Making bootable Leopard USB

[weckart]

Unfortunately, I don't get anything in verbose mode -it just goes directly to the stop sign.

Sounds like it isn't capturing Cmd+V in time as otherwise the screen would blacken and you would get rolling text. The no entry sign means that it is booting in normal mode. There is a way to add arguments to nvram to force booting in verbose mode but you would need to do it in Terminal.

If you can boot with the original XServe discs, bring up the Termainal from the Utilities menu and type the following.

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

Until you reset the PRAM, your XServe will always boot in verbose mode.

 

[bunnspecial]

Sounds like it isn't capturing Cmd+V in time as otherwise the screen would blacken and you would get rolling text. The no entry sign means that it is booting in normal mode. There is a way to add arguments to nvram to force booting in verbose mode but you would need to do it in Terminal.

If you can boot with the original XServe discs, bring up the Termainal from the Utilities menu and type the following.

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

Until you reset the PRAM, your XServe will always boot in verbose mode.

Thanks, just did that.

I love VNC-I'm laying on the couch now watching it snow, and was able to do it from my MBP. I'll try again when I go back upstairs to work on the Xserve directly again.

 

[eyoungren]

Bunns, the way I am reading this is that you are having difficulties booting from your USB stick via OF?

For some strange reason I have only just now seen your pictures and the OF commands you were using.

Here is a link that I use whenever I need to boot off USB. Ignore the fact that it's to install Leopard from a USB stick (even that that is what you are trying to do) and all the other info about preparing the stick. Just take a look at the OF commands. You can see that the boot command is similar yet different than what you report to have used.

Hope this helps!

https://lifedigital2010.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/how-to-install-mac-osx-from-usb-on-powerbook-g4/

 

[weckart]

I would just be lazy and try this:

boot ud:,\\:tbxi

more often than not, that will work without searching for device IDs.

 

[eyoungren]

I would just be lazy and try this:

boot ud:,\\:tbxi

more often than not, that will work without searching for device IDs.

That may be true and I don't dispute the validity of your suggestion. Just providing a link to what I've done. It's worked every time for me on every Mac I've used it on.

And while it seems to be a bit more work to get to, the command is quite specific. The Mac has a direct path to BootX.

 

[bunnspecial]

Thanks guys for the suggestion. I had another blank USB drive, so I'm actually going to try-again-making a boot disk and then go from there.

BTW, the link that eyougren provided me said that the bootable drive should have the file "BootX" on it. My USB drive doesn't seem to have this. Could this possibly be my problem?

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks guys for the suggestion. I had another blank USB drive, so I'm actually going to try-again-making a boot disk and then go from there.

BTW, the link that eyougren provided me said that the bootable drive should have the file "BootX" on it. My USB drive doesn't seem to have this. Could this possibly be my problem?

Yes.

That file is necessary to boot on PowerPC. It's what the system is looking for and if it's not there then…no boot. Probably the reason you have the prohibitory sign.

That or I'm just blowing smoke. Either way, EVERY time I have used the method in the link provided, BootX has been there.

 

[bunnspecial]

Yes.

That file is necessary to boot on PowerPC. It's what the system is looking for and if it's not there then…no boot. Probably the reason you have the prohibitory sign.

That or I'm just blowing smoke. Either way, EVERY time I have used the method in the link provided, BootX has been there.

Okay, maybe that's the root of my problem...

Of course, the image was made from a(factory pressed) disk that I've booted off of probably 100 times...maybe for whatever reason BootX didn't make it into the image.

(BTW, I do have "view hidden files" enabled in secrets on the Powerbook I'm using to do all this work, so if it's there I should be able to see it).

 

[weckart]

Can you see the other files: boot.efi, ReportCrash etc in the CoreServices directory?

 

[eyoungren]

(BTW, I do have "view hidden files" enabled in secrets on the Powerbook I'm using to do all this work, so if it's there I should be able to see it).

I believe Open Firmware shows you all the hidden files anyway, regardless. But I am very, very far away from being any kind of an expert on OF so I can't guarantee that.

I understand that your disk may have been bootable many times. I'm not sure what normal process is involved, but I know that according to the link BootX has to be there if you are trying to boot up from a USB drive.

EDIT: From Wikipedia…

BootX is a software-based bootloader designed and developed by Apple Inc. for use on the company's Macintosh computer range. BootX is used to prepare the computer for use by loading all required device drivers and then starting-up Mac OS X by booting the kernel on all PowerPC Macintoshes running the Mac OS X 10.2 operating system or later versions. Using BootROM, a read-only memory (ROM) computer chip containing OpenFirmware, a graphical bootsplash is shown briefly on all compatible Macintosh computers as a grey Apple logo with a spinning cursor that appears during the startup sequence. The program is freely available as part of the Darwin operating system under the open source Apple Public Source License. BootX was superseded by another nearly identical bootloader named boot.efi and an Extensible Firmware Interface ROM on the release of the Intel-based Mac.

 

[bunnspecial]

Can you see the other files: boot.efi, ReportCrash etc in the CoreServices directory?

Okay, maybe I'm just an idiot or am blind, but have the DVD, my image of it, and the flash drive all pulled up and am looking at them.

I can't seem to find the CoreServices directory on any of these, nor can I find BootX

As I said, I'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff-are these things buried in a directory? I looked through several of the normally hidden directories and couldn't come up with anything.

 

[eyoungren]

Okay, maybe I'm just an idiot or am blind, but have the DVD, my image of it, and the flash drive all pulled up and am looking at them.

I can't seem to find the CoreServices directory on any of these, nor can I find BootX

As I said, I'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff-are these things buried in a directory? I looked through several of the normally hidden directories and couldn't come up with anything.

IDK. I'm going to be honest and say that the drives I booted off of using USB were already boot drives with systems installed.

That said, the directions in my link also give instructions on preparing a bootable drive from the disk image so maybe try that?

EDIT: Here's a screen cap of my OS X 10.5.1 Install disk. The window on the left shows what I see on the desktop. The window on the right shows the direct path (using CMD+SHIFT+G (Go to Folder)). So, the folders are there, just hidden.

If your folders are NOT hidden then maybe something is wrong? What happens if you tell Finder to go directly to that path?

 

[bunnspecial]

Thanks-I just didn't dig enough.

Boot.efi, Bootx, and ReportCrash are all there in the Core Services directory on my flash drive.

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks-I just didn't dig enough.

Boot.efi, Bootx, and ReportCrash are all there in the Core Services directory on my flash drive.

Then use the command terms in the link provided giving the direct path as they indicate. Hopefully that will work.

 

[bunnspecial]

Then use the command terms in the link provided giving the direct path as they indicate. Hopefully that will work.

I'm going to do that now-will report back in a few minutes.

Thanks again for that link!

 

[eyoungren]

I'm going to do that now-will report back in a few minutes.

Thanks again for that link!

No problem! Hope it works for you!

 

[bunnspecial]

No problem! Hope it works for you!

Unfortunately, both your method and Weckart's method gave the same result-they just go directly to the stop sign. I don't go far enough to get any output from Verbose mode. I just tried booting to Tiger Server, and it did boot in verbose mode without any input from me, so the terminal command that Weckart gave me earlier is doing its job.

 

[eyoungren]

Unfortunately, both your method and Weckart's method gave the same result-they just go directly to the stop sign. I don't go far enough to get any output from Verbose mode. I just tried booting to Tiger Server, and it did boot in verbose mode without any input from me, so the terminal command that Weckart gave me earlier is doing its job.

Bummer!

Well, maybe it's just because it's an XServe. Sorry, Bunns, that was my shot at it.

 

[bunnspecial]

Okay, to follow up I tried Weckart's "lazy" method on my A1139 Powerbook, and it worked perfectly.

So, apparently my USB is good-it's something in the Xserve that makes it not want to work.

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Bummer!

Well, maybe it's just because it's an XServe. Sorry, Bunns, that was my shot at it.

I do really appreciate your help-as well as everyone else's.

Thanks again-I just wish that I could get this solved!

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Does your xserve have just a cd drive?

Mine did, I ended up taking it out and replacing it with a superdrive from an intel white imac.

I actually just checked this, and sure enough you're correct on this-I suppose that's why it spit my install disk back out!

In the mean time, I suppose that it's down to a TDM install.

I wonder if a Powerbook DVD drive would work...

 

[eyoungren]

Is it possible that it's just down to the fact that this is a server and client OS cannot be installed on it?

Maybe some sort of check that's done?

 

[bunnspecial]

We're rolling now with a TDM install via my Powerbook(and using the USB installer)

The only issue is that-like in OF-apparently the fan controllers on the Xserve don't work in TDM so it sounds like a helicopter about to take off. I can live with it for a little while, though. I'll just turn the TV up louder

 

[weckart]

Never having owned an XServe I can only suppose that the Server OS editions have extra hardware drivers absent in the client, although I really doubt this.

If I have some time I will dig out my Leopard Server and unpack the cached mkext file to see what it contains.

 

[MacCubed]

I made this video showing a work-around for USB Boot problems on PowerMacs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGQcsBrfWII

 

[eyoungren]

I would just be lazy and try this:

boot ud:,\\:tbxi

more often than not, that will work without searching for device IDs.

You were right The lazy way works.

 

[bunnspecial]

The lazy way worked on my Powerbook too, just not on the Xserve.