Hi there!
I got stuck in trying to install OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard in Virtualbox 6.1.16 on a MacBookPro 17" 2009 with AlCapitan installed.
First I tried to install from an external DVD drive with the original Install DVD. But Virtualbox couldn't find that drive, got an empty shell during EFI boot.
Then I did an ISO image of that install DVD with Disk Utility and pointed Virtualbox to that. Starting the VM, it gets stuck while booting with a "still waiting for root device" loop.
My settings:
Searched the forum and tried to google a solution but in vain.
Any hint what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks!!!
OSX Snow Leopard installation failed: "still waiting for root device"
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Re: OSX Snow Leopard installation failed: "still waiting for root device"
As a rough guess, try enabling USB3 in the VM's USB settings.
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Re: OSX Snow Leopard installation failed: "still waiting for root device"
@raskolnikow, actually there are quite a few existing threads discussing various aspects of 10.6 Snow Leopard (SL) guests, including this "still waiting for root device" issue & other related ones, in this forum and over in the companion 'VirtualBox on Mac OS X Hosts' one. {E.g., in that companion forum there are the recent threads 'Retail Snow Leopard Disc (Image) on VB 6.1 on Big Sur 11.1', and 'Installation fail for SnowLeopard on 10.15.5' (the latter includes links to various older related threads).}
It's also worth exploring the USB(3) configuration change that moderator @scottgus1 mentioned, although this is usually more applicable to 10.12 Sierra & later OS guest VMs.
More often though, there are two common sources of problems that could arise when setting up SL (& older OS) guest VMs, where the first is a general concern for all OS versions that pre-date a given Mac model, and the second tends to be more frequent with OS versions older than 10.7 Lion {i.e. those still using traditional OS Install discs rather than standalone OS Install apps}:
For a disc image, the "still waiting for root device" message almost always indicates that the disc image was made from just a disc's visibly mounted volume, rather than the whole disc. For instance, in Disk Utility {after ensuring that 'View > Show All Devices' is ticked}, you could try selecting your optical reader/writer device in the sidebar, e.g., 'HL-DT-ST DVD-RW …' (or similar), and then choosing 'File' > 'New Image' > 'Image from "HL-DT-ST DVD-RW …"' (or similar).
You also mentioned that first you'd "tried to install from an external DVD drive with the original Install DVD[; b]ut Virtualbox couldn't find that drive, got an empty shell during EFI boot." Actually, in VBox 6.1.x that might not actually mean the DVD wouldn't work. There have been a few recent reports of unexpected drops into the EFI shell even with bootable discs or disc images; I've experienced it too {e.g., see the first thread linked above}.
When such an unexpected drop into the EFI shell occurs, whether with a bootable disc or disc image, the usual workaround is to type 'exit' at the shell prompt to bring up the EFI 'manager' menu interface, and then navigate via one of the following alternative "paths":
It's also worth exploring the USB(3) configuration change that moderator @scottgus1 mentioned, although this is usually more applicable to 10.12 Sierra & later OS guest VMs.
More often though, there are two common sources of problems that could arise when setting up SL (& older OS) guest VMs, where the first is a general concern for all OS versions that pre-date a given Mac model, and the second tends to be more frequent with OS versions older than 10.7 Lion {i.e. those still using traditional OS Install discs rather than standalone OS Install apps}:
- 'Too new' host Mac, where the newer CPU is unknown to the older OS/installer — the host's CPU is passed through as-is to the guest, under all Mac VM template versions except the two generic 'Mac OS X (32-/64-bit)' ones I believe — which typically leads to strange issues such as a startup hang after an "End RandomSeed" message, or even severe errors such as kernel panics, etc.
- An OS Install disc, or disc image, that's not recognised as bootable, which typically leads to messages such as "no bootable medium found", or "still waiting for root device", etc.
For a disc image, the "still waiting for root device" message almost always indicates that the disc image was made from just a disc's visibly mounted volume, rather than the whole disc. For instance, in Disk Utility {after ensuring that 'View > Show All Devices' is ticked}, you could try selecting your optical reader/writer device in the sidebar, e.g., 'HL-DT-ST DVD-RW …' (or similar), and then choosing 'File' > 'New Image' > 'Image from "HL-DT-ST DVD-RW …"' (or similar).
You also mentioned that first you'd "tried to install from an external DVD drive with the original Install DVD[; b]ut Virtualbox couldn't find that drive, got an empty shell during EFI boot." Actually, in VBox 6.1.x that might not actually mean the DVD wouldn't work. There have been a few recent reports of unexpected drops into the EFI shell even with bootable discs or disc images; I've experienced it too {e.g., see the first thread linked above}.
When such an unexpected drop into the EFI shell occurs, whether with a bootable disc or disc image, the usual workaround is to type 'exit' at the shell prompt to bring up the EFI 'manager' menu interface, and then navigate via one of the following alternative "paths":
- Boot Manager => 'UEFI VBOX CD-ROM'.
- Boot Maintenance Manager => Boot From File => 'HFS+ Volume, [PCIRoot(…)/…/…/CDROM(…)]' (or similar) => '<System>' => '<Library>' => '<CoreServices>' => 'boot.efi'.
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Re: OSX Snow Leopard installation failed: "still waiting for root device"
Thank you very much, @scottgus1 and @paulmc!!!
Enabling USB3 didn't change anything.
But the comprehensive instructions by @paulmc solved my problem!!
I used again the external drive with the original Snow Leopard install DVD and followed your descriptions. Just pressing the escape key didn't get me to the Boot Manager. But typing "exit" worked finally! I had to choose the second option by selecting the Boot Maintenance Manager and going down the file path until the boot.efi file.
I'm sure, your comprehensive and step by step description will help also others here in the forum! Thanks a lot!
Enabling USB3 didn't change anything.
But the comprehensive instructions by @paulmc solved my problem!!
I used again the external drive with the original Snow Leopard install DVD and followed your descriptions. Just pressing the escape key didn't get me to the Boot Manager. But typing "exit" worked finally! I had to choose the second option by selecting the Boot Maintenance Manager and going down the file path until the boot.efi file.
I'm sure, your comprehensive and step by step description will help also others here in the forum! Thanks a lot!