[SOLVED] iMac10,1 won't boot w/14.0 without install DVD, displays question mark

michael.conner · 10-03-2012, 04:09 PM

I installed Slackware64 14.0 on my iMac10,1 at work. I used a PartedMagic liveCD to remove the previous partitions and created root, swap, and /home ones. Went through the install from the DVD, LILO installed fine (or so it claimed), then when I rebooted, I simply had a Mac folder with a flashing question mark superimposed over it.

I didn't make a boot USB disk, because Macs generally don't boot from them, so I just booted into the installation from the install DVD and got my user account set up, et cetera. I'd like to be able to boot directly from the hard drive without the install DVD. (Booting from the install disc isn't a hardship, especially if I just suspend to RAM when I leave work, but I'd still like to get it working "as designed.")

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Konchdrone · 10-04-2012, 06:10 AM

Hi,

I had this problem today, and I solved it by marking the root partition as bootable. You might want to try that if you haven't already.

acummings · 10-04-2012, 06:11 AM

I don't have an iMac. (I do not know how an iMac works).

But, given the remainder of your situation, I have a few times done what's called a fix or repair to the mbr which solved so there's no longer any need to boot from the install dvd.

To fix the mbr I booted from a windows 98 floppy disk "emergency boot disk" then did something (from the A: drive path) like or similar to the command

fdisk /mbr

--
Alan.

ruario · 10-04-2012, 06:16 AM

iMac, eh? What is the partitioning scheme MBR or GPT. I don't think lilo works with GPT, so if this is the problem use ext/syslinux (it is included with Slackware).

michael.conner · 10-04-2012, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Konchdrone

Hi,

I had this problem today, and I solved it by marking the root partition as bootable. You might want to try that if you haven't already.

Facepalm. Yeah, I think I failed to do that. Thanks -- will mark this as solved when I go in to the office tomorrow and see if it works (which I suspect it will).

michael.conner · 10-04-2012, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruario

iMac, eh? What is the partitioning scheme MBR or GPT. I don't think lilo works with GPT, so if this is the problem use ext/syslinux (it is included with Slackware).

I put on a new partition table with PartedMagic, so I suspect it's MBR, but I'm also pretty sure that I just forgot to mark /dev/sda1 as bootable. Thanks!

michael.conner · 10-05-2012, 08:20 AM

It was in fact the bootable flag. Now I just need to find a MacOS system disk to "bless" the hard drive so there won't be a 30 second delay before it loads LILO, but that's a Mac issue, not a Linux one.

Thanks again for the help, all.