[igb]

Strange one.

My Mini 9, BIOS A05, 2GB RAM has been running fine on 10.5 since the summer, but recently my RunCore died. I swapped the original 16GB STEC back in, which had OSX already installed, and RMA'd the RunCore. I have full Time Capsule backups, so I decided to do a fresh install with the latest bits into the replacement RunCore and then restore from Time Machine.

I built a USB installer from 10.5 Retail Media and the latest NetBootBootMaker using the Mini 9 as the host (stupidly, I did it over the top of the image I'd previously used successfully) and the installation proceeds smoothly. However, once I get the point where I'd like to install the 10.5.8 Combo, there are three problems:

1. The USB ports aren't visible: inserting a stick does nothing, and sudo dmesg reports nothing.

2. NetBookInstaller offers no choices for the filesystem to update, and all the options are greyed out

3. At boot time (thinking -x was worth trying) there is no progress bar showing the root device name: it goes straight to the apple logo with no chance to type boot options.

I've tried simply re-doing the installation, but the result is the same.

My next plan is to make the installation USB stick on my iMac, in case something odd happens using a Hackinstosh to make the installation kit (hard to think what, though). Then I have the older NetBookBootMaker binaries I used in August and October, so I can use those if necessary.

But I think this one might be worth tracking down.

ian

[igb]

When I built the installer which generated the problematic machine, Disk Utility said `Copying Blocks' rather than the more usual `Copying Files', and I ended up with a USB stick called `Mac OS X Install DVD'. I suspect I restored the DVD to the USB Volume, rather than the partition I should have used, and I ended up with a corrupt installer. Odd that it managed to get as far as the post-install reboot, but clearly there were critical components missing. 10.5.8 is just installing now off a correctly-recognised USB stick, and I got the progress bar at reboot, so I think I'm sorted.

Edited to add:

In fact, the progress bar is still the issue. If I book of the installation USB stick, I get a progress bar and can choose between the volume on the stick and the volume on the SSD. I can also supply boot options. If I boot off the internal disk, I don't get a progress bar and proceed straight to the Apple logo. If I have to use a USB stick to boot to safe mode, it's no biggie, but it seems odd compared to past behaviour.