Can't Boot OS X CD-ROM for Install

[FlyByNight]

Hi All,

I just grabbed v3.2 and it's just great! I decided to install OS X 10.4 as a guest on my iMac running 10.6 so that I can use an old printer that's no longer supported in 10.6. I went through the usual steps of creating the guest and a new drive for it to use but when the guest session starts my 10.4 CD doesn't boot so I can't run the installation. I just get the message "FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted.". I tried hitting F12 and selecting the CD as the boot device but it still did the same. The drive is shown as being mounted under devices and when I reset the machine it does briefly read something from the drive.

The CD-ROM is the original media supplied with my iMac and it's is perfect condition. When I unmount the device from VBox it shows up just fine on my desktop.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get this installation started please.

FlyByNight.

[baf]

Make an iso-file from the disk either via diskutility or by dd

use mount to see which disk it is then:
dd if=/dev/disk1 of=filename.iso bs=1024000

then mount the iso in virtualbox.

[FlyByNight]

Thank for that Baf. I went through the settings and found that the EFI wasn't enabled. I clicked that and it booted from CD.

I now have the problem that it only gets as far as "Loading \System\Library\Extensions.mkext........". It displays about one and a half lines of dots then just stops reading from the CD and does nothing else. I have had it sat there for about 30 mins so I am fairly sure it isn't just going to burst back into life again. Tried it again - no difference.

[baf]

Two possibilities I see.
1: Can you boot your mac on that dvd? If not it may be that tiger is too old for your hardware.

2: Try the iso thing it may or may not help.

[nike]

Attach virtual serial port (bound to host file) and see if anything of importance is here.

[FlyByNight]

The disc is the original restore media that was supplied with the iMac so the age isn't a problem and it boots from it without any problem but I wonder about the restrictions that Apple place on their System Restore media. For example when I tried to use that disc to re-install Tiger on my Powerbook (a few years ago!) it wouldn't have it and said that it could only be used on an iMac. I wonder if it is hanging because it "sees" a VirtualBox rather than an iMac??

I am going to try and borrow a retail 10.4 DVD from a friend tomorrow and see how that goes. Thanks again.

[FlyByNight]

Attach virtual serial port (bound to host file) and see if anything of importance is here.

OK, I shut down the virtual machine, went into the settings, Ports, serial ports, port 1. Checked "Enable Serial Port", selected COM1, IRQ4, I/O 0x3F8. Then when I select anything other than disconnected from the port mode options I get the "Invalid settings detected" warning.

I tried leaving the port mode as disconnected and started the VM again but it just hung in the same place.

Does any of that help you to help me?

[baf]

Here comes my serial log file.
This is from an attempt to boot leopard retail from an iso file on a MacBookPro5,5 running
sw_vers:
ProductName: Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.6.3
BuildVersion: 10D573

[baf]

Attach virtual serial port (bound to host file) and see if anything of importance is here.

OK, I shut down the virtual machine, went into the settings, Ports, serial ports, port 1. Checked "Enable Serial Port", selected COM1, IRQ4, I/O 0x3F8. Then when I select anything other than disconnected from the port mode options I get the "Invalid settings detected" warning.

I tried leaving the port mode as disconnected and started the VM again but it just hung in the same place.

Does any of that help you to help me?

Invalid settings just means that you have to do something more.
In this case select raw file in the dropdown and choose a filename (complete with path) e.g. /tmp/serlog.txt

[Sasquatch]

Make sure you get a 10.4 that runs only on intel Macs. Apple introduced the x86 architecture during the 10.4 lifetime, so you might accidently get a PPC one. Please state which exact version of 10.4 you are trying to install, as early ones might not work. We know that 10.5 and newer do work.

[baf]

Hi sasquatch. In my case its 10.5 leopard thats hanging. I don't know the exact version number unfortunately.
Do you know anywhere in the file system of the dvd I can see this? This is a legal one even though I got is as a file.

[FlyByNight]

I looked through the log files and they look very similar to the ones that Baf posted. I made the modifications to the serial port settings and that made no difference, still hanging at the same point. I tried my 10.6 DVD to see if that would work and it did. So it's possibly a problem with 10.4 on VB generally or it could be a problem with my media being specific to the iMac (rather than VB on my iMac).

@Sasquatch, I don't think it a PPC version as I have used it to restore my iMac previously and the iMac is a CoreDuo model.

Next thing is to try that retail 10.4 disc. I'll let you know how that goes. Thanks for all the help guys.

[Sasquatch]

@Baf,
I try to stay away from Macs and Apple as much as possible (unfortunately, I got an iPhone from work ), so I can't help with things that require more knowledge about Apple systems (as in, know which button is where). I can only solve logical problems and ask the right question to trigger a 'oh, that's right, it works like this or that'.

@FlyByNight,
I meant the PPC version in response for you getting a retail disc. I know your 'recovery' disc is an x86 version, but as you said, it's probably hardware bound (probably some recovery partition or software on the iMac specifically).

[FlyByNight]

@Sasquatch - oops, sorry my misunderstanding. I'll make sure it's x86. Thanks.

[silver]

I'm not able to boot from a Leopard install DVD (came bundled with iMac in late 2007) on the same iMac in a clean VM under VB 3.2.0.
A Snow Leopard install DVD worked fine (bought seperately) even if it only runs with 1 CPU enabled and not with 2.

If I try to boot from the Leopard DVD I'm stuck at the System\Library\Extensions.mkext loading progress indicator at three dots in the second row and nothing more happens...

EDIT: Maybe the same issue mentioned here by killer54291

Host OS is Leopard 10.5.8
VB Version is 3.2.0
Leopard install DVD is from November 2007 and was bundled with my iMac
I've choosen "Mac OS X" for OS type and version in the VB wizard

Any solution on this?

greetz
silver