IMac boots in text-only mode

I have 2 new-out-of-the-box intel imacs that boot in text mode before switching to the gui, and when shut down they go back to the text only display until the OS finishes shutting down. Any idea how to get the machine back into a full gui mode? tried:
disk repair
permissions repair
wipe the drive and
re-imaged also.

The easiest way to change the startup mode without resorting to the Terminal is to get the free utility OnyX.
When you have OnyX installed on your Mac (I suggest in the Apps/Utilities folder) start the app. It will want to check your HD's S.M.A.R.T status and also verify. Then it will want your Admin password. After all that go to Parameters/Login. In the bottom portion of the pane select Normal from the Startup mode pulldown menu. (Don't let the warning scare you.) Then quit OnyX.
Your Mac should start normally now.

Similar Messages

Why will my iMac boot fine in Safe Mode but freezes on a normal boot?

It is a 17" iMac. 1.83Ghz Core 2 Duo. 1GB RAM. 160GB Hard Drive. Combo Drive with Intel GMA 950 GPU.
I took out the screen and put in in a different computer a while back. This was a working computer before hand. I pulled it off the shelf the other day to get it going (using an External Monitor) and when it gets past the Apple Screen, it goes to the blue screen, and then loads the wallpaper and some of the taskbar, but no dock and it freezes. (This is on a fresh install of Leopard). When I boot to safe mode, it boots fine. I have tried reseating RAM, different RAM sticks, and a different hard drive. Also replaced PRAM battery. Done a SMC reset and a PRAM reset. No change.
Also worth noting was that when I tried to boot my Leopard disc, it would freeze at the Choose Language screen. So I took the HD out and installed Leopard thru my other iMac and reinstalled OS X. Did the same thing when I tried to boot from a Snow Leopard disc.
Ideas??

Hello, in Safe Mode did you try setting a good resolution on the Display?
One way to test is to 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, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons
See this great post by themachead on how to list the extensions in Safe Mode with System Profiler then compare to the extension folder!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10161377&#10161377

Imac boots up in verbose mode after been left overnight!

Hello
I have recently bought a used Imac 2010 model and have upgraded to Mountain Lion all was fine for a few days.
Know if I leave my computer overnight and reboot it comes on in text mode which I have to exit to get to the GUI.
Also when shutting down I ge text in the top left corner.
Any ideas please?
Many thanks John.

Restart it with the Option, Command, P, and R keys held down, and release them upon the second chime.
(68389)

PC not working (boot in read-only mode)

Hi there!
I am having a weired problem: Yesterday I shut down my pc, normally. Today I wanted to boot, but mounting the harddrive seems to fail. I cant really post the exact error message, because I dont know where to find the boot errors!
Arch boots me to a shell where I can log in, but my harddrive is readonly.
So my questions are: Is there a way to read the bootlog, the step after ::Loading Udev fails.
And how to remount my harddrive in read mode?
Thanks for your help
armin

I just found out the prob, and as Cippo said, the cause was an empty fstab. I am sweating like hell now

Safari Text only mode?

is there a prefference or a setting that can be used to disable graphics in safari temporaily ? sometimes when I'm away from the speedy connection at home / work and have to use dial-up on the road, this would be a big help to browse faster. (I know there's Lynx (sp?) but I'd rather not have to fuss with the terminal to browse the net if I don't need to. )

Try going to Safari > Preferences, then choose the Appearance tab and uncheck "Display images when the page opens". In a quick test, that seems to prevent graphics from loading. When you're back at a fast connection, re-enable that feature.

Can't boot properly in UEFI mode

Hi!
After enabling "windows 8 feature" and booting in uefi only mode, no boot device is detected anymore. The efi shell comes up after the bios has started and I can't boot into windows. I tried a clear cmos but it didn't work. I have a Z87-GD65 (latest 1.11 or 1.1B bios) and my sata devices are a crucial mx100 ssd (with windows 8.1 64-bit), western digital black hdd and asus dvd reader. I'd like to be able to boot in uefi normally. Thanks for your help!

I think I've found topic for you
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=250729.0;topicseen
It's about notebook but installation process is actually the same

My iMac won't boot. I only get a white screen. Won't open in safe mode or recovery mode. Any suggestions?

Hey, any help? My 24" iMac won't boot. I only get a white screen when turning on. It won't open in safe or recovery mode. Any suggestions?

If you can't boot from your installer DVD, then take it in for service.

How to provide a LINK on normal TEXT field in read only mode

Hi,
I have a TEXT item and that is used for only url purpose.
so a user can enter something like http://www.abc.com in that field.
So when I am in read only mode for that item, I want a link also on that text..
how can I do that.
thanks,
Deepak

You could create a pl/sql expression computation on the TEXT item which will convert the value shown for the field to be a HTML link
'<a href="http:// ' || :PXX_TEXT || '">' || :pXX_TEXT || '</A>';Make the computation conditional using the same condition as is used to render the item as read-only
varad

Tecra 8100 only boot up in safe mode

I seem to have lost the display drivers to my Tecra 8100.
Since I attempted to use an extra screen which worked fine until I came to boot up the following day when it would only boot up in Safe Mode.
What have I done wrong and how can I rectify it?
Driver detective doesn't work, just comes up as having performed an illegal action.

Lars,
I'm afraid that it seems that Toshiba no longer provide the drivers for the Tecra 8100 as it's such an old computer, around 12 years old. I have been on the Toshiba website and tried again on the site you suggested but to no avail. Sorry about that but am still hunting.
Regards
bfg267

Last week I've install Mac OS X Mountain Lion and then after the installation finish my IMAC start up in verbose mode. How can I turn off this mode and start my IMAC normally. I've try to key in the code "sudo nvram boot-args=" in terminal also.

Last week I've install Mac OS X Mountain Lion and then after the installation finish my IMAC start up in verbose mode. How can I turn off this mode and start my IMAC normally. I've try to key in the code "sudo nvram boot-args=" in terminal also.
Thank you for all of your answer.

I've seen it mentioned on here that a PRAM reset may solve it:
Reset PRAM
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P and R.
You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

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

My macbook boots up and only stays on for 30sec and goes into sleep mode

My macbook boots up and only stays on for 30sec and goes into sleep mode! Any suggestions as to why this might be happening? Thanks....

I assume you have checked your sleep settings in System Preferences>Energy saver
I also assume this has just happened recently and spontaneously, not after installing any particular hardware or software or you would probably have mentioned it...if anything new has been added recently, obviously just remove it!
It could be the battery - have your tried it just on mains? If it's a pre unibody MacBook try it without the battery at all. This could happen if you have a non-Apple (cheap Chinese) replacement battery.
Try NVRAM, PRAM & SMC resets (Google if you don't know how)
Try booting from the install media and repairing or reinstalling OS X. (Back up first!)
Just out of interest if you boot from a DVD or go into Open Firmware or Boot Select modes, does it still sleep after 30 seconds or is it just in OS X?

Macbook Pro 15" will only boot up in Safe Mode - Please help!

My Macbook Pro will not boot up normally. It goes past the screen with the apple and the wheel and then just stays white. Also on the screen there are little rectangular blocks going across diagonally. In Safe Mode, it boots up but with little square blocks going across the screen. Can anyone help please?

Firstly, see this article: Mac OS X- What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? and this one: Gray screen appears during startup.
Secondly, try the following:
Delete caches to resolve some startup problems:
Boot into single-user mode. After startup is completed you will be in command line mode and should see a prompt with a cursor positioned after it. At the prompt enter the following then press RETURN after each commandline:
/sbin/fsck -fy
If you receive a message that says "***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****" then re-run the command until you receive a message that says "** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK." If you re-run the command more than seven times and do not get the OK message, then the drive cannot be repaired this way.
If you were successful then enter:
/sbin/mount -uw /
rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/*
rm -rf /Library/Caches/*
reboot
I suggest you print out the above to be sure you do not make any errors when entering the commands. When in single-user mode you have 'root' access, so it's important that you not make any mistakes.
Lastly, reinstall Snow Leopard if the above doesn't help. This will not erase the drive.

Mac Book Pro 2.13 17" can only boot up in Safe Mode

I have a 4+ year old Mac Book Pro 2.13 Intel Core 2 Duo 17" and it's primarily been used for heavy graphics usage it's entire life. (Adobe CS Suite etc). A few weeks ago I was watching a video, Hulu, and the entire screen froze. Since it was none responsive I force powered off. waited a few and restarted. I got to the Grey screen, Apple logo, and after 30 sec the screen went to all grey and no further. Tried it several times, powering off, removing battery, resetting PRAM, all to the same result.
Things that DO work:
Can boot in Target Disk mode and mount the disk on another computer. Ran Disk utility and all check out.
Can boot in Safe mode but screen shows some video artifacts. Light red squares all over the screen.
Can option boot to choose a disk although see the same result as above description.
Things That DONT work:
Booting from CD fails at same location as OS boot
Booting using Hardware Check Disk
I haven't visited an apple store yet for this issue since I'm hoping to repair myself once I narrow down the problem.
I'm guessing it's the power supply but not sure. It does get hot so guessing something is wonky.
Any thoughts?
Thanks

Been reading a little and the Mac Book Pro may not have a power supply in the traditional sense so it may not be replaceable. Hmm

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!

IMac boots in text-only mode

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