Song of The Day: Cubicle - Artist: RinôÇerôse

Once upon a time (i.e., this weekend), I was “playing” with kernel extensions to my MacBook. Upon reboot the touchpad and keyboard no longer worked — oh my! I thought “No problem, I’ll just boot a system disc and reverse my blunder.” However, one issue was a non-system disc already in the SuperDrive and the eject button wasn’t working once OS X booted. What was one to do? It wasn’t too bad really, but there were a few nuances to get things working again.

Startup Keys

First, Mac OS X has “almighty startup” keys; it is good to memorize most of the 11, or keep handy, startup key combinations. For my Intel-based MacBook they are here. For example during startup, one can boot into “safe mode” by holding down the “shift” key and “command-v” will show unix boot messages. Also, if there is a bootable system disc already in the drive slot one can press “c” to boot from the drive.

The Secret Code

For my purposes the most useful “secret code” ended up being the “Press Option during startup.” After the boot tone, press the “option” button and wait. Eventually, the hard drive will appear with an arrow; maybe the SuperDrive, if a bootable disc is available. This allowed me to eject the existing non-bootable disc I had in the drive with the eject button while also allowing me to insert a bootable disc. After I selected the SuperDrive and CD, I was able to use the Utilities menu to start Terminal. A few “mv” and “cp -r” operations and a reboot later, the MacBook was healthy again.

Nuances and Notes

At first I used a Mac OS X Tiger installation DVD, not distributed with my laptop, and was perplexed that it wouldn’t show up. Finally, I read the fine print and saw it required PowerPC processors (e.g., G4, G5, etc.) - duh. In haste I dug around and found the original discs! It’s good to be careful to only use the installation discs that come with the computer; otherwise, the “c” and “option” startup combinations may never work as intended. :) Also, the touchpad button will also eject any disc upon startup. This is how I initially ejected it, then discovered that the “option” key allowed me to do all the above in one succinct startup sequence (i.e., eject, load, select, and boot).

Happily Ever After

Okay. Not earth-shattering technology or information, but helpful during a pinch.

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