fy

and repeat this command until it says your disk "appears to be OK". Then type this command followed by a return:

tail -20 /var/log/system.log

and proceed as in the other topic.

If 20 lines is not enough to find the error message, you can instead page through the log by typing

more /var/log/system.log

and hitting the space bar to get the next page.

Where the system log shows "AuthorizationRef doesn't have a username" followed by "exiting to console ", the NetInfo database is corrupt. so we will need to give you a new one. This will involve re-creating the user accounts (don't worry, this doesn't take too long) but the order in which they are created matters. I recommend you print this out in a largish mono-spaced font so you don't miss any spaces (or add extra ones). Note that case is important.

Start up in Single User Mode and type carefully:

/sbin/fsck -y

Repeat the above until it says your disk is OK. Then:

/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /var/db/netinfo
mv local.nidb/ local.nidb.bad
ls -ln /Users

This last command will give you one line for each user, plus one for the "Shared" directory, which doesn't interest us. Each user will have a line like one of these: <pre>

drwxr-xr-x 29 501 501 986 Jan 17 18:38 michaelc
drwxr-xr-x 14 520 20 476 Sep 10 2004 jdoe

</pre>The second numeric field (501, 520) is the user ID (UID) and you need to list the uids against the shortname s given in the final column. Make sure you get the name right for UID 501! Then continue with

reboot

When you restart, you should get the Setup Assistant, just as if it was a new machine. You will be prompted for all of your user information. Be careful to use the same short name as previously for user 501.

If there are any further users, these can be added, in the order of their UIDs, i.e. 502, 503 …, using System Preferences > Accounts. Again, be careful to use the same shortname. If there are any gaps in the UID sequence 501, 502, … you will need to create dummy users to fill them. These can later be deleted.

iBook dual USB Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I followed you advice, and everything appeared to work perfectly, but now, after rebooting from single user mode, the "Welcome" movie just plays over and over and never goes to the Setup Assistant. Any ideas????

Hi Ric

That is peculiar. Try again, but this time type (carefully)

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

(note - no space between '/' and '.') before the "reboot" command.

If you had properly renamed the "local.nidb" directory to "local.nidb.bad", then the startup scripts should execute the above command, which is why I didn't bother posting it. But there is no harm in doing it twice.

Thanks so much! I am back up.

That's good!

But … it's still peculiar … Hmmm …
🙂

Hi-

I have a similiar problem - I followed your directions only to end at a blank blue screen with only the mouse cursor. I went back into the single user mode to print the system log and the first line back is:

[login window[132]" [login.m:1844] Failed to launch /System/Library/coreservices/setup Assistant.app/contents/MacOS/SetupAssistant (error 5)

which explains why the setup assistant doesn't launch. I'd appreciate a suggestion for fixing this problem. I can't reload the OS as on installation, the program hangs on Setting up Installation screen and can't attach the Hard drive to another laptop by holding down the "t" at boot (boots off the internal hard drive...),

Thanks for your help in advance.

g4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

FGEE

Welcome to Apple Discussions!!

The only reference to error 2 I can find in the Mac documentation is a hardware (processor) error, which you are unlikely to have. It is much more likely that this is just the Standard C return code, "ENOENT", which just means "No such file or directory".

Do you know enough to navigate to that directory in Single User Mode to see if that file is missing? You need to escape the spaces in the folder name, so type carefully:

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Setup\ Assistant.app/Contents/MacOS

ALL ON ONE LINE even if it wraps in this post.

You may get "No such file or directory" just doing this. If not, type

ls -l

(those are both lower case 'ells' by the way). You should see something like: <pre>

total 40
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 18264 Mar 28 2005 Setup Assistant

</pre>The first line doesn't matter, do you have the second line?

If you don't, you are going to need to reinstall your system. You seem to have been trying to boot your machine in Target Disk Mode – are you doing it correctly? See: How to use FireWire target disk mode.

Your other option is to do an Archive & Install, see Mac OS X : About the Archive and Install Feature.

Hi Michael-

I don't have that file/directory on my G4 (AGP), so I tried to reinstall tiger - I get it to boot off DVD but it hangs after looking for OSx on the hard drive. I tried getting it to boot as a target disk, per the article you kindly referenced and it just boots off the internal drive. It also will not see an external firewire drive on an "option" boot. Any suggestions? Thanks so much for taking the time to share your expertise with me!

Hi again

I don't know why that file would be missing, unless (as is likely) there is a problem with your Hard Drive.

I get it to boot off DVD but it hangs after looking for OSx on the hard drive.

OK, when you have booted from the DVD (just noticed you have 10.4, not 10.3 or earlier!), after choosing the language, there are a number of things on the Menu Bar. Look for "Disk Utility" which is probably on the "Utilities" menu.

Then you need to try to repair your disk (using "Repair Disk", not "Repair Permissions") as explained in this KB article: Mac OS X: About Using Disk Utility and fsck for File System Maintenance. If you get as far as a message saying your volume "appears to be OK", then you should try the Archive & Install again.

Not all errors are repairable by Disk Utility: quote from the Disk Utility screen:

• If Disk Utility cannot make repairs, try other disk repair programs or back up your data and erase the volume.

In that situation you may want to investigate DiskWarrior, unless you are prepared to do an "Erase & Install", which will wipe your data.

Hello-

I've already tried Disk Warrior and its gives me a message that the hard disk is non-repairable. I ran Disk Utiltiy on the hard drive when the G4 was booted off a laptop and it came back clean with no errors. When I boot off the install DVD, I don't even get as far as getting a menu bar - the program hangs and the "barber pole" stops spinning at setting up for installation screen.

While looking for a solution, I found that the firmware should be updated on this computer ... could that be the root of the problem?

In any case, thank you so much for trying to bail me out!

G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4) APG

FGEE

Disk Warrior and its gives me a message that the hard disk is non-repairable.

Sorry to hear this.

I found that the firmware should be updated on this computer ... could that be the root of the problem?

I suppose it is possible. If as you say Disk Utility is happy with the drive, it would be worth doing the firmware upgrade before attempting anything else. But I suspect you are going to have to reinstal the software if those system files are missing.

Hello Michael-

I was finally able to upgrade the firmware which allowed me to boot off of external drives and make the Mac a target drive, allowing me to update back to 10.4, although I was still not able to complete the boot the off of DVD.

A sincere thank you for all your help, it is very much appreciated!