Comments on: Startup Keys – Boot Options

By: bretuoba

bretuoba — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:27:06 +0000

I get white screen when I try booting snow leopard

By: Eddie

Eddie — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:36:35 +0000

I have a macbook G4 with a newly installed hard drive. I can’t get it to boot from the original install disk. This is a great computer, and I’m not giving up on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried every key combination to get it to boot. Even cleared out the PRAM. HELP!

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:10:14 +0000

Really David? Is it really easier to whine on here about your own ignorance than to simply go to google or apple.com and educate yourself? Also, no where is the word “instructions” used in the blog post. This is clearly a reference, and a useful one to those that understand the context.

By: David

David — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:42:45 +0000

All intructions are always incomplete and therefore useless.

1. There are no option or command keys on the Apple Keyboard so which keys is he referring to?

2. When do you push these keys down – before pressing the power key, during, or after?

“No one knows their own business anymore. Life has become too complicated for managers to manage.”

By: Kasm279

Kasm279 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:44:09 +0000

For all you asking for support, you probably wont get any here. You would be better off hopping on the Freenode IRC server and joining ##mac. (This is not meant to be an advertisement, only a little bit of help…)

By: Tonny

Tonny — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:50:13 +0000

i have a mac pro 2.4Ghz. everytime i boot the mac, i have to pull out the network cable, otherwise it shows up a flash earth icon in the middle of the screen. how to overcome that problem? thanks much!

By: david v.

david v. — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:18:07 +0000

i have a powerbook g4 laptop model a1010. i continue on getting a blank screen and after a few secs i get the broken mac folder that switches back and forth with a ?. i have tried various key commands to boot..no luck.

By: carl

carl — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:47:33 +0000

can the command prompt be ran on an external screen. .my macbook has a crack in it

By: big tom

big tom — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:14:08 +0000

The one that gets me out of trouble the most: unplug the machine, turn it on (nothing happens, duh, but you’re releasing pent up capacitors (or whatever)), then plug it back in and turn it on. Voila!

By: oscar

oscar — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:06:15 +0000

have a machine that seems to be stuck in single user mode. The splash screen (login screen) comes up and then disappears all boots straight to command prompt login:

any one out there know what might cause this and how to fix?

By: Craig Knows Things » Apple Boot key combination

Craig Knows Things » Apple Boot key combination — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:54:54 +0000

[...] snagged this from this guy: http://face.centosprime.com/macosxw/startup-keys-boot-options/ Who snagged it from this guy: [...]

By: fred kirby

fred kirby — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:09:20 +0000

would I have to do this everytime?
or can I set up a list of priorities?

By: Alexander Refsum Jensenius » Mac OS X Startup Keys

Alexander Refsum Jensenius » Mac OS X Startup Keys — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:06:08 +0000

[...] booting everything hangs. I haven’t found a good solution yet, but at least I came across a list of useful startup keys, some of them [...]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:13:53 +0000

If I have a version of Linux on an external drive will ‘option’ key find this an option to boot from?

By: Craig’s Blog » Apple Boot Options

Craig’s Blog » Apple Boot Options — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:36:31 +0000

[...] found Mac OS X Things. Hopefully that link works for a [...]

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 02:02:14 +0000

The Command-Option-O-F sequence (and all others relating to Open Firmware) only work on PowerPC Macintoshes from the late ’90s to the G5 range. Intel Macs do not use Open Firmware and as such Cmd-Opt-O-F, the sequence to boot into the Open Firmware command prompt, does nothing.

By: John Johnston

John Johnston — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 10:15:02 +0000

Command-Option-O-F
I have a problem with my internal speakers not working on my new Macbook Intel 13″ running tiger 10.4.9. I was advised by an apple form user to do the above which is also in your list of boot options but nothing happens – it just boot normally. Do you have any comment? thanks, JJ

By: David

David — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:26:22 +0000

Thank you! I have an OSX/OS9 G3 and hadn’t booted it in OS9 for quite awhile. When I went to do it, it hung because I had installed a new CD-R. Thanx to you I found how to bypass extenstions and get the darn thing started.

Much appreciated!