My mac opened in single user mode

My mac opened with a message stating opening in single user mode what do i do?

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See > Mac OS X: How to start up in single-user or verbose mode

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Format mac hd in single user mode.

Several have asked this question. I haven't seen anybody actually answer it. People start asking, "why would you want to do that? You really don't want to, instead you should..." I really want to. I have explored all the options available. I don't really want to get into why. I just want to know how. Please.

As I attempted to suggest, solutions like Recovery Partition or booting from the installation cd are not available. I have been working on this for some months.
For others in a similar situation, I find I can run diskutil by running these commands first
mount -uw /
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.notifyd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.configd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskmanagementd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.securityd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskarbitrationd.plist
Single User Mode boots onto the OSX Base System partition. Since I want to format the Recovery Partition, the operation seems doable. And once I have diskutil loaded into memory, formatting the OBS partion might be possible too. Will work on that.
In the meantime, How do I boot from Apple servers?

Disable single user mode

Is there a way to disable single user mode? I just booted in single user mode and w/o any password I changed my root password! In my mind this is a HUGE security hole, any one could gain root access to my laptop in a matter of less than a minute! I might as well not have a root password. I have the latest and greatest security updates, but this seems to be the biggest security risk in my mind.

If someone has physical access to your computer, your software is vulnerable in the way that you describe. There are a couple of approaches to preventing this problem. I have not tried any of this so I can only point you to some websites.
One way to prevent anyone booting into single user mode is to enable a password in Open Firmware, as described at Setting up firmware password protection in Mac OS X 10.1 or later. You would have to enter the password every time that you booted. And, you definitely would not want to forget your password; if you did, I don't know what you would have to do to recover.
A second approach is to use a 3rd party patch to prohibit casual use of the single-user feature. Look here for info on such a patch: Mac OS X Single User Mode Root Access. I believe that the software discussed here forces someone to type in a password to boot in single-user mode.
One question that I have about the second approach is whether it is possible for the patch to become out of synch with a future OS update. If that happened, one would also need a way to recover.
I hope this helps. If you are really concerned, I suggest that you do some internet searching on this topic.
Rich
EMAC G4 1.0 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

How to get to single user mode

I aquired an old power mac G4 with an old account with 10.3.9 and an old administrator account. It seems that procedures to remove the account start in Single user mode. The computer won't start when holding down system - s. The drive clicks a few times but the display goes to sleep from no video signal. So How can I get to single user mode when the usual way don't work?

The hard drive's directory may be dead, or it may have last been booted into Mac OS 9. IF you are lucky, they did install Mac OS X on it, and that can be determined either through an Option key boot, or through an X key boot on a wired (not wireless) USB Apple compatible keyboard. X key booting will only work if the X operating system is on the same partition, whereas Option key boot will reveal the Startup Manager, where you select the drive and hit the right pointing arrow for the drive partition that has Mac OS X. Note this will not work on an original PCI PowerMac G4. You may also need to replace the PRAM battery, a 1/2 AA 3.6V battery from Radio Shack before any boot sequence will work. Once it boots into Mac OS X, Single User Mode should work.

Why can't I enter single user mode on my Mac Mini for an admin password reset?

Hi,
I recently created a new user account for my mac and deleted the old one, not realising that this was the only account with admin priveleges. As such, I no longer have access to administrator priveleges, and cannot grant them to my new user account.
I have tried to boot in single user mode and recovery mode but neither command results in any reaction on the part of my computer.
This thread follows on from a previous, unrelated disscussion:
BDAqua: If you hold alt key at bootup do you see a lock in the middle?
Yenots: No...what does this mean?
BDAqua: If it did, it would mean Firmware Password Protection was enabled, which prevents booting in other modes, so that's not the problem, are you using a wired Mac KB, or Windows KB?
Yenots: I'm using an 'Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad' [ http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB110B/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad-br itish ]
If you find me here BDAqua, hit me with your knowledge!
Any other contributions are welcome and, now we're under the right heading, will hopefully help other users who have encountered this problem.
Thanks, Cristo

Hi,
Thanks for the link to MacPilot, and the sexy screenshot. I found an archived version for 10.4 on the koingosw website. That solves getting into single user/safe mode. Though I'd be interested to see whether sudo nvram boot-args="-s" will result in single user boot.
As for creating administrator priveleges for my new user account, I've found a method which looks good:
     \single user mode\
     cmd-s
     \mount drive\
     mount -uw
     \open 'directory access'\
     lauchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectory.plist
     \list users\
     ls /Users
     \change password\
     dscl . passwd /Users/<username> <password>
I think that this method intends that if I change the root users password I'll be changing the administrator password (as root is the only user with administrator priveleges), and subsequently be able to change my new user accounts priveleges using 'netinfomanager'. But I'm not 100%. Could you give me your opinion on this?
Furthermore, three keys 'L' 'O' and '(' aren't working on my keyboard, which means I can't try this until I find an intact keyboard to borrow. I was thinking maybe a mod version of the above instructions would work in terminal using sudo, so I could use the keyboard viewer to type the missing characters. If you have any ideas on constructing such a mod I would be interested to hear them.
Otherwise, Thank You for your help BDAqua! And enjoy your summer wherever you are.

Mac not booting normally after running '/sbin/fsck -fy' in Single user mode

HI, I tried to log in to single user mode and run the '/sbin/fsck -fy' command. This command failed. So I rebooted my Macbook pro by 'reboot' command. On bootup I hear the chime shoud and can see the Mac Symbol but never reach the login prompt. The round circle keeps rotating over the gray screen and nothing happens.
Then I again hard rebooted mac book and entered single user mode. I ran again '/sbin/fsck -fy' many times and after many attempts the command stuck and never returned.
Then I tried using the recovery method to reinstall MAC OS X. It asked me to choose the Harddrive where to install MAC OSX. But the option of "macintosh HD" was disabled and message was " hard drive locked".
Please help me how to boot my MAC normally :'(

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Boot in Recovery again and open Disk Utility. Then, choose "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and repair the hard drive. If it is repaired, restart and OS X should start correctly. If not, you will probably have to format the hard disk.
You only have to use that command when you have problems with the Mac OS X volume filesystem that they couldn't be repaired with Disk Utility, and as this command got stuck, probably damaged the OS X volume filesystem

Mac mini i5 mid 2011 always boot in single user mode...how to get out of this?

my mac mini always boot into single user mode
how can i revert back to normal boot screen?
i tried formatting the hard disk and clean install of mac os x 10.9.2 but nothing change..
pls help
mac mini ...core i5 @2.3 ghz mid 2011 model
thanks in advance

Restart the computer with the Option, Command, P, and R keys held down. Release them upon the second startup chime.
(110762)

IBook Mac OS 10.3.9 not booting, even crashing in single-user mode

Yeah so about 2 weeks ago my iBook started crashing, then wouldn't properly re-boot. Gradually, it would start crashing after being on for less and less time until now it gets just past the apple symbol and then freezes on a blue screen.
I've been using the online help but now it's even freezing during single-user mode, meaning i can't even perform fcsk!! I can't even boot up on the Mac OS X CD to re-install the OS. Anyone got any idea what's wrong or what I can do? Thanks, Rob

What, exactly, is preventing you from starting up from the Mac OS X install disk?
Have you added any RAM yourself? You might try taking it out to see if that helps. You might also try to run the Apple Hardware Test. Depending on which bundle of install disks you got, it may be on the Mac OS X install disk or it may be a separate CD of it's own. It should be marked "AHT" and a version number on the disk. Put that disk in the drive, restart and hold down on the "option" key. This will give you a Startup Manager that should allow you to select the hardware test and continue (click the right arrow to continue). If you can't even get that far, then you probably have a hardware failure and you'll need to take your iBook in for service. What is your location?
-Doug

How do I reset Tiger Mac OS X 10.4 admin password by using single-user mode

bought a used PowerBook G4 on Ebay. The administrator's password was locked. The Powerbook still can run to the normal screen. However, I am unable to update and install software without a password.
I don't have the original install CD either the second mac for firmware reset. So I wonder if anyone knows how to reset the password by using single user mode or any other methods to do so?
Any input will be greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4)

This morning we lost power and my iMac G5 (10.4) system got messed up. Specifically, when it restarted, all text in all Finder and application menus were blank (e.g. Click the Apple menu and a long empty white box stretching to the bottom of the screen would appear with no text. The whole box turns blue when you click in it. Ditto for all other finder menus and dialog boxes. Event the User menu was empty. The Disk Utility application shows only icons and empty buttons--no text.)
Restarting in Safe Mode was no better.
I then connected the G5 as a target disk to my iMac G4, and ran the OS X install that came with the G5 (10.3.2). It told me that in order to install an earlier OS X version, I must select certain options: I checked "Archive and Install" and "Preserve Users and Network Settings" (I have 4 accounts set up in addition to my onw admin account) and proceeded with the installation.
At the end of installation, the G4 started (G5 is still in target disk mode) with the G5 as the startup disk. It presented the User Login screen (although it normally does auto-login on my account) but the password for each of the 5 accounts was rejected. The original hints still appear, but it seems that all passwords have been changed.
I then tried the G5 on its own (not as a Target disk) but when it starts up the grey Apple turns into a grey "do not enter" (circle/slash) icon and goes no further.
Can you suggest what I should do now?
iMac G5 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Need to figure out how to remove an unknown admin password on a mac. used the install disc with not luck. tried some commands in single user mode, no luck.

need to figure out how to remove an unknown admin password on a mac.
used the install disc with not luck. tried some commands in single user mode, no luck.

need to figure out how to remove an unknown admin password on a mac.
used the install disc with not luck. tried some commands in single user mode, no luck.

Internal HD on mac mini not well... need to boot in Single User Mode

Internal HD on mac mini not well... need to boot in Single User Mode.
I only have a Bluetooth Keyboard and Bluetooth Mouse so when I try to boot in Single User Mode (to do the /sbin/fsck hard drive fix thing) it doesn't see the Bluetooth Keyboard. What's the solution?
I also used SuperDuper to use as a boot drive but it won't unmount my internal HD. arghh..
Help

I have a corrupt drive and was unable to repair all the errors after booting from OS X installer disk and choosing Disk Utility...
I followed the "boot into single user mode" instructions hoping to complete my repair with fsck, however once I got to the localhost:/ root# prompt, my keyboard seemed to be unrecognized!
I tried 3 different USB keyboards - original Apple USB keyboard, Kensington Mac USB keyboard and an old SGI USB windows keyboard. All were able to enter the apple-S key to get into single user mode but NONE of them were able to type any commands whatsoever.....
I'm thinking my only option is to boot the mini as a target drive off my laptop and try to backup my 30GB of music and photos before wiping the drive...
2nd option might be to try Disk Warrior for $79??
Anyone else have ideas for me?

Boot mac mini server into single-user mode?

I've got a mac mini server (one of the ones with no optical drive) and I'm trying to boot it into single-user mode. I hit the power button and hold down the command (apple, splat) key and the 'S' key simultaneously ---- until it boots up to a login prompt rather than a black screen with white text and a unix command prompt...
Is there some magic different on this particular machine to get to single-user?

Hi, I wonder if anyone helped you out. I'm new here so here goes. I just bought a mac mini, but not the server. I had finished my new install and then I rebooted and got a black screen, since i have a wireless Apple keyboard, I cannot log into the computer by using commands, like Command-S. And Yes, you are using the right command, that hasn't changed.
Your problem may be the same as mine, are you using a wireless keyboard, because if you are, it seems that the Bluetooth doesn't have time to install its software while we are trying to log into the system. Thus, as we reboot, we are holding down they keys but that won't help us because the Bluetooth software doesn't have time to do its thing, in the background.
That is a huge problem because I don't have any other keyboard, but if you have access to a keyboard, get one and plug it into the back of your Mac mini and then you should be all set.
Does this make sense? Let me know if this helps. I have no idea what to do because now I have a brand new computer with a serious screen with the you must reboot your system in many languages, and when one gets this it is not a good sign.

How do i repair my hard drive in single user mode when disk is full?

Hi there Apple Community!
I have an old Macbook Pro 17" with an upgraded 500GB harddrive and 4GB memory. I'm running Mac OSX Lion.
Was hoping you could help me out. THis is the situation:
Long story short I spilt wine on my macbook and the screen went a bit blobby. Switched it off for a few days, removed the battery etc. etc. Opened it up cleaned out as much of the wine as possible, but unfortunately some of it came in behind the LCD, so now the screen has a nice red stain. Obviously I'm not going to try to clean that out of the LCD.
My Macbook Pro still worked for a few days after that, but then my harddrive gave up. I booted in the Recovery HD menu, verified the drive and I got the error "Keys out of order - This disk needs to be repaired, click Repair Disk." I attempted to repair the disk but got the error "Keys out of order - Disk Full Error - The volume could not be repaired".
Unfortnately of this 500GB I only have about 7GB free on it, as I have a huge iPhoto and iTunes library. I did make a TIme Machine backup of my user directory, but not the system files. I don't really want to do a clean install because:
1) I'm paranoid that there's something I did not fully back up
2) I don't want to have to download the whole Mac OSX Lion again. I should have made a USB bootable backup when I had the chance. I don't have access to a broadband connection.
What I feel are my viable options, are as follows:
1) I did buy a replacement internal 500GB harddrive, so I can probably try to make an image of the hard drive to this new drive, but not sure how. I believe it's through the Disk Utility with the "New Image" option but not sure how to go from there.
2) Start up in Single User Mode and delete some unnecessary files and re-attempt to run the fschk -fy utility again (I tried this earlier and got the same Disk Full Error). - the problem with this is, I'm not familiar with the command line and have no clue how to delete files. I don't know my way around Unix.
3) I can also probably attempt to make a Ghost Image or Acronis Image of the failed drive to this new drive, but not sure if Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image will be able to read this HFS drive - I believe it's possible as it's a simple hard drive clone.
If you can guide me in the best option - probably there is a better solution than my proposed ones above, I appreciate any feedback and comments you might have!

hi Baltwo,
So I ended up copying my user folder to another harddrive. I managed to download the whole osx lion again, reinstalled, and recovered my home folder using this discussion:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428
I have managed to get all my files back. My iTunes library works fine, but my iPhoto library when I open it, get the following error:
iPhoto cannot be opened because of a problem.
Here's the error log
Process:         iPhoto [1540]
Path:            /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhoto
Identifier:      com.apple.iPhoto
Version:         8.1.2 (8.1.2)
Build Info:      iPhotoProject-4240000~8
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [209]
Date/Time:       2012-09-19 19:56:45.528 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version: 9
Sleep/Wake UUID: 7948ABE2-5294-4F87-B6E3-777095A2F2EE
Interval Since Last Report:          4780 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           9
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   9
Anonymous UUID:                      70117D38-03EA-4F9C-B810-50B743864B9E
Crashed Thread: 0
Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries
Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iLifeSlideshow.framework/Versions/A/iLifeSlid eshow
Referenced from: /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhoto
Reason: image not found
I've done an Apple Software Update but it didn't find an update for iPhoto.
One thing to note is, this library was originally created on iLife 08, upgraded to '09 and it stayed on that version. It hasn't een upgraded to iLife '11. It worked fine on my previous install of OSX Lion. How do I recover the library without upgrading to '11 ?

Single User Mode: Searching for root...

My 2 year old unplugged my PowerMac iMac G5 (single) and now it won't start up.
I was finally able to boot up off of Disk Warrior and replace the directory, but it won't start up past the gray Apple screen. The fan comes on after about 45 seconds and blows hard. Then, I get the circle with a line through it, in gray. I've never seen that on a mac.. the international "no" sign.
When trying to start up in Single User Mode, I get a long list of stuff either disabled, not found, missing etc and then it starts writing to the screen every 30 seconds a line like:
Still searching for root.
I've tried pulling the back off, resetting the SMU, starting up in Safe Mode, etc.
This has happened with storms before and I can usually get it back.
I don't have original install discs.

When you say you have "OSX" but not the "original install disks" do you mean the mac originally came with an earlier version and you don't have those disks, but you have a retail copy of Tiger?
The circle with the slash means that Open Firmware cannot find BootX. Basically, I think this means that Open Firmware recognises the startup volume as such but cannot hand control to the operating system at all. BootX is what it uses to get the operating system going. Without this, as you've seen, you cannot make even single-user mode.
What is SMU?
*Is your data backed up? If not, prioritise that unless you can afford to loose it.*
Does DiskWarrior repair permissions? If not and you have the Tiger retail version, try running Disk Utility to do that. I don't think this will help, but it won't hurt.
Do you have another Mac? If so and you have the retail Tiger, you might be able to use Pacifist to replace BootX (in /System/Library/CoreServices). Alternatively, if the other Mac is running the same version of the OS and is also a PPC Mac, you could try copying the file from that machine.
Before you do any of this (with the exception of the permissions repair), try to backup any data you need if that's at all possible.
- cfr

Macbook shuts off during start-up - can't get through safe-mode, single user mode (fsck -fy) and target-drive shows no problems when running disk utility repair

Hi everyone,
I'm simply all out of ideas on what to do - my best guess is the problem is not specifically hard-drive related since all the 'normal' fixes just won't work.
What could be the cause of my issue? The only way i've managed to keep the Macbook Pro on for longer than a minute is through target drive, where it seems to work just fine - i can access everything. To sum up everything:
1 - I tried resetting the PRAM
2 - I tried to go in to safe mode, it shut off before i could type the password
3 - I tried fsck -fy command from single user mode, sometimes i can get to actually typing it but mostly it shuts off before
4 - I tried to repair disk via target drive - success, no problems detected (and it didnt fix my issue)
5 - I reinstalled OS Mavericks.
The Macbook Pro previously had some problems with the power-button not working properly (a mac-cunning friend of mine had to open up the mac and start it by swiping to metal pins on a specific (battery/power?) part inside it. The problem kinda went away afterwards but it might be related to this?
This is way off my comfort zone of 'diagnosing' issues, so I'm crossing fingers for some good advice.
Thanks,
Aske
Denmark

I think you're right.
If it's hardware related, is it possible to guess at what it might be? It would be nice to know how much I should expect to pay for a repair before actually getting it fixed.

My mac opened in single user mode

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