[G4] OpenFirmware can't open bootdevice anymore

[Wayne Clodfelter]

I feel your pain. I still find boot-up problems to be the fly in the  
ointment that is Macintosh. When it works, it's great. When it  
doesn't, it's truly a bear finding something that works.

Things I usually try:

Zap the PRAM several (5 to 7) times with Command-Option-P-R at startup.

Boot into open firmware with Command-Option-O-F
type at the prompt: reset-nvram <return>
reset-all <return>

Start up in safe mode:
 From shut-down, power up and at startup tone, press shift key and  
hold until "safe bootappears.
After the system is fully up, restart normally.

Start up in single user mode:
Power up and at tone, press and hold Command-S until you see white  
text...
At command line, type:
fsck -y <return> you may have to precede this command with /sbin/
reboot <return>


If you have another X or 9 boot partition, try using Command-Option- 
Shift-Delete to bypass the default boot partition. Appending a number  
(3 or 5 or whatever) sometimes helps to select a specific boot drive.

The last time I had a boot problem, I even had to swap in an ATA  
drive with a boot partition, because my Quicksilver would not find a  
backup boot partition on a secondary SATA drive.
Why, I don't know.

HTH. Good luck!


On Jul 3, 2006, at 9:33 AM, Till Wimmer wrote:

> Hello
>
> Yesterday I booted into Os9 and did some work there (Protools) -  
> everything worked fine. Then I changed the startup disk back to Os  
> 10.3.9 using the control panel.
> But after rebooting only the "no system found" icon came up. Next i  
> rebooted holding down the option key, but there was no system  
> folder displayed for selection.
>
> Of course i resetted PRAM, pressed the PMU button... still the "no  
> system found" icon!
>
> Then i put my PPC linux disk in it and.. IT WORKED!  Putting back  
> my OsX / Os 9 disk - no booting.
>
> OpenFirmware says:
> 0 > boot hd:,\\:tbxi  can't OPEN: hd:,\\:tbxi
> ok
> 0 >
> It tried this with ide0, ide1, hd, ultra0, ultra1...
>
> My next step was to put the OsX/Os9 system disk in an other mac and  
> run Disk Utility on it. It reported no problem.
>
> Now i'm at my wit's end.
>
> Is there a tool to check every partition on a disk i.e. all the  
> relevant things for booting? Maybe i deleted some driver on the the  
> disk?
>
> It's a G4 Digital Audio with OsX 10.3.9 and Os 9.2.2
>
> Any help would be much appreciated!
>
> Till
>
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Regards,

Wayne Clodfelter
wayne at troutnc.com