Mac Mini won't boot past Apple logo and spinning wheel

Question

Mac Mini won't boot past Apple logo and spinning wheel

Hello,

I have a Mac mini (late 2009) running 10.8.2. Today, I tried to log into the computer. It accepted my username and password, but then the screen turned gray instead of logging in. I left it like that for about twenty minutes, then gave up on waiting and Ctrl-Command-Power rebooted it. It then wouldn't reboot: it gets to the Apple logo and spinning loading wheel, but won't go past there.

So I went into single-user mode and was able to access the HD fine. I ran a filesystems check using the recommended syntax (/sbin/fsck -fy, I think). It said that the volume looked okay, and that it had been modified. I took this as a good sign (that it had been repaired) and typed "reboot" to restart the machine. I held Command-Shift-V to perform a Verbose Safe Boot.

The computer makes no further progress after the following four lines:

vboxdrv: fAsync=0 offMin0x809 offMax=0x2bc3

VBoxDrv: version 3.2.12 r68302; IOCtl version 0x140001; IDC version 0x10000; dev major=34

VBoxFltDrv: version 3.2.12 r68302

VBoxAdpDrv: version 3.2.12 r68302

I'm assuming all the instances of "vbox" are in reference to Oracle's VirtualBox VM. I do have VirtualBox installed, but haven't used it in a while (months), so I don't see why it's suddenly causing a problem.

To clarify, the computer doesn't "hang" after these lines: I can still type text into the terminal. The entire log is being saved to /dev/console, so I could probably grab it from Single-User Mode if necessary.

Everything else seems to be working properly: even the wl0 drivers are loaded.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to fix this, or at least disable VirtualBox so the computer can start?

Thanks!

WC

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM, Intel 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 160GB HD

Posted on Feb 18, 2013 11:29 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Feb 18, 2013 11:47 AM in response to WilliamChargin

Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.

If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS.

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Answer 2

Feb 18, 2013 12:20 PM in response to BDAqua

I've repaired permissions. The only permissions that "differed" were

Library/Contextual Menu Items
Library/Frameworks
Library/Image Capture/Devices/Canon IJScanner2.app
and a whole bunch of Canon printer stuff, mostly strings files

Don't know what Canon has to do with anything. I don't even have a Canon printer.

I also ran a "Repair Disk" in addition to "Repair Disk Permissions." Just got "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK" in happy green text.

When I reboot and perform a verbose safe boot (Command-Shift-V), I get the same four lines about VirtualBox. Is there anything I can do to simply bypass VirtualBox in the boot sequence? Maybe remove it from some daemons or init list?

If I were to perform a reinstall of the operating system, could I keep my files? If not, would a Time Machine restore be possible without simply recreating the problem?

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Answer 3

JoshFree

Level 1

5 points

Feb 18, 2013 12:45 PM in response to WilliamChargin

Have your tried Safe booting mac?

steps and instuctions here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

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Answer 4

Feb 18, 2013 1:06 PM in response to JoshFree

Yes I have. It doesn't get past the spinning circle and Apple logo.

EDIT: However, after about five minutes, the progress bar on the bottom disappears.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Feb 18, 2013 1:09 PM in response to WilliamChargin

A Reinstall should keep all your files, but IF vbox is the problem, it's not likely to solve the problem.

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Answer 6

JoshFree

Level 1

5 points

Feb 18, 2013 1:12 PM in response to WilliamChargin

Cult of Mac post:

When the Apple Logo appears your Mac has found a valid system disk, and Mac OS X begins loading.

Apple Logo with Spinning Gear

Once the spinning gear appears the BSD kernel (Darwin) has assumed command and begins loading device drivers. Shortly thereafter it transfers command to the almighty (and controversial) launchd process. Such are the workings of UNIX.

What this means for us mortals is that when a Mac stalls at the Apple logo or the logo with a spinning gear, it probably has a corrupt Mac OS X installation. It may also be having trouble accessing an internal or external hardware component, but this is less-likely.

Rebooting your Mac in Safe Mode can sometimes get things working well-enough that a second, normal reboot then works normally Hold down the Shift key at startup to boot in Safe Mode. DiskWarrior is also worth a shot (this is by far my most used disk utility). If that doesn’t work, an Archive & Install may be needed.

Read more at http://www.cultofmac.com/50685/how-to-fix-common-mac-startup-problems-macrx/#CGI mG3jeGEBtysX1.99

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Answer 7

Feb 18, 2013 1:47 PM in response to JoshFree

Josh,

Thanks for the info. I didn't know what the different stages represented.

It's trying to boot into safemode right now, and has been for the last hour or so.

Does Archive & Install still apply to 10.8? I thought that was deprecated.

WC

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Answer 8

Feb 18, 2013 1:54 PM in response to WilliamChargin

By the way, all external connections (I've tried VNC, SSH, and FTP) are down. So it's not just failing to display once it's succesfully loaded; it's actually not loading.

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Feb 18, 2013 2:14 PM in response to WilliamChargin

Does Archive & Install still apply to 10.8?

Depreciated, but since 10.5.x it's the way it works by default... unless you purposely Erase & Install, just doesn't save the useless Previous Systems in a folder.

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Answer 10

Feb 18, 2013 2:16 PM in response to BDAqua

You seem skeptical that the problem is caused by VirtualBox. Do you have any ideas as to what could have caused it, if not this?

I agree that it's weird that it would have caused the problem since I haven't used it in months, but it does stop there in the boot sequence.

And about the Archive & Install: would that be likely to keep the system files that are causing the problem, or would it replace them with good ones?

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Answer 11

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Feb 18, 2013 2:22 PM in response to WilliamChargin

Not all that skeptical, but just can't say/tell for sure if it's stopping at/on vbox, or right after & before the next thing. 🙂

If you can get a look at the logs it may help.

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Answer 12

Feb 18, 2013 2:25 PM in response to BDAqua

Good point. How would I get a look at the logs?

I've tried to shut down and then reboot into single user mode, but running "less /dev/console" doesn't give me any logs, and "ls -l /dev | grep console" tells me that console is a sort of special file. But verbose boot says that its logs go to /etc/console.

Is the log just what's appearing on the screen during verbose boot, or is there something more like the Console application in OSX that has detailed info for basically anything that happens? And can I access it?

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Answer 13

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Feb 18, 2013 2:33 PM in response to WilliamChargin

Can you cd to etc & see if there are logs there?

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Answer 14

Feb 18, 2013 2:37 PM in response to BDAqua

# cd /etc

# ls

[ a whole ton of files appear ]

# ls | grep -i log

csh.login

csh.login~orig

csh.logout

csh.logout~orig

mach_init_per_login_session.d

newsyslog.conf

newsyslog.d

syslog.conf

The two that end in .d are directories.

# ls newsyslog.d

com.apple.slapconfig.conf

files.conf

wifi.conf

# ls mach_init_per_login_session.d

[empty]

Where would I find logs?

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Answer 15

Feb 18, 2013 3:41 PM in response to WilliamChargin

Figured out why I can't see the log in /dev/console - that's a device file (duh).

Is there any way I can redirect /dev/console to a file, so that the logs are actually saved? Or is there some other loggin mechanism that matters?

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