[peppper]

Hi there..

i got quiet stuck.. i'm on vacation and i really need to use my 12', 600mhz ibook...

everything fine in the last few days - yesterday, i watched a movie and accedently pressed a button - maybe.. well. the screen went completely blue, only my cursor was left... no response to any system-keys or apple-alt-esc... so i had to hold the powerbutton five seconds to shut it down...

until than, my whole system won't boot anymore..
it just boots fine until the "starting resources screen" (you know, the screen with the osx-logo and the blue aqua-bar filling).. then after the bar has reached the 100%, the windows disappears and NORMALLY the login-window would appear... well.. it does not..
after 5 more seconds or so, the harddrive stops the activity.. every 10-30 seconds, it's writing or reading something.. the usual-"idle"-activity...

but the loginscreen is still missing.. the only thing i got is my cursor.. and again: no systemkey, no shortcut is responding.. the only way is - guess what - hold the powerbutton five seconds and i am there where i left.

this is what i already tried:
- waiting at the last screen for about 3 hours - no, the login-window won't appear.
- booting in "safe mode" - it just lasts looooonger, but stuck on the same position
- booting directly into the shell and doing fsck - it found something, gave me the message "repaired".. but next time, it found the same error (missing thread record (id=723167)), (invalid volume file count (it should be 131130 instead of 131128))... blahblah.
he sais "repaired", but obviously not..

well, i dont know if that has something to do with it - but thats all my "searching-for-error"-ability has shown me.. now i need your help.. really..

as i said, i'm on vacation (using expensive internetcafe right now) - so i do not have -any system cds with me, -any firewire-drive-image or something else.
i just have my ibook, my ipod and my brain - obviously not enough..

so please help me - what can i try? what magic-keys to press at startup? what to do in the shell? what preyers to prey?

PLEEEEASE, i'm lost without you..

thanks in advance,
.pepper.

(now paying this bill and checking back in a few hours - for gods sake)

[Cipher13]

Boot and hold command-option-p-r, and let the machine chime three times, then let go.

Boot from the CD and run a diagnostic over it (hopefully DFA doesn't just use fsck)?

[peppper]

command, alt, p and r...
i'll try that....
what happens due to that?

and after that, i cannot boot from cd ... its about 1000miles away from me now.. aaargh.. i have to save pictures from my camera on my ibook.. aahh. and charge the ipod... aahhh..! and put songs on it.. triple-aaaah!


you see - i sill need help ... not medical.... yet..

thx
.pepper.

[PBG4 User]

Is there an Apple store near you? Maybe they could help you at the genius bar. Not much help I know, but it's all I can think of.

[gorickey]

Boot into "Verbose" mode....Cmd+V at startup....let us know where it stops and what the output says then....

[peppper]

no. no apple store nearby.. ibiza city


.. verbose mode - i tried that. it just runs fine... no errors.. except for the above stated disk-errors, when its booting with disk-checking - again..

it leaves the verbose mode, is loading the prefs and then - after that - at the blue screen - it's stuck .. no loginwindow appears...


i read in older threads about this problem and the majority was saying, that a reinstall is the best way.. wahh..!
some others say, that a installed theme can be the problem - i have one installed, but did not change it for the last 5 months.. did nothin about it..
this problem just came during watching a movie..

waahhhhh but thx!
.pepper.

[gorickey]

Have DiskWarrior? Give that a shot...you may have some pretty jacked up directories that need fixed....

[peppper]

DiskWarrior? Nope - nothing here.. no way to get it though...


Ok .. no luck yet..

after searching A LOT of forums, comments and stuff like that - here is what i already tried due to recommand:

- Repairing Permissions (diskutil repairPermi....) -> wont work, it cannot start blahlbha (dont know it atm
- Runninf fsck about 1000 times with almost every variable (still the errors described above, every now and then, the number after (invalid volume file count (it should be "placenumberhere") increases.. sometimes plus 20, sometimes plus 1, and almost everytime - no change
- running aquafix ("loading services"-screen now looks normal again, but thats it)
- running tcfix - no change
- deleting the windowserver.plist - no change
- renaming first one, then both Library-folders - no change
- safe-boot - no change
- command-option-p-r bootup - no change
- hold reset-button for 30 seconds - no change
- A LOT of prayers - no change


AAHHHHH!
my digital-camera is stuffed now, 4 more days on vacation. i really need to put them into iphoto - and i really need to put new bought music on my ipod.

any suggestions?

quiet sad,
pepper

[stam]

There is an option when you install X to just install system files. This will keep you home folder, preferences etc. untouched.

[SysAdmin]

Howdy,

(My first time, oh my, and of course, it's giving out help...being a Smeagol...)

To solve your problem, do the following:

1. Boot into single-user mode. (Hold down Cmd-S at startup)

2. Mount your file system. (type "/sbin/mount -uw" )

3, Navigate to /Users/~/Library/Preferences. (Note: ~ is a symbol for YOUR user SHORT NAME, i.e. JIM, so the path would be /Users/JIM/Library/Preferences).

4. Use the command "ls" to list the directory. Delete, using the "rm" command, the file named "com.apple.CoreGraphics.plist".

5. Reboot.

6. If that does not fix your issue, follow the same procedure and delete the contents of the /Users/~/Library/Caches folder.

For reference, follow this link:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...creen+at+login

I would also suggest not using the "Auto-Login" feature. It is worth the pain of typing/clicking your name to login for the security benefits, but then again, hey, it's pretty secure if you hang at boot too! <grin>

javascript:smilie('')

-Bit

[peppper]

heya. thanks for your big answer..

i will try deleting that file as soon i got back to my ibook .. just finished the sunset at café del mar

but i am a little confused - yesterday, i already tried renaming the _whole_ Library-directory (i read, that osx will create everything that is missing at startup), but not even did the trick..

well - i'll try your option... and if its working, you're right on my "answer every post of him"-list (if i had one. eheh


so.. cross your fingers
so long
peppper


and welcome here.. i´m quiet new here too..

[SysAdmin]

Howdy Peppper,

The one thing to keep EXACTLY, PERFECTLY straight is WHICH "Library" you tried to rename. You should only be modifying the one in: /Users/~username/

The other two are:

/Library

and

/System/Library

Don't change those! Many people boot into Single-User and then change the first Library folder they see, which is the one at root, and the WRONG one!

Anyway, that .plist file stores the resolution of your LCD, if it got thumped due to a crash/whatever, your ibook is trying to restore to a weird/not possible resolution and hanging, BUT since it is auto-logging you in, it needs your /User/Library to exist.

Good luck!

-Sys

[peppper]

hey again - need to say: no luck

yeah.. i renamed the right library that time.. but it did not get me any further..
anyhow - i deleted com.apple.CoreGraphics.plist - without any effect.. still stuck at the blue screen and the only thing i got is my f**** cursor...

aahh...

other suggestions? i dont find others except the ones above on the net

.pepper.

[peppper]

ahh.. almost forgot..

i finally got my way through pico in the error-log-file...... always the same error, everytime with starting the loginwindow..


and by the way - i never had "automatic login" activated - so that shouldnt be the problem

.pepper.

[Geobunny]

Originally posted by peppper:
ahh.. almost forgot..

i finally got my way through pico in the error-log-file...... always the same error, everytime with starting the loginwindow..


and by the way - i never had "automatic login" activated - so that shouldnt be the problem

.pepper.

I that case, have you tried deleting the loginWindow preferences? To do that, follow these instructions:

Startup in single user mode
cd /Library/Preferences
mv com.apple.loginwindow.plist com.apple.loginwindow.plistBAK
mv com.apple.windowserver.plist com.apple.windowserver.plistBAK

This doesn't actually delete the files, merely renames them so you can put them back if that's not what causing the problem.

[peppper]

heya.. i also tried these two files - no change.. sniff!

anything else?

.pepper.

[SysAdmin]

Hey Peppper,

Well..time for the last hurrah..good luck..i would do an archive and install when you can to actually fix the issue but...



1. Boot into single user.

2. Trash these two files from BOTH the OS Library AND your user library:

com.apple.loginwindow.plist
com.apple.windowserver.plist

Lastly, is there another user in NetInfo that you can log in as? Try that!

-Cheers