Questions about booting, the process of starting a computer and putting it into a state of readiness for operation.
14
votes
4answers
7k views
How can I run/stop/relaunch an application automatically, at boot/login/some other time?
How do you make a script or app to run or stop running automatically when the system is booted, a user logs on, at a specific time, when a disk is attached, etc.?
8
votes
2answers
6k views
How do I set OS X to boot by default?
I set Windows 7 to my Boot Camp.
Windows 7 starts now by default in the normal boot.
However, I want that OSX boots by default and Windows 7 only as I press ALT and then select it.
How can you set ...
8
votes
3answers
1k views
What would it take to make an iPad support multiple user accounts?
As a mobile computer, the iPad is very personal, but it also begs to be shared. And that's a problem. I don't want my friends to be able to check my emails or delete my high score when they play with ...
7
votes
2answers
544 views
Move complete Lion installation to another physical drive
is there a way to completely move my OSX Lion to my new SSD without reinstalling? I came from Windows and Linux to OSX and i thought maybe it is possible to simply change the bootloader config after ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
How to disable single-user boot (command S)
By default, Macs are extremely insecure if somebody can get physical access, as they can simply shut it down, press the power button, hold command-S, and there, they get root access in 5 seconds.
Is ...
7
votes
2answers
548 views
How can I see the system status during boot?
I would like to monitor the messages generated when I boot my Mac, similar to what you on a *nix box. Is there key-combo to press/hold that will let me do this?
7
votes
4answers
26k views
How do I make a bootable USB flash drive for a MacBook Air?
Does anyone have a Terminal command-line recipe for making a new bootable USB flash drive for one of the new MacBook Air's? Is there a way to dd copy the USB boot device that comes in the box and ...
6
votes
4answers
4k views
Is there a way to power up a Mac Mini remotely?
Is there ANY way to Power Up a Mac Mini remotely?
Just to be clear, I don´t mean wake up from sleep but boot up.
6
votes
4answers
2k views
For a FileVault user of Mountain Lion: can I avoid the automated login, which normally follows unlock of the encrypted startup volume?
I have FileVault enabled with two users:
AdminGuy
OtherGuy.
I want AdminGuy to:
have the ability to unlock the HD, and therefore only he can enter a u/n + p/w at boot to start boot up
have the ...
6
votes
4answers
3k views
How can I change the title of a boot image?
I have an external Hard Drive with two bootable partitions on it. The first is an image of a Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD, and the second is an image of a Mac OS X 10.6.3 Install DVD.
When I plug the ...
6
votes
5answers
3k views
How can I boot to Safari Only (Chromebook style) in Lion?
How can I boot safari only in Mac OSX Lion Chrome OS style? I heard that there was a key that one had to hold at startup, which one is it?
6
votes
4answers
382 views
iMac shows frozen at bootup, but computer running normally in background
I'm on an Intel iMac running Lion.
I'm having major issues with my iMac. The iMac froze whilst using Chrome, and I was forced to reset it.
After the reset the screen seemed to freeze on the apple ...
5
votes
1answer
153 views
Is this possible? Prevent Live-Linux from booting and grabbing your files without encrypting your disc?
I am a medium-experienced Power User with knowledge about most of the stuff (studying this since two years) and I know something about how Linux and Windows work; I have screwed up countless ...
5
votes
3answers
9k views
Boot into Mac from Windows after failed Bootcamp
Don't hate on me too much for this one...
I put Win8 on my Mac Mini using Bootcamp, and all was well. I switched back and forth a couple times between the two with no problems. The problem started ...
5
votes
4answers
1k views
Why have 5 different iMacs developed corrupt OS X partitions when the physical drives are fine?
I'm a tech for my local school district and we are having some problems with our iMac Multimedia Lab. Over the past nine months, 5 of the 22 iMacs have suffered from filesystem corruption. The only ...
5
votes
2answers
6k views
What can be done to fix a 2011 iMac that will not boot past the white screen?
I have now tried opening the iMac and removing the cables to the SSD, it still gets stuck on the white screen. I tried again, removing the cables to the HDD as well and the same thing occurs.
No idea ...
5
votes
1answer
64 views
Installing Windows manually
Here's the situation:
I've got three partitions on my disk - EFI, OS, and a Data Partition + 40 gigs of free space for a Windows partition. I already deleted the Recovery partition to avoid conflicts ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
Can I schedule startup and shutdown with different settings for weekdays and weekends?
Everyday, I usually start my Mac Mini at 16:00 and shutdown it at 2:00 using the Energy Saver schedule settings.
I would like to be able to set a different behavior on the Weekends starting Mac Mini ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
Mac won't boot: Way to mount drive and delete one file?
My macbook is currently a brick. I added a /etc/launchctl.conf file that must be malformed. The OS now crashes even when attempting to start in safe mode:
"launchd System bootstrapper has crashed: ...
4
votes
1answer
323 views
Wake on LAN for MBP late 2009
Is it possible to wake my MBP via Magic Packets from power down? I read Power up Mac Mini remotely, but that does not seem to work from power down. "Wake for network access" in "Energy Saver" prefpane ...
4
votes
2answers
3k views
Install and boot Windows from USB hard drive?
I would like to install Windows 7 on an external USB 2.0 500 gb hard drive. Is it possible to both install to and boot from this USB drive from my MacBook Pro 2010?
4
votes
1answer
896 views
Boot MacBook Pro into non OSX operating system from external harddisk
I have a MacBook Pro and an external HDD with Ubuntu, I can use this HDD to boot other machines into Ubuntu but no amount of pressing option would make my MacBook Pro think that the drive is bootable.
...
4
votes
3answers
555 views
How do I set my mac to ask what disc I want to boot from without having to hold alt?
I can switch between OSX, Windows and a network drive, but I cannot seem to find this option anywhere.
4
votes
5answers
8k views
MacBook Air has suddenly become very slow at booting and shutdown
I have a Late 2010 MacBook Air, and it has a 256 GB SSD, 2.13 GHz processor, and 4 GB RAM. It has been lightning fast ever since I bought it and I upgraded to OS X Lion and it was super fast. Boot ...
4
votes
2answers
5k views
How do I make my 1.5 GHz PowerBook G4 boot from a USB stick?
I actually want to boot Linux but since that is not working I'm thinking some one might know on the Apple end.
If there's a way to boot Mac from a USB stick, then booting another operating system ...
4
votes
1answer
201 views
Mac Pro failing to boot
Two times now, over the last 3 weeks my Mac Pro is failing to boot. Once on, it stays on the blue screen with the spinning icon and never gets to the login screen. To remedy this I boot from install ...
4
votes
3answers
455 views
Renaming the startup disks shown during boot
I'm dual booting OS X (Lion) and Arch Linux, and when I hold down "option" during the boot process, I am presented with both of my startup disk options (i.e., OS X and Linux); however, they are named ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Upgrading new Mac Mini to have SSD. Do I have to buy Lion, or can I just re-download from App Store?
EDIT: The accepted answer below works, but I can also confirm that just booting the stock machine and visiting the App Store, you can just re-download it and make a boot USB drive before swapping out ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Is blessing the Ubuntu partition reversible in OS X?
I'm considering using Ubuntu as a main OS. So far, I've been using it in a dual boot setup with OS X. The dual boot worked by holding the ALT key upon boot (not rEFIt).
Blessing the Ubuntu Partition ...
3
votes
2answers
725 views
Security hole in firmware password by installing another boot loader?
I set up a firmware password on my MacBook. One thing I don't understand is how I can install a tool such as rEFIt, and effectively bypass the entire firmware password (i.e. installing it never asked ...
3
votes
3answers
4k views
What does no chime on boot mean?
My MacBook Pro is having some issues. It boots. But the graphics card doesn't get detected. You can remote in to it but looking at the Displays dialog in System Preferences, no graphics card is shown:
...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
How can I fix permission issue when I cannot start Mac OS X?
I was creating a guest account and to prevent it from accessing the Macintosh HD as in other applications and stuff I assigned it as in "No Access"
When I switched to the guest account everything ...
3
votes
1answer
228 views
Mac Mini Server running Mountain Lion (10.8.2) is freezing during boot (last line: IPv6 packet filtering initialized)
Starting in verbose mode (Cmd+V), the last line I see on the console is:
IPv6 packet filtering initialized, default to accept, logging disabled
This happens regardless of having an ethernet cable ...
3
votes
2answers
468 views
Help diagnose errors on MacBook that will not boot
I have a MacBook which won't boot beyond the grey screen / Apple logo. With some key combo (can't remember what I did!) I managed to get a black screen with text output - see image. Can anyone offer ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Is the first boot after a full system restore from TimeMachine supposed to take a long time?
I have had the hard drive in my iMac replaced and now I'm trying to restore it from my TimeMachine back up. I thought the TimeMachine back up was corrupt but maybe I'm just not patient enough, or I'm ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
How to create a bootable USB drive for Disk Utility?
Disk Utility says my boot drive need repair. Unfortunately my DVD drive is toast, so I can't boot from the install DVD and make the repair. Is there a way I can create a bootable USB drive and ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
How do I boot into the EFI firmware shell?
I'd like to experiment with the EFI shell on a MacBook Pro 2010 model. I am unable to find the keyboard sequence to hold on boot. Does someone know what the sequence is, do I need to boot from my ...
3
votes
1answer
465 views
How can I get boot details when booting from Snow Leopard DVD?
I'm running into a situation where I need to repair my main partition but I can not get my machine to boot off the Snow Leopard DVD. It will boot up, let me choose my language, then go to the ...
3
votes
2answers
909 views
Boot from different drive without using Alt/Option
My 2011 27 inch iMac will not boot, it plays the startup sound and then freezes on a white screen. I am fairly confident I could fix it myself if I could get it to boot from a USB drive or external ...
3
votes
1answer
178 views
How to set up an iMac not to look for USB Flash drive info during boot up?
Short question: is there a way to disable an iMac's USB Flash Drive boot up so that boot up time is faster?
Details:
My iMac has an external USB hub, and it has 3, 4 or sometimes 6 or 7 USB Flash ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Diagnosing a dead MacBook Pro
Anyone got a good checklist for diagnosing the problem with a dead MacBook Pro ? I've a 15" MacBook Pro Core Two vintage machine that has suddenly stopped booting up. I can hear the Superdrive spin ...
3
votes
2answers
236 views
Is it possible to specify a different root device to a MacOS kernel?
I have an old iBook (2003, G4) with a burnt-out harddrive. Being a poor academic, I don't want to bother with replacing the drive. I'd like to use an external USB drive in place of the harddrive. I ...
3
votes
3answers
572 views
How do I clone a dual-boot Macbook
I have a Macbook Air set up for dual-boot (Lion & Windows 7) and am planning on buying a newer model. How would I go about cloning the entire hard drive to the new machine?
Do I need to ...
3
votes
1answer
318 views
Macbook Pro Early 2011 15 inch, Mountain Lion Booting issue
My Macbook Pro is not booting normally. I tried many options but no success. If I try to recovery mode or try to boot from USB, a blue screen appears. So I can't do fresh install. I checked hardware ...
3
votes
1answer
52 views
How to diagnose long start up
My Macbook Pro (OSX 10.8.2) is taking a long time to settle down after booting. I am guessing there are some background processes/apps that are taking a while to start and hogging resources. What is ...
2
votes
3answers
9k views
Can you boot a MacBook Air from a USB 3 external hard drive?
Macs have long been able to boot from external FireWire hard drives. I don’t think they’ve been able to boot from external USB 2 drives though.
The new MacBook Air (2012) has USB 3.0. Can it boot ...
2
votes
1answer
3k views
Running a command whenever Mac boots up with launchctl/plist
I need to run nohup nice synergys -f --config ~/bin/conf/synergy.conf & command whenever the computer boots up.
As is written in this post, I came up with the following plist code.
<?xml ...
2
votes
5answers
601 views
How can I install OS X Lion on a new HDD?
I need OS X Lion on a new HDD that I am preparing to install in a MacBook.
Since I don't have an existing disk to boot up and Apple isn't selling flash drives with it (or are they?), how do I use it ...
2
votes
2answers
265 views
On/Off vs. Sleep Mode
The new retina MacBook Pro is boot so quickly that if I don't use it for even 5 minutes it doesn't make a difference to me whether I shut the computer down or sleep it.
What is the best option for ...
2
votes
3answers
5k views
How can I reset the PRAM if Recovery Mode keeps overriding the PRAM command?
Lion uses the ⌘ + R to boot into recovery mode. Resetting the PRAM in anything less than 10.7 was ⌘ + ⌥ + P + R.
Recovery mode now seems to override the PRAM command. Does anyone ...
