Sun Ultra 24 - issues booting install DVD

I have recently felt inclined to try installing OS X on my Ultra 24, and while things look promising, I'm stuck on an issue that's keeping me from booting the DVD. I'm using iBoot NVIDIA to load the retail OS X 10.6 DVD.

The problem I'm getting is the infamous "Still waiting for root device" message. Most of the hardware seems to be supported, as I see text strings mentioning audio, USB, and graphics during verbose boot. After the FireWire drivers load, though, I get "Still waiting for root device."

All of the information I have found about this error online so far suggests setting the onboard SATA mode to AHCI, but I have tried it in both AHCI and legacy/IDE mode with the same results. Googling around doesn't bring up much information about this computer other than the official Sun manuals, but the SATA controller is an ICH9, which many other people seem to have reported success with.

Beyond changing the SATA mode, what other options do I have for getting OS X to pick up onboard SATA devices for an ICH9? It looks like most of the hardware is supported, so I'd really like to see OS X on this thing. Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Hi, here are a few things that helped me. I disable Peripherals in the Bios during install. 1394/Audio/USB-3/Ethernet. Bare minimum really. And 1 Stick of RAM gets rid of problems too as I recall on some boards. Set your HPET to 64 if you have it. AHCI is S3 or Auto I believe.

Make sure your DVD is on SATA-0 and HDD is on SATA-1.

After you get the Kexts installed enable your Peripherals in the BIOS.

If you get stopped at a warning couldn't set Min/Max -db error then your DVD is incompatible. Swap it with a better or newer one.

Hope this helps!

immapc said:

If you get stopped at a warning couldn't set Min/Max -db error then your DVD is incompatible. Swap it with a better or newer one.

Click to expand...

I just got home and reinvestigated the messages I get before "Still waiting for root device." I don't get a message exactly like you describe, but something similar mentioning an invalid min/max dB. Here are the last few messages:


Is that what you mean?

Yep that is exactly the error. But it looks like you got past the error to the firewire. It would halt so all you see was that one line. But not totally sure if it is hanging on the DVD or Firewire but as I remember it stopped there but then again I had my firewire disabled.

I will just tell you that the 24 dollar ASUS DVD worked and my slightly older more expensive Pioneer DVD did not work. I also got the LG Super Multi Blu-Ray Writer and it booted off that ok too. But that was a $200 DVD and the ASUS $24 should work just fine. Unless this is Motherboard specific to the compatibility I am not totally sure. But $24 and a nearby Frys Electronics will give you the answer we need!

Yeah the 2 pair minimum should be ok if that is required. If you can disable the Firewire that may be your next error. You may possibly have a Jumper to disable the Firewire? But try it enabled after you get past the min/max error.

Alright. Could I get model numbers for some of those drives so I can make sure I get the right one?

Thanks for the help.

Re-Read my post I had just read your post of the error for min/max but looks like you got past it hanging on firewire.

Oh and I am not sure about the NVidia 370 card you may want to make sure that is compatible first before you go any further.