Cube won't boot after 10.4.6 upgrade

Z

Zunoj

Registered
Hi guys, long time reader, first time poster! I've learned a lot on this site but this one has me stumped, any help would be apreciated.


I Upgraded from 10.4.5 to 10.4.6 via the softwarte update app, after the second reboot the computer stalls (and keeps doing it) at the Starting Mac OS X page with the "progress bar" on full. I have tried logging in on Safe mode, but it does the same. I was able to log on in single user mode, I checked the disk with fsck, and disk utilitiy, both say the disk is ok. I also have repaired permissons and still nothing.

Logging in in single user mode I deleteded some of the preferences listed in this article this , and after reboot still nothing, so I deleted all the preferences there (/library/preferences) and tried again, still nothing.

I am able to start up the computer as a firewire disk, I can access it from my laptop and I also have tried booting up the laptop with that disk as startup volume but I still get the same.

The computer is:

G4 powermac cube
450mhz Processor
640MG RAM

Any help would be apreciated.
 
The computer may appear to "hang" with the progress bar sitting there at full, but it's not hung. Mine stayed there with the progress bar seemingly at 100% for over 5 minutes -- how long did you let it sit there?

I would recommend re-installing the Mac OS X 10.4.6 combo updater, and letting the computer do it's thing. Walk away from the computer if you find yourself impatient and wanting to restart it, if that would help.

It's probably not really stuck there -- it's performing critical procedures that should not be interrupted. After system updates, startup times can be significantly longer than a normal boot, and you should not assume that the computer is stalled (unless it's been sitting there for hours or more).

How long did you let the computer sit there before you decided it was "stuck?"
 
I waited about 10 minutes, I know that after updates it takes a while, but 10 mins made me think it stalled.

I want to try to re install the update, but how can I do that if I can't even get to the desktop?
 
10 minutes may not have been long enough... I can't remember the exact amount of time mine took, but it may have been up there around 10 or so minutes, and I actually did think it was stuck at one point -- but, patience prevailed and the exorbitant amount of time it took to proceed was just a result of Mac OS X updating itself (I could hear the hard drive clicking away if I put my ear real close to the machine).

Using previous Combo updater boot-up times to estimate the time it should take the 10.4.6 Combo updater to finish isn't wise... every updater is different, and every updater may update a different part of the system. Just because 10.4.x took x amount of minutes to finish doesn't mean that the 10.4.6 updater will act remotely similar to that.

I don't know if you can apply the Combo updater when the Cube is booted in FireWire Target Disk mode, but it may be worth a shot. Another option is to do an Archive & Install procedure, then update to 10.4.6 with the Combo updater to bring you up-to-date.
 
Thanks a lot for the advice Diablo.

I Dowloaded the combo updater to my powerbook and installed as Firewe Target disk to the cube. That fixed it right on. (but for some reason took less than 3 mins to restart, now that has me wondering what went on :p).

So I have my cube up and running again, thanks a lot again!
 
(I could hear the hard drive clicking away if I put my ear real close to the machine).
Click to expand...

So I had a similar problem today, and ended up reinstalling from the DVD, since 10.4.6 seemed to hang up on reboot (on the apple logo / spinner screen) indefinitely. The thing is -- there was *no* hard drive activity whatsoever for more than 5 minutes.

So my question is -- if there's no hard drive activity when Mac OS X seems to hang, is there something else it might be doing? Could it be busily *processing* for that length of time?
 
It would have to depend on the speed of the system I believe. My iMac G5 went through the instal really quick, but it's a 2.0 GHz G5 compared to an older G4 computer. And I'm sure one of the Core Duo iMacs would go through the upgrade even faster.

Fight the impatience...let it do its thing and you'll be pleasantly surprised.
 
So we again learned that the combo updater is not only ALWAYS the better way to go, but also a cure for failed delta-updates. Ha! Good.
 
Just to add to the 'me too' list (and to reassure anyone else with a Powerbook) I got a really long boot up time after installing 10.4.6. The powerbook also rebooted in the middle of trying to boot. But afterwards, it is running just fine.
[12" PowerBook 867/1G]
 
salohcinluap said:
Just to add to the 'me too' list (and to reassure anyone else with a Powerbook) I got a really long boot up time after installing 10.4.6. The powerbook also rebooted in the middle of trying to boot. But afterwards, it is running just fine.
[12" PowerBook 867/1G]
Click to expand...

I'd read about this double-boot thing for this update. But I was experiencing a wouldn't-even-reboot-once issue. Glad yours is running fine, though. I'll probably try again.

Nixgeek -- I agree that patience is a virtue. I just can't imaging what my processor (albeit only 867 MHz G4) would be doing for so long without ever accessing the drive. Figuring Pi perhaps? Pondering the miracle of its own existence?
 
Big problem with my powerbook!

Last night I wanted to install the 10.4.6 update fråm software update. It found a lot of other updates as well which all went fine. When it was installing the 10.4.6 it suddenly quit and said that some sort of error occured, and the installer had been placed in the bin.

I'm not sure if the installer did install or not, but the computer rebooted, and now it's just sitting at the screen with the grey apple and a spinning wheel under it.

Last night I immediately thought something was wrong so I tried rebooting about ten times without luck, tried getting inte safe mode, but I can't. All I can do is the (Apple + S) mode, whatever it's called, where a lot of text shows up but I never get to a prompt.

So I read through some forums and I found that the boot process may take some time, however, I've left it on for 45 minutes, and it still hasn't booted.

I've tried booting from the 10.4.2 boot DVD that came with it, and did the disk repair and permissions repair, but nothing changed.

Now, the big problem is that I wanted to do an archive and install, but it requires minimum 2 GB, and I don't even have that!

What can I possibly do?

Is there something I can run through the terminal, cause I found that on the boot dvd?

I have a lot of important files (of course not all of them backuped) so I'd be glad if someone told me, "That's easy, just click the apple key twice and say the magic word!"

Please help!
 
Do you have another Mac available? And can you turn the one with the Problem in Firewire Target mode? (you do that by pressing T at startup)

If you can, and have a firewire cable. You can download and Install the combo update, via the 2nd machine. That helped with my problem.
 
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