"Still waiting for root device"

This annoying statement ususally comes up befor DVD can boot or after installation before the OSX boots for the first time.

if you haven't used a Leo4All or did not use -v option then the screen will not look like the first image in this post but it will look like this (no entry sign/ stop sign/ no smoking sign without the cigaret):

What does this error mean?
well it means that the OS is set to boot from a drive and partition that does not exist.

for instance the Darwin boot loader is talled to boot from Disk1 (Disk 1= second hard drive (starting from 0)) and there is no such disk.

What can you do?
if you know the number of your Hard Drive then at the Darwin prompt (after boot press F8) write: rd=DiskX where X is the number of your OSX hard drive.

for instance if your hard drive is 0 (zero is the first hard drive) then write:
rd=disk0

if you do not know your hard drive then there is a try and error method of trying all the disk possibilities on your computer starting with: rd=disk0 then rd=disk1 then rd=disk2 then rd=disk3 etc.

another good option is to disconnect other HD and leave the OSX HD as first and write disk0.

How to set the RD for every boot?
once you succeed and don't want to write the rd parameter every boot, then write it in your boot plist file.
this is a file that configure the system boot parameters. the file can be found at: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
the file name is: com.apple.Boot.plist and you edit it as root and change the Kernel Flags value and add to it the rd parameter like this:

1. open terminal
2. write: sudo -s and press enter
3. enter your password when asked and press enter
4. write: vi /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and press enter
5. in the vi editor use the arrow keys on the keyboard and navigate the cursor to the tag: after the <key>Kernel Flags< /key > line.
6. the string tag might be empty or not, if it is not empty then add space and then write: rd=diskX where X is your hard drive number.
7. press keyboard button Esc (in order to exit insert mode)
8. write: :wq and press enter (notice the : sign)
9. then reboot and thats it

here is a Bofore image of my file (it will help clear things up):

and here is the after image (note the space between the -v and rd parameter):

most common mistakes are to write full path to the drive like this: rd=/dev/rdisk0 or rd=disk0s2 instead of: rd=disk0. (only when you are trying to load the install DVD, not after the install has finished successfully).

the rule is that before the install (if the DVD will not load) then use the rdiskX format.

if you are after the install then use the rdiskXsY format.

Install Finished but "Still waiting..."

after the install has finished successfully and you get "Still waiting..." then you can use the partition value as well in this form:

rd=diskXsY

where X stands for the number of the leopard disk and Y stands for the partition number of the leopard disk. examples:

disk0s1 (first disk, first partition)

disk0s2 (first disk second partition)

BIOS options

there is another option that your bios is not set as required.

if you have a SATA hard disk, then they can support several work modes,

IDE legacy, or IDE native, or native AHCI, also there is a S.M.A.R.T mode that can be enabled or disabled, and the actual strings as always depends on your BIOS.

i also had an option of "Hard Disk Pre Delay" that gives the hard drive delay time in order to let the hard drive time to react after reboot and when disk is mounted or plugged in, i set it to 5 instead of default 0.

so you should play with these options until you cover all options one of them will fix your "Still waiting..." situation.

you should set it up as follow:

ATA/IDE Mode: Native

Configure SATA as: AHCI

S.M.A.R.T.: Enabled

here are some screenshots:

and a closer look:

Fdisk comes to the rescue

this option not always work, it didn't fix the problem forever, but i have successfully finished the install process.

follow these next steps:

1. boot from the install DVD into single-user mode
2. flag any partition other then the leopard partition as bootable
3. then you reboot, again from the install DVD into single-user mode
4. next flag back the leopard partition

thats it it should help, if you have any problem please post here,

Enjoy.

How to Access OSX drives from Windows

If you have a disk or partition of windows that you boot from and you need to access your files (images, music, movies, etc.) on the Leopard or any other OSX drive then read on.

for this purpose you need to use MacDrive application, this application is installed on windows and can display Macintosh Hard Drives inside "My Computer" as if they are normal windows partitions, you can read, write, change and even delete files if you must.

the installation is very simple (next,next,next), and after it is done you reboot and you can access your OSX drives from the hackintosh dual boot, or from USB external Time-Machine.

1. download MacDrive
2. from windows install MacDrive
3. reboot into windows (make sure Mac drives are connected)

thats it, the MacDrives will be marked with a special icon indicating they are Mac and not simple windows HD.
after the install "My Computer" should looks like this:


Enjoy.

How to Access NTFS (R/W access) from OSX

this post is written due to a readers question (i added the email and the response as a comment to this post),
he was having problems writing to NTFS (Windows Hard Drives), if you have dual boot or connecting USB Hard Drives that have NTFS File System and want to access it from within OSX for writing purposes then read on.

if the HD is plugged or mounted after the system has loaded (for instance a USB disk on key) then you get a read/write access and can do whatever you wish to that USB Flash Drive.

but if you have a Disk connected and already have an NTFS file system on it then it will be auto mounted at boot time but it will give you read only access. for instance i have a vista partition dual booting with OSX and from within OSX it looks like this:



so what you need to do is to install two simple utilities:
MacFUSE (Mac File-System User-Space) it support the file system of many kind in a kernel-level so they integrate from the OSX almost natively.
NTFS-3G a driver that support the linux FUSE spec and can be run on-top of the MacFUSE Plugin and support the NTFS from within Mac OSX.

the steps are very easy:
1. download MacFUSE
2. run MacFUSE Core.pkg
3. download NTFS-3g (make sure to download the "Mac OS X DMG Package")
4. mount the DMG file
5. run NTFS-3G.pkg
6. restart

thats it, the final result should look like any other drive like this:



if you would like to uninstall NTFS-3G follow these steps:

1. from the NTFS-3g DMG execute the script: "Uninstall NTFS-3G.command"
2. press "Open" on the appearing popup
3. in the terminal that appear enter your password and press enter
4. wait until this message appears: [Process completed] and then you can close the terminal
   

if you would like to uninstall MacFUSE follow these steps:

1. open a new terminal and write: sudo -s (and press enter)
2. enter your password and press enter
3. paste these two lines and press enter after each one of them
4. lsbom -fls /Library/Receipts/MacFUSE\ Core.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom | colrm 1 1 | xargs rm -v
5. rm -rv /Library/Receipts/MacFUSE\ Core.pkg
6. reboot
   

your computer will come up without NTFS-3G and without MacFUSE.

here are the Install screenshots in case you need them:

MacFuse Install Screen Shots:










and the NTFS-3G Install Screenshots:









Enjoy.

Apple2PC in Hebrew

Hello all Apple2PC hebrew readers out there,

I was asked if i knew of a hebrew OSX86 guide an sadlly i had to reply no, even after several hours of search, googleing and reading hbrew related posts, couldn't find a complete tutorial in hebrew,

that is why i started translating (freely) my blog Apple2PC to hebrew language,
since Apple2PCHeb was too long to remember and A2PHeb was too short and not understood,
i finally decided on OSX86Heb.

i am just starting and it will take me some time to get there, but i will start with the important ones.

so if it interest you please go to http://osx86heb.blogspot.com and write a comment.

Thanks and as always,
Enjoy.