clueless screwing with OS X system = bad idea

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dankephoto's picture
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clueless screwing with OS X system = bad idea

I've just spent waaay too long trying to rectify my clueless OS X 'hacking' . . .

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so anyway . . .

I discovered helpful advice to let me use my old Agfa DuoScan HiD SCSI scanner with my 10.3.9-running Quicksilver (normally doesn't work you see.) Said helpful advice suggested replacing IOSCSIWhatever kexts with versions from 10.2.8. Heh. OK, so I did and now that system is fubar. I tried re-replacing the 10.2.4 versions with the 10.3.9 versions I had saved and I still get failure to load and an eventual halt while the OS looks for the 'root device'.

Well, to make things simple (HA!) I figured to run the 10.3.9 combo updater again on the problem system, that usually clears things up. Well, for whatever reason, the .pkg shows up as a folder and I haven't the *^%&%$^%$*& idea how to make it look like an installer package.

BTW, the scanner works perfectly with same machine under 9.2, but as I need X for other apps I'm using, it's a bigtime inconvenience to constantly switch back and forth between the two. Oh, and no, the scanner driver doesn't work under Classic.

Grumble, grumble, I just wanna work, not futz around . . . This has turned into a f*%&^$%n' huge timewasting PITA, as I'm not even mentioning all the other *%&^&^$ I had to go through just to get to this ^&%&$(% point. Heh, sorry for using such bad language but I can't help it now that I've pulled out what little hair I had left.

TIA,

dan k

(PS: If anyone has sage advice on accomplishing my original goal of backdating the 10.3.9 IOSCSI kexts to the 10.2.8 versions, I'd love to hear it.)

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hmmmph

Well, as I expected, once I dug up (well alright, created from scratch!) another bootable Panther volume and booted from that, the .pkg showed up properly as a package. I still have no idea how or why the package didn't present itself properly under the other system. Hmmmph, bloody mysterious OS X.

As for the original hack that got me in my lil' mess, I still wish I knew of a way to safely install those 10.2.8 kexts over the 10.3.9 versions. Anyone?

dan k

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When you boot the computer up

When you boot the computer up, boot in single user mode and type "fsck -yf", this should check and correct any errors in the volume.

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I'm seriously considering shooting the QS . . .

so it's a good thing I haven't got a gun handy.

Now I've really fubared something up good. Having tried to repair the problem drive and failed, I archive-and-installed 10.3. Rebooting gave the universal circle-with-diagonal-line, rebooting again brought me up from another drive altogether in OS 9.

Rebooting into OF, I tried to do the nvram reset (reset-nvram) and the blankity-blank machine tells me it doesn't recognize 'reset-nvram', "unknown word".

{whereupon I pulls out a few remaining clumps of hair}

Now the problem drive doesn't even show up when I hold the option key.

Mind you I'm giving the short version here.

Grrrrrrrrrrr

Edit: checked the pram battery, shows 3.7V in place, so I figure it's good. I pulled the battery and unplugged the power to the PS and pressed the startup button a couple of times; I'll leave it overnight without juice. Here's hoping I won't need that spare QS MLB I just happen to have right now . . .

dan k

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Did you try pulling the SCSI

Did you try pulling the SCSI card out?

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pulling hair/// err, I mean cards

Thing is, this configuration has been working without a hitch for months now, right up until I swapped the .kext files.

I still can't reset nvram dammit. I really think that's a big problem, since all attempts now to boot to X leave me hanging with 'Still waiting for boot device".

How can I reset nvram if it won't accept the command 'reset-nvram'? If I hit the case really hard, will that do it?

I admit it looks like I'm a bit short tempered, but in truth it's now nearly midnight and I've been struggling with this for 10 hours and I'm about borked. Time for beddy me thinks.

dan k

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open it up, and hit whatever

open it up, and hit whatever little buttons on the motherboard you can find for about 10 seconds. Also, try typing instead of reset-nvram, init-nvram. see if that works. if those don't try set-defaults. You tried fsck -yf in single user mode right? You didn't force restart after that did you?

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