10.5 Update---Ibook assasination

[noman02000]

Hi All,
Looking for any help anyone can offer.  My Ibook G4 just died after installing a software update.  Now it gets stuck on the gray apple screen...literally for hours .  I've done the fsck -fy and it said it was ok.  Verbose mode keeps telling me it cant  map the module and even though it says the loginwindow has started I'm still not getting anything.  I must have tried to safe boot a thousand times but it doesn't respond.  I am not sure if it is because I can't login at all or if it just isn't working.  Is there a command line to safe boot or revert the preferences to an original state?  I would just use the 10.5 CD but it is at home in California and I am in Connecticut.  So I am trying to figure out something I can do.

Thanks!

[gunug]

Safe boot should be holding down the shift key when you are booting!  You could also try booting up off a MAC system CD or DVD and using the Disk Utility available there to try and repair the permissions and the disk itself!

[noman02000]

QUOTE(gunug @ Mar 20 2008, 11:29 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Safe boot should be holding down the shift key when you are booting!  You could also try booting up off a MAC system CD or DVD and using the Disk Utility available there to try and repair the permissions and the disk itself!

Yeah, I hold down shift after the chime and release when the gear appears.  It never logs in though.  It just gets stuck there like when I do a normal boot.  I don't have the system cd it is back home.  I have my powerbook cd though...could the disk utility on that one help at all?

[gunug]

When you say Powerbook CD I'm assuming you're talking about a pre-OS X system disk and I'm afraid that wouldn't boot.  It's possible there might be another user or user's group in your area that could help out.  It's also possible that there is an answer that hasn't occurred to me yet!

[Paddy]

Without a current system disk, or one specifically for your iBook, I think you're out of luck, because I suspect that you're going to have to do an archive and install at the very least. The Powerbook disk is unlikely to boot your iBook - machine specific disks rarely work on other models.

(Your next purchase should be an external FW drive to make regular cloned backups - in a situation like this you could simply copy the clone, or boot from the external drive)

Anyway, if you cannot find anyone with a RETAIL OS 10.5 disk to borrow, your best bet might be the genius bar at the nearest Apple store. There are Apple stores in Farmington, Stamford and Danbury. Are you near any of them?

http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Meanwhile, get someone back in CA to send you that system disk via Priority Mail. Well worth the $4.60!