G5 Slot Load XServe 10.4.11 won't save startup disk preference

I have a G5 XServe (Slot Load). If the server is 'Shut Down' or it loses power (UPS goes down) it won't boot from the selected Startup Disk.
I have to use the System Identifier buttons to select 'Startup from internal drive'.
But if I instead only Restart the machine, it always boots from the selected Startup Disk.
How can I get this G5 XServe running Tiger 10.4.11 to retain its Startup Disk settings?
Thanks

I ran 'sudo systemsetup -liststartupdisks'
and got '/System/Library/CoreServices'
Should this be working as is or should it be '/System/Library/CoreServices/System' or something else?
What should the file path be? Can you please post an example?
I am planning on using 'sudo systemsetup -setstartupdisk <path to disk root>' to try to reset it. I found that in the Snow Leopard literature, should that work for Tiger as well?
Thanks for your help.

Similar Messages

IMac CRT slot loader doesn't get past apple symbol at startup

I've got an old iMac CRT, 600mhz slot loader that I want to give away to a friend.
I've lent it to a couple of people in it's life (I now have a different computer), and I can't find the system disks.
The computer had Panther installed on it (can't find those disks either - can't remember how I even got Panther on to it) and was working fine. I deleted all the old users off it to just have my friend's user ID. So technically, there was nothing personal on the computer, just a bunch of applications. However, out of the 40 gigs of HD space, it was telling me that there was only 9 available, which I found strange.
Anyway, while I was installing Adobe CS on it, just before it was finished I tried to find out where all the HD space was being used. So I opened the Applications folder and did Apple-I to get info. When the dialogue window opened, it said it was calculating folder size.
As this was happening while I was also installing CS, I didn't worry about it, just thought it would complete after installation was finished. However, this didn't happen, and I found that not only did the folder size not get calculated, the whole computer had frozen. Not even a force quit would do anything, it was like an old fashioned system 9 crash.
So I forced shut down and tried to start up again. So now it won't get past the OS X grey apple screen. Not even the spinning dial appears and you just see the apple icon for eternity. Have tried zapping PRAM, holding down option key, shift key. Nothing works.
So I'm wondering: what do I need to do to get it to work? Do I need the system disks? Or is there some other way to fix this?
Thanks in advance,
Lachlan

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
My guess is that you are going to need System disks available here.
Good luck. These things get really frustrating.
David

IMac won't locate startup disk

Hi everyone, I hope you're having a great weekend!
My iMac is less than 2 years old and all of a sudden it won't start. It fails at log in and makes me do an online repair, then takes me to a screen with 4 options, restore from Time Machine, Reinstall iOSX, seach online & Disk Utility. And a few times I've received the folder with a question mark error also.
I've read through a few help articles and they all seem to want to direct me to choose my startup disk and that's where my problem is.
The Apple Menu is almost empty and I can't access any other apps.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks so much!!!

Your startup disk is no longer working properly. You need to reinstall OS X. On your next restart you will be presented with the Recovery HD's Utilities Menu. Do the following:
Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions:
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility and press the Continue button. After Disk Utility loads select the Macintosh HD entry from the the left side list. Click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If Disk Utility reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Alternatively, see:
Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Choose the version you have installed now:
OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
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.

Updated to Mountain Lion, Macbook Pro Won't save any app preferences

My wife has a 2009 Macbook Pro. We recently upgraded it to Moutain Lion, and now we are having quite a few issues. Additionally, we upgraded to MS Office 2011 from 2008. Anytime we open most applications, no preferences have saved, and it goes through the process of opening the application for the first time. For example, the only way to open a word document (previously created in 2008) is to open Word 2011, go through the registration process where it tells us the product is already registered, then it opens a blank document. Once the blank document is open, you can click on the saved document again, then it will open. If you close the application, you have to go through this process all over again. This same thing happens for all products in the MS suite.
Additionally, firefox will not work at all. whenever I click on it, the icon just pops up and down and nothing happens. Their troubleshooting is telling us to create a user profile (which I have) under he application support folder, but the folder is gone after the update. Additionally, deleting and re-installing the application has not solved the problem. Additionally, Safari won't save any preferences.
Also, she is the only user account on the computer.
Any help would be great!

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
Safe Mode
Safe Mode - About
General information.
Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Troubleshooting Permission Issues
Step by Step to Fix Your Mac

PS CC won't save my unit preferences

Hi, I recently upgraded from Master Collection CS6 to Creative Cloud 2014 and I'm having problems in that my Photoshop CC client won't seem to save my Units & Rules settings in the Preferences section. I've set my Rulers to Pixels and my Type to Points...basically, I want pixels to be the default dimension size unit when doing ANYTHING within Photoshop as I NEVER have to use cm/inches/picas/anything else. However, even though I've saved these settings in my Preferences window, every time I go to open a new image, or if I go to change the image size of an existing image, the default size ALWAYS shows up in cm instead of pixels. I am Canadian so I'm using the English (UK) keyboard layout which I've heard can have an impact on Photoshop auto-selecting your units - for example, I read an article where someone using the English (US) keyboard layout was forced to use inches instead. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I just want it to always show pixels as the unit dimension by default instead of cm or inches, I don't know why it's not saving or taking effect (yes, I've restarted the application numerous times as well). Thanks for any help!

I have the same problem, each time I open Photoshop CC my workspace from last time is not saved.
Very annoying beacuse I have to reload my swatches etc.

IMac won't read startup disk

Longstanding problem. Older iMac won't read the Leopard disk. I got around this by using my daughter's iBook in slave mode and then installing 10.5. Everything works but I can't start up with the disk to use disk utilities. It was suggested that I get a new ext dvd drive which I did. (Kanguru qs2)
I started it up and installed Office for Mac without a problem. Then I tried to use the 10.5 disk and it would not read it. I had a hard time getting the disk to eject. After it did eject I tried using some other disks including Office and none of them work now. Any ideas?

rafterdog wrote:
I started it up and installed Office for Mac without a problem. Then I tried to use the 10.5 disk and it would not read it. I had a hard time getting the disk to eject. After it did eject I tried using some other disks including Office and none of them work now. Any ideas?
Sounds like your new drive broke.

Mac OS X 10.4.4 Install CD Won't Read Startup Disk

Hi, when i was installing Windows XP, i accidentally erased my Mac startup disc, and when i try to reinstall Mac OS X, this message comes up "Alert This software cannot be installed on this computer" and it gives me two options to restart or to change the start-up disk. When i try to change the start-up disk it doesn't read the disk. So i fire the iMac up into Target Firewire Disk mode and connect it to my iBook (Which runs Mac OS X 10.4) and i format it and make sure it is a GUID partition table so that my Intel iMac can read it, but when i restart and go back to the setup it shows the same message and when i go to the startup disk option the setup still does NOT see the drive. !!!!!!!! someone plz help!!!
Thanks

You seem to know that an Intel Mac requires a drive formatted with a GUID partition table to boot from it, so that much of your scheme should work, even if you are formatting the drive from 10.4.4 via Target Disk Mode with a PPC Mac, as long as you are using a version of Disk Utility that offers the GUID partition table formatting option (in the Partition tab, in the "Options..." drop down sheet.)
However, it isn't clear if you are then trying to install the OS onto the Intel iMac while still in Target Disk Mode, or which installer you are using. As already explained, you can't install an Intel version of the OS from a PPC Mac while in TDM -- as far as the installer knows, the target is just a drive attached to the PPC Mac, so it will inform you that the Intel OS version can't be used with that Mac.
So, the solution is to make sure the drive is formatted with the GUID table & then install the OS onto the Intel iMac while booting it from the iMac's own installer disk. If necessary, you can access the installer's version of Disk Utility before you begin the installation by selecting it from the "Utilities" menu & checking or reformatting the drive before the install.
This should work fine, unless for some reason you cannot boot the iMac from its original installer disk. If that is the case, please let us know.

Won't remember startup disk

Every now and then my iMac forgets which is my startup disk.
I have two external drives attached.
I HAVE made the selection in system preferences many times, but occasionally, when I start up, instead of the apple, I get a blank screen. If I unplug the attached drives, the computer starts up properly. Then I plug the drives back in.
One of the external drives is bootable, but even when I leave that one turned off, the other drive which is NOT bootable but which is used as time machine backup (and doesn't have an on-off switch, so must be unplugged), seems to cause the same problem.
And yes, I've repaired permissions regularly...

Hmmm,might try this...
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, when done trash this file, then reboot & try it...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
Reboot

Dock won't save my new preferences

When i restart or turn off the Mac all my changes to my dock go back to what they were like a month ago. When i put them back to how i want them and restart, same old dock comes up. It's quite annoying.

Very easy to isolate. Create a test user, and see if changes will take affect and hold in there with the dock. If they do, issue is user specific and you can pull the "com.apple.dock.plist" from the "user/library/preferences/" folder. If issue persists in new user, is system wide. Run Disk Utility and verify the "Macintosh HD" internal volume. If issue persists, try a quick easy reinstall of the OS with your install DVD's.

Power Mac won't recognize startup disk.

I am trying to use a Norton SystemWorks 3.0 original boot CD as my startup disk so I can run Norton recover file app.. I tried booting with the CD in the internal Superdrive by holding down the option key. The pick your startup volume window appeared but only the internal HD startup volume appeared. I also tried booting from the same Norton CD by using the Preference Startup Disk options. When I tried this, the Norton CD appeared, I selected it and confirmed that I wanted to change to the Norton CD as my startup disk. However, when the system rebooted it booted from the internal HD startup volume and not the Norton CD as selected. I finally tried to boot with the Norton CD in the Superdrive and holding down the "c" key. The system never booted. I got the mac folder and ? mark instead. This is my first Power Mac...can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? If I try the same Norton CD as a startup disk in an iMac using 10.4.3, it works ok. THANKS!

Hi:
Back again. I tried the OSX install disk and its startup disk menu option. However, since I had the install disk in the Superdrive I could swap it out to see if the Norton CD would be recognized. I was glad to find out that the Superdrive will recognize a startup or boot disk, i.e., OSX install disk. So, it's not the Superdrive. There's nothing wrong with my system...I just wanted to try to use Norton file recovery to retrieve some Mail messages I deleted by accident. I know there is a problem with Norton and 10.4.x. I'm looking at replacing it with either Tech Tools Pro, Drive Genius or just using Apple Disk Utility, Onyx and iPartition and iDefrag. If you think of anything esle, please let me know. Thanks for your time. I love my Dual...your're going to love the Quad! Cheers!

IMac won't boot, startup disk gone?

Hello, my name is Jesse. English isn't my main language so I'm sorry for grammar mistakes!
I didn't use my iMac much last week. A few days ago I checked my email or something and left it on for about 30 minutes.
When I tried to start up the computer in the evening it went to a grey screen and there were 4 option I could do:
- use a backup
- reinstall mac os x lion
- use safari for help
- something else I forgot
Every time I try to boot the computer it goes to this window so I cant use the computer anymore.
I think the StartUp Disk is broken.
I am pretty sure I didn't do anything bad with the computer to cause this.
Maybe because of the high temperatures lately it broke??
There are files for work etc on the computer that I NEED. So I don't want to reinstall the computer and lose all the files.
My questions are:
- What might of caused this?
- Do I lose all the files on my iMac?
- Can this be fixed easily or is it very expensive?
I tried starting up holding Shift/Option key but both times I ended up at the grey screen with the 4 options.....
Thank you so much if you can help me!
- Jesse.

Have you tried booting into Recovery Mode (see OS X: About OS X Recovery - Support - Apple) ?
What version of the OS did the system have on it when you bought it?
As for what caused this, there are a lot of things that can cause a disk drive to fail, age, temperature, shock can all make a disk fail. How old is the iMac?

Won't save in classic mode

I have a G3 iBook with OS 10.3.9 and OS 9 that runs in Classic mode. My applications that use classic won't save to disk. I get a message that says "File saving not allowed in that area". I bought the computer used so I don't know how it was set up. What do I need to do to get saving permission in classic mode?

Thanks for the tip.
I did run the utility and the log showed errors found and repaired. I ran it a second time and no errors found. I started up Excel, which runs on classic on my machine, and tried to save to the desktop. I got the same "Saving in this area not allowed" message. I bought an external disk by Lacie to use as a backup and I can't even save directly to that disk when running an application in Classic mode. I can save a file to disc in Texteditor, then open it in Word and save the file in Word, but I can't save a new file created in Word.

Change Optical Drive in XServe (Slot Load)

I have an XServe (Slot Load) and want to swap out the slot load CD-ROM for a DVD-ROM. Is it possible and what is the part number for the DVD-ROM?
Thanks!
Tom

Hi Tom
It might be possible to use a DVD-ROM from an iBook G4? If you can get one cheap on eBay it might be worth a shot? You might find this useful:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/103408/xserve
Scroll down to the Exploded View section as it might give you an idea of what it looks like. I regularly repair Apple hardware, amongst them iBook G4s. Judging by what I see in the Exploded View they look very similar?
Perhaps someone else may know different?
Tony

Imac (slot loading) won't boot from CD

Hello,
My imac (350 MHz G3 blue coloured) does not want to boot from a CD. I need to erase the hard drive with the Disk Utility but it will not start up from the CD. I held down the "C" key at startup and it keeps flashing the question mark symbol at the grey screen. What can I do?
Can I use open firmware commands? I already tried reset-nvram and reset-all but that didn't work.
You see I better give the background info here:
I removed the original 9 GIG hard drive and replaced it with a blank 80 GIG drive. I thought I could then format it from a startup CD and then reinstall the OS. No luck. It doesn't boot at all from the CD.
Then I tried taking out the hard drive again and this time I installed OS 10.1.5 onto it from another computer. (It is the only appropriate OSX I have.) I then put the hard drive back into the slot loading imac and hoped the imac would like it and boot up. Again, no luck.
Any suggestions,
can I use some magic open firmware commands?
Did I not install the hard drive correctly? i.e. are you not supposed to just remove and swap hard drives with imacs? I just followed a pdf instruction manual - didn't take than long.
How can I make this imac boot? (Its stuck on the grey screen with the flashing question mark.
Thanks!

A Jumper is meant a little -mostly- black plug that connects two pins of your harddrive. That Pins are next to the connector where the cable is plugged into. There you have two pins for Master, two for Slave and two for Cable select. You must select Master in a 350 MHz to get the HD working.
Just ask someone in a Computer store to help you with the Jumper.
By the way, my 350 is the only iMac I have seen which doesn't even take a notice of presseing "C" at startup. I have to press the Option (ALT) key and select the CD Rom from the boot up menu. Everything else is ignored...

Can't install OS 8.6 on iMac "DV" (400) Slot Loading?

I have an iMac "DV" (400) Slot Loading that I am trying to install the original system on (8.6, if I'm not mistaken). It has 128 mbs of RAM, a 10 gb HD, and currently no system installed on the hard drive. I have updated the firmware to 4.1.9.
The problem is that the iMac won't boot from the install CD for me to do the installation. The iMac used to have OS 9 installed on it, and when I tried to run the installer with the computer booted from 9, it told me it couldn't run on this machine. I believe I have the correct installation CD. I have also tried a couple of other installation CDs, and neither 8.5 or 8.6 will boot this computer.
Is there a way I can get 8.6 installed on this machine with the 8.6 CD, or is it just not possible for me to install 8.6 any more?

Hi Jon
Load the install CD into the Mac then power off (with the CD still inserted), on rebooting but before the chime, hold down letter C on the keyboard, that will boot from the install CD to let you do a system install.
You did not note whether you had other programs/files on the iMac that you want to keep, but if not, I would suggest that you do a complete "clean install" by re-formating/initializing the HD, then install the OS.
I would also suggest that you partition the HD into 3 (or more) partitions, 1 for the main system, 1 (or more) for your other programs/files and 1 for a "back up system", the logic being the main system is your default "boot-up" while the "back-up" system is what you boot to do maintenance/de-frag etc on the main system with a utility such as Norton's Utilities or similar.
I would also suggest that you have a copy of Norton's (or similar) on both systems, that way you can "chop and change" systems to do the maintenance. Proper maintenance/de-fraging cannot be done to the "boot-up" system that you boot from.
Hope this is of some help.

G5 Slot Load XServe 10.4.11 won't save startup disk preference

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for