[stevegong]

Hi Guys,

so I decided to restart my computer and it would try to start, and after the initial apple screen, instead going to the welcome to mac os x screen, the screen goes all black and I get this:

Darwin/BSD (localhost)(console)
login:


what is this supposed to mean, and why can't I restart anymore? How do I do to fix this so I can restart?

many thanks.

[Brad]

It sounds like you're being dumped into single-user mode. Or, worst, something fudged your system. I'll hope for the best and go with the first possibility.

You can enter your name and password and then enter the command exit. That *should* continue the boot sequence and bring you back up to the GUI. Then, the next time you reboot, hold down apple-option-p-r to zap the PRAM. Wait until you hear the familiar chime a second time before releasing the keys. That should reset the option that drops you into single-user mode.

If that doesn't work, then something weird might have hosed your system. After you enter your name and password at the prompt, enter the command /sbin/fsck -fy to run the filesystem check program. If it reports any changes were made, run it again until it says your drive it okay. Then, enter the command /sbin/mount -uw / to mount your drive writable. Follow that with the command /usr/sbin/diskutil repairPermissions disk0s3 to repair permissions. Then try the exit command to see if it'll let you boot normally.

If that still doesn't work, you may have more serious problems. Let us know if that helps first, though.

[stevegong]

hmmm

firstly, I tried to login but it didn't work. I am wondering if this i s because I never assigned a password for my user...(since I know ssh requires a password to work)


so I went ahead and did all the other things you said, and seems like no luck...

what is going on? maybe my system got hosed because of all those things we were doing to try to fix the hard disk spindown problem? I doubt it though because I put them all back to how they were before tampering, and I have restarted after that time.

thanks a lot though. any more ideas?

[Brad]

I think it should let you login regardless as long as your user is an admin account on the computer, even if you don't have a password set. I could be mistaken.

You may need to dig out your Mac OS X Install CDs. If you reboot from the first CD (holding the 'c' key), wait for the installer screen to finish loading. Under one of the menus there should be an option for resetting or changing your password. Try setting a new password for your main user, reboot, and try the logging in procedure again.

If that still doesn't help, you may need to go through the whole reinstall process. In one of the steps leading of the install procedure, there should be a place where you can click a button for more options and you can elect to do an "Archive and Install" where it will try to transition all of your user preferences over to the new install.

On very rare occasions, I've read about a Mac system getting hosed like this after a system update or software install.

The only time I've seen it happen in person was at work with an ancient iMac that had been updated from 10.1 to 10.2 to 10.3 without any clean installs in between over the years. Something along the way just finally broke in the system after running another software update. I ended up reinstalling the system.

Maybe someone else can offer an idea before you reinstall?

Good luck!

[stevegong]

so I reset the password, and this time it let me log in not as my admin user account, but only as root user (odd).

I typed exit, but it would just bring back the login console after a few moments.

i guess I need to reinstall system software then? this is going to take so long, especially all the updates, the optimising system takes so long on this iBook 500.

thanks though for all the ideas.

[Brad]

After logging in as root, did you try the repair commands I listed?

If they don't help, then yes, you may need to reinstall.

I'd wait until tomorrow if you can, though, to see if anyone else has a better idea.

[stevegong]

tried all you said, but this stupid comp is dumb.

reinstalled...

just going to run updates now.


thanks for all the help. I wonder what the problem was .

[Stone Of Love]

Same symptoms, iMac G5 10.3.9

Last night I was trying to burn a DVD from an avi file using toast. Locked up. Tried to force quit toast, locked up the dock. Force the iMac down, restarted, repair permissions, and repeated the steps above! Zapped the Pram on the second restart, tried to burn a third time. Locked up again.

I waited about 5 minutes each time before forcing the computer off, it was "beach-balling" while locked. Anyway, the last time I forced it down, I called it a night. My wife tried to start it today and got sent to the console.

I did what Brad said about "enter your name and password and then enter the command exit" And am still waiting for it to "boot". I've got a blue screen right now with the "spinning sticks" and have had them for ten minutes or so now.

Should I force it down again, or just let it ride this out?

[Stone Of Love]

Ok, no response, and no change. So I've restarted again. I'm going to type in what happens as it happens this time.

Powered down. Restarted and zapped pram again at 11:02 am. Grey screen comes up with "spinning sticks"

11:05 changes to blue screen with startup box, hangs on "Waiting for Printing Services" (I will add, I've seen no beach ball to this point) 11:11 changes to "login window starting" 11:18 fades to Console "Darwin/BSD (my wifes computer.local) (console)
login:

So, I'm going to run the file system check now and see what that tells me.... back in a bit.

Ok, won't let me run the file system check as described above. Is this info just too old for this system? All I get is the prompt back again, so I exited again. at 11:27am. Blue screen, no spinning sticks, I think those show up after a few minutes.... Bumming out.....

[Stone Of Love]

Booted into single user mode, ran the file system check from there, tells me that "keys out of order" and "Rebuilding Catalog B-Tree" Then stopped and told me that it failed.

exited, and its now stuck on the "waiting for printing services" again. I'll be shutting it down soon to see if I can target disc it and save some of her stuff. Not sure how long its been since her last back up. OY!

[danielsza]

I would backup what ever files you can, stop trying to fix the drive or run tests. You might need a app like data rescue, first backup the files that are the most important.

Odds are that your hard drive it toast...

[Stone Of Love]

Got it in to target disc pretty easy, backing up as I type. This would be the second HD on this iMac. WTF over!!??!!

[Stone Of Love]

Ok genius guys.... What does this mean:

Repairing volume.
The volume Untitled could not be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)

Repair attempted on 1 volume
0 HFS volumes repaired
1 volume could not be repaired

Is this a hardware issue or a re-install the OS issue? I'm not happy either way, but I like the hardware issue less cuz then I gotta take the damn thing in again!

For the record, I got all the important stuff backed up, took all afternoon, but its backed up. And since it was already in target disk mode to my PB, I thought I would try a disk repair. The above is what I got out of that.

Your thoughts please.

[danielsza]

If you want it to work, you can reformat the drive, it might work for a day or a week... and it'll start corrupting files again soon...

If you have apple care take it in. If you don't I would recommend changing the drive yourself. And if you do end up buying your own hard drive, I would say buy a seagate drive. Not because they will fail less (every hard drive you buy will fail at some point), but because they have 5 year warranties.

[Stone Of Love]

I hear ya, but this drive is only 7 months old, and is the second drive in this iMac! The box has only been at my house for about 10 months now.

This one will not go down as one of my favorite Apple products to be sure.

Off to the Apple store tomorrow.

[danielsza]

To be fair the hard drives are not made by Apple, and hard drives often fail. usually they last a few years, but some times they fail very early on. But if the hard drive you have now is only 7 months old it should still be covered (at least the drive, not sure about the labour, unless you have apple care).

[Stone Of Love]

The bottom line, probably a "bad sector" on the HD that corrupted the B-Tree.

The guy at the Genius bar claims that by erasing the HD and installing the OS again the iMac will now "avoid" the bad sector and "I should not have anymore problems with this HD, but if I do, feel free to bring it back in."

Didn't take all that long, and he was able to save my wifes bookmarks that I forgot to save. So all in all, a good day.

Now to re-install everything.....

[danielsza]

That is true... but I've found once the hard drive start to have error it isn't going to last long... so I wouldn't trust the drive with important data... And if it were me I would just replace the drive, especially since it's still under warranty.

But maybe your hard drive will last a few more years... It's hard to say...

[Stone Of Love]

Anybody else care to comment on Danielsza opinion?

I'd like to know if I have a legitimate claim to a new HD from Apple on this issue or if they will tell me to "stuff it" and live with things as they are.

I would hate to go thru this again, especially if it came after the warranty was up!!!

[Stone Of Love]

Danielsza was right. Didn't last long at all. HD died two days ago.

To its credit, it lasted long enough for me to get it in to target disk mode one last time so I could back up the few things that weren't.

Went to the Genius bar yesterday morning, tell the guy all the details, he runs it thru some tests and can't get it to do anything. He asks me if I've ever done an archive and install. And then tries to do that. It won't work. Then tries a clean install, which also fails.

I'm getting to the point of "please give me a new HD for free", and he agrees! "if thats really the problem" Guy pulled my HD out, its warm, and it rattles. Tells me they don't make the 80gig's anymore, I'll have to settle for a 150gig. Lucky me!!

While we were talking I was asking what the odds were that I would have the types of problems I've had with this iMac were and he said "like winning the lottery" Well, if it weren't for bad luck....

/for those who haven't read all this or don't recall. Bought this iMac about a year ago, first trip in they replaced the Power Supply, Logic board and HD. Second trip in, Reformatted HD and told me that it would no "ignore the bad sectors on the HD". Third trip, replaced HD #2.

I really hope this is the end of this saga!!!