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Bruck · 08:30 AM

My little brother's powerbook is booting straight into a darwin text based login prompt.... he has 10.2 on his rev B powerbook, did he do something simple/wrong? How do I fix this over the phone?

Bruck · Dec 26, 2003, 08:20 AM

tried logining in as his user account then typing "logout" . When he does that it just goes back into darwin, does not boot aqua.

Need explicit directions on how to fix this over the phone (I am also new to macs)

Thankyou!

chabig · Dec 26, 2003, 09:31 AM

I would suggest downloading the 10.2.8 Combo Updater from Apple (it's about 80MB I think) and install that on top of his current system. Then have him log in, run Disk Utility, and repair permissions.

Chris

Powaqqatsi · Dec 26, 2003, 09:37 AM

Originally posted by chabig:
I would suggest downloading the 10.2.8 Combo Updater from Apple (it's about 80MB I think) and install that on top of his current system. Then have him log in, run Disk Utility, and repair permissions.

Chris

How would he do that from the command-line ?

Bruck · Dec 26, 2003, 09:50 AM

yeah how would he, can he run repair permissions from command prompt?

Lou

Oneota · Dec 26, 2003, 10:09 AM

Are you sure it's the Darwin text and not Open Firmware? Is it black text on a white background, or white text on a black background?

If it's black text on a white background, have him type the following:

Code:
reset-nvram <press return>
reset-all <press return>

Bruck · Dec 26, 2003, 10:19 AM

"looks like dos" its black background with white text, it says welcome to Darwin when it boots up , then asks for login and then says Drew%

chabig · Dec 26, 2003, 11:18 AM

Re: The 10.2.8 combo update...this would probably work if he had an external hard drive he could boot from and run the updater.

I'm mystified by the Drew% prompt.

Chris

Bruck · Dec 26, 2003, 12:37 PM

drew% is the username then %. That simple, if he logs in as something else then it shows that user name and then %.

ntsc · Dec 26, 2003, 12:51 PM

you could try asking what he did, this should a pretty difficult thing to accomplish, did he install software? did it get shutdown improperly? There must have been something which triggered this.

perhaps if you can figure this out then it will be easier to help.

pat++ · Dec 26, 2003, 12:56 PM

Try to check disk :

(first reboot and hold command-S during startup), then:

fsck -y -f /

and then reboot. If it's not enough, the easiest way to fix this is to boot on Mac OS X Disk 1 (hold 'C' during startup to boot on the CD) and do an archive & install.

chabig · Dec 26, 2003, 12:57 PM

drew% is the username then %.

OK. I've got that. But you said his machine was booting to a Darwin prompt. Is it somehow also logging him in by itself? That would be very strange.

I'd be interested to know what the prompt was before he logged in.

Sorry for asking so many questions. This is strange and, as you know, long-distance troubleshooting is difficult.

Chris

Bruck · Dec 26, 2003, 01:23 PM

it does not log in him automatically, it asks him to log in.

Darwin\BSD (Andrew-Brucker's Computer.Local.) (Console)
Login:

chabig · Dec 26, 2003, 01:28 PM

OK. Then perhaps he could login as a admin user (perhaps the account Drew already is). From there, he could try repairing permissions.

sudo diskutil repairPermission /

He'll be asked for a password after he types that. He should enter his admin password.

After it's done, he can restart by typing

sudo shutdown now

Chris

Bruck · Dec 26, 2003, 01:50 PM

it didnt shut down or restart, after quickly running repair permissions it

bootstrap_look_up() failed (ipc/send) invalid destination port.

now it says sh-2.05a#

he manually turned it off and then back on..... went back to darwin

chabig · Dec 26, 2003, 01:54 PM

When he's at the sh-2.05a# prompt, he could also try checking the disk...

fsck -y

Let it all run. If it says the disk is OK. Then my guess would be that his OS X installation somehow got hosed. If he can't boot from another drive to run the update, he should probably pull out the Jaguar install disk and do an archive and install over his current installation. When that's done, download and install the 10.2.8 combo updater.

Chris

Bruck · Dec 26, 2003, 02:09 PM

check disk ran ok. must be hosed.

chabig · Dec 26, 2003, 02:49 PM

Unless somebody else know better. I'd say so...probably time to reinstall from scratch. Again, I would recommend an archive and install to keep hit user accounts.

By the way, this is very strange and is not common for Macs.

Chris

Angus_D · Dec 26, 2003, 03:05 PM

Something has broken so that the windowserver or loginwindow is bailing out. Do you get the graphical startup progress bar?

Some Guy [] · Dec 26, 2003, 08:24 PM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Something has broken so that the windowserver or loginwindow is bailing out. Do you get the graphical startup progress bar?

just reinstall OSX doing a 'archive and install' to preserve the users and apps.. all the apps and, user files and settings will be kept, and he'll have a clean new system.

-justin

mactechie · Dec 29, 2003, 02:40 AM

I solved this issue yesterday on a PowerBook Frankenstein (ie a unit refurbed from several different models)
There are 3 posible points which may cause this issue: damaged user privileges, damaged windowserver prefs (as was the case for me) or damaged loginwindow prefs. Apple provides the solution in their knowledge base:
http://kbase.info.apple.com
look for article number: 106464

you need the section on troubleshooting a bluescreen on startup, steps 5 and 6 are the ones you need. You can do this from the darwin prompt using sudo su rather than doing a single user boot if you wish.

Hope that this helps, solved it for me...