Still waiting for root device II

This post is a continue part of my previouse "Still waiting for root device" post that covered several solutions including:

• use RD=DiskXsY darwin switch
• BIOS configuration
• flag OSX86 partition as bootable

this post will display more good options to get pass this error, starting with the simplest:

1. Download another distribution
the simplest solution is sometimes the less obviouse, although you probably thinking "what good can another copy of Hackintosh do for my hardware compatability error?" well the thing is that OSX86 is a shrinked OSX with hacked, tweaked, opensource drivers for a PC, this what makes you PC compatible with OSX, one distribution does not include the same drivers as the other, also versions of the same published contains different drivers, for instamce Leo4All_v2 may work on your machine but Leo4All_v3 might not. so be sure to download as much distributions you can until your problem is solved.

2. Plug USB/Firewire drive (even DiskOnKey)
another simple solution is to plug an external drive like a USB or Firewire drive or even a USB DiskOnKey (size doesn't matter, in this case anyway) in your USB port and reboot the system, with the Hackintosh OSX86 DVD in the DVD drive, once the darwin countdown appear press F8 in order to get the boot prompt and use the RD=DiskXsY switch (switch use is explained in this post in greater details) and point the disk number and partition number to the external drive. this solution is only to get the installtion started, not a permanent solution, after the installation is running you can choose different combination of drivers until the installed system will load without the need to use the USB plug trick.

3. Use External DVD
if you can access external DVD drive or a SATA drive then try using it, most of the times the problem is hardware inconsistency with the driver installed on the DVD, this means that you might have a DVD that the booting driver set (this set is different then the driver it contains in order to install on your system) includes SATA harddrive driver, and your harddrive might be SATA but the DVD is IDE, and ofcource it can be vice versa, that the HD is IDE and the DVD is SATA and driver is one of them (IDE/SATA), so try to make it consistent, use the same HD and DVD type (even by plugging external DVD so it will be USB instaed of SATA or IDE) and find a distribution that will load them.

4. Play with Master/Slave settings
sometimes when your PC contains IDE hraddrive and IDE DVD you need to play with the master slave configuration (use this option only if you know what it means, this option involve openning the PC case and play with harddrive/DVD jumpers)

5. More darwin swiches to try
there are more swich you can try beside rd=diskXsY, you can read about them in this post, try these next swiches: platform=X86PC -x -f cpus=1, try them in different combinations until you succeed.

6. Create an HFS+ partition prior to the installation
if the installation cannot find your root device although you tried previouse sulutions then try creating an HFS+ partition and point to it using the rd=diskXsY at boot time.

from windows create a partition of AF type (HFS+ type), do it like this:

• from windows press Start->run and write: cmd and press enter
  
• write diskpart and press enter


• write: list disk (it will display all available HD)


• select the number of the one you want to install Leopard on like this: write: select disk NUM_OF_DISK and press enter (replace NUM_OF_DISK with the number of the disk you want)


• next write: list partition and press enter


• it will display all the partitions on that disk, now delete the partition you planed to install on like this: delete part NUM_OF_PART and press enter (replace NUM_OF_PART with the partition you wanted to install leopard on), if you don't have such partition then skip to the next part


• create a partition of the AF type like this: write: create partition primary id=AF and press enter


• write: active and press enter


• reboot and try to load the installation from the DVD again

7. Copy the Extensions folder from DVD to the Harddrive
this solution is for all of you that got the "Still waiting" error after the installation processed finished and first reboot occurred. if this is your case then it means that you have succeeded to boot into the DVD inorder to install (so the correct drivers for your system reside in the DVD boot extensions folder) but when you finished installing the drivers you selected they just won't boot and the Still waiting for root device appears, then all you have to do is to copy the DVD boot extensions folder into your installed copy and by that boot from your harddrive using the DVD drivers, do it like this:

boot from the install DVD, from utilities menu item select the terminal and write the following commands, but replace the word Leopard with your installation partition name (you set it during installation):
cd /System/Library
mv /Volumes/Leopard/System/Library/Extensions /Volumes/Leopard/System/Library/Extensions.bak
cp -R Extensions /Volumes/Leopard/System/Library
cd /Volumes/Leopard/System/Library
chmod -R 755 Extensions
chown -R 0:0 Extensions

after this the system should be able to boot on its own, you may need to flag the partition as bootable read how to do this here.

8. Change the ATA driver on the DVD
this last suggestion is very good but very hard to nail. it involves hacking the IOATAFamily.kext. this is the kext that is responsible for the attached hardware on your machine (ATA= AT Attachments, SATA = Serial ATA) like IDE hard drives or CD/DVD we will insert your controller Vendor ID and Device ID to it. follow these instructions:

• boot into windows


• open control panel


• find your Disk controller


• right click and choose properties


• chose the Details tab


• the first line contains something like this: PCI\VEN_30BE&DEV_004A...


• Vendor id is the 4 characters after the word: VEN_


• Device id is the 4 characters after the word: DEV_


• write on a paper the sting like this: 0x + VendorID + DeviceID (without plus or space for instance this example should be like this: 0x30BE004A)


• next stage involve using MacDrive and some util that will mount your install DVD ISO file (like alcohol), you need to mount the DVD after installing MacDrive that allows you to access Mac file system,


• cd into the folder:


• make sure you have at least these folders in there: AppleGenericPCATA.kext AppleOnboardPCATA.kext IOATAPIProtocolTransport.kext AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext AppleVIAATA.kext AppleNForceATA.kext IOATABlockStorage.kext


• also make sure you have the folder: /System/Library/Extensions/JMicronATA.kext (if you use a JMicron controller and IDE hard drive)


• next open in an editor the file: /System/Library/Extensions/IOATAFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleVIAATA.kext/Contents/Info.plist


• find this tag: <>IOPCIPrimaryMatch< /key >


• after it you will find a tag: <> with allot of strings like you wrote on the paper in it.


• add your string (one you wrote on the paper, but first make sure it is not already there, if it is - abort this step (Solution 8) completely) with a space between it to the others (location isn't matter as long as it is in the tag like the others)


• save it


• delete the file: /System/Library/Extensions.mkext


• save the ISO file with these changes, burn it onto a DVD, boot from it with -F at the darwin prompt.

hope all these solutions help you,
ShayBC.

You might want to read these related posts:
Still waiting for root device
Darwin Boot Options
Download Hackintosh OS X Leopard
Blinking cursor after OSX86 install
Restore bootable partition

HFS+ partition type changed - what to do?

if you have for some reason a partition that is not recognized as HFS+ but it is (for instance if you tried to resize using Gparted and the HFS+ converted to something else), this is what you do in order to fix it:

enter fdisk, once you have entered fdisk and pressed p for print it will display a table with partitions details looking like this:



Note the second column (id), it is telling us what is the type of the partition in a hex representation. the HFS+ partitions should have AF as ID.

if it is not AF and the last column does not say HFS+ then use the command:
setpid X (where X stands for the partition number)
then the fdisk will show the partition table just for the X partition and ask for the partition ID you want to set like this:



write AF as the ID and press enter.
u (stands for Update)
w (stands for write)
it will tell you that you need a reboot like this:



write y (stands for yes)
q (stands for quit)

reboot, your done.

Enjoy.

Restore bootable partition

You have recently installed kext, application, update, another OS on a different partition and after boot all you get is a blinking cursor, and no darwin boot, and system not booting.

this post will explain step by step how to turn your partition back to a bootable state.

Data you should know.

you need to know what are you hard disk and partitions configuration,

• how many drives do you have
  
• how many partition on each drive
  
• what OS and File System is installed on each Partition
  
• what OS you would like to restore as primary boot loader

Solution 1:
first solution is accomplished using the "GNU Gparted Live CD", it is free Linux based application, you can download it here as an ISO file, you need to burn the iso file on to a CD and boot from it.

once you boot from the Live Cd you see this screen:


in the upper graphic parts you see square shapes that each represent a partition, above them there is a drop down that display the currently selected hard drive (in this case hda and its size is 37G), in linux (as in mac) drive is represented as file under folder dev, so the first drive is: /dev/hda.

if you choose from the drop down another driver it will display that drives partitions.
the lower table display the partitions in more details, you can see in this example that the first partition is NTFS, and it has the boot flag marked, that means that the NT file system will be booted from.

one of the thing you can do, is set a partition to being a bootable by setting the boot flag to it. you do that by right clicking with the mouse on the desired partition and choosing "manage flags" , from the pop up window check the boot flag check-box, close the window and click the "Apply Changes" button after it finish, reboot, and your HFS+ file system should be bootable again.

Solution 2:
there is another option to do this from command line using the fdisk utility available from the leopard DVD.
steps:

1. insert the Leopard install DVD and boot from it
2. at boot time press F8, and you will see the darwin boot screen
3. write -s and press enter this will enter "Single User" mode
4. execute the two lines that appear there regarding fsck and mount as described in the "Single User" post.
5. next enter these commands:

fdisk -e /dev/rdiskX (where X stands for your leopard install hard disk number (first one is 0 second is 1 etc.))
then in the fdisk utility write ? for list of commands (help screen)



write p (short for print) and press enter then it will display a table of disks and partitions
find your HFS+ partition and remember its number (if it is the first partition it will be 1)
next write: f X where X stands for the HFS+ partition probably 1 if it is the first partition,
next write: u (short for update) and press enter
then write: w (short for write) and press enter
lastly press q (quit)
then restart and the HFS+ partition should be bootable again.

so for summary, the commands should look like this:
boot single mode (after restart press F8, at the prompt write -s and press enter)
/usr/sbin/fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0

f 1

u

w

q

Reboot

if these solutions did not help that means one of two things:

1. you have just installed Leopard and did not install Darwin as described in the "Install Leopard" post.
2. or for some reason your partition ID has changed from AF to something else causing the HFS+ file system to recognized incorrectly.

the first case is solved by simply installing the darwin from the DVD.
the second case can be solved from the fdisk utility instructions in this post.

Enjoy.

Download Hackintosh OS X Leopard

this is actually not a post with links to downloads, rather then the known types of image DVD available out there for download. (you can search google and add the words rapidshare or megaupload or torrent)

• iATKOS_v1.0i.iso (10.5.1) (Uphuck official site)
• iATKOS_v1.0iR2.zip (PPF (patch) so the 10.5.1 ISO will convert to 10.5.2) (Uphuck forum)
• iATKOS_v2.0i  this is an 10.5.2 release here is the readme link
• Leo4allv3final (wiki site)
• KALYWAY_LEO_10.5.1intel_SSE2_SSE3.zip (Kalyway 10.5.1 for Intel and AMD)
• kalyway_Leopard_DVD_intelSSE3_9a527 (Kalyway 10.5.1 9a527)
• kalyway_hack_10.5.2ComboUpdate (updates kalyway 10.5.1 to 10.5.2)
• Kalyway_10.5.2_DVD_Intel_Amd.iso (new - published on 10.04.08)
• JaS OsX86 10.5.2 Intel SSE2 SSE3.iso (JAS Beta comeback)
• Leopard-10.5.2-AMD-EFI.iso (Zephyroth Leopard 10.5.2 for AMD)
• ToH_x86_9A581_RC2.iso ( Mac OS X 10.5.1 Leopard ToH -RC2 SSE3 SSE2 Intel)
• BrazilMac-9a581-Patch.zip (old BrazilMac-9a581-Patch patch real leopard DVD)

there are more old versions 10.4.x Tiger etc. you can check them in the same manner.

my suggestion or actually my recommendation is to choose the latest Leo4Allv3final, it is the best distribution i have seen yet, it has a multi boot options, a great boot-loader that manage with many computer hardware, many kernels, easy installer, no need to do fdisk in order to set installed partition as bootable, no need to install EFI, and there are useful applications installed, it support SSE2, SSE3, AMD and intel, it has tons of drivers and third party almost entire scene open source on the DVD, i loved it and i warmly recommend it.

next install i would recommend to use is iatkos_v2.0i it has an easy install process, and stable release, it includes many drivers and third party, it has a beautiful site that advertise new releases, iatkos group always was a fast supporting group (they where the first to come out with EFI support, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, etc.), they also have a great community and support forum.

lastly is the kalyway_10.5.2, it is a good and now stable release.

Enjoy.

How to use DAA Extension file?

Recently, i have downloaded a game for my daughters, and discovered it was a DAA extension file.

DAA stands for "Direct Access Archive" it is a proprietary format like ISO, DMG etc. and can be open by PowerISO only (a windows application), DAA can support encrypting and password protected archive files.

one solution is to use windows emulators such as: Parallels, VMWare, Darwine, CrossOver etc.

the second solution is to just download a small utility that converts DAA files to ISO files (that are completely supported by mac), the utility is called "DAA Converter" it is based on the daa2iso command line utility.

the utility can be found here.

once downloaded copy the app into "Applications" or Utilities" or whatever folder you wish, then double click it and a window looking like this appears:

immediately a browse dialog opens up,

you need to select the DAA file to convert,

after a few seconds to several minutes (depending on the size of the file and free space on the temp disk) it will be closed leaving you with a converted ISO file.

Enjoy.

what is DMG file?

DMG is the ISO equivalent for apple OS,

almost every download or install will mount a DMG file,

a sexy Hard-Drive icon will appear on the desktop allowing access to the files that reside in the DMG file.

good utility is "DMG Master" with it you can create DMG files,

also you can create DMG file with Disk-Utility.

How To Open Sit and Sitx files on hackintosh

when you download files for mc and try to install it on hackintosh you may encounter every once in a while in files with extenssions: sit or sitx, these are old mac forat files (iso/dmg like) but it cant be open directly from Finder (which is Apple's Explorer) that is the time for 3th party installs: download a great app named: "Stuffit Expander".