Freezing with blue screen & can't boot from single user mode or disk

My keyboard is wired and plugged directly into my Intel iMac running OSX 10.5.8. I do not have the Leopard disks, but I do have the Tiger disks. I was trying to boot in single-user mode so that I could run AppleJack to try to fix another issue I'm having--I get the light blue startup screen flashed at me several times daily for the past week or so. When the blue screen flashes, it totally freezes my computer (obviously) and lasts from 1-10 seconds. I can't find anything that is triggering it. I haven't installed anything new that I'm aware of, and it happens whether the computer has previously been slept or not. I'm also not using an external display / additional monitor.
Also, for anyone who is nice enough to answer, please explain everything--I'm not an expert user.

Well since it is so time consuming and a security risk to turn off FileVault, I was hoping to hear from someone with more experience if this was the solution, or just something to "try"? Are you speaking from experience or just making a suggestion, leroydouglas? Thanks.

Similar Messages

Can't boot in Single User Mode or zap PRAM on iMac G5

I want to boot into Single User Mode in order to run Applejack to "clean" the system before applying Apple's latest security patches. So I hold down Cmd-S at start-up, but it has no effect; the computer boots normally into the Tiger GUI. Thinking that zapping the PRAM might help, I restarted while holding down Cmd-Opt-P-R. Same result: normal startup with no zap. I tried resetting the power management circuit by unplugging the iMac and depressing the power button. No effect.
Apart from the inability to do special boots, the system seems to be running just fine. Any ideas?
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1.5 GB RAM

Ben F-
Not guessing yet. You did not provide what steps you have taken thus far and now I know.
I am thinking then that you have somehow set up firmware password protection.
At least the things that you describe are disabled if a password is set.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

Can't boot in single user mode

hi there,
i just found out that my MacBook1,1 1,83 GHz ignores Cmd-s, Cmd-v and occasionally Cmd-Alt-p-r. Green LED on keyboard doesn't flash at boot. I did a parameter ram reset and permission repair, without positive change.
The keyboard works fine with system booted.
thanks! achim

another permission repair helped..

Can you run a bash script on boot in single user mode

Hey guys quick question.
Is it possible to run a bash script on boot in single user mode.
I can create a file and dump it on the root hd.
Let's call it repair.
I can then boot to single user mode and run it by typing /repair.
But I want it to do it automatically.
Every time I go into my machines that I clean for my job. I have to run sbin/fsck -fy
Then I have to mount the drive and then remove all cache files, then reboot the machines.
I would like to automate this by just holding command s and then moving to the next computer.
There must be some sort of boot daemon somewhere.
Please help.
Sincerely,
John

Have you seen Applejack?
http://applejack.sourceforge.net/
It doesn't start automtically, but does cleanup.
Robert

Can't type in single user mode

Hi,
I am trying to fix a MacBook Air's hard drive and attempted to boot from single user mode to run fsck. However, when I get into single user mode I can't type a thing. No buttons on the keyboard work. I shut it down and tried doing it again but the same issue occurs. I tried again, this time connecting an Apple USB keyboard and it still wouldn't type. I booted from an external hard drive that had OS X on it and both the inbuilt and external USB keyboards worked absolutely fine.
Does anyone know why I would be having this issue and how to rectify it?
Cheers.

Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Can't log in with valid password, can't boot from disk, can't access disk utility, in single user mode can't reset password as appears locked in caps mode with '?' for forward slash, can anyone help?

Can't log in with valid password, can't boot from disk, can't access disk utility, in single user mode can't reset password as appears locked in caps mode with '?' for forward slash, can anyone help?

Which keyboard layout you were using? German, French ... I suppose your layout is reset to the default: US and you are unable to find the "?" or "/" ...
Please have a look into the keyboard viewer, to see how the layout of your keyboard is actually.
marek

IMac G5 won't boot in normal and safe mode, but will from single-user mode

Hello everyone,
I'm quite new here, so I try to do my best if you have a question.
Yesterday, someone nearby me had a iMac G5 (Powermac8,1), and he sayd, that the computer sometimes will boot, sometimes not.
I did test it, I thought it was running fine, but when I played some music in iTunes, it was stuck on 9 seconds, and crashed (with a kernel panic). The guy also sayd, that there was nothing important on the computer, so a clean install was fine.
Now, the problem is, that it will not boot in normal mode (without anything pressed on boot), also it won't in safe mode (shift-boot), but it will, when I enter single-user mode, mount the hard drive and exit from single-user mode so it will go futher on booting. Sometimes it will not, and immediately gives you a kernel panic in single-user mode, but it will 90 percent of the time.
Then you've got another problem: when it's running in the normal desktop from single-user mode, it'll be stuck after some time again. If I look into the Kernel Panic file created, most times it's because of Spotlight indexing, so I disabled that.
He also gave me the disks (Apple Hardware Test and Extra Applications, and iMac G5 Mac OS X Install Disks 1-3) that came with the Mac. He sayd that I could use them, but I think he didn't test out the SuperDrive, because when I insert a disk, it will try to read, but it will make 2 same sounds, and quits after 10 tries, when it will spit the cd out. Also normal (audio) disks.
Also, I must hurry with the commands for mounting and exiting in single-user mode, or it will just not boot.
In all cases, after 30-45 seconds from pressing the power button, the fan will start blowing at full speed, and it will stop after the exit command in Single-user mode. That's weird.
I can't do anything with the SuperDrive, I can't normally boot in Mac OS X except for Single-user mode (but I don't think he would like to do that every time the computer boots up), and I have very limited time when Mac OS X arrived on the desktop.
When booting in Verbose mode, it will be stuck on this:
AppleSMU::PMU vers = 0x000d004c, SPU vers = 0x15, SDB vers = 0x01,
(and sometimes ends with a kernel crash by fsck_hfs)
Things I've tried (without any success):
- /sbin/fsck -fy (in single-user mode)
- Disabling Spotlight and mds
If you want some more information, feel free to ask!
Greetings
-MrYoranimo
PS: My main language is Dutch, so my English can be bad at some points.

Thank you for your support! This reply is a little bit late, because I was to the camping this weekend.
The only thing I sure do know, is that the iMac has a bad SuperDrive. That's one problem, but I don't really wanna use it, and you fix everything by Single-user mode and when I get to the desktop to test things and change stuff in the Preference Panes.
What also came to my mind was that there also is a problem with the videocard (driver), because sometimes when I boot into Single-user mode, I can see some white pixels which aren't supposed to be there. And when booting from SUM you can see that some of the colors are different and there are weird patterns on the screen.
I also tried to setup a NetBoot server on this computer (MacBook Mid 2010) with just Lion 10.7.4 on it, but I'm not that expert and I didn't really find the good posts on the Internet, although I tried it with the Server applications and both Server applications and DeployStudio. But I didn't succeed.
I don't really like buying a new FireWire hard disk or external FireWire dvd reader/writer, except if it has USB support, because my MacBook doesn't support FireWire, and I really wanna make use of it then.
If I know more or have fixed it, I will surely post again here with what I did to fix it (if no one else has posted here already ).

How do change boot disk from single user mode?

My G5 hangs when booting at the blue screen while "Loading printing services...". Attempting to boot into safe mode only hangs at the grey gear screen. It will, however, successfully boot into single user mode. I've run fsck but no change in bootability. I have another disk in the machine that has Tiger on it. How do I change the boot disk from the single user prompt?

You can hold c and boot off the installer disk and select disk utility repair disk/permissions
or you can hold option to boot off Mac OS X on another drive, like a clone and run Data Rescue to recvoer your files.
It does sound bad, you can try going through these
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
But I think you'll need a fresh install, hopefully you have been backing up/cloning to a external drive.
http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/Personal11.html

Network / external access when booted in single-user mode from install CD?

So I have this iBook with a semi-functional hard drive: can't boot from it (either normal or single-user), can't use it in Firewire Target Disk mode, can't fix it with Disk Utility, an overnight run with Disk Warrior seemed to be hung, etc, BUT if I boot in single-user mode from the install CD I can then mount it readonly and see at least many of the files on it.
So now I want to slurp the important ones of those files off of it over the network (or in any other clever way anyone can suggest). I'm not a huge Unix or Darwin expert, so an exact set of commands would be appreciated. *8) A friend suggested to me that I might be able to 'init' it at a 'runlevel' that included the networking stack, but I dunno what that means. *8) Does the CD in fact include a full networking stack? Or anything else that I might be able to use to slurp some data from the hard disk before it gives up entirely?
Tx very...
Message was edited by: David Chess; annoying typo

David
I think Ronda was hoping you had the Tiger Instal DVD, which has a copy of Terminal on it.
You said earlier that trying to boot into Target Disk Mode didn't work. Would it help you if you could? If so, I can show you how to do it from Single User Mode. I've done it, and it works, although admittedly I did boot into SU mode from my HD, not my Instal Disc (I have tried that, it also works, I just haven't done both together).
If you can make use of this, post back and tell me what you get from which nvram when you are booted in SU mode from your CD. It's possible that command won't be available on the CD—so we need to check first. If it says "which: no such command", try ls -l /usr/sbin/nvram instead.

Booting in single user mode to trouble shoot grey screen the boot stops at "CODE SIGNING .... clearing CS_VALID" will not command c past - stuck

booting in single user mode to trouble shoot grey screen the boot stops at "CODE SIGNING .......... clearing CS_VALID" - cannot command C past - just stuck

Hi opjml0,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
If your Macbook is starting up to the gray screen, I suggest the steps in the following article.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
I hope this helps,
-Joe

Data back up from Single User Mode

Hello,
I have a problem with my 700 MHz iBook, dual USB, with OS X 10.3.9.
Unfortunately the OS doesn't start up because of "overlapped extent allocation" problem...
I would like to re-install the complete OS but before doing it, I would like to back up some directories.
Is it possible to save some data, by connecting an Ipod or some sort of external peripheral, from the Single User mode?
If yes, how can I do it?
Thank you in advance from your kind support.

Before giving up the ghost check out these:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25770.
Manually fix Overlapped Extent Allocation Errors without Disk Warrior
Overlapped overlapped extent allocation errors can be the bane of any Mac user's existence. Often, these errors go unnoticed until the problem becomes visible: your Mac might refuse to boot, crash unexpected, or worse, critical data might disappear from the Finder. Disk Utility can detect, but not fix overlapped extent allocation errors, and certain third-party utilities, such as Alsoft Diskwarrior, can fix them, but generally without reporting the consequences.
Overlapped extent allocation error occur when the file system thinks that two files are occupying the same area on the hard disk, hence overlapping on the same "inode," which is the structure which holds the location of the data blocks the file occupies, and also file permissions and flags.
Clearing the "overlapped" or "overallocated" extent allocation essentially means that you'll have to lose some data, because the only way to remove the overlap is to delete the file that's occupying the inode. So, if you suspect, or find out, that the guilty file is a critical system file that resides in one of the hidden system directories such as /etc /var /usr/ or visible system directories such as /System or /Library, and you don't want to reinstall the whole OS (which might not fix the overlapped extent allocation anyway), it's good to have another disk available to copy the files back to your original disk if necessary: a second bootable hard drive or a firewire drive connected to your Mac when you remove the misbehaving file. Just make sure that when you copy the file back to your boot disk that the permissions are correct, so it's best to use the "ditto" command, so that all sticky bits, flags, and permissions are preserved.
In case you didn't know, you don't have to boot from an install CD in order to check for overlapped extent allocations. All you need to do is restart your Mac, while holding down command + S to boot in "single-user mode."
At the command prompt that appears, type:
$ fsck -fy
If you have an overlapped extent allocation, you'll see:
"Overlapped Extent Allocation" (File 123456d)
No matter how many times you run fsck -fy, you'll never be rid of the error.
So, simply issue the following command:
find / -inum 123456 -print
Note the "d" was dropped, or any extra letter that appears after the inode number.
The find will return a file name that matches with the inode number, and the path to that file. If you remove the file then the fsck will not return this error next time you run it.
However, before you can delete the file(s) in single-user mode, you'll need to mount the file system. Type:
$ mount -uw /
When done, issue the "sync" command, and that will flush the write cache so that all pending writes are written from memory to the disk. Also, since most OS X 10.3 Macs use the HFS+ Journaled file system, it might be a good idea to disable the journal before booting into single-user mode by typing:
$ sudo diskutil disableJournal /
then re-enable it when done fixing the overlapped extents and rebooting normally:
$ sudo diskutil enableJournal /
Chris Anderson is a long-time Linux propellerhead who just got his first Mac, an ibook G4, and can't keep his hands off of it. He currently works as a "The Architect" and general visionary for a maker of world-class collectibles.
If you own Disk Warrior then it should be able to repair a drive with overlapped extents.
There are two backup utilities included in Unix - psync and rsync. You will find them in the /usr/bin/ directory. For documentation simply enter: man psync or man rsync. In order to write data while in single-user mode you need to issue the command: /sbin/mount/ -uw / (Note: there is a "space" between the "uw" and the "/".) To mount an external drive you will need to provide the mountpoint for it in place of the "/", e.g., "/Volumes/volname") without the quotes.

Why can't I enter single user mode on my Mac Mini for an admin password reset?

Hi,
I recently created a new user account for my mac and deleted the old one, not realising that this was the only account with admin priveleges. As such, I no longer have access to administrator priveleges, and cannot grant them to my new user account.
I have tried to boot in single user mode and recovery mode but neither command results in any reaction on the part of my computer.
This thread follows on from a previous, unrelated disscussion:
BDAqua: If you hold alt key at bootup do you see a lock in the middle?
Yenots: No...what does this mean?
BDAqua: If it did, it would mean Firmware Password Protection was enabled, which prevents booting in other modes, so that's not the problem, are you using a wired Mac KB, or Windows KB?
Yenots: I'm using an 'Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad' [ http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB110B/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad-br itish ]
If you find me here BDAqua, hit me with your knowledge!
Any other contributions are welcome and, now we're under the right heading, will hopefully help other users who have encountered this problem.
Thanks, Cristo

Hi,
Thanks for the link to MacPilot, and the sexy screenshot. I found an archived version for 10.4 on the koingosw website. That solves getting into single user/safe mode. Though I'd be interested to see whether sudo nvram boot-args="-s" will result in single user boot.
As for creating administrator priveleges for my new user account, I've found a method which looks good:
     \single user mode\
     cmd-s
     \mount drive\
     mount -uw
     \open 'directory access'\
     lauchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectory.plist
     \list users\
     ls /Users
     \change password\
     dscl . passwd /Users/<username> <password>
I think that this method intends that if I change the root users password I'll be changing the administrator password (as root is the only user with administrator priveleges), and subsequently be able to change my new user accounts priveleges using 'netinfomanager'. But I'm not 100%. Could you give me your opinion on this?
Furthermore, three keys 'L' 'O' and '(' aren't working on my keyboard, which means I can't try this until I find an intact keyboard to borrow. I was thinking maybe a mod version of the above instructions would work in terminal using sudo, so I could use the keyboard viewer to type the missing characters. If you have any ideas on constructing such a mod I would be interested to hear them.
Otherwise, Thank You for your help BDAqua! And enjoy your summer wherever you are.

Installing from Single User Mode

I had to wipe my internal hard drive on my iMac G5 (the model just prior to the Intel Macs). I did this from another Mac using FireWire mode.... anyway...
I can boot in Single User mode, but how can I tell it to install from the Tiger Installer in the DVD drive.. I just don't know Unix much..
The machine will boot from the Install disc but shuts down before it actually boots.... Stays on in Single User mode though.. thanks

Thanks for everyone's advice, but it's gone.... After a few attemps and getting it up and running, with a new system installed, it just shut down one last time and has a nice burnt aroma to it....
I pulled the power supply out and it smelled fine on it's own and it seemed be burnt somewhere in the computer... If I let it sit for a while, I can start it up, but then it shuts down and stays down for a long time...
It's now a 17" paper weight..... No data was lont, sine I backed it up just prior to the problem.
Pretty good record though. I've owned Macs way back to my PowerPC 7600 days (and even my old Apple 2e and II gs) and this is the first Mac that I will ever have to toss.. I'm happy about that... Still got my Intel iMcac and MacBook Pro (but my mother-in-law inherits my old Macs and she passes her's to her son. She's bummbed she'll miss this one.. She'll have to live with the iMac (shpere type) one for a while longer....)
RIP

How do I mount an external Firewire HD when booting into single user mode?

Hi,
How can I mount an external Firewire Harddisk from the Darwin Console, once I have booted into single user mode?
I'm trying to make a backup of all my files and then re-install my iMac G5 since it doesn't start the GUI anymore and I haven't gotten any responses to my question here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1104762&tstart=0
Thanks,
Torsten

ok, I executed the following commands:
/sbin/fsck -fy
/usr/libexec/registermach_bootstrapservers /etc/mach_init.d
autodiskmount
There were two messages:
UniNEnet: Ethernet address 00:14:51:32:19:b8
and
Aug 29 20:55:29 launchd: server 2e3b in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[16]: exited abnormally: Hangup
I don't know whether this has anything to do with the commands I entered.
And since I don't know what the volume name for the external Firewire HD is, I typed
ls -l /Volumes
but the only volume that is being listed there is my iMac's internal HD.
What should I do next?
Thx!

Mac mini i5 mid 2011 always boot in single user mode...how to get out of this?

my mac mini always boot into single user mode
how can i revert back to normal boot screen?
i tried formatting the hard disk and clean install of mac os x 10.9.2 but nothing change..
pls help
mac mini ...core i5 @2.3 ghz mid 2011 model
thanks in advance

Restart the computer with the Option, Command, P, and R keys held down. Release them upon the second startup chime.
(110762)

Freezing with blue screen & can't boot from single user mode or disk

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for