Mac Os Usb Still Waiting For Root Device

Apr 03, 2012 Others will throw the 'Still waiting for root device' error and halt during boot, which is when you know that 1) your BIOS settings need tweaking 2) you need to use one of the injectors mentioned below, or AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext.or, if the controller is not an Intel ICHx - ATIATA.kext, JMicronATA.kext, ApplenforceATA.kext, SuperVIAATA.kext, etc. Topic says it.can't install due to 'still waiting for root device'. I've taken a Mac OS X 10.6 Server DVD, created a cdr image of it in OS X (due to the fact that the DVD is dual layer, and the Windows machine here has only a single layer DVD), and attached it to IDE Primary.

Mac Os Usb Still Waiting For Root Devices

Do you want to fix the still waiting for root device error that is showing on your Hackintosh PC after the successful installation? Then you came to the right planet.

Here we have posted the tutorials of fixing the waiting root device error with just by follow some easy steps.

What Does “Still waiting for root device” Means?

Still waiting for root device mean is that the source of booting macOS is not detected properly. In simple term, the operating system was not able to locate a driver/kext for your Hard Disk/DVD Drive/USB.

When this error occur?

This is the common error that appears before installing Mac OS X or After a Successful installation of Hackintosh.

Fix Still waiting for Root Device in Hackintosh

In this post, We are going to show you 3 cases when the waiting for root device error comes and 3 methods for solving them. So let’s get started.

Case 1: Bootable USB

You May be trying to Install Mac OS X Using a Bootable USB. This occurs when Your USB Port is not recognized by Mac OS X & In some LGA 1156 motherboards they need to use some additional kexts to Make USB Work Properly.

How Can You Fix It?

Try to boot with the kernel flag USBBusFix=Yes this usually triggers All The USB Ports & Fix all usb related issues
LGA 1156 motherboard Users Install Zenith432’s GenericUSBXHCI.kext into the Bootable USB ( /Extra/Extensions ) Using Kext Wizard / Transmac (If you’re using windows)
Try to Enable/Disable Legacy USB in Bios

Case 2: DVD

You May be trying to Install Mac OS X Using a DvD. This occurs when Your DVD Drive is not recognized by Mac OS X ( Unless if you’re using a USB DvD Drive Check The Solutions of Case 1 )

How Can You Fix It?

This is a problematic case as you can’t modify the DvD All you can try are the Bios Settings

Try to Set SATA as AHCI on Bios
Try to Change SATA Ports
Connect DvD to Primary SATA/PATA Port

If these doesn’t help stop trying its unworthy to try in this case

Case 3: Hard Disk

If you are trying to boot Mac OS X using a Hard Disk and the still waiting for root device error are coming? Then try the below solution.

How Can You Fix It?

Try to Boot with USBBusFix=Yes
Try to Boot with ahcidisk=8 debug=8 (Works on some devices)
Check Your Bios Settings Set AHCI as SATA
Connect Hard disk to Primary SATA /PATA Port
Installing These Chipset Kexts to /System/Library/Extensions Most of The Systems Including Gigabyte MotherBoard with Jmicron Chipset.

Hope your problem of Mac OS X solve. If you have any issue related to Hackintosh, let us know in comment section.

This annoying statement ususally comes up befor DVD can boot or after installation before the OSX boots for the first time.

if you haven't used a Leo4All or did not use -v option then the screen will not look like the first image in this post but it will look like this (no entry sign/ stop sign/ no smoking sign without the cigaret):

What does this error mean?
well it means that the OS is set to boot from a drive and partition that does not exist.
for instance the Darwin boot loader is talled to boot from Disk1 (Disk 1= second hard drive (starting from 0)) and there is no such disk.
What can you do?
if you know the number of your Hard Drive then at the Darwin prompt (after boot press F8) write: rd=DiskX where X is the number of your OSX hard drive.
for instance if your hard drive is 0 (zero is the first hard drive) then write:
rd=disk0
if you do not know your hard drive then there is a try and error method of trying all the disk possibilities on your computer starting with: rd=disk0 then rd=disk1 then rd=disk2 then rd=disk3 etc.
another good option is to disconnect other HD and leave the OSX HD as first and write disk0.

How to set the RD for every boot?
once you succeed and don't want to write the rd parameter every boot, then write it in your boot plist file.
this is a file that configure the system boot parameters. the file can be found at:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
the file name is: com.apple.Boot.plist and you edit it as root and change the Kernel Flags value and add to it the rd parameter like this:

open terminal
write: sudo -s and press enter
enter your password when asked and press enter
write: vi /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and press enter
in the vi editor use the arrow keys on the keyboard and navigate the cursor to the tag: after the <key>Kernel Flags< /key > line.
the string tag might be empty or not, if it is not empty then add space and then write: rd=diskX where X is your hard drive number.
press keyboard button Esc (in order to exit insert mode)
write: :wq and press enter (notice the : sign)
then reboot and thats it

here is a Bofore image of my file (it will help clear things up):

and here is the after image (note the space between the -v and rd parameter):

most common mistakes are to write full path to the drive like this: rd=/dev/rdisk0or rd=disk0s2 instead of: rd=disk0. (only when you are trying to load the install DVD, not after the install has finished successfully).

the rule is that before the install (if the DVD will not load) then use the rdiskX format.

Mac Os Usb Still Waiting For Root Device Ra1nusb

if you are after the install then use the rdiskXsY format.

after the install has finished successfully and you get 'Still waiting...' then you can use the partition value as well in this form:

where X stands for the number of the leopard disk and Y stands for the partition number of the leopard disk. examples:

disk0s2 (first disk second partition)

BIOS options

there is another option that your bios is not set as required.

if you have a SATA hard disk, then they can support several work modes,

IDE legacy, or IDE native, or native AHCI, also there is a S.M.A.R.T mode that can be enabled or disabled, and the actual strings as always depends on your BIOS.

i also had an option of 'Hard Disk Pre Delay' that gives the hard drive delay time in order to let the hard drive time to react after reboot and when disk is mounted or plugged in, i set it to 5 instead of default 0.

so you should play with these options until you cover all options one of them will fix your 'Still waiting...' situation.

you should set it up as follow:

Configure SATA as: AHCI

and a closer look:

this option not always work, it didn't fix the problem forever, but i have successfully finished the install process.

follow these next steps:

boot from the install DVD into single-user mode
flag any partition other then the leopard partition as bootable
then you reboot, again from the install DVD into single-user mode
next flag back the leopard partition

thats it it should help, if you have any problem please post here,

Enjoy.