Powerbook boots into Console

kps · Jul 23rd, 2006, 03:46 PM

After running a whole bunch of updates through Software Update my rev A 12" PB won't boot into the GUI.

What happened is this:
--performed updated
--machine rebooted
--but remained in the blue screen--stalled.
--I rebooted again
--this time it remained in the gray screen (open firmware)--stalled, no question mark.
--couldn't find the system, I guess
--booted into single user mode and ran fsck
--fsck fixed the file system and then wouldn't exit
--I shut the machine down after 10min
--after that it keeps booting into Console (not single user...CONSOLE)
--disk mounts and I have full login...but no GUI.

I then ran Diskwarrior and it repaired the disk/filesystem/directory errors.

Problem now is that it still boots into Console and I can't get the Diskwarrior CD out of the slot... reboot + mouse click does nothing.

Can't find any unix Eject command either...ran locate and apropos, but nothing shows. I'm confy with the shell, so feel free to advise a unix fix.

Can't do a hardware test until I get the DW cd out...

Any other help greatly appreciated...

kps · Jul 23rd, 2006, 04:00 PM

Forgot to add:

zapped the PRAM

I have also managed to eject the DW disk and I'm performing the hardware test as I write this.

So far Logic Board has passed and Mass Storage has passed.

thatcomputerguy · Jul 23rd, 2006, 07:15 PM

not sure if you've tried this already, but how about...

eject cdrom0

jdurston · Jul 23rd, 2006, 07:27 PM

When I had purchased bad RAM for my iBook all I got was the console when I powered up. The prompt said something about Darwin.

kps · Jul 23rd, 2006, 08:17 PM

Okay, the Hardware Test showed no problems with anything.

I really didn't think it would, considering how this happened (ie using System Update Utility).

There is no 'eject' or eject cdrom0 command in the sh that I could find, but I got the CD out on the second try.

Since DiskWarrior couldn't fix my problem, I figured Archive & Install is the way to go. That worked, but put me into Mac OS 10.2....

I've since upgraded to Tiger and applied the combined update along with ALL the other updates.

All appears to be well, thanks.

Terry O'Leary · Jul 23rd, 2006, 08:57 PM

if you ...
man diskutil

you can figure out how to eject the disks among other neat things.

I.E. ...
diskutil list
which lists the volumes on the disks, followed by ...
diskutil eject /dev/disk1

worked on my Pismo laptop

Cheers - Terry

kps · Jul 23rd, 2006, 10:30 PM

Crap...completely drew a blank on diskutil...

Thanks, Terry

dthompson101 · Jul 24th, 2006, 07:12 AM

throwing in my 2 cents here on ejecting a CD:

drutil tray open | close | eject

As for your machine booting into console only, its sounds much more like an OS problem and I would doubt that disk warrior would be able to fix this issue (to me)

If yanking out the RAM as the above poster said, can you do the following:
Log into your console session with your user name and password

Then type the following:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder

Does that load up the Finder for you?

kps · Jul 24th, 2006, 09:22 AM

Thanks for the tip on druti.

Yup, considering how the problem developed, I didn't think it was a HW issue either.

I can't answer your last question about loading the finder as I've reinstalled the system.