Still waiting for root device: 10.7.2 on Intel 320 SSD

[Thom the Destroyer]

Sadly, no progress. Next time I open up my box (probably Monday) I'll try unhooking everything other than the SSD.

reinstall with an MBR partion and see if it works then

It won't let me install unless it's formatted with the GUID partition table. If there's a workaround, I'll give it a shot.

 

[verymodern]

it may work to install on guid, carbon copy clone to a HDD that's formatted as MBR, do the update - and if all works well, carbon copy clone back to guid SSD or if that doesn't work, wipe the SSD and repartition with SSD _then_ carbon copy clone from HDD to SSD. I hope to give something like this a try but am temporarily burnt out from a few days of constant attempts/reboots!

 

[verymodern]

An update: I have a working, bootable 10.7.2 from my SSD.

Here I think are the keys - at least for my build & why!

• Have Snow Leopard installed & working MultiBeast and all - otherwise in my case I cannot boot without a kernel panic "No HPETS available... CPU(s) configured incorrectly\n~ @/SourceCache/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement-142.6/pmThread.c:157" or similar. It's always about the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement though. I used the option in Miscellaneous to NullCPUPowerManagement and I suppose that's mainly what matters[/*:m:u053ix63]
• I ran MultiBeast for Lion after booting from the UniBeast USB with _ONLY_ System Utilities tasks, Ethernet, and the NullCPUPowerManagement and then without rebooting I realized that the boot loader probably needed to be updated to work with Lion. So I ran MultiBeast again and used the Chimera v1.6.0 r1394[/*:m:u053ix63]
• I would get a crash on attempting to boot from the SSD. -x -v revealed our old "friend" Still waiting for root device[/*:m:u053ix63]
• Booting first into UniBeast's USB, I was able to boot into Lion on the SSD[/*:m:u053ix63]
• I went to the tonymacx86 downloads and installed Chimera 1.7.0[/*:m:u053ix63]
• Booting with the -v flag, I got a crash after a few seconds - a few lines of information appear and then the screen goes blank, the motherboard beeps and system restarts. Also tried GraphicsEnabler=No -v and GraphicsEnabler=No -x -v to the same results[/*:m:u053ix63]
• I used the rBoot CD and booted into the SSD. A Kernel Panic was displayed with com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC and it mentioned something about not finding something about com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily[/*:m:u053ix63]
• I tried a couple of more times to boot to the SSD from the UniBeast USB and did achieve success, then I researched AudioAUUC and found it to be present. However, the SSD's volume is NOT displayed in finder windows. I haven't ever used Lion before so I don't know if it's the usual that the startup disk doesn't apperar as an icon on the desktop like it does in earlier versions of the OS. I had to go into DiskUtility and right-click the SSD's icon and opt to Reveal In Finder. Then I went to \Extra\Extensions and saw the file in there. I don't know much of anything about kexts, but I saw an app called Kext Utility and opened the file in that. I don't know what it did, but it did seem to refresh a cache and rename the file (perhaps reloading it?)[/*:m:u053ix63]
• I rebooted normally w/o any CD or USB and it worked![/*:m:u053ix63]
• I powered down completely and booted and it worked![/*:m:u053ix63]
• I cloned the drive as-is in this condition to a partition elsewhere so I have this starting point after more than a week trying to go from again[/*:m:u053ix63]

I do believe the most important things out of all of this for my system were the base 10.6.8 installation (I cannot get it to boot without that AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement after installing 10.7.2 on a clean drive - and don't know how to work around that) & the Chimera 1.7.0 bootloader then determining the offending kext and using Kext Utility on it.

Certainly these aren't definitive findings - I don't know why UniBeast allowed me to boot the 3rd try after the 1st, then rBoot, then a 2nd all failed. But the root device problem this thread is about I _DO_ think is boot loader involved, and I have seen it not only on SSD but traditional HDD too.

I really hope SOMETHING in all of that will help you, I included as much detail as practical but if there's anything you're still wondering about I can try to expand on it if you think it might be of use.

 

[Thom the Destroyer]

I rewired my box today, and tried installing with the SSD at SATA 0 and no other drives connected except for the flash drive, but no dice. Next, I'll probably wipe one of my externals and try the procedure on an SSD-sized partition.

 

[verymodern]

Thom - try the standalone installer for Chimera after Multibeasting.
Are you having troubles on the FIRST reboot (via UniBeast USB) with the waiting for root device? Mine were on subsequent ones. If you can reboot the first time ok, Multibeast and then put on the most recent chimera, see how that suits you! good luck.

 

[Thom the Destroyer]

The most recent Chimera (1.7.0) is in the most recent MultiBeast. Would it still be worthwhile to use the standalone installer?

 

[verymodern]

no, it wouldn't. I guess I need to get the newest multibeast then!

 

[fuma]

The most recent Chimera (1.7.0) is in the most recent MultiBeast. Would it still be worthwhile to use the standalone installer?

If you want to try something else - go back to Chimera 1.4.1 (and use 'com.apple.Boot.plist' in your /Extra folder). See if that makes a difference.

Any Chimera version beyond 1.4.1 makes my drives shut down/sleep/whatever during boot.. and I get waiting for root device (I obviously don't have SSDs). But I firmly believe Chimera is not ready for prime time yet.

I can't find anything on this forum about it... but 1.4.1 is stable and works for me...

 

[Thom the Destroyer]

Where does one download older versions of Chimera?

 

[Thom the Destroyer]

I had MultiBeast 3.8 lying about, so I followed the Lion install procedure and then ran after MultiBeast 4.2.1 it to install (only) Chimera 1.4.1. It self-boots with npci=0x2000, although graphics, audio, network, and so on are borked (as expected). This tells me that the problem lies with Chimera.

I will try to find a more recent version, like 1.6. Does anyone know where to find non-current versions of Chimera? I really think that I'm close to the end of this issue, I just need the Chimera.