Unable to Access Single User Mode on Macbook Air 2012

I am unable to enter SINGLE USER mode on myMacbook Air 2012....I have made sure that there is no Firmware Password preventing me from doing so...what else
could be the reason....any suggestions?

So are you saying you try to start up as shown here:
OS X Mountain Lion: Start up in single-user mode
If so, what happens when you try? What do you see?

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Boot Snow Leopard from Thumb Drive in Single User Mode on Macbook Air

I'm trying to boot from a thumb drive that I transferred the Snow Leopard .dmg on. My macbook air only lets me get into single user mode. Every time I try to boot or enter safe mode or regular mode, the Macbook Air shuts down.

I do have the installation media on my usb flash drive. I'm sure it's leopard, and the problem is that I cannot get passed the apple logo on boot. The laptop turns off after trying to finish the boot for twenty seconds. However, I can get into single user mode. I just can't seem to install the media in single user mode due to my lack of know how.

Errors while Changing the Database to Mutli User Mode from Single user mode in SQL Server 2012

Hi,
Good Afternoon :). Need your help in resolving one of the issue with SQL Server 2012.
Today, we kept one of the database in the Single User mode and wanted to bring back to Multi User mode. But we are getting the below error. There are no user sessions connected to this database which are blocking each other. I see multiple
SYSTEM sessions are in blocked state.  The blocking is not cleared even affter restarting the SQL services.
Verified the SQL Server Errorlog and couldnt get much useful information to troubleshoot the issue.
pasted the information from the sys.sysprocesses as well for your kind reference.
Msg 1205, Level 13, State 68, Line 1
Transaction (Process ID 55) was deadlocked on lock resources with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction.
Msg 5069, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
ALTER DATABASE statement failed.
spid
kpid
blocked
waittype
waittime
dbid
login_time
status
cmd
18
1004
36
0x0005
144
5
4/9/2014 13:13
background
TASK MANAGER
35
1796
36
0x0005
35
5
4/9/2014 13:34
background
TASK MANAGER
36
2464
37
0x0005
363
5
4/9/2014 13:34
background
TASK MANAGER
37
5100
36
0x0005
254
5
4/9/2014 13:04
background
TASK MANAGER

Clearly 36 and 37 are causing deadlock.
see
https://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/handling-deadlocks-in-sql-server/
http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1036/finding-and-troubleshooting-sql-server-deadlocks/
Please Mark This As Answer if it helps to solve the issue Visakh ---------------------------- http://visakhm.blogspot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/VmBlogs

Reset Permissions from Single-User Mode

I believe I have accidently removed the permissions from my iMac. I can access single-user mode and need desperately for someone to walk me through how to reset the permissions (I get a blue screen when I try to boot). Please help.

JMT001 wrote:
I believe I have accidently removed the permissions from my iMac.
what do you mean? what EXACTLY did you do? did you change permissions on the top level of the hard drive to no access?
if so see this link
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2087835
if it's something else explain what you've done.

I Cannot Complete Single User Mode (fsck)!!

Hello all.
I have the new iMac 20" Rev. B running on Tiger OS X 10.4.1, using wireless keyboard and mouse (I know I have to use a wired keyboard to complete Single User Mode)
When I do a 'Command Key + S key' after a restart
b using either the wireless or wired keyboard...
The "usual" string of text would appear on the black screen in Single User Mode, but it stops short of the below:
...(a lot more text lines)...
If you wish to boot the system,but stay in single user mode:
sh/etc/rc
CSRHIDTransitionDriver :: stop
localhost :/ root# [HCIController][start]
[AppleUSBHCIController][StopIsochPipeRead] - mInt1IsochInPipe = 0 - numReads Pending = 0
[start] 1
The last line just stays there without further prompts, I type anything on the keyboard and nothing happens, after a while the fans will pump up full speed and loud, waiting for a little longer also see no continuation of prompts etc...
HELP! May I know what is wrong here? The mac was just set up since Sun, I couldn't and wouldn't believe that after a few days that the OS system is already somehow "screwed"??
Thanks and cheers!

Hi a brody, thanks for the reply, I guess as much I'll have to go through that process again...! The fact and reason I am so reluctant is that my previous iMac 20" "fried" its logic board and was in the shop for almost 2 weeks then they told me there was a worldwide shortage of logic boards, so they replaced me with this new iMac 20" Rev.B, I got it late last week and just started setting it up last Sun... and till late Monday when I found out about the fsck problem.
Earlier tonight I just did the Archieve and Install and brought back all my data, files and stuffs, I think doing something like this within a week is really quite tedious and tiring...
For both occasions when I install Tiger, did its software update and also the rest of the software I only have the mac, keyboard, mouse and the ethernet cable (cable modem) connect to the mac, nothing else, and I repair permisson after each update and install...
Ya, you may be right that there may be something wrong with the mac, but c'mon, my 2nd "brand new mac" and it's like this??!! I can't really take it anymore??!!
Anyway, I think I am going to hold on to doing the reformat and testing it, like I say, it is 'working fine' right now, no any indication of glitch or anything, and besides unable to complete Single User Mode... well, I don't think "it is really that bad"...?? (me making sense??)
Maybe I will do the full reformat and reinstall when the next OS Update arrives or something go amiss with the mac, then I'll take that opportunity to test it...
Maybe in the mean time, I'll just ring up AppleCare and see what they say...?
Thanks and cheers.

Can't log in with valid password, can't boot from disk, can't access disk utility, in single user mode can't reset password as appears locked in caps mode with '?' for forward slash, can anyone help?

Can't log in with valid password, can't boot from disk, can't access disk utility, in single user mode can't reset password as appears locked in caps mode with '?' for forward slash, can anyone help?

Which keyboard layout you were using? German, French ... I suppose your layout is reset to the default: US and you are unable to find the "?" or "/" ...
Please have a look into the keyboard viewer, to see how the layout of your keyboard is actually.
marek

Can I access Terminal from Single User Mode?

So I have an early 2011 MBP that is having the graphics switiching problem that's been well documented in some other threads recently:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?start=120&tstart=0
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/14/apples-2011-macbook-pro-lineup-sufferi ng-from-sporadic-gpu-failures
Basically, I cannot boot because it goes to a white screen after the apple logo.
I found these terminal commands that will shut off the discrete graphics card so that only the integrated graphics will run, which would be an ok solution because I mainly use the computer for Recording/Mixing etc with Logic Pro, so I don't really need the more powerful graphics.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/160161/apples-2011-macbook-pro-lineup-suffering -from-sporadic-gpu-failures/80#post_2420378
But I of course can't access Terminal because I can't get past startup. Is there a way to get to terminal and/or enter these commands while in Single User Mode?

Are you referring to these
You can move the kext out with these commands:
> mkdir DisabledExtensions
> cd /System/Library/Extensions
> sudo mv ATIRadeonX****.kext ~/DisabledExtensions (replace asterisks with your model's numbers)
> sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
If so there is nothing to take, the commands are physically removing system files. Once those files are moved there is no way for them to go back unless you put them back or you do an install of the OS.
But I am surprised that Safe mode does not work for you. In Safe mode the system only uses the onboard graphics. Are you certain you ere booted into Safe mode? When in Safe mode the words Safe Boot will appear in red letters at the top of the login screen. Did you see that? I ask because it is easy to mistime the Shift key press during boot and not actually get into Safe mode.
Perhaps you problem something different?

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.

Unable to boot normally - Always need to boot with Single User Mode

Hi Community,
Since last few days, I am unable to boot my Macbook Pro normally, running latest version of OS X Yosemite. When I boot, it goes to grey screen with Apple logo and progress bar, once the progress completes to 100% (after 5-10 minutes which is very longer than usual), it asks me to 'Select language' which seems like fresh installation of OS X. In that case, when I click next and it doesn't detect my SSD (blank list of select installation disk/drive).
After reading some threads, I found work-around and always need to boot into Single user mode (by pressing Command+S during power on) and then need to run following commands...
/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /
"device is write protected" numerous times
reboot
and then only it loads OS X and displays login screen. This happens all the times and I need to follow above steps always to get login screen.
How can I fix this?

Please help me out here. I tried booting it off a USB flash drive with ATV flash but that gave me some errors and prompted me to login with username [email protected] with password frontrow
But I am not sure how to get to login using a suitable input. I tried to telnet it using my PC over network but I dont think it has initialized anything (like wifi or network) at the prompt. Would it take USB keyboard input? All I can do is remove the power and restart it with the usb flash out and get into then get into the recovery loop. I am not sure replacing the hard-drive would help. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Sinu

Unable to start in single-user mode - HD dead?

My MacBook Pro (Mac OS X) refused to start, it hung up on the loading screen where you see the apple and the spinning loading wheel. I found out how to fix this, I had to go into single-user mode and type "/sbin/fsck -fy" to repair/verify the disk (I was unable to do so from the Disk Utility via the Install Disc, the repair/verify buttons were just grayed out).
Anyways, doing this from the command line (single-user mode) fixed the problem and I could boot into Mac OS X (there were more issuses after this point which forced me to do an "Archive and Install").
^ that happened a week ago. And happened again yesterday, hung up on the exact same point. So I boot up my Mac into single-user mode, and type in "/sbin/fsck -fy" to start the process. Different from last time, I got a lot of text this time. It also kept going for a longer while. After about 10 minutes, there was a couple of minutes where nothing happened. So I typed "/sbin/fsck -fy" again (as I'm supposed to do so until it says "** The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK"), and I got some more text, then nothing happened for a while.
Inpatient as I am, I considered the process to be complete, and restarted my Mac by typing "exit".
I think I ****** up my Mac OS X partition at this point. Because when I try to start my Mac now, it automaticly boots into Windows XP (my other partition). Also I cannot enter single-user mode or Verbose mode, the Mac just ignores and goes right into Windows XP.
I've tried to boot from the Install Disc. When I run Disk Utility, the "HD"(name of Mac OS X partition) is grayed out. I can't do an Archive and Install because it cannot detect my main partition.
An interesting thing though: When I have the Install Disc inserted, I can enter single-user mode (by holding cmd+s at startup). However, when I type /sbin/fsck -fy, it starts verifying the Install Disc rather than the HD.
Also when I open My Computer in Windows XP, I can see the other partition (MacDrive). When I select it, I see:
Free Space: 219GB
Total Size: 168GB
This indicates that my HD is dead/erased, and that my last three months of work is gone. This just because I'm impatient, and didn't wait for the fsck process to complete.
What is the next step? How can I get into single-user mode so that I can verify/repair my disc?

On the point of contacting the folks at Alsoft, I have found that they seem to be unobtainable on www.alsoft.com at present.
I wanted to get in touch as I had a small problem with Diskwarrior on updating to 10.5.5 from 10.5.4 ,
Disk permissions ends with an error code.
I wonder if there were so many queries re this that they are unobtainable?
I run 3 machines from a wireless router, an iMac, an HP laptop with XP and a totally obsolete Dell into which i have squeezed W2000, with a resultant mix of browsers but no contact with the folks at Alsoft.
Am I in a minority of one here?

I changed my wheel group properties to no access at top disk level. I messed up, how can I change back in single user mode "command s" as I am now in Thailand and not able to access startup disks?

I messed up, I changed my "Wheel group" properties to No Access ( or something other than the default) at the top level of my startup disk "Macintosh HD".   Now my computer won't start up, I just get the spinning wheel of death.    I also am in Thailand right now, so I cannot go to a Genius at an apple store, nor do I have startup disks available.
So I was hoping there was a way to change back the properties of my disk (Volume) in single user mode (via Command +s) during startup, i.e. can I do a chmod command on the Macintosh HD listing under the Volume Directory.    Or where do i fix this?   Is it fixable without startup disks, etc...
THANKS FOR ANY HELP!!!!
If you could also please let me know you have an answer, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!!
thanks so much
mark
<Edited by Host>

Thomas,
Thanks for the info on command-R, didn't know about that!!!
Yes I changed the sharing "Wheel Group" permissions on my hard drive via Get Info.    But that's all I did.    And then most of the apps wouldn't respond with anything.    So not knowing I did something stupid, I decided to re-boot, and then nothing but the Wheel of Death at startup.
I was trying to limit access to my computer on this network, changed my public folder settings, and then I thought why not the whole hard drive, but at that time I had no idea what the "Wheel Group" was... so I shouldn't have touched it, BUT IT DID ...... argggggg....
I managed to go to an internet cafe & research the problem yesterday.    I used the command +s single mode to get in, and then did the necessary steps to mount the drive so I could make changes.   I basically did this:
Boot into single-user mode (boot while holding down CMD-S)
Follow the on-screen instructions to mount the file system as read-write (a fsck command followed by a mount command)
Type the following: "chmod o+r /" followed by "chmod o+x /"
Type "exit" to leave single user mode and complete the boot sequence.
I found it at this link http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=416180
It worked... thank God!!!   Well so far so good.
I was going to try my own fix by chmod on the Hard drive listed under Volumes directory, but that doesn't seem to match the info under Get Info Window.    So I just used the fix above.    I probably should now go and do "Disk Utility - repair permissions", however I am a little gun shy right now, so I will probably wait until I am back in the States so I can go to an Apple store if it messes up.   Right now I'm following the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" MOTTO...
So Thomas I just wanted to say THANKS for replying so quickly, and I really appreciate your help!!!
(yes I know I shouldn't have used my email addresses, but I WAS DESPERATE, but that's still no excuse)
Hopefully maybe this thread will help someone else out in the future....
Okay, thanks again!
Mark

Single-user mode: How to mount and access an external USB drive?

My MacBook Pro HD is acting up. Cannot boot normally or into "safe mode". Cannot reinstall OS without wiping out the HD. Need to recover some critical files but DiskUtil First Aid and Restore options cannot successfully complete. Problem traced down to "invalid node structure" which means I either have a hardware problem or my filesystem partition directory structure is corrupted. I need to recover some files that are not backed up (timin issue with my regular backup process).
I can boot into single-user mode, mount the root file system (/sbin/mount -uw /) and can see/navigate the rot filesystem structure via good UNIX command line. Here's what I would like to do (in single-user mode):
1. Mount an external USB drive (250 GB already formatted as Mac OS X Extended)
2. Copy various files and/or directories from my HD to the external USB drive (UNIX cp command)
I realize I could go spend $$ for the Disk Warrior or Data Rescue products (or something similar) that SHOULD help me recover my HD or files, but it seems silly to do this when I can see, touch and taste them from within single-user mode....
Comments? Suggestions?
TIA --
Trent
P.S. Once I've recovered my files, I'll try to reformat the HD and then reinstall the OS. And THEN go have Apple look at my machine (thank goodness for AppleCare coverage)!

Resolution:
1) Boot system in single-user mode (SUM) with external HD attached.
2) Execute the following UNIX CLI commands once SUM boot process is completed:
# fsck -fy
# mount -uw /
# mkdir /Volumes/target_directory
# mount -t hfs -w /dev/diskXXX /Volumes/target_directory
# cp -RXv /source_directory /Volumes/target_directory
Where XXX is the device-level name for your external HD's data partition. In my case this was /dev/disk1s2. It may take some experimentation to identify this device name if your system has multiple HD's.
3) Verify contents were successfully copied onto the /Volumes/target_directory.
Comments and observations:
- Do NOT use "/" as your source directory - cp will make a second (redundant) copy of /volumes/target_directory
- I was able to successfully copy ALL files off my HD despite the fsck command's "invalid node structure" error message with this simple procedure. YMMV, depending on the state of your HD.
- The repeated disk0s2: I/O error warnings displayed during the SUM boot process did not seem to have a negative effect on this procedure. I also received this same error warning intermittently as I navigated the mounted filesystem did not seem to be a problem, either. Again, YMMV.
Commercial software:
I downloaded ProSoft Engineering's Data Rescue 3 product (trial version) before spending $99 to attempt to recover my "bad" HD's data via mounting to a good system with FW target mode. It could not successfully complete its "QuickScan" process and immediately hung on block 0 of 390M during its "Deep Scan" process. The product did seem to function properly on an operational system. ProSoft's technical support was responsive and helpful but had no answer for my "Deep Scan" error.
I did not attempt to use Alsoft's Disk Warrior 4 product. I could not find any trial software available and was reluctant to spend $100 based upon the mixed reviews and comments on this discussion forum as well as other reviews. Alsoft does claim to address the "invalid node structure" error in their marketing materials. Hindsight being 20/20 - I saved $100 by using this simple procedure.
Final note:
Neither Leopard nor Snow Leopard's installation DVD could recognize the bad internal HD when trying to do a reinstall. While DiskUtil was able to "see" the bad internal drive it immediately failed when I tried to do an "erase and format". Took the system to my local Apple store and the Genius ran a tool called "SMART Utility" from Volitans Software (www.volitans-software.com). SMART utility confirmed that my HD was bad so it was replaced. AppleCare pays for itself (once again!).

MacBook randomly starting up in single-user mode

Hi, for a few weeks now my MacBook's been starting up in single-user mode by itself, without me touching anything. The thing is, it only happens about half the time - otherwise it's booting up normally. I wiped my drive and reinstalled Lion, ran fsck and used disk utility several times, but it's still happening.
Anyone got any idea of what could be the problem?
Thanks.

My friend, you are onto something Turning my keyboard on *after* startup for the last week and it hasn't happened once! Any idea why it's doing that? Thanks!

Hi, i forgot my macbook pro(snow leopard) password and i tried to reset it through single user mode, but whenever i type, everything comes out in CAPs instead of lower case. Each time i press the minus(-), it always comes out as an underscore(_).Pls help.

Hi, i forgot my macbook pro(snow leopard) password and i tried to reset it through single user mode, but whenever i type, everything comes out in CAPs instead of lower case. Each time i press the minus(-), it always comes out as an underscore(_).Pls help.

Well, you can try easing the shift key up with something thin but flexible (credit card sort of thing) but if the contacts below are stuck you may need to get it seen to by an authorised repairer.
If you can borrow a keyboard (a PC one will probably work as long as the password is alpha-numeric with no special characters) you can at least get in to backup your HD before going for repair.

Impossible to boot MacBook Pro Retina ! impossible to start in single user mode, Openfirmware password set, but safari works!

I have got a Macbook pro retina.
I have done 2 partitions on the SSD drive. 1 for the OS and 1 for the user (with a kind of ln -s /Home/myself /Volume/Part2/myself
I was watching a movie (with VLC) in full screen for a while and I wanted to escape. Impossible, and impossible to reboot.
When I start, I have a directory with a question mark.
I have a Open firmware passwords set (that I remember).
I cannot reset PRAM. (I can not change the RAM amount inside the commuter as this is a retina model)
I cannot start in verbose mode.
I can choose a disk to boot. I see only the OS drive and not the user partition, and no 'recovery partition'. It seems that i need to do a fsck -yff on the user partition but how ?
I can start the OS partition, and i can choose 'guess' or 'myself'. If i choose myself, I have an error message :'there is a error, the session can not start'. If I start with the guess account, I restart, and then I can browse the internet with safari (this is how I am writing this text!)
=> How can i repair the partition ? (open a terminal, boot in single user mode ...?)
best regards.

Actually, the recovery partition was there, but was not shown as my user partition. I have seen that reseting the PRAM and changing the ram could remove the open firemware password. So i have turn the computer on until the battery was empty. Then I boot about 20 times, and unplug the power supply after few seconds at different step of the booting pricess. At last, the screen default resolution when booting changed, I undertood that i succeeded, and I was able to enter.
Then I boot in single user mode, removed the open firmware password, activated the root user, and everything was fine now !

Unable to Access Single User Mode on Macbook Air 2012

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