Stuck in boot loop

[sbreit]

Hi there!

I had my SE/30 working, then reformatted the drive and now I can't get anything to work again

I am using Silverlining 5.8.3 to partition the drive because I'm intending to dual-boot it with A/UX. I use a 4.3 GB harddisk. Here is what I did:

1st Volume (according to Silverlining) 2GB HFS
2nd Volume 4MB HFS (intended for A/UX boot)

Installed A/UX's 7.1 to the 2nd Volume => boots
Installed the same to the 1st Volume => also boots

Installed 7.5.3 from Apple's download page to the 2GB Volume => boot loop
I can see the 7.5.3 as bootable in SystemPicker and select it, so I reckon it should be bootable - in general.

What drives me particularly crazy is the fact that I had it running

I also tried everything I could think of - of course including smaller partition sizes. Nothing helped.

Before going on searching for the needle in the haystack.... could someone please point me in the right direction?

TIA

Steffen

[spiceyokooko]

There's a few things here I don't really understand.

You've said you're using a 4.3Gb HD, yet partitioned it into two volumes: A/ 2Gb, B/4Mb? Why only 4Mb? Why didn't you create two partitions of 2Gb each and run 7.5.3 on one partition and A/UX on the other? I don't understand why on a 4.3gb disk you're only actually using 2Gb 4Mb of it.

The first thing I think I'd try is reformatting the drive with the standard Apple HD Setup that comes with 7.5.3 into one HFS partition and installing 7.5.3 onto that and see if it boots the machine. If it boots it successfully, then it either doesn't like the Silverlining SCSI driver or 7.5.3 doesn't like sharing the partition with AUX/7.1

[ClassicHasClass]

What do you mean by "boot loop" ?

[sbreit]

You've said you're using a 4.3Gb HD, yet partitioned it into two volumes: A/ 2Gb, B/4Mb? Why only 4Mb?

Because 4MB is way more than enough for the A/UX booting 7.1
Even 3MB might work, actually...

Why didn't you create two partitions of 2Gb each and run 7.5.3 on one partition and A/UX on the other?

Sorry for the confusion. Of course I intend to do that. The configuration described just was my last (not working) testing setup

The first thing I think I'd try is reformatting the drive with the standard Apple HD Setup that comes with 7.5.3

Tried that, however, it won't recognize/accept the drive. The A/UX HD SC Setup does, I'll try it with that.

What do you mean by "boot loop" ?

Happy Mac is displayed for a second, disappears for a second, then it starts over again.

[tt]

If I use System Picker with a bunch of partitions, that boot loop can happen, but eventually it boots. It doesn't take very long, but a it longer than I'd expect. Maybe try zapping your PRAM?

[sbreit]

If I use System Picker with a bunch of partitions, that boot loop can happen, but eventually it boots. It doesn't take very long, but a it longer than I'd expect. Maybe try zapping your PRAM?

Yeah, I've noticed that with an earlier installation, but this time it wouldn't boot even after a few loops.

However, I've figured something out.
After a hundred re-installations from scratch (well, this might be slightly exaggerated, maybe it was just 97 or so) with Silvierlining, Lido and whatnot, I came to a solution. Two factors affected this:

1. it seems that you need Silverlining as a driver for non-stock drives if you intend to use A/UX. Lido could format/partition the disk, but A/UX couldn't "see" the HFS Volume to install its 7.1 boot environment.

2. For some reason, SystemPicker works on a multi-partition installation if you have an IIfx ROM (I had this configuration before). It does not work with the stock ROM. So to benefit from multi boot, just put all system folders on the same partition rather than individual ones.

Works like a charm now

[tt]

Interesting, this is good to know since sometimes I swap ROMs. I guess this is another subtle difference that occurs after swapping out the stock ROM.

[sbreit]

Interesting, this is good to know since sometimes I swap ROMs. I guess this is another subtle difference that occurs after swapping out the stock ROM.

Another thing I've found out about this issue is that the patched Apple HD SC 7.3.5 yet again enables me to dual-boot 2 individual partitions with SystemPicker

Hands off non-Apple tools!