[X4U] Black Screen with white words saying operation not supported by device...

[John Baltutis]

On 04/06/06, Lee Licata <lazilicata at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Have a 17" PB (Leeze), running 10.4.5 with all updates.
>
> Sometimes, but not always, when I startup the PB, after tones, but
> before the blue backdrop shows up, a black screen with the following
> words shows up:
>
> Leeze getty: /dev/console: Operation not supported by device
>
> A review of the system console log shows the following two lines just
> after this one that appears on the black screen:
>
> Leeze launchd: getty repeating too quickly on port /dev/console,
> sleeping
> Leeze /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/
> loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
>
> If I wait about 30 seconds, PB starts up normally.
>
> Using cocktail, made all files visible.
>
> Found the folder "dev" at the root but the folder "console" is an
> alias. Could not find the original.
>
> Relogged in as "root" and still could not find the original.
>
> Thought maybe it had something to do with my headphones being plugged
> in, but words still appear...
>
> Also, words do not seem to appear during a restart...
>
> Have run disk utility. Started up on a different disk and repaired
> main hard drive. Nothing abnormal noted.
>
> Even started up as a single user and forced an fsck repair (hope I
> got the acronym right..)
>
> Plum out of ideas...

Something's hosed in your startup routine. According to the manpage for getty:
"The getty program is called by init(8) to open and initialize the tty line,
read a login name, and invoke login(1)." You have something set to launch the
Terminal during startup?

I'd create a new admin user account, log into it, reset SysPrefs/Accounts so
that there's no autologin,  restart, login to the new account, and see if the
problem persists. BTW, 10.4.6 is the latest.