Open firmware startup disk by default

I have an iMac which by default always goes to the open firmware startup disk screen. How do I get rid of this? I have tried zapping the PRAM, reinstalling the OS and a different hard drive. There are no problems w/ the functionality of the computer or the software and there are no symptoms to say that there is anything wrong w/ the computer. Just want to get rid of having to hit enter at the firmware startup disk screen every time I turn it on. Any suggestions please.

Mark, it appears that the defauly startup mode has been changed on your Mac.
Probably the easiest way to get back to normal is using a utility. I use the free utility OnyX. In OnyX go to Parameters>Login and at the bottom of the pane you can change your Mac's default startup mode.

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Deleted Startup disk remains default startup disk?

This one is new to me....
I have one disk with two startup partitions and a third as a "backup". I was working on the two startups partition disk and both worked fine. But recently one of the System Preference panels for Spotlight was corrupted so I did an "archive and install" on that partition. But when I did the restart after the archive and install I was unable to boot into the newly installed Leopard disk. Furthermore the machine default booted into the OTHER partition. So I tried to log into that one and the password input says I was putting in the wrong password (I was not). So I tried holding down the Option Key at startup and selected the startup disk I wanted - again, it booted to the other and the password was somehow fubarred. So I went ahead and "dismantled" that pesky defaulting startup disk, trashing both the system and the library folders - but on reboot it STILL boots to that disk even though now it doesn't exist AT ALL. Even the name remains? ***?
I went ahead and revealled all the invisible files - trashed those. I did Option+S at start up and fsck. I used TechTool Pro to repair, I used Disk Utility and permissions... UGH.
Why is this deleted startup STILL showing up and booting off the other present startup system on the other partition (Note: If I hold down Option key at start up I can still boot into the third OS I keep). What is interesting is that everytime I reboot and check the "pesky" startup disk from the other one I see a new System folder added to that (remember, I deleted it). After the invisible files were deleted it no longer did this. But, again, still boots into a non-existent login screen.
I know the "simple" answer is to reinstall and reformat this disk - but on the other "pesky" partition I have 750GB of data I'd rather not migrate (it's in the default user's folder that I didn't delete). And I'd like to learn what the heck is going on.
Thanks for anyone's illuminating insights on the phantom startup disk.

Hi, I vaguely rember you from before, but nothing here is the same as before, as it is with OSX in general!
Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Does it boot into Open Firmware with CMD+Option+o+f ?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
reset-nvram (press Enter)
set-defaults (press Enter)
reset-all (press Enter)
What shows as boot choices if you hold the Option/alt key down at bootup?

Open Firmware startup keys not responding

Hi there,
My Command-Option-O-F combination at powerup is not responding to get me into the Open Firmware.
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Aaron

Intel Macs do not support Open Firmware rather they use the EFI - extended firmware interface. You can start up in safe mode, single-user mode, or verbose mode. See the following:
Startup key combinations for Intel-based Macs.

Why doesn't my backup drive appear in the Startup Disk selection window?

I've been using SuperDuper! to backup my Mac HD to my internal Seagate drive. The Seagate is divided into Seagate1 and Seagate2. I backup to Seagate1. When I open the Startup Disk window from Preferences, only the Mac HD icon appears, highlighted, and a Network Startup icon. Seagate1 does not appear, although I've made it bootable while using SuperDuper!
I'm not on a network, as I'm the sole user of my computer at home. I am connected to the Internet via cable, but that shouldn't be a factor, I think. I don't know why the Network icon is there but Seagate1 but Seagate1 isn't.
Is there a way to make it so the Seagate1 icon appears in the Startup Disk window? As it stands if my Mac HD goes down, I won't have access to Seagate1 to boot the computer.
Would much appreciate any advice or referral to another source that could help me.

Something I learned re: partitioning w/ Disk Utility: Dave Nanian at SD! referred me to SD!'s FAQs, the 1st one dealing with my problem:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5738
I told (email) him that the original partitions already showed APM, but I went ahead, anyway, following instr's in the FAQ. Notable in those instr's is to click on Options, which I may have overlooked originally. This time, when I clicked on Options, APM showed as the default in the window. I went ahead & proceeded, thinking, "Well, if APM is the default, why did I need to click on Options"?
So I raised the issue with Dave. Here's what he said: "Alas, no - it uses the existing scheme, which was likely MBR."
Lesson: When partitioning w/ DU, ALWAYS click on Options, even if APM is the default. I know DU directs this, but all I can think of why the original partitioning failed is that I did not do this. Any comments would be welcome.

How to choose 2nd additional SSD as startup disk permanently?

I have installed into the second tray an SSD OWC. I cloned it from the 1TB WD that came with the unit. It works perfectly, but I can't seem to choose it to be the startup disk by default. I choose it and even lock it after choosing it, but when I turn off the unit and start up it starts up with the WD 1TB original HD.
How do I choose this SSD to be the default startup disk. I
Thanks

Two thoughts.
Always when using SSDs have a backup bootable clone (and maybe an image of your 60GB system)
When you zap pram, then drive bay 1 (or SATA port 0) is the 'default' or first in line - that is all.
It doesn't and shouldn't matter which drive bay. In fact the system doesn't use the drive bay ID but rather the GUID identifier, and that it be blessed.
When I erased SSD, Disk Utility first grayed out 8-10% as though 'used' and I then restored small system.
I have no idea why when the Sand Force 2.0 firmware was so important, that OWC took over 3 months, testing? before including it on theirs. But not everyone with Mac has been happy updating firmware on their OWC Mercury (they said they hope to make it easier).
So always have a 2nd bootable drive and image, like external 50GB volume somewhere.

10.9 Startup Disk preference panel will not work on Firewire disk

On my 2008 Mac Pro I have a OWC FireWire attached cloned copy of Macintosh HD. I select the drive in Startup Disk preference panel. Then click on Restart. I get error “Preferences Error There was an error in Startup Disk preference pan.” Using a USB cable it works fine.
Process:         com.apple.preference.startupdisk.remoteservice [494]
Path:            /System/Library/PreferencePanes/StartupDisk.prefPane/Contents/XPCServices/com.a pple.preference.startupdisk.remoteservice.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.preferenc e.startupdisk.remoteservice
Identifier:      com.apple.preference.startupdisk.remoteservice
Version:         6 (322)
Build Info:      StartupDisk-322000000000000~3
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: ??? [1]
Responsible:     System Preferences [488]
User ID:         501
Date/Time:       2013-10-26 04:49:45.475 -0400
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.9 (13A603)
Report Version: 11
Anonymous UUID: F4E841D5-BF33-96B4-7E59-07F8D9741CBE

It turns out that the error has nothing to do with Firewire. It is Mavericks.
In the Systems Preferances, open the Startup Disk Panel. While pressing the Option key, click on Restart. The restart fails every time. (The Option key should bypass the "Are you sure you want to Restart.)

G5 Boots to Open firmware on Startup every time.

I have a 2004 model Dual 1.8GHz 2.2Gbs RAM. The problem is that it keeps booting into Open Firmware. Once it gets to Open Firmware and i can mac-boot and start up off the Tiger disc, but I can't get it to find an external firewire OS. I don't have a hard drive in there at the moment but that should not effect this issue, Although I can see the firewire 800 in disk utilities but not on the Firewire 400. And still no Start up folder when i go to startup disk 800 or 400. If I put a hard drive in which i will when the new one arrives I believe i will be able to start up with it but I still think that it might boot into Open Firmware again. (I think a bus is bad maybe the Firewire bus if it is can't I bypass it somehow? so that is won't boot into Open Firmware.
Note: everything passes Hardware Test
I have Reset PRAM and NVRAM Rest all

(Sorry this is in here twice - I'm pretty experienced with Macs and PCs but a little new at message boards - pls forgive)
Had the same problem. I took mine into a "Mac Genius" at the retail store and he thought he had fixed it by rebuilding the directory. It booted and shut down perfectly while in the store. When I got home it was went right back to booting into open firmware.
I figured out by accident that the reason it was booting fine in the store was because he was using a cheap SVGA monitor on the DVI output - not the ADB connector I use with my older Apple monitor. Note that Apple has phased these type of connectors out. It gave me a great excuse to upgrade my monitor to a 20" cinema display and everything is working great (can't believe how I've deprived myself all these years).
If you have an older monitor that uses an ADB connector, try a different monitor that uses the DVI output on your video card. Even a DVI-VGA adapter (one probably came with your computer) with a VGA monitor is sufficient for testing. If your computer boots up, it's either the older monitor, or the ADB output on the video card that is bad. There is no easy way to know where the actual problem resides (the Geniuses couldn't tell me - they have no monitors in the store with ADB connectors), but I can tell you that my computer is working fine now. I do know that the ADB connector ran power, USB and video all together and that seems to be the reason they quit using them. The newer desktops have only 2 DVI outputs (instead of 1 ADB + 1 DVI), while the new monitors run power, USB and video separately.
Hope that helps,
Jeff

I am having a Startup problem. Someone comes on the screen with Open Firmware to Startup. How can I reset the PRAM myself to solve this problem?

I am having a Startup problem. Someone comes on the screen with Open Firmware to Startup. How can I reset the PRAM myself to solve this problem?

Read these.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330118-263.html

PowerBook G4 17" Boots into Open Firmware; Won't boot from HD or Disk

This PBG417 (1GHz/512MB/60GB) has an complex recent history directly related to this problem. It was thought to have a dead logic board, and was given to me for a very insignificant amount of money. I discovered today (at an Authorized Apple Repair center) it merely had a ribbon cable disconnected from the logic board which kept it from powering on, which, when rge cable was reconnected it did on the spot, fully booting (imagine my satisfaction). However, upon getting home, it booted into Open Firmware instead, and offedrs a choice of typing mac-boot or shut-down. Mac-boot takes it to the grey screen where the question mark/Finder guy blink and nothing happens. I put a grey PowerBook G4 17" system disk in, but not the one that shipped with it, hoping it would do. When I try to boot from disk, it goes to Open Firmware, I enter mac-boot, it goes to happy Finder with no question folder, but stays there with the optical drive occasionally making movememts and sounds. If you enter any command besides shut down or mac-boot, iot says unknown word; the command prompt itself is 0> .
I'm not sure the hard drive is seated correctly. When I got the computer, the drive was removed; I put it in an enclosure and installed Tiger on it and put it back in, but apart from connecting the ribbon cable, it just sat in its bay not fixed down. However, it booted correctly the first time it was successfully started.
Finally, the previous owner removed all 23 bottom case screws when he took out the drive and lost them; the Apple repair tech mustered up about 9 and put them in the crucial locations but it's still not screwed down everywhere, although the one time it booted correctly, it had no screws in it.
It seems the computer doesn't read the hard drive or the disk, but the hard drive mau be installed wrong and the disk, while for a 17" was not the one that shipped with this PowerBook 17". The computer is missing many case screws, bnutg booted properly only when there were none it place. I also tried resetting the PMU but am not sure I did reset it because the Apple article isn't clear about which models have which processes. I tied Target Disk Mode but it woujldn't mount/boot.
How can I get the disk out and how to make it boot to the desktop?

You can try to reset NVRAM here is KBase from apple site:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
and after that reset PRAM in your unit, here is the kbase:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
If needed you can also tried to reset PMU, here is the kbase:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
Make sure you choose the correct step for your unit.
If after all the steps your unit still booting up to open firmware then there is possibility that you have corrupt NVRAM which could not be fixed by doing reset except replacing logic board.
Good luck. Hope this help
Flippo

Tried to open my old MacBook. Couldn't remember password. Followed suggestion to reinstall hardware. Now startup disk is stuck in computer and it won't turn on. I keep getting a message saying I need to restart the computer. Any ideas?

Tried to open my old MacBook. Couldn't remember password. Followed suggestion to reinstall hardware. Now startup disk is stuck in computer and it won't turn on. I keep getting a message saying I need to restart the computer. When I hold down power button, I get the same message over and over. Any ideas?

Hello m.goo, and a warm welcome to the forums!
To eject the Disc, hold the Mouse button down, (or what passes for it on a Laptop), while powering up, if you also hold the Option key down at the same time it should eject & give you a chance to insert your install disc & wait for it to shw as a Boot option.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Tiger Mac OS X Install disc , then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, *you must select your language first.)*
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
Then Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it finishes.
If it appears to be time for An Archive & Install, which gives you a new OS, but can preserve all your files, APPs, pics, music, settings, etc., as long as you have plenty of free disk space...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
Be sure to use Preserve Users & Settings.
To check if AppleCare applies, AppleCare Products Overview...
http://www.apple.com/support/applecare/overview/

Boot Camp 3.0, unable to select Default startup disk in snow leopard

I've installed Snow Leopard On my black Macbook, actually upgraded on 10.5, and then installed Bootcamp 3.0 on my Boot Camp partition which is on Vista Ultimate, everything is fine but this little annoying detail! I can't select default Startup Disk when I'm in Snow Leopard. I can select default Operating system from Vista but no chance to select it from SL! Just wonder did this happen to anyone else?! and any suggestion to solve it?

Rather than use a 3rd party product to enable writing to ntfs drive you can enable native ntfs read/write support. The method is described in Mac World OS X Hints.
Use this link to the article
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090913140023382
You get read/write privilege and all the partitions show up in the "Startup Disk" window.

When I open my iMac, I get this message - Your Mac OS X startup disk has no more space available for application memory. ???????

When I open my iMac, I get the following message : Your Mac OS X startup disk has no more space available for application memory. Then it says to quit applications not in usw and to close windows and remove files from startup disk. It lists Safari, email and Finder. I force a quit on all applications yet the same message comes up every time I open an application. What do I do to get rid of this once and for all? The computer is not even two years old and is only used for email and Safari. Help will be greatly appreciated,

The message has nothing to do with low disk space.
There is excessive swapping of data between physical memory (that is, the memory chips on the logic board) and virtual memory (one or more files on the startup volume.) That activity is relatively slow and causes the whole system to be less responsive. It can happen for two reasons:
A long-running process with a memory leak (a kind of bug)
Not enough memory for your usage pattern
Tracking down a memory leak can be difficult, and it may come down to a process of elimination.
These instructions are for OS X 10.9 ("Mavericks.") The procedure may be slightly different for earlier versions of OS X.
When you notice the swap activity, open the Activity Monitor application and select All Processes from the View menu, if it's not already selected. Select the Memory tab. Click the heading of the Real Mem column in the process table twice to sort the table with the highest value at the top. If you don't see that column, select
View ▹ Columns ▹ Real Memory
from the menu bar.
If one process (excluding "kernel_task") is using much more memory than all the others, that could be an indication of a leak. A better indication would be a process that continually grabs more and more real memory over time without ever releasing it. Here is an example of how it's done.
The processes named "Safari Web Content" render web pages for Safari. They use a lot of memory and may leak if certain Safari extensions or third-party web plugins are installed. Consider them prime suspects.
Another process often implicated in memory leaks is "inkjet4" or "inkjet8," which is a component of the HP printing software. If it's present, force-quit the process in Activity Monitor to solve the problem temporarily. Empty the print queues in the Printers & Scanners preference pane (which has a slightly different name in each recent version of OS X.) If you don't use an HP printer, remove the software. Otherwise, if the problem is recurrent, update the software (which may not help) or contact HP support.
"Wired" memory should be a small part of the total. That memory is not swapped, but it makes less physical memory available which may then result in swapping. If you have a lot of wired memory, that's usually an indication of a memory leak in a third-party program that modifies the operating system at a low level. Ask for guidance in that case.
If you don't have an obvious memory leak, your options are to install more memory (if possible) or to run fewer programs simultaneously.
The next suggestion is only for users familiar with the shell. For a more precise, but potentially misleading, test, run the following command:
sudo leaks -nocontext -nostacks process | grep total
where process is the name of a process you suspect of leaking memory. Almost every process will leak some memory; the question is how much, and especially how much the leak increases with time. I can’t be more specific. See the leaks(1) man page and the Apple developer documentation for details.

IBook screen flickers in Target Disk Mode or in Open Firmware

When booting in Target Disk or Open Firmware the screen seems to shift to one side showing a duplicate of the displayed image. In addidtion to this on the right hand side of the screen roughly about 1" wide the image is completely distorted. I'm not sure but I think the problem only occurs when the Power Adapter is plugged in (Still testing).
Update: The problem occurs with or without the power supply connected. In addition to the above the screen distortion can sometimes be intermittent and does not always distort in the same position as described above.

When you can't boot from any method it usually signals that one of 2 things (maybe both) have failed:
Motherboard
Hard drive - Some hard drive failures lock up the ATA controller so badly that the Mac can't boot from any device.

HELP NEEDED URGENTLY .... please! (open firmware password vs. startup disc)

Hi
1. Macbook Pro 2.33 - I had Bootcamp installed.
2. Decided to delete it... went through Bootcamp procedure
3. Mac restarted - then came up with a flashing folder icon, meaning it couldn't find the startup drive.
4. Forced restart again... and tried pressing ALT key to select Macintosh_HD - it asked for my OPEN FIRMWARE PASSWORD - i only ever use 1 password - I know exactly what this is, as I had turned it on/off before by going to utilities>open firmware.
I don't want to take RAM out... is there another way? I thought if a CD was put in it could trick firmware... by pressing the space bar... though it didn't work
I'm stumped! Anybody willing to help?
Thanks loads in advance!
Pixel.

Boot from Install DVD1 holding down 'C'
Then 'Reset Password' ?
or ...
1. Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and
holding the Command-Option-O-F key combination
during startup.
2. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
3. Press Return.
4. When prompted for your password, enter it and
press the Return key.
5. It responds OK.
6. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
7. Press Return.
This only works with PPC Macs. I have been looking for a way to do something similar with my MBP and have been unsuccessful thus far.
Frank

Can I spin down my internal disk? Open Firmware or terminal commands?

Hello all,
I have not been around here for a while, but I desperately need your help.
Does anyone know how I can spin down my internal disk?
Possibly with the terminal or Open Firmware?
Does anyone know all the Open Firmware commands or
where a list can be found so that I can explore the situation myself?
Here is some more detail of what I want to do and why.
My internal disk crashed a while ago.
(My bag slid off my shoulder and the machine hit the brick sidewalk below right on its' corner:>(
I have since been running off my little pocket-size fire-wire disk.
Today the internal disk finally really bit the dust and the bearings are making quite a noise.
(If I tip the PB while it is running the noise turns into a whine of varying pitch and loudness.
It sounds like my poor PB is crying in pain. LOL)
I want to get the internal disk to spin down until I can afford a new one and I have the time to replace it.
Any ideas?
I know I could open up the case and pull the plug on it,
but maybe there is something better and easier.
Can anyone guide me in any possible terminal commands to eject it or
give some insight into firmware commands that may help?
I know the firmware can spin the disk down. - It does so for power management.
Also, one time when I booted, the disk gave the boot process such a bad error that
the boot process asked me what to do. I told it to eject the disk - then the disk spun down
and the machine booted normally off the FW disk.
So, maybe there is an Open Firmware command I could use to permanently shut the thing off.
I cannot use the Disk Utility to unmount or eject it.
In Disk Utility, sometimes the disk is already unmounted and grayed out.
So therefor the unmount and eject commands are also greyed out.
At other times the disk does not even show up in Disk Utility.
Thanks, Bob

Thanks for the fast response.
Although your suggestion did not do the trick, it jogged my old mind into
finding a solution that does work. Or seems to work for right now.
The 'drutil' is a command for CD-R/RW media, so it could not see or act on my internal hard drive.
Your suggestion to use a disk utility command sent me off to find a command for other devices and
I remembered the 'diskutil' command.
I did a 'diskutil list' and after a good wait for the failed disk to allow completion,
I was given a list that showed what device the internal disk was (/dev/disk2).
I then did a 'diskutil eject /dev/disk2' and after a similar wait, the disk was ejected and it spun down.
It was a pleasant surprise since the drive is not ejectable and since the OsX Disk Utility could not eject it.
There are things (running the disk utility) that do seem to wake up the disk occasionally,
but all I have to do is issue the command again.
Thanks
p.s. Perhaps I was not clear in my original question that
I wanted to spin down my internal ide hard disk - sorry if that was a confusion.
p.p.s. It is also very interesting that I called Apple support and
they could not give me this simple solution.

Open firmware startup disk by default

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