Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I picked up a used eMac a couple weeks ago, but as it used to belong to a school, it has a lot of junk on the HD. To clear it out, I thought I would use FireWire TDM. It runs Panther 10.3.9, but for some reason, WILL NOT boot into FireWire Target Disk Mode. It has a wired keyboard, and I can boot into Single User Mode, Verbose, Safe boot etc, but not TDM.
eMac-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.3.x)
No, it isn't an Apple branded keyboard, as when I bought it, it didn't come with keyboard/mouse, so i took it off some old PC i had lying around. I'm trying to get one, I know they are cheap, but I have to take a 170-km round trip to get one, and I don't have a licence. 😟 So, it actually takes me a while.
I am not using any other modifier keys, but as described in prev. post, some commands work, and others don't.
Single User, Verbose, Safe Boot WORK.
FireWire TDM, PRAM Reset, Open Firmware DO NOT.
Besides, if it recognises one with modifier keys, you would expect one without modifier key to work too.
When I started this thread, I thought it was something stupid I was doing, I didn't realize it would take so much to get Target Disk Mode to work. Incredible.
No, it isn't an Apple branded keyboard, as when I bought it, it didn't come with keyboard/mouse, so i took it off some old PC i had lying around
Well, I think we've figured out the TDM issue. FWTDM is an Apple-only function so I would not expect a board pulled from a PC to work for that startup combo.
Where are you located? Maybe we can help find a web-order source of Apple boards that won't require the long trip. Any Apple USB keybaord made before 2011 will work. Buying a new Apple board won't work for you. Their current wired board changed sometime last year from requiring OS 10.4.11 to 10.6.8, which an eMac can't run.
While it isn't an Apple keyboard, it kinda doesn't make sense that pushing a key as simple a T doesn't work, when other combos do.
That was something else I was going to speak of. It wouldn't even matter if I DID find the old keyboard, as my eMac is running Panther. I have been trying to get some more RAM so I can bump it to Leopard.
But if we can be realistic here, what difference is it anyway? Its a keyboard, for God's sake. It wouldn't be the first time something has worked (I got a new printer that required Snow Leopard, and the eMac runs it just fine, the brother printer driver CD even worked!)
I live in Ashburton, Canterbury, New Zealand. Apple Stores don't exist in our country. There is just a few Authorised Resellers popped around, but most of them don't exist anymore either, as they are all in Christchurch. Maybe you have heard of the earthquakes we have been having (ugh).
Hmmmm, I wonder if some unknown variation of this would work...
If for some reason you can't use the keyboard method to start in Safe Mode (the keyboard is missing or not working, for example), and you already have remote access to the computer, you can configure the computer to startup in Safe Mode via its command line
1. Access the command line by either opening Terminal remotely, or by logging into the computer from another via SSH.
2. Execute the following command in Terminal or on the command line:
sudo nvram boot-args="-x"
(If you want to start in Verbose mode as well, use sudo nvram boot-args="-x -v" instead )
3. After using Safe Boot, to return to a normal startup, execute this command in Terminal or the command line:
sudo nvram boot-args=""
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455
Maybe sudo nvram boot-args="-t" ???
PS. Thanks, I guess. I'm not doing this for the points, I'm hoping I can activate FireWire TDM. Hope.
Most people don't get shot to earn a Purple Heart either! 😉
I tried that first part, I see what it does, but of what I have read over the internet, the sudo command is powerful, and I'm not very comfortable with Terminal. I have not heard of the "-t" suffix anywhere elso on the internet, and I don't want to screw it up.
I could always start it in Safe Mode anyway, it's something I could do way easier just by holding SHIFT at startup.
I have not heard of the "-t" suffix anywhere elso on the internet
I haven't either, just thining there must be some code that does that...
In later Oses there's a button in Startup Disk Pref Pane to choose Target Mode startup.
I know about that, but unfortunately that first appeared in Tiger, and I have Panther.
While it isn't an Apple keyboard, it kinda doesn't make sense that pushing a key as simple a T doesn't work, when other combos do.
Make sense or not, this has happened since USB keyboards appeared. Some combos work, others don't. Just sharing my experience and what I've seen in these forums since about 2000.
I will try to get one, but it's not really that easy for me, thanks to mother earth.
I will post on here telling of successes/faliures when I get a new keyboard.
I wonder if the Jumpers on the HDD and/or Optical are set wrong...
FireWire Target Disk Mode works on internal ATA drives only. Target Disk Mode only connects to the master ATA drive on the Ultra ATA bus. It will not connect to Slave ATA, ATAPI or SCSI drive.
I did check that through System Profiler, the internal HDD is connected to the correct bus (ATA-4), and is the master drive on the bus.
Okay, here is where we stand.
My friend brought around a mac keyboard, the older shaped one that was sold with G4 and G5 iMacs, i believe.
So, it didn't help.
Nothing changed. The same ones that worked work, and the ones that didn't, still don't.
Any more ideas as to what the problem is?
I didn't see this listed anywhere above, but I believe that all eMacs, with the very last model being the exception, do not power up the USB ports until the OS is loaded. In other words, it doesn't matter what keyboard you hook up, the computer doesn't see it.
I have the very last model eMac and I believe it's nicknamed the USB 2.0 version because its the only model that had the obvious.
Well, it must have powered up the USB ports, otherwise it wouldn't boot in Safe Mode or Verbose or one of the other ones that works. Admittedly, my model is the one before the USB 2.0 model, the 1GHz ATI Graphics model. And how otherwise would you get into TDM? I can't set it to using the startup disk prefpane, because its stuck running Panther, and the start from TDM prefpane command was added in Tiger.
My eMac 800MHz sees the USB KB on power up. 🙂
eMac not booting in Target Disk Mode
