HELP please, cocktail made my mac boot in unix!! help!!

[usurp]

I am never stuck with a mac problem but this is freaking me out.

I was running cocktail yesterday trying to "optimize" my powermac g4 733mhz.

When I was done i rebooted my mac but shockingly it booted up in UNIX!!!

I get the grey screen with dark grey apple in middle, plus i hear the chime. But then the screen goes black, i get white text and a bunch of stuff coming up and there i am in unix.

I tried booting from the panther cd but i still boot in unix.

In Cocktail i did prepinding and cleared cache etc. but there was also an option for booting where it was standard and i chose Single-User. I figured that would somehow make my mac boot faster but instead it now boots in unix and i think that option is what messed it up.

Can anyone help?

[Brad]

Oh, this is an easy one. :)

To continue the boot process into the normal GUI after single-user mode, simply enter the command "exit" and press return. Once booted, you should be able to disable that option from Cocktail.

Alternatively, you could zap the PRAM or use an OpenFirmware command to toggle to normal boot, but I'll leave you with the first option above for now. If you need further assistance, just let us know!

Lesson learned? RTFM before doing anything that could affect the system as a whole. ;)

[usurp]

thats it? thanks i will try that when i get home.
i was actually gonna try to zap the PRAM but figured it would be useless since i figured this was software based.

so what is this single user mode? i figured it would disable the multiple users capability of OS X which in return might toggle more memory for me. I was wrong ofcourse.

[Gargoyle]

almost.

UNIX - The stuff that OSX is build around is a multiuser system. There is no changing that! It's entire security model is based around this fact and in order to do anything to the system you need to be logged in as a "super user". This is why some installers ask for your password.

However, sometimes (not often tho) you might want to do something in single user mode. This is normally "last ditch" repair or maintenance that will allow you to perform various tasks before the security stuff gets loaded.

Not wanting to sound condescending, but if you do not know what single user mode is, then you should keep clear of it. I have used UNIX/Linux for a few years now and have never used it - hence the vague description.

Hope this satisfies your curiosity. I am sure you will find much more detailed and accurate info out there in the web if not.

:)

[usurp]

thanks that was informative.
i went home during my lunch break, typed exit and enter and it worked. things are normal now. phew...

[ast3r3x]

Reminds me I want to repair disk...off to single user mode ;)

[Paul]

see the FAQ thread at the top of this forum...

[usurp]

paul i checked that FAQ ages ago. just contained basic stuff.. nothing on what to do if you mac starts booting in unix :)

[Paul]

no, but it does contain information about what single user mode is and what it is used for ;) (see Gargoyle's post) I should have been a bit clearer with my post. sorry. :)

[usurp]

oh yeahhh just noticed that. thats actually a cool tip. easier then booting from the panther cd and disk repairing..

[Spart]

paul i checked that FAQ ages ago. just contained basic stuff.. nothing on what to do if you mac starts booting in unix :)

Just to clear this up, so long as your Mac is booting in OS X, it's always "booting in UNIX."

The only difference between a normal startup and, say, a single user mode or verbose startup is that you don't see the command line and textual output that is normally hidden by a pretty GUI. However, just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there. The UNIX base of OS X isn't turned off when you see the Apple logo and the boot panel, it's just operating in the background rather than taking a dump on the screen.

So your Mac is always booting in UNIX, one way or another.

[thuh Freak]

well, technically, macosx is never booting in unix. macosx is not unix. its unix-like. :p like linux and the bsds, its very closely related, and in many ways works exactly the same (from a high-end view) as unix, but its not exactly unix.

[Barto]

Of course "Unix" is only a loose technical specification and a company that will let you call your operating system "a Unix OS" if you pay them money.

[ecwade]

thanks that was informative.
i went home during my lunch break, typed exit and enter and it worked. things are normal now. phew...
If your system is restarting into Single-User mode, typing exit will not necessarily cause your system to boot normally, even though it may appear that way. Single-user mode is kind of like Safe Mode on Win-Doze, in that it skips certain drivers and configuration files. Typing exit will cause some, but not all, of the normal boot-time events to proceed. If your system is consistently booting into single-user mode, wait for the terminal prompt and issue these two commands:
nvram boot-args=""
reboot
This will reset the OpenFirmware parameter that is most likely causing the problem and cause the system to reboot normally.

[Brad]

If your system is restarting into Single-User mode, typing exit will not necessarily cause your system to boot normally, even though it may appear that way. Single-user mode is kind of like Safe Mode on Win-Doze, in that it skips certain drivers and configuration files.
I don't think so. Got any proof?

In my (extensive) experience, absolutely everything is still loaded afterwards including all drivers and even third-party kernel extensions, just as normal.

I believe you're thinking of Safe Boot (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393).