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Why does my iMac boot in linux some of the time instead of Mac OS?

I first encountered this problem in os 10.8 and when I installed 10.8.1 I thought it had been fixed because I booted 10 times without the problem occurring. However, it's back.

iMac10,1

Posted on Aug 24, 2012 5:52 PM

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62 replies

Aug 26, 2012 8:17 AM in response to BDAqua

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, BDAqua, and thanks for your interest. It has just been a busy time. In answer to your question, I just start up by pushing the button on the back of my iMac. Nothing more interesting or fancy than that. My problem is that often it doesn't boot up into OSX but into what looks like Linux to me. I am an ex-software engineer but not on macs and it has been a decade since I worked on linux, but I'm pretty sure that's what I am looking at. I type exit when what I take to be linux console messages stop and then OSX starts up.

Aug 26, 2012 8:29 AM in response to Fred Ochs

I don't know Linux from my elbow, but you would have had to install it for it boot to it. And it doesn't seem like you did. Does the screen look like a lot of MS-DOS text? If so, that sounds like it's booting into single user mode or Verbose Mode, which is normally only accesible by holding Cmd-s and Cmd-v, respectively, at the startup chime.


http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57498000-263/what-to-do-when-a-mac-always-b oots-to-verbose-or-single-user-modes/

Aug 26, 2012 8:39 AM in response to Fred Ochs

WZZZ's reply has rung a bell with me. I think I've seen your problem mentioned a couple of times on these forums - a PRAM reset should fix it:


Reset PRAM

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P and R.
    You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
  3. Turn on the computer.
  4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
  5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
  6. Release the keys.

Aug 27, 2012 1:21 PM in response to Paul_31

I posted the same problem in 10.8 and indicated it as solved when it turned out not to be. That may have been where you saw it earlier Paul. I couldn't figure out how to reopen that one, so I started this discussion instead. In that (10.8) release the PRAM reset did not solve the problem. I will try it with 10.8.1 and get back on results sooner if it fails, later if it takes a while to fail, later still if it is fixed. :-)

Aug 27, 2012 5:21 PM in response to Fred Ochs

Fred, thanks for the link to the thread. Everybody else, I'm having the exact same problem as Fred. It started after updating to Mountain Lion. Sometimes it will be several days before it recurrs and sometimes it does it everyday for a few days in a row. Sometimes when I shut down it briefly goes back to the "text" screen before completely shutting down. Fortunately it's only mildly annoying since I only have to type "exit" or "reboot" to resume normal operation.

Why does my iMac boot in linux some of the time instead of Mac OS?

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