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fetopher · Apr 24, 2003, 01:18 PM

Well... Is there? I know that it seems to go in this order:
On
Looking for system
Single User Mode (if you hold down command-s)
Else
Gray Screen with Apple
Bootup

So, can I get to single user mode from the point that that it is looking for a system???
Thanks

moonmonkey · Apr 24, 2003, 09:45 PM

Originally posted by fetopher:
Well... Is there? I know that it seems to go in this order:
On
Looking for system
Single User Mode (if you hold down command-s)
Else
Gray Screen with Apple
Bootup

So, can I get to single user mode from the point that that it is looking for a system???
Thanks

Surely Single user mode is part of OSX, if it cant find a system, it cant find OSX.

DeathMan · Apr 25, 2003, 01:24 AM

probably ought to boot of the cd, and repair permissions and all that jazz. then try again.

Have you been messing with anything? I once tried to add a line to my system .profile or some similar file to start up the mysqld, and forgot an & and it was causing my computer to never progress to start-up. There was nothing wrong, I just basically told it to just site there and wait after loading the mysqld. stupid. I fixed it by booting to 9, and replacing it with the backup I had made.

adamberti · Apr 25, 2003, 01:38 AM

Well, to answer the basic question, holding down command-c right after the startup chime should get you into the command line, however I'm not sure what has to happen first, but give it a try, it wont hurt.

gatorparrots · Apr 25, 2003, 08:43 AM

You can also type >console in the login window to drop to the non-Aqua console layer.

You can also edit /etc/rc to disable the Aqua GUI altogether and always boot to a console (excellent for server machines). More here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...20501090420147

fetopher · Apr 25, 2003, 10:00 AM

Wow, these are great tips. Thanks for the help. Because I was up against a tight deadline and needed to get some work done, I just did a reinstall. The problem was themes. I was trying to put one on and I have the one of the newer machines that only boot into X. I guess that caused the problem. Again, thanks for your advice.

barbarian · Apr 25, 2003, 01:35 PM

I've seen it here before, but what is the terminal command so that you always get the command-v effect on startup (also what is the command to shut this off and go back to the normal startup sequence)?

bstad · Apr 25, 2003, 03:48 PM

I had this exact thing happen to me. On power-up, I'd get the question mark. If I then pressed the reset switch (the one on the left, under the power button on my B&W), it would boot up fine.

Solution? It had lost track of the proper boot disk, so I went back into "startup disk" and reselected the proper one. Problem solved!

Chuckit · Apr 25, 2003, 06:43 PM

Originally posted by barbarian:
I've seen it here before, but what is the terminal command so that you always get the command-v effect on startup (also what is the command to shut this off and go back to the normal startup sequence)?

Turn it on: nvram boot-args="-v"
Turn it off: nvram boot-args=""