Kernel Panic on clean update

T

tak5haka

Registered
Hiya,

My first post as this is really starting to annoy me.

I have been running my Titanium PowerBook G4 with Tiger no problem for a while, but recently needed to do the combo update to the latest version.

Software Update couldn't verify the update when it downloaded, so I backed up everything I had and did a clean install of the base system - which worked fine.

I then downloaded the standalone installer from the Apple site and installed it. Upon restart I get the old white text on a black background kernel thing:

Code: 
Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0x700 - Program DAR=0x000000000038CFD4 PC=0x000000000003D220
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
    Exception state (sv=0x014F9000)
        PC=0x0003D220; MSR=0x00081030; DAR=0x0038CFD4; DSISR=0x42000000; LR=0x0003D220; R1=0x0000BDC0; XCP=0x0000001C (0x700 - Program)
        Backtrace:
0x0003D218 0x00025480 0x000955CC 0x00034FE0 0x00095594 0x00094A78
          0x000927F4
Proceeding back via exception chain:
  Exception state (sv=0x014F9000)
    previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping ...

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.7.0: Fri May 26 15:20:53 PDT 2006; root:xnu-792.6.76.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC

Please, can anyone help?
 
Okay ...

Well I've just spent all day installing and reinstalling the OS, even trying incremental updates, zapping the PRAM, using Applejack, crossing my fingers, and I still get the damn kernel message as above.

Can anyone help please? Do I need to supply more information? If so, what do you need?

Thanks in advance.
 
Are you performing the update with peripherals that are connected other than the keyboard and mouse? If so, then that's the culprit. Disconnect all peripherals except for the keyboard and the mouse and reinstall. Then once you're updated, reinstall any third-party drivers for your other peripherals if you need to.
 
Thanks - the only thing other than the kb & mouse is the network cable.

Story so far ... I have performed another clean erase and install of 10.4 and it came up with a kernel panic after the installation reboot. So I bit the bullet and reset the nvram and it booted up okay.

I then rebooted into single user mode and applied all the cleanup things from Applejack and it continued to boot up okay.

My plan is now to try and boot in safe mode (have yet to successfully boot in this mode - how long after the chime do you wait to hold Shift down?) without the network cable plugged in and install the 10.4.7 standalone combo.

I expect to be doing this all Monday ... what fun is caused by a simple system update ... :rolleyes:
 
tak5haka said:
... So I bit the bullet and reset the nvram and it booted up okay.
...
I expect to be doing this all Monday ... what fun is caused by a simple system update ... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Hindsight is 20/20, so they say... You could possibly have fixed this by resetting NVRAM as one of the first things to try, and not the last. As you can see, it's not a last-chance kind of fix, and causes little, if any disruption other than the chance of getting the system to work again.
The double boot that recent Tiger updates initiate cause some older Macs to struggle on the restart. I have seen a few lock up during that restart, most work after a forced shutdown, some need a little more help, such as your NVRAM reset. Just that first restart, then the systems usually continue working fine.
 
Okay

everything is going okay. Another clean install of the base system and a safe boot install of 10.4.7 combo.

The mac double rebooted, a few things flashed up on screen. But now it is stuck on the blue screen with the revolving gear and has been for about ten minutes.

Should I just leave it to do whatever it's doing, or force another reboot?
 
The first boot can be very mysterious, and sometimes fails, in my experience.

Has your Powerbook finished booting now?
If not, hold the power button until it shuts down. Do a simple start now. That should do it.
If not, reset PRAM, and continue to hold option-Apple-p-r until the boot chime repeats 2 more times, and release those keys.
Now, did it finish booting?
 
No - it hadn't finished booting, so I rebooted as you suggested and reset the PRAM. Now it's back to sitting on the blue screen with the gear rotating icon.
 
However, it just came up with the Darwin/BSD login console ... however when I put in my username/password it says 'password incorrect'
 
Do you still have a mouse/keyboard attached? Remove both.
When do you get the request for a password? Is it after you type in a command, or first item without you typing anything yet?

Try to reboot into single-user mode (Apple-S) and try a disk check
/sbin/fsck -fy
and press enter
if that completes, type /sbin/mount -uw / and press enter
then type reboot -n and press enter again.
enter verbose mode (Apple-V) and watch for a long wait at part of the system load,
Come back with the line where the system stops loading.
 
Okay - first of all, thanks for this, I appreciate it.

Right, the request for the password came up shortly after getting to the blue screen with gear icon.

So, I have just done as you ask and now it's just sat there with a black screen and a small white box at the top left.
 
I've just booted to the install CD and run permission repair from the disk utility - loads of things came up - and will now try another reboot
 
definitely 'could not create DiskArb or approval session' comes up before it stops - is it worth using the 'reset password' utility on the install CD?
 
Right - going to start from scratch again and this time have nothing plugged into the machine. I will let you know how I get on.
 
Me again.

(1) Erase and installed Tiger 10.4 - install fine
(2) Rebooted into Single-User Mode and ran Applejack to clear cache files, etc
(3) Reboot okay
(4) Rebooted into Safe Boot and ran 10.4.7 Combo installer - package installed fine
(5) Reboot. Double reboot occurred. Passed through grey Apple screen. Now going through blue screen (flicking between blue screen with gear icon and plain blue screen) - it has currently been doing this for five minutes now.
 
Did you run fsck from single-user mode? This would be more relevant than running AppleJack on a fresh erase/install. You should make sure that the boot volume passes that fsck. If it fails, you would then be wasting your time by updating anything, before running fsck 2 more times. If it passes, then continue. If you get a continual failure, then you could stop, and have the hard drive replaced....... (most likely problem then would be a bad hard drive)
 
Type reboot, and your system should restart OK.
You can hold Apple-V (for verbose-boot) until you see that same black screen with text - similar to single-user, to see if a system process hangs during the boot.
should boot this time.....
 
ok - in verbose mode it loops around 'loginwindow crashed' crash report written to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/loginwindow.crash.log
 
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