Updated progress on Lion kernel panic

[BlueHornet]

I've read through so many pages here on the forum over the past couple weeks, that I just cannot remember what the current recommendations are...

Is it best to have the MINIMAL amount of hardware installed in the machine, for a new Lion install?

I can't seem to get a firm answer on this, but I am experiencing a kernel panic on my new Lion install, and I am not sure how to proceed. The OS actually installed fine--I get the KP when I restart the machine. So I was thinking of simply...

1) Removing my Radeon 6850, and using only the on-board graphics.
2) Removing all but one of my four RAM sticks.
3) Disconnecting all drives besides my 120gb SSD being targeted with the install. I would remove my other (Linux) SSD, and the two optical drives I've installed.
4) I have already removed the PCIe x1 NIC, so I know that isn't the issue.

I've booted in verbose mode, but am not quite sure what is causing the boot to fail. I am not suite sure how to access the system log after there's been a kernel panic--although if one was written, I could certainly get at it by booting into Linux and running 'cat' on that file on the Lion disk.

But can anyone comment on numbers 1-3 above, and confirm whether or not it's necessary to remove those things? The videos I seen on the Mac OS X KP seems to suggest that it isn't likely to be my hardware, if the installation succeeds and the KP occurs later in the process...like it appears to me for me now. But I am not sure on this, so I would greatly appreciate any advice I could get on this.

Thanks!

TB

 

[BlueHornet]

Here's an update...

I tried to reinstall the Lion OS, because I wasn't 100% sure I had the BIOS configured correctly the first time through. I think I did, but figured it couldn't hurt to verify it with a double-check followed by a reinstall. So to address each number above:

1) I removed the 6850, and ran from the on-board HDMI port, using an HDMI to DVI cable (not a converter, but a cable with an HDMI port on one end and a DVI port on the other). The install NOW FAILS! Using the same USB stick as worked for me before (San Disk 8gb), I could no longer even make it to the install screen. It simply hung with the little spinning wheel. So I reinstalled the 6850, and simply set the PCIe x16 port as the first one enabled by the BIOS, and left the on-board enabling on AUTO...and the installation now proceeds! Weird. But the on-board graphics port definitely DOES NOT WORK for my machine, with the specs listed below.

2) I removed 12gb of RAM, leaving me with one lone 4gb stick installed in slot #1 (furthest from the CPU cooler). I had all four sticks installed on the first install, so we'll have to see how it goes this time around.

3) All other drives are disconnected.

Stay tuned for another update, as soon as the install finishes and I re-boot.

TB

 

[BlueHornet]

Nope...failed again. Another kernel panic. I've made a little video of the screen, and will upload it to YouTube shortly. The install (again) seemed to go just fine, but the KP occurs when the computer must be restarted for the OS to be booted. I select the USB-HDD in the F12 menu, and then select the Lion drive. Within about 10-15 seconds after that, the kernel panic occurs. So I booted in verbose mode, and then recorded the video. I need to hook up my phone to upload it, but will do so in short order and then edit this post with the link to YouTube.

Thanks.

TB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfmIHD10En0

EDIT: Seems to be some USB-related issue there, according to the description in the backtrace. I'll have to Google around a bit for this in the forum here. I will also post some images of the KP error.

 

[BlueHornet]

I got it working, and here's what I did...

It actually (at the end) turned out to be fairly simple. As I kept getting a kernel panic, I tried the various boot flag options. When I tried the single-user mode (-s) option, I eventually got to the root prompt (root#). I simply typed "exit" at the prompt, and the OS booted, lol! I know...that's what it's supposed to do, but I was on more of a bug hunt than that--so it took a while to get there.

Anyway, once the OS booted, I was able to run MultiBeast. The first time I ran it though, I messed up the options and then got a *different* kernel panic the next time I restarted! Out of the frying pan... So since I had hacked a couple of the plist files in one of the directories (remember the bug hunt I told you about?), I simply decided to reinstall the OS, so that's what I did. Within about 15 minutes, I was back to running MultiBeast--but this time I basically installed the boot loader, and then the boot screen options. I also told it to rebuild permissions. Then I rebooted, and she boots just fine. Of course MultiBeast really isn't configured to any degree at all...but that's work for another day. The good news is that:

1) Lion appears to be installed and boots
2) All RAM is recognized by quantity and speed
3) All drives are recognized, and I was able to partition my scratch drive (I will use Time Capsule to write a back-up to the scratch drive, once I get a stable system)
4) The PCIe NIC works
5) The 6850 card still works, although I haven't tried dual monitors yet (I ordered a DP-to-VGA cable yesterday)

Off to read up on MultiBeast...

TB