josephloveday
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Xserve not going to login screen

I recently was given a Intel Xserve. It boots to the point that it has the Apple with a spinning wheel under it, then the computer just turns off. When I try to boot from a CD, it does the flashing folder with a question mark, then goes to a gray screen and appears to hang there indefinitely.

Does anybody know what's going on?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Posted on Jul 15, 2014 3:44 AM

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josephloveday

Q: Xserve not going to login screen

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  • by Strontium90,

    Strontium90 Strontium90 Jul 15, 2014 4:22 AM in response to josephloveday
    Level 5 (4,087 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jul 15, 2014 4:22 AM in response to josephloveday

    How old is the Xserve?  How are the drives configured?

     

    Can you boot to verbose mode (Command - V)?  What is the last line in the log output before the unit halts?

     

    Can you boot to single user mode (Command - S) and read the system.log (less /var/log/system.log)?  What is the shutdown cause reported as?  Can you run fsck?  Are there disk errors?

     

    Reid

    Apple Consultants Network

    Apple Professional Services

    Author "Mavericks Server – Foundation Services" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store

  • by josephloveday,

    josephloveday josephloveday Jul 15, 2014 11:29 PM in response to Strontium90
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2014 11:29 PM in response to Strontium90

    I can boot it to single user mode and verbose mode.

    As to how old or how the drives are configured, I'm not sure, as I got it from a school who had got a new server and didn't need this one.

    When I type "less /var/log/system.log" it comes up with highlighted text saying "less /var/log/system.log END".

    Then if I press any key it comes up with (what looks like) dashes, on top of each other, and then (highlighted) "(END)"

    I don't know what that means.

    FSCK says that there are no disk errors.

    When I entered verbose mode, these were the last few messages:

    Screen Shot 2014-07-16 at 2.26.53 pm.png

  • by Strontium90,

    Strontium90 Strontium90 Jul 16, 2014 4:47 AM in response to josephloveday
    Level 5 (4,087 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jul 16, 2014 4:47 AM in response to josephloveday

    Well, usually the failing to load a kernel extensions means the OS is damaged.  When in single user mode, can you cd to /System/Library/Extensions (cd /System/Library/Extensions).  When listing the contents, do you see IOStorageFamily.kext?  (ls -la | more).  If so, can you cd into IOStorageFamily.kext?  Does it have contents?

     

    You can also determine the OS version of the machine by issuing this command via single user mode:

     

    less /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist

     

    Look on the rear of the hit and check the serial number of the Xserve.  This can help you identify the model.  Also, the hardware can give you an idea of what it is.  Look on the back.  If there is only one power supply slot, then this is a G5 or older.  if there is room for two power supplies, than this is an Intel.  You should hope for an Intel.  Next, look on the front.  If the front has a USB port, then the unit is a 2008 or 2009 Xserve.

     

    Once you determine the model, then you can craft a method of getting install media for it.