The macosxhints Forums - Tiger Startup Issues

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- - Tiger Startup Issues (http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=41571)

BootX loads and then the kernel looks for a boot device using boot-uuid-media as the search term thru the IO Kit. This is all a Kernel move, not the OF. In verbose mode, it stays on that search for 30-45 seconds. The initial startup process is not the issue, its getting the boot device from the IOKit thru the kernel. It boots into the kernel fine, but the kernel looks for the correct device to look for the root device on. BootX just gets you into the kernel, BootX does not scan anything. It's the middleman from OF to Mach.

Once again, this is the kernel, NOT Open Firmware.

1) Here is an extract from the system.log on my iBook (running 10.4.1) showing that the search for the appropriate root filesystem takes very little time in a properly functioning system
(I xxx'd out the UUID for my system):

Code:

Jun 25 02:24:51 localhost kernel[0]: rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: xxxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx

Jun 25 02:24:51 localhost kernel[0]: Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>

Jun 25 02:24:51 localhost kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/MacRISC2PE/pci@f4000000/AppleMacRiscPCI/ata-6@D/AppleKauaiATA/ATADeviceNub@0/IOATABlockStorageDriver/IOATABlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/TOSHIBA MK8025GAS Media/IOApplePartitionScheme/Untitled@3

Jun 25 02:24:51 localhost kernel[0]: BSD root: disk0s3, major 14, minor 2

Jun 25 02:24:51 localhost kernel[0]: Jettisoning kernel linker.

2) The term "boot-uuid" occurs in the following files (obtained from http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/10.4.1):

BootX/bootx.tproj/sl.subproj/main.c
AppleFileSystemDriver.cpp
xnu/iokit/bsddev/IOKitBSDInit.cpp

The first one is where the "boot-uuid" property is set.
The second is the kernel extension that sets up a notification when a new filesystem is mounted.
The third is where the filesystem with the specified "boot-uuid" property is searched for (and waited for). Thus looking at this file might give you a clue as to what is going wrong.

3) Googling for "boot-uuid" shows several pages relating to XPostFacto (3rd-party utility used for getting OS X to boot on hardware that is otherwise unsupported) and the release notes for a recent version of XPostFacto says: "Disabled the new "boot-uuid" code in BootX, as it appears to have been causing problems in some configurations".

4) Since your iBooks are relatively new (and hence should be supported in Tiger), I suspect that there must be something wrong with them. Perhaps it is a problem due to the way that you installed Tiger. Or, if you imaged all of these 64 machines from the same media, maybe the media was bad.

I appriciate the detailed info. I looked in my system.log aswell and the wierd thing was that the timestamp next to "Waiting on..." and "Got boot device" was within the same second yet it CLEARLY took at least 30 to do it in verbose mode or in any mode for that matter. Perhaps this is a hardware problem or a media problem. Do you think installing from a Firewire drive could have anything to do with it? Bad drive is also a possibility. Thanks for your input and I will update when I try new media/new drive. I used the origional Tiger install DVD, however. The same copy of Tiger on the same media works fine on PowerBooks and the like except these iBooks so maybe it's something else. I'll look into it. Thanks again.

I still would like to try passing a correct boot device to the kernel and this can be done by using the rd argument. Please let me know if you have any information on doing that. I've tried almost every single path. Specifying a device will override the boot-uuid-media search.

I also noticed that your iBook is using newer device paths and different device software than ours. Ours uses pci@f200000 and ata-4, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CGarson

I still would like to try passing a correct boot device to the kernel and this can be done by using the rd argument. Please let me know if you have any information on doing that. I've tried almost every single path. Specifying a device will override the boot-uuid-media search.

I don't have any experience with doing this.
But as to info, the best info is the source code - see above.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hayne

But as to info, the best info is the source code - see above.

I'm looking now. I changed the code in the last file and am trying to recompile, but Apple didn't include automake :rolleyes:... Thanks for the info and I'll post back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CGarson

I changed the code in the last file and am trying to recompile, but Apple didn't include automake

If you are trying to recompile the kernel, you will need to read the instructions provided by Apple on how to do this - it didn't look very easy the last time I glanced at the instructions.

Chris, you have indeed exhibited detailed knowledge here, please don't get me wrong when I ask, in spite of your analysis so far pointing elsewhere, whether you made sure that no fs or cache-corruption are the culprits here by running applejack or equivalent.

Good luck with the compilation anyway.