[danb35]

I've suddenly started having trouble booting my Mac OS X 10.5.8 installation on my Vostro A90 (Mini 9). When I power up, this is all that comes up on the screen (after the POST screen):

boot0: GPT
boot0: testing
boot0: testing
boot0: done
boot1: error

IIRC, I have DellEFI 1.2 installed, using the Chameleon bootloader. A search suggested using a DellMiniBoot USB drive to boot the machine, then reinstalling DellEFI. When I do that, the only startup volume to choose is hd(0,1), which just reboots the DellMiniBoot USB drive. What else can I try here?

[rtkwon]

May not be the case here, but do you have a space in the name for your hard drive? I'm fairly new to the Hackintosh scene, and I ran into this problem on my first-ever install. Upon successfully installing Snow Leopard, I kept getting that same exact error. Luckily for me, mechdrew pointed out that a space in the hard drive name may cause this error. I omitted the space, and wallah! No more boot1: error.

[danb35]

Thanks for the reply. No, there's no space in the hard drive name--it's "OSXMINI9" or something very similar (can't boot it right now to check, but definitely no spaces). It had been working fine for at least a few months, and I can't think of anything I've changed.

[danb35]

Any other ideas? Or should I be planning to reinstall? The drive is being seen (if I boot the Windows 7 install DVD, it sees the drive), but when I use the DellMiniBoot USB stick or the NetbookCD to boot, I'm not given the option to boot from the internal SSD.

I do have a 60 GB external HDD; I'm assuming I can install to that and use that to get the internal installation working. Sounds like a lot of work, but may be my best bet. I also have a 64 GB runcore on order (and they say they're about ready to ship)...

[Bear Hunter]

Originally Posted by rtkwon

May not be the case here, but do you have a space in the name for your hard drive? I'm fairly new to the Hackintosh scene, and I ran into this problem on my first-ever install. Upon successfully installing Snow Leopard, I kept getting that same exact error. Luckily for me, mechdrew pointed out that a space in the hard drive name may cause this error. I omitted the space, and wallah! No more boot1: error.

I have a space in the name of my HD. No issues whatsoever, are you sure it's not because your using DellEFI vs. NBM/NBI?

[danb35]

I have no idea if it's because of DellEFI vs. NBM/NBI. It has worked fine for six months or so using DellEFI.

[luis]

Hi, dan:

Have exactly the same problem with a Mini9: it was running fine with 10.5.8 (and DellEfi), and suddenly got a kernel panic ("Please press the power button..etc.etc"), and then got the same error.

I booted the mini with a retail leopard disk and tried running Disk Utility. It was unable to repair the disk (listed as damaged with volume, catalog issues).

I then got the TechTools Pro 5 DVD image (bought from MacUpdate, but available at "micromat.com") and restored it to a USB disk; then used NetbookMaker on the restored image and was able to boot the mini with the TechTools USB; however, the window that comes up is too large for the mini's screen, so you can't reach the buttons!!

Therefore, I then downloaded the "mirror" cmd line utility from "http://www.fabiancanas.com/Projects/MirrorDisplays/", and installed it in "/usr/bin" in the TechTool USB, chmoding it to 755.

I proceeded to edit "/etc/rc.launchapp" in the TechTool USB and modified the line:

/Applications/.TechTool\ Language\ Selector.app/Contents/MacOS/TechTool\ Language\ Selector

to:
/Applications/.TechTool\ Language\ Selector.app/Contents/MacOS/TechTool\ Language\ Selector && /usr/bin/mirror -f

This basically allows me to boot the mini with the TechTool USB and an attached monitor (use Fn-8 to activate both monitors while the Apple logo is showing during boot). The second monitor does allow access to the TechTool buttons at the bottom of the screen.

However, when pressed, they do nothing (not sure why, still working on it).

Therefore, I will be taking the SSD (Dell 32GB) out and plugging it through USB into a iMac to run TechTool from there and see if the catalog/volume corruption can be fixed, rebuilt, or data salvaged.