MACBOOK won't boot - bin/sh for single user message

Powered up my 3 year old Macbook tonight and it won't boot.
After some while it displayed a message saying I had to restart the Macbook which I did.
Now (agian after a long while) it gets to a black screen then displays (twice) Diskos2: OX2103005 (Undefined) or somethimg like that as it's too small to read then
Launched : Can't exec bim/sh for single user : input output error
Any ideas?
Thanks
Dick

Say, that does sound messed up! But so far sounds like a Hard Drive/Software problem.
Boot from the Install CD/DVD, but do not install. Answer ONLY the "What Language" question and wait for the MenuBar to be drawn. Then Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu.
Select your Hard drive and click ( Repair ) Run it again until it comes clean or gets stuck. If stuck, write down the messages and post them here.
It is also a good idea while you are up to do a ( Repair Permissions ). This only checks the things the Installer installed originally, but that is a lot of stuff. \[Once your Mac is up and running off the Hard Drive, you should Repair Permissions again.]
A Mac that cannot boot from an appropriate Installer Disc has a Hardware problem.

Similar Messages

Can't exec /bin/sh for single user

Hi,
When I boot up my iMac G5 it sits on the gray screen with the apple and spinning "doing something" icon, and then goes to a terminal window telling me:
"can't exec /bin/sh for single user: Input/output error"
It started doing this last night after multiple beachball of death situations. Anyone have any ideas? Or is it time for this old machine to be put out to pasture?
Thanks
Mungo

Hi Mungo,
invalid key length is a serious issue that can sometimes be fixed by "heavy duty" utilites like DiskWarrior and Drive Genius.
If you don't have enough room to re-install the OS, though, you have seriously overfilled it and they may not be able to deal with the problem either.
You should always aim to keep at least 15% free space on the drive, preferably more. On my 250 Gig internal drive, for example, I see the beginning of stability and speed problems when I get down to below around 30 gigs of free space. It varies a bit depending on what you use your Mac for, but my own preference is to always aim for 50 Gigs free on this 250 Gig drive.
You have to fix the "keys out of order" problem before you even think of re-installing the OS.
The best solution is to reformat the drive. It is unlikely that it actually needs replacing. However I still think you should buy another drive, but an external one, if you don't have one already.
My approach to your problem would be:
1) Go and buy a nice big external firewire drive if you don't have one already (ideally at least twice the size of your internal).
2) Install OSX on the external drive (You may want to partition it into two volumes first, keeping one partition to store a "cloned backup" of your internal and one for general usage, overflow storage, etc)
3) Boot from the external HD and copy across your precious stuff from the internal drive to the external. (If you have created two partitions on the external you could use the excellent utility "SuperDuper" to "clone" the internal to the second partition - the one witout the OS installed on it)
4) Reformat the internal drive, preferably using the single "zeroing" option.
5) Re-install the OS and software on your internal drive
6) Copy back your data (documents, music, movies etc) to your internal but make sure you leave plenty of free space on it. If you have a large music library , or lots of movies, for example, you might want to keep them on the external, rather than putting them back)
7) From now on use one partition of your external drive for regular "cloned" backups of the internal and the other for general storage overflow etc.
Cheers
Rod

Init: can't exec /bin/sh for single user.....

Has anyone come across this gem during start-up? it's outputting
init: can't exec /bin/sh for single user: No such file or directory
init: can't exec /bin/sh for single user: No such file or directory
init: can't exec /bin/sh for etc/rc: No such file or directory
This shows up after the apple logo on start-up. Any ideas?

That message suggests that Mac OS X isn't able to open a shell or run the startup scripts because one of the items it needs is missing. Fixing this issue will require reinstalling Mac OS X.
(11150)

Macbook won't boot from cd for windows

so i have a macbook late 2008 and i tried installing windows 7 and ubuntu. When i installed windows 7 from bootcamp when it restarted it came up with a black screen and a blinking line. I tried this with different disk and different versions of windows but it keeps happening. Today I tried to put ubuntu on a cd and try to install it on a seperate partition and the same thing happened, it booted to a black screen with a blinking line. Is there a problem with my macbook or something else. Please help, thanks.
P.S. running 10.7.5

While we all have MacBooks in this forum not all of us use BootCamp. There's a BootCamp Support Community where everybody uses BootCamp. You should also post this question there to increase your chances of getting an answer.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp

My Macbook won't boot up because there isn't enough free space for my start up disk. It's now stuck on a blue screen. How am I meant to delete files to free up space if I can't access the computer?

My Macbook won't boot up because there sin't enough free space to run the startup disk. My Macbook now won't go past the blue screen so exactly how am I meant to be able to delete files if I can't access the computer?

Do you have a bootable backup?
What operating system are you running? If OS X 10.6 or lower, boot from your original OS X DVD or a retail OS X DVD and then delete files as needed. Your goal should be to get to 10% of your disk capacity free.
If you have OS X 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion, you don't have many choices in recovery mode (boot holding the command and r keys down).
If you have a FireWire or Thunderbolt connection, you can try target disk mode with another mac.
If none of those work, perhaps your local Apple store can help with a bootable external drive.

Mdworker deny mach-lookup. But macbook won't boot in safe mode

I have a common problem, I get theese messages every now and then in console:
2/8/13 6:38:24.000 PM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(793) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
2/8/13 6:38:24.534 PM sandboxd[793]: ([791]) mdworker(791) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
2/8/13 6:38:24.556 PM sandboxd[793]: ([792]) mdworker(792) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
There is a solution, which should resolve it, like here https://discussions.apple.com/message/19750564?searchText=mach-lookup%20com.appl e.ls.boxd#19750564
I have just boot in safe mode. (holding Shift during boot)
but my macbook won't boot in Safe mode. It just freeses with a grey screen for hours and wont boot.
I tried to leave it overnight to boot, but it didn't.
Please help me make my macbook to boot in SafeMode.
my configuration is the following:
MacBookPro8,1
OSX 10.8.2

There is a bug in fsck_hfs that is affecting a bunch of people. Basically as your comptuer starts in safe mode, it runs a file system check (fsck) against your hard drive, it gets to a certain point and... just sits there. No one knows why outside of apple.
Lots of info here, including a way to get around it by tricking the system to think fsck had been run, though the fsck will not be complete so it is not a good solution.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/21389737?ac_cid=tw123456#21389737

MacBook Won't Boot just on AC.

My recent issues are power related.
Won't boot. Reason: Dead battery at 0 mAh.
Won't boot with dead battery even on charge...
When I take out the battery, it won't boot anyways.
I got lucky since I plugged it in when I left it off charge for the night, and went away about 10 minutes, and it boots. Now that won't boot it up... I take out the battery and tried to boot it since I know it's dead. Nothing.
I have 2 MagSafe adapters (One is OEM and is spliced (Charges and fine), and another is not OEM (stupid eBay lied) ) and when I remove the battery to boot just on AC power, nothing. Tried both chargers, both plugs, 2 tips and extension cable, Nothing.
I noticed the light is a dim green when I plug in my OEM charger to my MacBook.
So how can I get it to boot on just AC power? Noone I know has any type of Mac...

If your MacBook won't boot on just the AC adapter, and you are certain the AC adapter is not damaged, then there is a hardware issue with your computer that needs to be repaired.
~Lyssa

Oh, shoot! My MacBook won't boot! Silver screen is all I see!

Oh, shoot! My MacBook won't boot! Silver screen is all I see

Try a PRAM reset:
Shut down your Mac.
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 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.
Any unusual noises coming from it?

Macbook won't boot properly.

Macbook won't boot. When turned on, it starts clicking; after a while, I get a gray screen with a blinking folder in the middle that has a question mark on it. After a minute or two, it shuts off.

That folder with the question mark icon means that the MacBook can't find the boot directory. That can either mean it can't find the hard drive or the Operating System data on the hard drive is somehow corrupted.
Put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option Key until the Install Disk shows up) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
Or if you are running 10.7 Lion, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7 partition.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. When it comes up is your Hard Drive in the list on the left?
If it is, then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions. After repairing use Startup Disk from the same menu to choose your hard drive for restarting from your hard drive.
If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

Macbook won't boot, black screen, no chime

My macbook won't boot at all. It is a white non unibody one. When you press the power button the screen breifly blinks and a clicking sound is heard but no other sounds or chime or anything. I'm suspecting the worst but thought i'd submit it on here first. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply but it isn't a hard drive issue. I have tested the hard drive in an external enclosure and it's working fine. I even put in another hard drive i have and it wont boot that either. I'm thinking its a logic board issue. Any one know best place to get logic board replacement near london for cheap

MacBook won't boot when iPod is connected

I have the same problem as described here :
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4112865
My MacBook won't boot if my iPod 5G is connected to the USB port.
If I unplug it, it will boot normally.
Does anyone know what could cause that ?

<When iPod is plugged in at startup, the MacBook does not startup; unplugging iPod lets it startup.
yes, it seems that the kernel is not loading
<After resetting the iPod and BEFORE synching it, there is no problem. Any type of synching seems <to make this problem recur.
only syncing music make the problem occur.
the other syncing works ok
<Even if iPod is connected directly to Mac and it is the only USB device connected, the problem still <occurs.
yes
<The iPod and MacBook work fine if iPod is connected after startup.
Yes
<If the iPod is set to NOT mount to the desktop, the problem with startup does not occur.
Yes, but there are some problems in the boot/halt process.
something like "killing all" fails and unmounting /home fails (45) blabla...
and the stopping process takes very very long, about 2 minutes.
thx robert

Macbook won't boot up - grey screen only

Hi,
I have a core duo MacBook from summer 2007.
All of a sudden the MacBook won't boot up. The battery is fully charged and AC adapter plugged in (same symptoms if not plugged in). The following occurs upon pressing the power button:
1) Start-up chime sounds
2) Can hear hard drive and fans start up
3) Screen turns grey
4) Nothing happens (screen still grey)
Thoughts? I tried resetting PRAM and PMU with no changes.

I have the same problem, just the grey screen and tried
- resetting PRAM (second chime, so this should be OK)
- Safe Mode (just the same)
and pressing Option (or C) to choose the Mac OS X Install Disc gives me the wonderful cursor which can be moved by moving the mouse. No harddisk and even no Install DVD are displayed on the screen.
Also The Apple Hardware Test (by pressing D) doesn't get further than the, now familiar, grey screen.
I pressed the keys with different keyboards, with the original white keyboard and with the aluminium keyboard.
As I've tried everything, I think there's something seriously wrong. Does anybody have some last tips that I can try?

Macbook won't boot up anymore after trying to reformat

So my White Macbook won't boot up anymore after trying to reformat. While trying to install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard, the Macbook just froze and I had to reset. Now, while trying to boot it up, it hangs at a white screen with a folder with a question mark.
My install disk is still in there, so when I try to boot up while holding C, nothing happens. It either goes to the folder with a question mark or the screen stays white. So after that I tried holding option to go to the drives nothing happens. I just see a white screen and a cursor.
I tried resetting PRAM and tried booting in safe mode and everything but to no avail. Everything results in just a white screen or just a folder with a question mark.
Can I do anything before I have to bring it to the Apple Store? The optical drive should work because before I reformatted it, I could see that the disk was in the drive because the icon was in the upper right.

it hangs at a white screen with a folder with a question mark
Startup your Mac while holding down the Option key. That should prompt the Startup Manager window where you can select the startup disk.
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

MacBook won't boot up power light on

My MacBook won't boot up without the system disk, has Lion with 4 Gb Ram all updates, has a DVD stuck n the drive any suggestions

Have you tried booting into Lion recovery mode? Boot holding the command and R keys down.

Change NWA language for single user

Hello, gurus!
The question is stated above: how can I change NWA interface language only for single user?
Users in our BPM system are fetched from Active Directory therefore I cannot change (as they advise) user for my user from NWA. It is inactive.
Is there any other solution?

It shows that users are stored in LDAP.
Also I'd like to draw your attention to language preferences in my browser
Desirable language (English) is specified as recommended in guidelines, but NWA nevertheless is showed in Russian as you can see.

MACBOOK won't boot - bin/sh for single user message

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for