No Startup Manager in LION

Since installing LION I can no longer bring up the Startup Manager (aka, Boot Menu) by pressing the Option key on startup. My keyboard is a Logitech lighted USB board, and the "ALT" key (as well as one of the CTRL keys) are the Option keys (confirmed with Keyboard Viewer). I am using a 2009 vintage Dual Quad Core Power Mac.
I also re-connected my original Mac keyboard after installing LION, and still could not bring up the Startup Manager using the Option key.
My main bootable drive (with 10.7.1) is Firewire 800; my 3 internal drives (One with 10.7.1, two with 10.6.8) are SATA, and all are bootable.
I keep 10.6.8 in order to keep using Quicken for Mac, and need to switch between OSs periodically. I would rather not have to start up, select the startup drive from System Prefs, then restart.
I have tried resetting the PRAM, without luck.
How can I restore the Startup Manager?

Linc Davis, that was the answer - thank you. I had made some equipment changes when I installed Lion, and had moved my keyboard and trackball connections to 3rd party USB cards.
Reconnecting the keyboard to a built-in, original Apple port did the trick - but I had to connect both the keyboard and trackball (a Microsoft Trackball Explorer, which I love) to the original Apple USB ports. The Logitech keyboard does not have a USB port, so the trackball must be connected separately. Connecting only the keyboard brought up the Startup Manager, but I could not move the cursor until I reconnected the trackball.
Pardon the long explanation - I include it for others.
Thank you again for your help.

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MacBook Pro flashes file folder with question mark and startup manager will not run

My son's MacBook Pro won't boot (gets the flashing file folder with question mark). When I try to open startup manager (holding "option" key during boot does not do it). Other posts suggest inserting the install disk, but I am pretty sure that for Lion, there was no disk, it was just off the website through the App Store. Any further suggestions?

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
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 the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
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 click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
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Always boots Startup Manager

Hello,
I own a mac mini server 2011. I replaced the lower HD with SSD and then booted by hitting cmd-R to install lion. Install worked fine but I have a problem when I boot almost always it loads the startup manager. I have tried to set startup disk the SSD, unplug mouse/keyboard, repair disk, repair permissions but it stil it doesn't boot. Everytime I have to choose between mac os partition and the recovery partition. Resetting nvram is not working. I have tried it but it's just not working , I hear the startup sound once and it loads the startup manager or the recovery (I think it's capturing cmd-R as input).
In sys prefs at "Startup Disk" Mac Os is selected but If I click restart at next boot it will load mac os fine. Next time the Startup Manager pops up again.
Any ideas? I am desperate I don't know what to do. I have installed every update.
Thank you

Hello,
We had the same issue and also determined it was power related (after having read your post, thanks!).
In our situation, there is one circuit which we determined is to blame. Other circuits in the office do not cause this issue - unfortunately, the circuit with the issue supplies juice to two offices, so this is not good.
Question - what do you mean by "clean power"? We have a (basic) circuit tester, which test for Open-neutral, Open-hot, missing ground, hot and neutral reversed, etc and our outlets all pass that basic test. What, specifically, was the issue with your power? We naturally want to know if we have a safety concern.
Thanks,
Rique Santiestevan

Make startup manager load by default on startup (rather than option key)

I have a macbook pro 13' (late 2010 version) i am running Lion and i have windows 7 proffesional using boot camp.
When i boot up my mac it loads Lion by default.
I understand that to switch between the two i have to hold the option key on startup, i am then prompted for my password, and after entering it i get to the startup manager which displays the startup disks available.
I would like to know if there is a way of getting my mac to run the startup manager (with password) by default when i boot it, rather than choose one of the installed os.
Thanks in advance.
Gaz

No. However, you can install a third-party bootloader if you're willing to try it: rEFIt.
If you do this then you need to know that Boot Camp Assistant will no longer be able to manage the Windows partition.

There is no Macintosh HD and Recovery HD on Startup Manager

i have installed Windows 7 using Bootcamp before
when i open Startup Manager there is no Macintosh HD or Recovery HD
only Windows shows up
any solution?
thanks
(sorry my english was bad)

mende1 wrote:
If your computer came with DVDs:
1. Insert the OS X DVD and press C key when your Mac starts.
2. Go to Utilities > Disk Utility and erase the drive.
3. Install OS X again. Then, open  > Software Update and install the most recent version. Finally, open App Store > Purchases and download OS X Mountain Lion
The OP is on 10.8, there are no discs, but there should be a recovery partition.

HT1310 Startup manager (Option key while start up)

Hey I have Black MacBook with 10.7.3 in it.. when i press alt/option while starting the laptop the startup manager wont come and OS X boots.. plz help..

While we all have MacBooks in this forum most of us don’t run Lion. There's a Lion Support Community where everybody has Lion. You should also post this question there to increase your chances of getting an answer. https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.7_lion

HT1310 Significance of Option key in Startup Manager

Hello All,
I'm using Mountain Lion (10.8.2) on my iMac and I have noticed that once the Startup Manager appears, pressing Option key changes the circled up-arrow icon below the selected device to a different icon. What does that signify?

Thank you for a response baltwo.
But since this would all happen in Startup Manager itself, where else would it take one from there? I'm not sure I'm able to visualize.
I was too tempted, at the same time too scared to try it on my mac.

Why does Startup Manager only show Recovery HD and not my other drives like Macintosh HD and my USB drive?

I'm not really sure what happened to my Mac but when I start it, it only shows Recovery HD and nothing else. I tried re-installing Mountain Lion through my Apple ID but it states that I have not purchased it and will not let me proceed. I have bought a usb drive that has Mountain Lion, since I cannot purchase it in the apple store, on it to install it from there but I cannot boot into my USB because it only shows "Recovery HD" in Startup Manager. I would really appreciate some input from you all, thank you for your time in advance.

Either your drive is failing or has been corrupted. Please try the following. You cannot do the following unless you have purchased Lion or later. From your post that's not clear. Without knowing your exact model I cannot tell you what to do.
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing drive
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
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Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
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.
If your computer is a 2010 or earlier model, then you should be able to do the following:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. 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 click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

No apple logo or startup manager when booting.

My mac pro 3,1 will not allow startup manager access. I've tried holding option key nothing happens. No Apple logo either. I've removed the hard drive and don't even get the question mark w/ folder. When I power on the screen stays blank until the Desktop appears. Mountain Lion is installed and I've been trying to remove and install Snow Leopard. I purchased a retail copy of snow leopard and held down "C". I can hear the dvd spin for a while and makes noise as if it's reading/loading disc but it eventually stops and the screen never comes on. I had previously attempted to run boot camp and install windows 7 and after it was installed only windows would boot couldn't get startup manager and was told to reset pram. After resetting pram it started booting to mountain lion again but i've never been able to access startup manager since. I installed a blank hard drive and removed my primary drive and was able to get a Mountain Lion DVD to install on blank hard drive but still no startup manager. I really don't like mountain lion and want snow leopard. CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP?
thanks

The Mac Pro 3,1 shipped with a special version of 10.5.1. The trials and tribulations of users trying to install 10.6 are based on the Mac Pro 5,1 (2010 model and later) that shipped with custom 10.6.4, and the latest "Full Retail" DVD is 10.6.3. So this problem does not apply to you.
Under versions of Mac OS X less than 10.8.3, no graphics card is expected to show a picture __at all__ unless it has an EFI ROM and EFI firmware. If it is flashed with EFI firmware, it will show its first picture at the login screen (of course, if it never gets to the login screen, you get no picture at all).
I suggest you get an Apple-Firmware 5770, about US$250, which works in every model Mac Pro. It will show a picture on older versions of Mac OS X, and acceleration is provided by the Drivers included in 10.6.5 and later. It will also provide much better compatibility and support for advanced software going forward.

I can't access the Startup Manager

I hit the power key, hear the 'chime,' and press the option key. I hold it down. Three minutes later, the screen is still black. I have successfully accessed the Startup Manager in the past with no issue. It simply won't happen, today. I have Snow Leopard and apparently Maverick installed - each on half of the hard drive. I had normally simply booted to Snow Leopard (which I need to run Final Cut Pro - not Final Cut X) and taken care of business. Since upgrading to Maverick from Lion, the computer has defaulted to booting into Maverick. I have used Startup Manager to boot into Snow Leopard. That simply won't happen today.

I hit the power key, hear the 'chime,' and press the option key. I hold it down. After answering this question, I am going to try to restart after selecting the Startup Disk in System Preferences - hopefully, that will work.
As for the Disk Utility - yup, both partitions show. One is Macintosh HD (with Maverick), the other is Macintosh HD SL (get it? SL for Snow Leopard :-D ) At any rate, even if the SL partition didn't show, shouldn't the Startup Manager open rather than the black screen? I help the option ket for a solid 5 minutes on the recent attempt with still no success...
Please, don't take my snippy response as an attack to your question. I am simply frustrated with this situation and need a vent...

Black boot screen and startup manager on mid 2014 rMBP after upgrading to Yosemite

After upgrading to Yosemite I'm experiencing black booting process. Moreover, I noticed that the startup manager, which we access by holding the option key, has the black background too. I didn't like the Yosemite, so I downgraded back to Mavericks, but I still have the startup manager with the black background and the initial screen during the startup sound is black too, and after that the grey screen with the Apple logo comes up, which is typical for Mavericks. I want my startup manager to have the grey background as before. And also, before there was the grey screen during the startup sound, not the black one. How to revert all this to the previous state? I'm experiencing all this on my rMBP, 13-inch, mid-2014.
I want to revert because after downgrading back to Mavericks my rMBP started freezing terribly, especially on youtube, ebay and app store. And it's not just the web browsing, it's freezing when navigating in finder too. I know there are many experienced users here, so I hope that somebody can help me with this. Before upgrading to Yosemite my machine was running flawlessly.

nobody?

Safari 6 won't open the homepage at startup on Mountain Lion

Safari 6 won't open the homepage at startup on Mountain Lion... why ?

Do you happen to have an old version of Glims installed. if so try this new version http://www.MacHangout.com/dwnlds/Glims1b34DEV.dmg.zip
It seems to have fixed the problem for me.
Cheers, Rick May.

Startup Manager displays Mac HD but won't boot to it

I have a 2008 MacPro (2x2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon) that has been successfully running Bootcamp for a couple years with a Windows XP partition and a Mac 10.5~ partition (actually I can't remember if it was 10.6 or 10.5). We recently made a new partition for Windows 7. (This is in a classroom full of identicle MacPros, but noteably, the problem machine is the teacher's station).
As of today, the MacPro no longer boots into the Mac OS partition. It boots, by default, into Windows XP every time. Holding down option on start up brings up the Startup Manager, and the Mac HD is visible, and you can click on it or tab to select it, but then nothing happens. We tried a bootable external hard drive, but had the same problem with the Startup Manager and an inability to select anything (the keyboard and mouse both seem to work) but nothing happens when you click on your selection.
Once booted into XP, you can see the "Mac HD" option in the Boot Camp Control Panel. You can select it, but then the computer boots back into XP.
I did get the computer to start up off a Mac OS Snow Leopard install CD by holding "C" on start up. I ran "Repair Disk" using Disk Utility and found no problems. I tried repairing the disk permissions, and although they seemed fine.
I tried zapping the PRAM but there was no effect (booted into XP).
I unplugged the computer for a few minutes to reset the "NVRAM". No effect.
I tried different key combinations to attempt to boo in Safe Mode, Single User Mode, Verbose Mode, and none of those things worked, the computer booted straight into Windows XP every time.
I tried holding "d" for a hardware test, but nothing happened. Do you need to be on the internet for this? Because, I also tried, based on some suggestions I saw online, unplugging all peripherals (like our bootable firewire drive) and ethernet cables and not using a third party mouse. No effect.
Finally, I let the Snow Leopar install CD install, and although it seemed successful this had absouletly no effect. It still boots straight into Windows XP. Granted, I did not delete everything for a clean install, as I'm not sure the files are backed up anywhere.

""To update anyone watching this, we tried putting the hard drive in a different machine and still had the same boot issues,""
Are you saying that the questionable HD was put in another computer and THAT computer had the same issue as the Professors?
If so I would just backup and erase the hard drive, reformat and reinstall everything as something buggered up the Boot Manager and your going to take more time figuring it out as to redo everything.
I don't think the HD is going out but you MAY have some bad sectors on the Mac partition, if that's the problem then the bad sector might be in the bootable part and thats why it can't boot. If you want to save the HD have a disk utility do a Surface Scan to make sure.
As far as not being able to boot into Safe mode, etc, if it had a bad sector it won't be able to read the boot part which is why you can still boot into the Install DVD.
You know, looking back at your original post if you can't boot into safe mode while pressing the Shift Key after the bong, can't boot from an external HD or any of the other ways, then I would say it's a hardware problem.
Like I mentioned before, if you can put in another Dual boot HD from another machine into the Professors machine and it still won't boot into both OS's then you have confirmed it's a hardware problem.
Good luck...

I can not startup Managed server via admin server

Admin server ip:172.16.219.25
Admin server name:nstwssadm1.webex.com
Managed server ip:172.16.219.189
Managed server name:nstwss001.webex.com.
I can start Managed server in comand line like 'startManagedWebLogic.sh nstwss001-s1 t3s://nstwssadm1.webex.com:9002'
But, I can not startup Managed server in console, it appears following log:
=========
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:16 AM EDT> <Info> <NodeManager@*.*:5555> <Starting Server nst1::nstwss001-s1 ...>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:16 AM EDT> <Info> <NodeManager@*.*:5555> <BaseProcessControl: saving process id of WebLogic Managed server 'nstwss001-s1', pid: 11072>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:19 AM EDT> <Info> <WebLogicServer> <BEA-000377> <Starting WebLogic Server with BEA WebLogic JRockit(TM) 1.4.2_08 JVM R24.5.0-61 Version ari-49095-20050826-1856-linux-ia32 from BEA Systems, Inc.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:19 AM EDT> <Info> <Management> <BEA-141140> <The managed server is going to contact the admin server at https://172.16.219.25:9002 to check if there exists a running admin server at this URL.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:20 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090169> <Loading trusted certificates from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/weblogic81/server/lib/DemoTrust.jks.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:20 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090169> <Loading trusted certificates from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/jrockit81sp5_142_08/jre/lib/security/cacerts.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:21 AM EDT> <Info> <Configuration Management> <BEA-150017> <This server is being started as a dependent managed server.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:21 AM EDT> <Info> <Management> <BEA-141107> <Version: WebLogic Server 8.1 SP5 Mon Sep 19 23:06:54 PDT 2005 641358
WebLogic XMLX Module 8.1 SP5 Mon Sep 19 23:06:54 PDT 2005 641358 >
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:21 AM EDT> <Info> <Configuration Management> <BEA-150015> <Connecting to the administration server https://172.16.219.25:9002 to retrieve the initial configuration.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:22 AM EDT> <Notice> <Log Management> <BEA-170019> <The server log file /opt/bea/weblogic81/common/nodemanager/nstwss001-s1/nstwss001-s1.log is opened. All server side log events will be written to this file.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:23 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090169> <Loading trusted certificates from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/weblogic81/server/lib/DemoTrust.jks.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:23 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090169> <Loading trusted certificates from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/jrockit81sp5_142_08/jre/lib/security/cacerts.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:26 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090169> <Loading trusted certificates from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/weblogic81/server/lib/DemoTrust.jks.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:26 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090169> <Loading trusted certificates from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/jrockit81sp5_142_08/jre/lib/security/cacerts.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:28 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090082> <Security initializing using security realm myrealm.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:28 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090170> <Loading the private key stored under the alias DemoIdentity from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/weblogic81/server/lib/DemoIdentity.jks.>
The WebLogic Server did not start up properly.
Exception raised: 'weblogic.management.configuration.ConfigurationException: Due to faulty SSL configuration, this server is unable to establish a connection to the node manager.'
Reason: weblogic.management.configuration.ConfigurationException: Due to faulty SSL configuration, this server is unable to establish a connection to the node manager.
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:28 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090171> <Loading the identity certificate stored under the alias DemoIdentity from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/weblogic81/server/lib/DemoIdentity.jks.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:28 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090169> <Loading trusted certificates from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/weblogic81/server/lib/DemoTrust.jks.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:28 AM EDT> <Notice> <Security> <BEA-090169> <Loading trusted certificates from the jks keystore file /opt/bea/jrockit81sp5_142_08/jre/lib/security/cacerts.>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:28 AM EDT> <Warning> <NodeManager> <BEA-300038> <The node manager is unable to monitor this server. Could not create an SSL connection to the node manager. Reason : localhost>
<Jun 29, 2006 8:56:28 AM EDT> <Emergency> <WebLogicServer> <BEA-000342> <Unable to initialize the server: weblogic.management.configuration.ConfigurationException: Due to faulty SSL configuration, this server is unable to establish a connection to the node manager.>
===============================
Who can help me on it?
Thanks.

your error says:
'his server is unable to establish a connection to the <b>node manager</b>'
check that your node manager is running when you try to start de manage server.

Startup Manager is not working

The startup manager doesn't boot when I start the computer while holding the option key. Even if there are no other volumes connected, it still doesn't show the startup manager screen (just main startup disk and recovery).
I recently just reinstalled the OS via recovery mode (other unrelated problem, no biggie). I made a bootable clone with Carbon Copy Cloner, to a bare harddrive of same capacity via a FW800 dock. Booting with the clone via System Preferences isn't a problem. But the Start + Option route doesn't work.
I'm thinking it's the graphics card that I have, a GTX 680 (not flashed for Mac). Because the card hasn't been flashed I don't get the gray screen with Apple logo screen, it goes straight to the Login Page. Not a problem for me, but maybe this is the reason?
Specs:
Mac Pro 5,1 2.4 GHz 12 core
GTX 680 - latest Nvidia Web Driver and CUDA Driver
10.8.5 - all updated
Thanks

Try downloading the HP Support Assistant and running it. It should be able to detect any missing drivers for you.
-------------How do I give Kudos? | How do I mark a post as Solved? --------------------------------------------------------

No Startup Manager in LION

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