Blue Screen on OS X Server

[Garth]

Hi all,
gotta problem with my OS X Server 10.1. All was fine until recently all I see on the screen is blue. The cursor shows up but nothing else. And I used to laugh about the blue screen on windows...
You can log in across the network as Admin and as normal user and access files, copy save - in short everything works, but you cannot log-in on the actual server box.
Anyways, this problem is apparently an access rights issue, but the only solution (!) anyone has so far offered was to re-install the server. Which I did.
But now it's happened again !!
Does anyone here have any ideas?

[chriscaldes]

If I remember correctly...in 10.1 server - if you changed the access privs of the boot drive - you could end up with this situation. I think you have to make it so the guest has read access. ie: chmod 755 on the boot drive.

I could be wrong - but if you changed the privs - and then this happened - that's why.

[mervTormel]

if you can remotely connect, then the machine booted, but glitched on the loginwindow server.

examine /var/log/system.log for messages from boot time.

[BraindeadMac]

Originally posted by Garth
Hi all,
gotta problem with my OS X Server 10.1. All was fine until recently all I see on the screen is blue. The cursor shows up but nothing else. And I used to laugh about the blue screen on windows...
You can log in across the network as Admin and as normal user and access files, copy save - in short everything works, but you cannot log-in on the actual server box.
Anyways, this problem is apparently an access rights issue, but the only solution (!) anyone has so far offered was to re-install the server. Which I did.
But now it's happened again !!
Does anyone here have any ideas?

I think you need to check privileges on the startup volume. You can start up in single user mode (command-s) and chmod 1755 on /. If your machine is set to autologin, you may also need to remove some ~/Library/Preferences files (LS* file names).

[Garth]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I have also found a couple of help docs in the knowledge base at Apple. Everybody seems to agree that it is a privileges problem.
Trouble is - I did not reset or alter any privileges and, even worse, when I start up in single user mode and do a complete chmod on the whole startup volume, the problem is not solved :confused:
I'm gonna have to try something more radical. I'll have to delete a few prefs or something and see if I can get past this log-in block that way.
I did not have auto log-in enabled - well, it's a server, you know?
I was also not sharing the startup volume to any users or groups. Just left the standard users/groups/prefs as they were at the end of the server install.
Keep you posted...

[Garth]

I just re-installed the Server - again. That is a long tedious boring thing to have to do.
And I can't update to 10.2 because my client bought their Server version 'too early' - now they refuse to pay for the whole thing again.
And I don't think 10.2 solves the blue screen problem anyway.
It is definitely something to do with permissions, but I can't see why they should get changed. Maybe something to do with Retrospect, which is the only thing running apart from the Apple file server.:mad:

[BraindeadMac]

Originally posted by Garth
I just re-installed the Server - again. That is a long tedious boring thing to have to do.
And I can't update to 10.2 because my client bought their Server version 'too early' - now they refuse to pay for the whole thing again.
And I don't think 10.2 solves the blue screen problem anyway.
It is definitely something to do with permissions, but I can't see why they should get changed. Maybe something to do with Retrospect, which is the only thing running apart from the Apple file server.:mad:

Delete all the files starting with .LS in the administrative users preferences folder to get rid of the blue screen in 10.1.5.

[hrgold]

I had the same problem with an Xserve installation recently. Out of the blue (!) I had a blue screen like you describe, but could still log in remotely and the users could connect, just as you describe. Customer has an AppleCare contract so I called tech support. It is definitely a permissions problem. There is a Repair Permissions utility that can be downloaded from Apple. This is actually now part of Disk First Aid for Server 10.2, but was not for previous versions. Apple tech had me do a chmod 775 for the entire volume in the terminal. Fixed the problem and it has not returned. I will upgrading to Server 10.2. There is a program until 10/31 to upgrade for $20. You should check if your client is eligeable.

[Mac4prepress]

I had the same problem one day. I founded that my mistake was to launch multiple installations at the same time. I launched the Apple software update, a software installation from a CD and even another setup from installer placed on the HD! It was really not a good idea! Each time, blue screen after reboot. The last time, I choosed to install one application after another. No more blue screen! OS X is multitasks but not "multi-installations".

It's not a solution to fix the problem. But maybe it's a way to avoid blue screen.

[quijote]

Hello there.
I have a similar issue as the one your discussing with os x.2 server.
I believe it started when i was installing an update from apples software update. When I restart it it gets past the loading bar and then goes into a light blue screen, soon after it gets to be a dark blue screen. If I am lucky I can get it to show the black screen with the BSD login. If I restart in safe mode I can get it to show me the login screen.
I tried eliminating things in the startup folder. I cant think of a way to rule out extensions. My boot drive dose have read privileges to everyone so that doesn't make sense. I am very much lost but if anyone has an brilliant moment I would love it.

[hayne]

See this Apple doc on startup problems:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464

One easy thing you could try is to do an "archive & install" (from the Install CD) and choose the option to preserver users (I am assuming that this option is present for OS X Server like it is for OS X Client).

If you really want to debug this yourself, look in the /System/Library/Extensions folder for non-Apple extensions. Perhaps you can see which ones you installed by looking at their dates.

[emilio]

wow, 2 and a half year old thread...