Can't unlock startup disk in system preferences

I installed Tiger and the startup disk on system preferences is locked so I can't boot into OS9. When I type in my name and password, I get a message saying "type in user name and password." I can log into OSX OK at startup with the same name and password. There are no other users of this computer.
Any ideas?

Hi, Dark-Sabre -
Apple KBase Article HT2176 sets out the requirements for OSX 10.3 (and gives links to articles showing the requirements for later versions of OSX). Included is the need for the machine to have at least 128MB of RAM. Doubling that amount is a more realistic minimum.
As Grant has suggested, be sure the firmware has been updated on the machine. On many model iMacs, early ones in particular, the machine may suffer loss of video if the machine is booted to OSX prior to updating the firmware.

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Question mark on startup disk in System Preferences

There is question mark sign on startup disk in System Preferences on Mavericks of Macbook air 13inch (Early 2014). I can't find any solution for this. Could someone please help me find the solution. I know that something went wrong and I don't know how to fix it.

I think I now understand your concern. This is from my MBP System preferences display:
Click on it and should show what startup disk option(s) you have. This is normal.
Ciao.

Lost icon for Startup Disk in System Preferences panel

Last week i noticed that the icon for my Startup Disk doesn't display correctly in the System Preferences panel.
I've uploaded a screenshot of my System Preferences here:
http://www.solidgold.fi/img/systemprefs.jpg
You'll see the messed up icon between Speech and Universal Access.
Any ideas what can be causing this?
Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Pablo
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 GHz

You're most welcome. Glad to help!
PS: You may want to mark my earlier post above as Solved as it solved your problem and may help others with the same problem that find your topic know the post that contains the answer. Click the Solved button in that post above.
Marking posts that are helpful or solve the problem as Helpful or Solved, respectively, aids others in finding answers and awards points to those who take the time to respond. See "Why reward points?".
Marking a topic as Answered indicates the question is resolved, but only you, as the person who asked the question, can mark posts as Helpful or Solved. The "Answered" status neither awards points nor provides an indication to others of the posts that were either helpful or solved the problem.
Additionally, the new "Yes/No" buttons do not assign any points: they merely collect statistics for Apple, a very confusing change recently made to the Discussions.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

No startup disks in System Preferences

...only "Network startup" shows.
I was trying to install a firmware update via OS9 (or so I hoped) onto my pismo so that I could use migration assistant for my new mbp. I had a fw drive attached, with 4 partitions, along with the pismo's hd and its 2 partitions. From the fw drive, I selected an os9.2 system folder to boot from, and the pismo booted up into 9.2 as expected; after restart, the pismo came up in panther however, rather than os9.2. Only after starting up Classic from the fw drive did I get the message the update failed. Next, I copied over the system folder with os9.2 onto the pismo. please note, the os9.2 folder is from a backup of my wife's g4 iBook. When I opened system prefs hoping to select the just-copied system folder as the start up disk - I got nothing, just network startup. No other folders. I just ran applejack to repair permissions, but afterward, still nothing in startup disk.
What did I do, and how can I fix it? Any help appreciated.

Alright - I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions and now Sys Prefs has found all the volumes on my drive.
At first nothing had changed when I looked in Sys Prefs, and I highlighted the Network icon assuming I could deselect it. I could not. I triple clicked in the space next to the Network icon, and sys prefs seemed to wake up and immediately scanned. I selected the volume I wanted, and closed the lock to prevent changes. I had not clicked in the space before running Disk Utility, so perhaps clicking was all I needed to do, but since the log from DU suggests permissions were repaired, I suspect it was necessary.
Here's the log from Disk Utility. If someone can translate this for me to let me know what was done, I'd be grateful. I assume the glitch was in the system library filesystems line:
Repairing permissions for “Steve's Computer”
Determining correct file permissions.
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays. New permissions are 16893
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles. New permissions are 16893
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util. New permissions are 33261
We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/jobs. New uid is 1
We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/spool. New uid is 1
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
Permissions repair complete

Startup Disk Quits System Preferences??

I have just installed Jaguar and updated to 10.2.8 on a recently acquired machine. Everything else seems to work well, including other System Preferences but, when I click Startup Disk, it starts to load and then I get a message that "The application System Preferences has unexpectedly quit."
Is there some way to fix this other than reinstalling the system? I have run First Aid and Repair Permissions - First Aid says OK??

Hi Gene:
I was having a similar problem, except it was the System Preferences on an iMac running 10.3.9: check it out here for a summary of the troubleshooting I went through.
I think it's a logic board issue, but I've been wrong before.
Good luck!
Andrew

Startup Disk (under System Preferences) does not show os X or Windows disks

My startup disk options are not detected on Startup Disk. I can boot ok using either OS X 10.5.5 or Windows Vista if I startup holding the option key. Each system is stored on a separate drive on my Mac Pro. All drives appear to be fine.
The only things I have done recently have been setting up my wife as a new user including a new email account, and also plugging in my new logitech Vision Pro. Nothing too dangerous there I would have thought.
Any ideas about what is wrong and how to fix? I have reset P RAM, have repaired permissions. I hope to avoid a full reinstall of OS X. Apple support line has no record of startup disks not being visible occuring before.

If you do not chose which system to boot to by holding the option key, will it automatically boot to OS X?
Are there no options at all in the Startup Disk utility? If the issue is that you'd like to be able to chose which system to boot to, then I've found the software package rEFIt useful (http://refit.sourceforge.net/). Whenever you power on/restart your Mac, it displays a nice looking menu with little pictures representing the different boot options (it will have a picture for OS X, one for Windows, any other OSes you may install, and also will list any bootable removable media).

Is it okay to delete SymSecondaryLaunch from my Log in at startup Items in System Preferences? I no longer use any Norton products.

Is it okay to delete SymSecondaryLaunch from my Log in at startup Items in System Preferences? I no longer use any Norton products. I have no clue what SymSecondaryLaunch does but it appears to be related to Symantec.

You are not required to have any login items so yes, you can safely remove. However some applications will continue to add it's self back until completely uninstalled. You might have to download an install to get an uninstaller.
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH103489
It's possible you have other old software that is running parts. Download EtreCheck and paste results here for help troubleshooting.
http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

I accidentally deleted some drivers from my macbook air and now i can not access app store and system preferences as it says the following message (You can't open the application System Preferences because it may be damaged or incomplete)

i accidentally deleted some drivers from my macbook air and now i can not access app store and system preferences as it says the following message (You can't open the application System Preferences because it may be damaged or incomplete)

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion/Mountain Lion
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. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

Can't change Desktop background in System Preferences

Hi. When I try to change my desktop background, either by right-clicking on the desktop or by opening System Preferences, the screen for Desktop options is blank. None of the options show up, grayed out or otherwise. While in System Preferences, if I click on Screen Saver, everything there works fine. But the button for Desktop becomes grey and I can't click on it.
I've tried Repair Permissions and this didn't work. I've seen similar posts here, but they don't seem to have the same problem I do, nothing freezes up, the Desktop screen is just blank. Do you have any ideas?
Thanks!
Mac OS X (10.4.6)

1. OK, let's try some more trashing: 1. Quit System Preferences if it is open.
2. Open your Home > Library > Caches folder, then trash the following two files therein:
- com.apple.preferencepanes.cache
- com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache
3. Trash the file
com.apple.systempreferences.plist
in your Home > Library > Preferences folder.
4. Trash the file
com.apple.systempreferences.xxx.plist
in your Home > Library > Preferences > ByHost folder, where xxx is an alphanumeric string.
5. Empty Trash.
6. Launch System Preferences and see if the problem is resolved.2. You wrote"I still have my Desktop Pictures folder."I presume you mean the Macintosh HD > Library > Desktop Pictures folder I cited previously. How about the contents of that folder? It should contain five folders:• Abstract
• Black & White
• Nature
• Plants
• Solid Colorsand a collection of .jpg images for a total of 28 objects.
3. I know you earlier said you ran Repair Permissions. I presume the permissions on Macintosh HD > Library > Desktop Pictures are:You can: Read & Write
Owner: system
Access: Read & Write
Group: admin
Access: Read & Write
Others: Read OnlyYes?
4. If none of the above sorts it out, let's see if it's isolated to your account. Do you have a second user account defined on your system? If so, log in to it and see if the problem happens there. If it does, it is probably a system-wide problem. If not, it is something with your user account. If you don't have a second account on your system, you can create a new one using System Preferences > Accounts. See "Mac OS X 10.4 Help: Adding a new user account to your computer."
5. Immediately after the problem occurs — i.e. you open Desktop & Screen Saver preferences and either cannot select Desktop or Desktop is blank — check the ends of these Console logs for clues. Let's see if console can tell us if the Desktop preference pane is corrupted.
6. Do you have any personal Web space? If so, can you take a screen shot of the problem and upload it to your personal Web space? If so, post a link back here to the image. It may help if I can see what you're seeing, though I think I understand it from your description, "a picture is worth..." etc.
7. As a general check, run the procedure specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified.
8. To what was / is your Desktop image presently set? One of the Apple collections or images? Something from your iPhoto Library?
FYI: I number my points so you can respond by number.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Can't access Users & Groups in System Preferences :(

I can't access Users & Groups in System Preferences please help thanks

Check the following:
First, do you see the "User and Group" icon?
If not, open the "presentation" menu and look under the "personalize" option to see if the icon is uncheck.
Second, try to set a new account and see if you can access it from that account.
Repair disk permission

Windows HD not showing in starup disk in system preference!!

Hi,
I install 2 new WD caviar 640 k in my system, one for OSX which i installs with
SuperDuper. And one for my vista 64 ultimate, which i install with Casper cloning
my volume.. Everything seems to be working, except that i don't see the windows HD in Starup Disk in system preferences!! only the OSX. The disk appears in disk utility and i can boot using the option key...
Any idea?
Daniel

Hi!
I finally solved my problem, what i did was erase and create a partition with BootCamp on the new HD, Format and reinstall windows, than i copy my old vista
volume to the new HD.. and every thing is showing where it's suppose to be..
The problem was with the format procedure, in Disk utility when i selected
the windows HD it showed in Partition Map Scheme: MBR and now it shows
GUID PARTITION Table and the volume format is (NTFS) of course.
Daniel

OSX 10.6 .8 -- Firefox automatically starts when I boot up (MacBook Pro Intel). It is not in the Startup Items in System Preferences, and automatic startup is not checked in Firefox Options. Don't know where else to look.

How do I keep Firefox automatically starts when I boot up (OSX 10.6 .8 -- MacBook Pro Intel). It is not in the Startup Items in System Preferences, and automatic startup is not checked in Firefox Options.

Hi fullrun-
Once Firefox is open, you should be able to open the Right click context menu on the icon. From there you select 'Options' and then de-select 'Open at Login'. Hope that helps.

Can't load Network Settings from System Preferences

For some reason I can't load Network Settings from System Preferences anymore - it just stalls with the bar showing "Loading Network" and doing nothing. This is happening in conjunction with a new inability to connect to a network printer - it won't show up on the list of printers, even when I manually enter the IP address. Something is obviously mucked up - can anyone tell me what it might be & how I can fix it? Thanks!

I was able to fix this myself by using one of the techniques suggested here for a different problem. Basically I went into Library/Preferences/System Configuration and deleted networkinterfaces.plist, preferences.plist & com.apple.nat.plist. All were rebuilt when I restarted and went to System Preferences/Network and I was able to load the Network Settings. This didn't fix the problem with my printer, but at least it got the settings up.

Option key can't function to access start up manager, so i can't choose startup disk. please help me

option key can't function to access start up manager, so i can't choose startup disk. please help me

If you have Apple Care, call them and get a case number. Otherwise, take the computer to an Apple store or an AASP. Whichever is more convenient for you.

Still can't sign into icloud in system preferences after many calls with support. Beyond frustrated!

Still can't sign into icloud in system preferences after many calls with support. Beyond frustrated!

Do you have 2-step verification on for your Apple ID? I may have a solution.
When I upgraded to Yosemite and subsequently updated my Apple ID, I would get errors when I tried to sign into iMessage and FaceTime using my apple ID (and my new password), I similarly was not able to sign in. On FaceTime, I would get errors like "unable to sign in at this time" or some times just nothing at all (the spinning 'processing' graphic would grind away until it presumably just timed out).
Turns out that I enabled 2-step notification on for my Apple ID (totally forgot about it, I set it up a couple years ago), and apparently the regular Apple ID password that you choose is not usable when you try to log in to iMessage or FaceTime through the programs themselves (intuitively, this makes sense since these programs do not have a way to prompt you for the "2nd step" code).
To solve, you have to log in to your Apple ID online (appleid.apple.com or whatever), and look for the option to "Generate App-Specific Passwords". These are unique, random passwords which are made to work around issues like these since they can be used in iMessage or FaceTime or what not. This is the same idea as to what you have to do to log into gmail on your iPhone if you have Google 2-step verification on.
This solved my issue (after lots of swearing and hair pulling!). Would have been nice if a I got some sort of warning when updating my Apple ID password that "Hey, you have 2-step enabled. Go make some app-specific passwords or you will lose 5 hours of your life trying to solve this mystery"
Hopefully this may solve yours

Can't unlock startup disk in system preferences

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