Can't boot into safe mode or prompt login window, need help.

Hello all,
This is cross-posted from the installations and set-up list.
Can anyone suggest a remedy for what's ailing this powerbook. its a g4 powerbook, i don't have much more info other than that. all indications are that it is running 10.2.6, although i was told that it had been updated to 10.2.8, its possible that it was updated only to 10.2.6. following the update, you get to the apple and spinning pinwheel screen and it will not proceed. literally, the pinwheel will spin for 24 hours+.
it looks like it gets to the point of the startup(login) items and hangs indefinitely. ie it will
if i start in verbose mode it will, give some clues:
truncated or malformed library: /System/Libray/Frameworks/Security.frameworks/Versions/A/Security
Some starup items failed to launch due to conflicts
/usr/libexec/crashreporterd: crashdump terminated by signal 5
init: getty repeating too quickly on port /dev/console, sleeping
/usr/libexec/crashreporterd: crashdump terminated by signal 5
last message repeated 10 times
/usr/libexec/crashreporterd: crashdump terminated by signal 5
init: getty repeating too quickly on port /dev/console, sleeping
/usr/libexec/crashreporterd: crashdump terminated by signal 5
last message repeated 5 times
this will continue to be repeated and i assume a new core.## file is sent to the /cores folder, until the hard drive is maxed out.
I can boot in single user mode and everything is fine but i cannot boot into safe mode.
fsck says the disk is fine, as does disk first aid, i have also corrected permissions, and followed many of the things that have been previously posted.
It looks like ther are conflicts with some startup items, what can i move from the starup folder and is best not to be touched?
what about the truncated library message?
also can i update to 10.2.8 from the single user mode, if i cannot get into safe mode?
any suggestions?
thanks in advance-
todd

I have solved this problem. I mounted the laptop in target mode and replaced this file:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security
with the equivalent file from a machine running 10.2.8.
It booted all the way through then i upgraded to 10.2.8.

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Things go much smoother when you have a well defined target.
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Randall

Can't boot into safe mode

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ryan42 wrote:
I guess we need to have a mirror of our startup volume in case anything happens.
One always needs a mirror of a RAID 0 set.
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Speed comes at a hefty price, a nightly auto-clone/updated backup and another clone on a single spindle.

Can't boot to safe mode or recovery

Hi
I was watching a video in Quicktime, with a few other videos paused and some pictures open in the background. I got a facetime call, so I paused the video and took the call. After hanging up, I maximised the video and attempted to play. My machine pretty much locked up (spinning wheel) although for a few minutes I could switch into an application, at which point that application would also freez
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6 onwards) A white screen
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suggest
Any ideas? My next attempt will probably be to swap my old HDD back in - I replaced it with an SSD 6 months ago - in case the SSD has had an issue.

Further info
I've swapped the old HDD back into the machine, and now I get an Apple Logo with spinning wheel. I still can't boot into safe mode nor recovery
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Can't boot in safe mode AND no sleeping, can those be connected? Can those be SOLVED?!

Hello and thanks for reading this.
My MBP with Lion is having 2 problems and I:
- Would like to solve them
- Was wondering if they are connected.
BTW, tried vastly googling both and read quite a lot in different forums and the Internet, but couldn’t come with a solution, just succeeded to live with. (Something like marriage)…
The first problem: if I leave my computer to go to sleep and it does for a long time, when I try to wake him up, I get either the SBD (Spinning Ball of Death), or stuck in a black screen. Need to push the power button.
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Created.
Exactly the same process.
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FYI
Robert Aldwinckle

Can I ssh to a Mac that's booted into Safe Mode?

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Does anyone know (for sure!) please?
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If this was already covered somewhere else, I
apologize. I did some browsing for this topic but had
no luck finding anything...
Anyhoo, I'm trying to log in to my wife's B&W G3
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If you want to use SSH securily I would suggest you disable password authenticaiton altogher. If you setup public key authentication it is more secure and better than using passwords anyway.
see how to setup ssh with public keys

UEFI bios boot into safe mode w/o msconfig or F8

Hi, thanks in advance for taking the time to answer. First off I'm using an ASUS motherboard with UEFI bios on windows 7 64bit.
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== edit ==
== Solved problem myself ==
heres how for those with same problem: after hard restarting my computer quite a few times (apparently its SUPPOSED to do this each time but other folks on the internet and myself find it to only work 40% or less) it went into automatic repair mode.
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back to business as usual! woot woot

Asus boards BIOS Boot Menu key is F8... this is annoying if you use their boards with Windows installed, as it is also the key for getting the Windows boot menu.
What needs to be done is use the F8 to get the menu, select the hard disk (or boot manager if EFI) and then start hitting F8 after you press enter on the boot device. This is the easiest way I've found, as trying to guess when the boot is handed off from
the board to Windows is hit and miss.

Hard drive won't boot into safe mode

My mid 2010 Macbook Pro has suddenly decided to not boot up after installing BitDefender and running a scan.
I installed it on a whim when I saw minor malware that hijacked Safari, and decided to run a scan. While I was working on Photoshop, the scan must have finished because all of my windows disappeared and I was left with my desktop and the spinning gray loading at the bottom of my screen. I waited 20 minutes, realized it wasn't going anywhere and force shut down the Macbook by power button.
Now, I cannot successfully get it past the grey apple loading screen. Attempting to boot into safe mode still leaves it at the same screen. Tried to reset the PRAM, still can't get past the loading screen. I still have my OS disk, however it is Snow Leopard and my current is Mavericks and I'm unsure if it is a wise idea.
15 inch mid 2010 Macbook Pro running OS X Mavericks, how dead in the water am I and how much would this cost me to "fix"?

Use the original Snow Leopard installation disk and start the MBP as if you were going to reinstall the OSX. Early in the process you should see a menu bar on the top of the display. Click on UTILITIES and from the dropdown menu select Disk Utility. Run Disk Utility>First Aid, Verify and Repair. If it is not successful, the HDD will have to be replaced.
Ciao.

Can't boot in safe mode - RAID startup disk

hi ..
my macpro has a mirrored RAID as a startup disk (using HD bay 1 & 2) ... i am trying to boot into safe mode but this does not work at all, even when holding down the shift key it starts up in normal user mode.
Is there a way to do this ? is it maybe possible to boot into safe mode with a terminal command ? or any other way ?
thx for any help with this ...

Hallo
This topic is quite old, but I face exactly the same issue.
My MacPro tries to boot in safe mode, but restarts and boots in normal mode afterwards.
There are messages in system.log that indicate to me that the kernel exensions on the boot helper volumes are different from the ones on the main partition:
Dec 19 21:06:11 localhost kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/
AppleAHCI/PRT2@2/IOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice/IOB lockStorageDriver/ST3750640AS P Media/IO
GUIDPartitionScheme/AppleRAID_OfflineV2_Untitled3@2/AppleRAIDMember/AppleRAIDMirrorSet/RAID@0
Dec 19 21:06:11 localhost kernel[0]: BSD root: disk3, major 14, minor 11
Dec 19 21:06:11 localhost kernel[0]: [Bluetooth::CSRHIDTransition] switchToHCIMode (legacy)
Dec 19 21:06:11 localhost kernel[0]: [Bluetooth::CSRHIDTransition] transition complete.
Dec 19 21:06:11 localhost kernel[0]: [HCIController][configurePM] power parent ready after 1 tries
Dec 19 21:06:11 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: initialization complete
Dec 19 21:06:17 localhost kernel[0]: can't remove kernel __LINKEDIT segment - in-kernel linker needs it
Dec 19 21:06:17 localhost kextd[11]: in-memory mkext doesn't match on-disk mkext; non-boot kexts won't be loaded
I tried:
sudo kextcache -v 6 -f -u /
Which updates the kernel extensions on the boot helper volume,
but it does not work.
As for the firware updates, I could still install those booting from external FW disk.
Patrick

Won't boot into safe mode

My 2012 iMac 27" was randomly rebooting itself, while in Sleep. I assumed this was due to the cheap 32 GB memory I bought, but before I could change it back to the original memory, to test, the Mac booted into Safe Mode (I assume - a progress bar showing at the bottom of the boot screen, below the Apple logo), and did not get further than a half the way, and then shut down. I swapped the memory to the original 8GB. I tried booting again, no buttons held down, as then it wouldn't get further than a quarter of the way. Further attempts to boot do not work, even when holding down Option to choose the boot disk, pressing Shift for Safe Mode, or Option-S for Single User Mode. I assume it's trying to boot in Safe Mode, but failing?
I also tried using a good Mac with the bad Mac as the Target Disk boot mode - the good Mac does not see the bad Mac...
I have an external DVD drive, but that isn't an option as I can't go into boot drive select mode. What are my options, apart from sending the iMac back?

Booting into the Recovery HD should allow you to effect repairs - that's the point of it, so it's a bit concerning that it won't allow you to. The Recovery HD is a partition on the internal drive that should allow you to effect repairs to the Macintosh HD, albeit part of the same physical disk.
I'm no expert, but I'd be concerned that the hard disk is on the way out. Do you have backup of everything - Time Machine or a bootable clone, perhaps?
Maybe have another try with Command+r. If it fails I'm not sure what would be the best next step - it depends if you have a full and up-to-date backup of your disk so that you can restore.
One of the options of the Recovery HD is to allow you to re-install the OS, which won't delete your data.
The more extreme step would be Internet Recovery which would involve erasing everything and re-installing via the internet.
Worth reading this carefully before proceeding: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Disk Warrior from Alsoft (not cheap) is another possibility for recovering damaged disks, although it's not a guaranteed solution.

OS hangs at grey startup screen, won't boot into safe mode

I rebooted my G5 this morning and when it came back up, it hung on the grey screen with the Apple logo and the spinning 'gear' progress bar. I tried rebooting several times, but that didn't help. I tried booting from the install DVD (which it did) and ran disk utility (both verify & repair on the start up drive and on permissions. It claims to have found permission errors and fixed them.) I hunted for answers online and tried to boot into safe mode, which did not work.
Someone mentioned booting into verbose mode and I saw that the load sequence was choaking on the login.
What could the problem be and how can I fix it?

Hi Yosarian,
Minor permissions repairs are no concern: The good news is that your data is probably OK.
Three things can be happening: Some of the machines boot settings are corrupted, or the OS files or settings are damaged, or there's a hardware problem.
Resetting the machines power management chip, called a PMU or SMU, depending on your computer, and the PRAM will resolve machine boot settings problems. Run a google search for your model of Mac plus reset pmu OR smu for instructions. After that, reboot your computer and hold Option-Apple-P-R down as you power on. Hold all 4 keys until you hear the startup chime a second time.
You can test your hardware with the grey disk that came with it that ays AHT in little letters. Boot from the CD and run the extended test. Be patient: AHT can take a long time to boot and run.
If you reset your PMU and PRAM and pass a hardware diagnostic but still can't boot normally, in safe mode, or in single-user mode, the problem is system software. Reinstall from your latest installer, checking off Archive and Install and Preserve Users and Settings from the Options screen available at the screen where you choose which disk to install to.
Good luck,
John

No reboot after booting into safe mode

For a few years I've just ignored the problem but thought I should take time to mention it now.
When I boot into Safe Mode (holding down the shift key during boot up) I can always click on restart when the password screen comes up and the computers will restart.
But if I log in after safe boot and let the system boot up past the login screen THEN try a restart I get hours of beach ball. I've left various computers running over night and it is always the same in the morning, no restart, no beach but lots of beach ball.
So I do a force shutdown (hold the on/off button for 10 seconds) or a forced restart.
This has been the case from Leopard OSX10.5 and up including Snow Leopard. And on five different Intel Core 2 Duo Macs including 2GHz & 2.4 GHz iMacs and Macbooks.
The common theme is that I have migrated my setup through all these Macs so maybe there is some legacy thing in my software.
Suggestions?

Well… some improvement.
Here’s what I did: (note that I did a restart and sometimes safe boot after each and every step.
1 – use FontNuke (free shareware) to blast away font cache files. It found 8 some dating from 2002.
2 – use Apple’s Font Book to reconcile duplicate fonts.
Those two steps fixed my slow down problems with playing movie files in Quicktime and VLC.
But not Skype video. The biggest CPU load with Skype is with the transmitted picture oddly enough.
Then for good measure I zapped the PRAM and PMU. No noticeable improvement from doing those. Obliviously repair permissions and verify disk was done long long ago and redone.
I still have the problem of not being able to reboot from safe mode.
The Startup folders are clean except for Qmaster which I do not believe is the cause of not being able to reboot out of safe mode.
Does anyone know of other files/locations that put 3rd party startup items? I remember finding things from Western Digital and Symantic a few years ago in unexpected places. Symantic was especially hard to track down and eliminate.

I cannot boot into safe mode

I cannot boot into safe mode
I ran onxy, all appeared ok,
I booted from installer DVD,- repaired the drive, - nothing wrong with the drive,
and repaired disk permissions, twice, as a few permissions were incorrect
The only app which automatically logs in user account is KeyCue, and has done so always, and I don't know what what it belongs to. Nothing logs in automatically in the admin account.
I intermittently have a problem with DVDs not mounting, and a safe boot fixes the problem.

further to being unable to boot in safe mode-
normally when i boot in safe mode, when its starts up and reaches the login screen, above this are the words in red safe boot. As the words were missing from the login screen I had assumed that I was not in safe boot. I currently have about 94 GB of HD space. Other than this booting process appears to be normal. What prompted the safe boot was a DVD which mounted ok on insert, had unmounted when I went to eject, a restart and holding down the shift key ejected the disk, and I then tried to do the safe boot. Since I ran disk utility from the installer disk the same DVD has mounted and ejected just fine. The vanishing disk problem started 4-5 months ago, and has always been fixed by a safe boot

Unable to boot into safe mode with FileVault 2 enabled

I was trying to boot into safe mode earlier to try and fix a few things. It looks like I can't and I suspect it is because of FV2.
When the system starts I press shift after the tone, but then I have to release shift and enter the password and then Lion will only boot into normal mode.
I've also tried with sudo nvram boot-args="-x" from the terminal, but while it seesm that this way Lion starts to boot into safe mode, after a while it just restarts as if something crashed etc and then again, I have to enter the password for FV and all again as in a loop, i.e. Lion won't even start this way.
So I went into the recovery mode and I could make Lion start again at least in normale mode with sudo nvram boot-args="".
Any idea of what could be preventing Lion from entering safe mode?
Thanks in advance

The symptom may be unrelated to FileVault 2. I encountered the symptom with FileVault 2 disabled and with backward conversion (decryption) complete.
Apple reference for my bug report: 152162960. If the symptoms on your Mac compare to those on mine: progress may seem to cease during safe fsck.
Vito, as you are comfortable with the nvram command, please try the following:
sudo nvram boot-args="-v -x"
Restart the computer and note the last verbose lines that appear before you sense that progress has ceased. Then please add a note of those lines to this topic.
Additional questions
What model is your Mac?
What type of disk for the startup volume?
How many files on that volume?
Approximately how large are the attributes file and catalog file? (You might gain this information with a demo version of iDefrag.)
My current envronment
MacBookPro5,2
8 GB memory
startup from internal 320 GB rotational disk, Serial-ATA, Hitachi HTS723232L9SA62 (probably Travelstar 7K320)
3,961,791 files
495,744 folders /* not including the root folder */
catalog file 3.0 GB, not fragmented
attributes file 2.2 GB, not fragmented.
At http://www.wuala.com/grahamperrin/public/2012/01/09/a/?mode=gallery file speedy.txt includes details of the volume.

Can't boot into safe mode or prompt login window, need help.

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