After Finder Crashes, iMac boots into Darwin

Hello,
I'm not sure if this is exactly the correct forum, but I really need help. Today I was working on my iMac G5 when I tried to open a Word document on my Desktop (by double clicking on the document with Word already open). Suddenly, my Desktop icons go away and Finder is no longer working. So, I decide to restart my computer. Ever since then my computer automatically boots up into Darwin and asks me for my login and password when I turn it on. Where is my GUI?! Every time I restart it's the same thing. If I enter the wrong username/password it goes gray, has a spinning circle, and then spits me back into the Darwin login screen.
Another weird bit of info in all of this is that after awhile it will display the following line:
Nov 3 13:42:48 my-name-imac-g5 virusScan[188]: Could not create VirexInterface
So that has me worried also. Does anyone have any advice?
Thanks,
corp

I'd boot to your Tiger installer disk. Verify the hard drive (and repair if necessary) with Disk Utility. If all is okay do an archive and install, selecting to preserve users and settings.
Boot from the installer disk, select language if applicable, choose utilities, run Disk Utility and verify (and repair if necessary) the drive. You can verify a drive from DU on your main drive while booted but I have found this can result in incorrect reporting of errors. To repair your drive you have to run it from a drive other than the boot drive anyway.
Next, boot from your drive in [Safe Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393] and repair permissions. You can repair permissions while booted from the installer disc but this uses the permissions configuration on the installer disc which may be out of date if you have run any updates on your computer. Booting your computer to Safe Mode restricts the number of things running on your computer while permissions are being run and does a bit of spring cleaning at the same time.
[Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214]
[Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672]
[Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751]
From BDaqua (couldn't have said it better):
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer (Edit: Do not use this disc if it is not the same general version as what you have currently on your computer, e.g. use a Tiger disc for a Tiger drive, not a Panther disc), then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
[Mac OS X: About the Archive and Install feature|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1710]
[Apple document about A&I in Tiger (10.4)|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1545]
[X-Lab Archive and install|http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/archiveinstall.html]
[Kappy's A&I instructions|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1823034]

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Blue screen - after booting into Darwin/BSD

Hi,
after I had the problem of my iMac G5 only booting into Darwin/BSD (which I posted here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1093517&tstart=0), I followed the instructions for recreating the user accounts, as described here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=320663&start=0&tstart=0
Now I'm able to get to the blue screen, and the system doesn't exit into Darwin/BSD any longer. However, the Setup Assistant doesn't start either.
I only see an empty blue screen (I guess it's the GUI base screen) and the menu bar. The menu bar only has to items: one menu 'loginwindow', which doesn't have any entries. And the Apple-logo menu, which has the following menu entries:
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Tail command of /var/log/System.log shows:
configd[41]: WirelessConfigure: 88001003
kernel[0]: Registering For 802.11 Events
kerner[0]: [HCIController][setupHardware] AFH Is Supported
kernel[0]: ATY,Aphrodite2_A: vram [98000000:08000000]
mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specific Computer Name; using default bMacintosh-0014513219B8b instead
kernel[0]: ATY,Aphrodite2_B: vram [98000000:08000000}
mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default bMacintosh-0014513219B8.localb instead
/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
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Thanks!
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Apologies, was a little vague. and as far as my profile goes i have loads of mac's here in the studio.
using MBP latest model, Snow Leopard with latest updates.
1. boot up in windows XP SP3 (bootcamp NTFS formatted 32GB partition) - all ok
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I booted up from the Tiger install CD, ran 'disk permissions' and 'disk repair', then booted back to Tiger on my hard drive and... it still booted into Darwin.
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Michael C stopped my MacBook booting into Darwin/BSD, but it is now sloooow

I am testing a MacBook 2.16 GHz for possible use at work. Upgraded to 3GB RAM and Hitachi 200GB HD. Performance was great after a week, but one day I got a dark screen at bootup with the Darwin/BSD-login-password message that a lot of people seem to get. I followed Michael Conniff's advice (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4550428) and got the system to boot into the GUI properly. But ever since then performance has been very slow: e.g. selecting the Date and Time takes 5 seconds to launch and clicking on the AirPort icon takes the same amount of time to produce the drop-down menu. It's like the MacBook is running in slow-motion. The exception is the Dock: it pops up quickly and the Apps scroll by quickly. Launching the Apps is another matter, though.
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PowerMac G4 MDD booting into DARWIN/BSD screen.

Hi,
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I just found my installation dvd and put it in. Then I held the OPTION+D keys which brought me to the boot drive screen. This screen shows the Main HD symbol and the Mac OS X INSTALL CD icons. But, I am unable to switch over to the Install disc icon to run it. My mouse just doesn't respond at all on this screen, but somehow the keyboard does.
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Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
Tried resetting the PMU?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
Might try applesetupdone...
This was Posted by: JoseAranda at September 9, 2006 3:48 AM
"OK, restart your computer, hold down Command-s and type in the following:
/sbin/fsck -fy Enter
Repeat until no errors.
/sbin/mount -uaw Enter
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone Enter
1. The rm command is the remove command which deletes the file.
2. Robert: I'd rename the file via: mv /var/db/.applesetupdone /var/db/.applesetupdone.old
reboot Enter
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end of posted by: JoseAranda"

Screen boots into Darwin/BSD

I restarted my computer one day and it booted into a Black screen (Darwin/BSD).
I've tried the suggestions on various forums below:
http://missionitgroup.com/blog/?p=1490
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=320663
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Every time I reboot, it either just goes to a blue screen, or the Welcome movie plays and can't get past a certain point.
Can anybody help with any further suggestions?
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tsk80:
The 2 options they gave me was to:
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There is a third option, which I believe is an option that will serve you better longer term. That option is to install a new larger capacity drive. This will
• Give you greater storage capacity
• Give you a faster HDD
• Improve your computer's performance because of higher rotational speed, and greater areal density provided by a larger capacity drive allowing your computer to access larger blocks of data on each rotation.
• Allow you more free space which will boost performance with more room for swap files and sufficient room for growing the directory and avoiding overlapping volume structures. You should maintain a minimum of 15% of available capacity of your HDD as contiguous free space for the benefit of the directory.
When you have installed your new HDD you will need to format it before you can install to it. I would put a fresh installation instead of reinstalling a corrupted directory. If you think there is merit in this suggestion we can offer step by step directions for each stage of the adventure.
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Message was edited by: a brody

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Crashed: Now boots to Darwin screen

While doing a software update (and running a couple other programs at the same time...) the screen froze. I hit the power button to reboot, and now I get the Darwin screen (black screen, white text. Asks for Login and Password).
I can enter my name and password successfully, but how do I get OSX to boot? I've tried Save Mode, but end up with a text screen again.
Suggestions?

Pamtri:
Check out this thread about how I dealt with Darwin: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1047613&#1047613
Hope it helps.
Good luck.
cornelius

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After Finder Crashes, iMac boots into Darwin

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