MacPro 5.1 (mid2010) doesn't startup in safe mode

Thanks lex, butl, since those disks are SATA, there's no such thing as master/slave. Maybe you mean the bay number... The disk with Snow Leopard is on bay 1, and it is the disk that is unable to load the login window when booting in safe mode. The disk with Lion is in bay 4, and it has no problems to boot in safe mode.

No, I'm not using any disk encryption software. All my sensible documents are encryptes individually with Crypt3 or kept in an encrypted DMG.

LexSchellings wrote:

Of course it is sata, but I did not mean master/slave. In your case I suppose #4 is the boss, can you change the disks with SL and the #4 (physically I mean).?

Yes, but it has no effect. You can use safe boot even from an external disk. I think that you're referring to Target Disk Mode. Target Disk Mode, at least when disks were ATA just mounted as a Firewire disk the master disk in the Mac started in TDM.

X423424X wrote:

So if I understand correctly you have SL in bay 1 and lion in bay 4. DId you try the safe boot with only the SL disk installed (pull out disk 4)?

Yes, I tried it. I thought that maybe it was something related to the presence of the Lion recovery partition in disk 4. So I left just disk 1 with Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

Today I've reinstalled SL on disk1 (not a clean install, just a reinstall followed by 10.6.8 combo update) with no effect.

I also installed SL in another internal disk (disk3) as a clean install, and I can safe boot normally from disk 3. So it's a problem caused by something installed in disk1 that prevents the login window from appearing when booting in safe mode.

The "infection" has affected also my external clone. No safe boot from it.

If anybody knows of a software known to cause this thing...

Probably is a two part problem: the startup of something is stopped by safe boot, but then it comes a second component that wants to start but needs that first component that it's no available.

If at least I could use verbose and safe modes combined I could see where the startup process gets stuck.

Linc Davis wrote:

Launch the Terminal application, copy or drag -- do not type -- the line of text below into the window, and press return:

kextstat -kl | awk ' !/apple/ { print $6 $7 } '

at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch(2.4.2)

com.symantec.kext.internetSecurity(1.3.2f5)

com.symantec.kext.ips(3.2f8)

com.Logitech.ControlCenter.HID

com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport(3.2)

com.makemkv.kext.daspi(1)

com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring(7.0)

Next, do the same thing with this line:

sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|com\.vix|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '

at.obdev.littlesnitchd

Next, this command:

launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '

net.decimus.Synk.SynkAgent

com.symantec.uiagent.application

com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy

com.parallels.desktop.client.launch

com.micromat.TechToolProAgent

com.Logitech.Control

com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager

com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager

at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent

at.obdev.LittleSnitchNetworkMonitor

us.theWoodwards.CAPSWarn

com.google.keystone.user.agent

com.adobe.ARM.df0ab5bbe6f698196fcc21e3c1e66dcb758bd911f4d637272d9d8109

com.adobe.ARM.4420423ddf57de4a5bdd06eb5596491942d4645622463d0016e77745

ls -1 /Library/{InputManagers,StartupItems}

/Library/InputManagers:

Ecamm

/Library/StartupItems:

BRESINKx86Monitoring

HWNetMgr

HWPortDetect

MissingSyncMounting

ProTec6

It seems that i have more junk that what I thought... Some things are remnants of utilities that I tried and trashed. Is anything of this known to cause this failure to safe boot? What's curious is that all this junk has to be also in the Lion disk, since it was cloned from the Snow Leopard one and upgraded. And Lion can boot in safe mode. I have to compare this list with the equivalent in Lion.

Thanks a lot for those terminal commands, Linc.

Linc Davis wrote:

I can't say that the junk has anything to do with your inability to safe-boot, but you should get rid of it anyway.

And here it is the output from the same commands issued under Lion. There's the same junk and even more, and still I can safe boot under Lion without problems.

kextstat -kl |awk ' !/apple/ { print $6 $7 } '

com.SiliconImage.driver.Si3132(1.2.5)

com.symantec.kext.internetSecurity(1.3.2f5)

com.symantec.kext.ips(3.2f8)

at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch(2.4.0)

com.Logitech.ControlCenter.HID

com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport(3.2)

com.makemkv.kext.daspi(1)

com.parallels.kext.prl_hypervisor(6.0

com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring(7.0)

com.parallels.kext.prl_hid_hook(6.0

com.parallels.kext.prl_usb_connect(6.0

com.parallels.kext.prl_netbridge(6.0

com.parallels.kext.prl_vnic(6.0

sudo launchctllist | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|com\.vix|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '

com.parallels.vm.prl_naptd

net.decimus.Synk.synksharingd

net.decimus.Synk.AuthTool

com.symantec.symSchedDaemon.plist

com.symantec.symdaemon

com.symantec.sharedsettings

com.symantec.Sched501-1.plist

com.symantec.navapdaemonsl

com.symantec.navapd

com.symantec.MissedTasks.plist

com.symantec.diskMountNotify.plist

com.symantec.avscandaemon

com.stclairsoft.DefaultFolderXAgent

com.quark.quarkupdate

com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon

com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

com.micromat.TechToolProDaemon

com.fernlightning.fseventer

com.crashplan.engine

com.bresink.system.securityagent3

com.bombich.ccc

com.barebones.textwrangler

com.barebones.bbedit

com.adobe.versioncueCS4

com.adobe.SwitchBoard

at.obdev.littlesnitchd

launchctl list| sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '

com.paragon.ntfs.upd

com.paragon.ntfs.trial

com.paragon.trial

net.decimus.Synk.SynkAgent

com.symantec.uiagent.application

com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy

com.parallels.desktop.client.launch

com.micromat.TechToolProAgent

com.Logitech.Control

com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager

com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager

at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent

at.obdev.LittleSnitchNetworkMonitor

us.theWoodwards.CAPSWarn

com.google.keystone.user.agent

com.adobe.ARM.df0ab5bbe6f698196fcc21e3c1e66dcb758bd911f4d637272d9d8109

com.adobe.ARM.4420423ddf57de4a5bdd06eb5596491942d4645622463d0016e77745

ls -1 /Library/{InputManagers,StartupItems}

/Library/StartupItems:

BRESINKx86Monitoring

FxLicenseManager

HWNetMgr

HWPortDetect

MissingSyncMounting

ProTec6

SiCoreService

It's not a majior problem, since now I know that's nothing bad in the Mac itself, and I can still boot into single user mode and perform fsck, clear caches, etc using Applejack. Still, I'd like to know what the heck is happening.

And again, thanks for your help and forgive my English: Spaniards are known to spend our whole live trying to learn English without much success :-)