Reboot from a CD???

nightrunner · #1 November 14th, 2007, 03:52 PM

Hi,

I am new to the forum (which is very cool, by the way), so apologies in advance if this question is in the wrong place or just plain moronic, but either me or my imac are going out the window pretty soon!

I have suffered from the Leopard upgrade reducing my account from Administrator to Standard, which I believe is a known problem. I would obviously use the install disk as a utility to reset password in normal circumstances. However, I have also lost the ability to boot from the cd by holding down the 'C' button upon restart. I can't make any of the 'global' boot type functions work...'S'/cmd key for Single User...V/cmd key for Verbose etc.

To be honest, I don't think that the key shortcut problem is as a result of Leopard because a few weeks ago it failed to boot into 'Single User' that way but I attributed it to a (self inflicted) issue I had at the time.

Is there any other way to boot from the install disc? Obviously, the startup disc requires admin password. as does simply double clicking the install icon.

Is it possible that I have disabled the reboot function on the keyboard somehow? All other key shortcuts (the ones listed in system preferences) work perfectly. I wondered whether one of the diagnostic software apps like Cocktail or MacPilot may have disabled it? Even if they have have I can't change or delete them without Admin password!!

Can anybody help??

jbarley · #2 November 14th, 2007, 04:10 PM

With your system operating normally, try inserting your install CD, once it has mounted it should prompt you to restart.
If it does not then try checking "System Preferences" -> "Startup Disk" to see if the CD is listed as a boot source.

jb.

nightrunner · #3 November 14th, 2007, 04:26 PM

Hi, thanks for replying.

Yeah, it lists as a startup option in system preferences, but without an admin password it is not possible to change the startup destination to anything other than the disk you are on. I also knocked up a little perl script to force it to boot from anything other than it's own disc but even then I can't get round not being able to enable root or use the 'sudo' command.

Has anyone else had the ability to use keys to control startup disappear on them? I noticed also that I don't have a button in my keyboard preferences that says 'change keyboard type' as it claims I should have in the Help Index. Does anyone??

**Giaguara** · #4 November 14th, 2007, 04:43 PM

If you can boot it to single user mode

niutil -appendprop . /groups/admin users yourusernamehere

Would add your username to the admin group - niutil worked at least in 10.4..

dscl / -append /Groups/admin GroupMembership yourusernamehere

Should work in 10.5.

Also this might work --- if you can boot to single user mode...

http://osxdaily.com/2007/10/29/how-t...-with-leopard/

When restarting the Mac, if it doesn't want to go to single user mode, reset PRAM (command + alt + p + r pressed down together right after pressing power button until you hear the second time the 'bling' then release) , then try again to single user (command + s) and the above.

Mikuro · #5 November 14th, 2007, 04:52 PM

Are you using a wireless keyboard? If so, you may need to update your bluetooth firmare. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86493

Holding down Option while starting up should display a list of all bootable devices, including CDs. If all the other boot keys aren't working, though, I don't really expect that one to....

I don't think there's any way to disable these boot keys from OS X, since it's not even OS X that handles it, but rather Open Firmware (which is not editable at all through normal means).

nightrunner · #6 November 14th, 2007, 09:25 PM

Wow...I can't thank all of you enough. You seriously have ended 4 days of misery, no sleep and temper tantrums. My girlfriend had about one more day of patience and then it would have just been me and the imac!

It took both Giaguara's and Mikuro's advice to make it work. Tried the option key first to see if I could pull up a list....nothing. Tried (the 4 millionth) boot into Single User...nothing. Reset PRAM (which I didn't know about) and tried Single User...nothing. Tried Option Key and the list appeared straight away!!

I am genuinely thrilled guys...thankyou so much

Ian