• Supported version: 0.6.2

In Verbose mode it crashes half way, a 'no entry' icon pops up and the last text says 'Still waiting for root device'. I followed all the instructions one by one. I tried it in multiple USB drives and different ports; tried creating the installation drive with Unibeast and Terminal. Hello, I am attempting to install macOS High Sierra on a GT72S Dominator Pro G Dragon-004 laptop. The laptop has the following specs: CPU: Intel®. Use the flags one at a time; if one doesn't work, try the other. Fair warning: this solution usually only works on Mac OS X Lion and Mountain Lion. 'Still waiting for root device' If the output from verbose mode specifically stops at a line saying 'Still waiting for root device', you probably have a. What does “Still waiting for root device” means? It means that a driver/kext for the source from which you are booting is not detected properly by the mac operating system (USB kext not detected or loaded) Mac OS released prebuilt with the latest drivers that supports SATA out of.

So with troubleshooting a hackintosh, it can be a bit difficult to really understand where you're getting stuck as the exact keyword you're trying to search for may not match anything on google. While this page won't solve all your issues, it should at least help better understand where in the macOS boot-process you're getting stuck and hopefully give some ideas as to why you're stuck.

# OpenCore Booting

This section will be brief, as OpenCore boot issues are fairly rare and usually simple user error:

• System powers on and searches for boot devices
• System locates BOOTx64.efi on your OpenCore USB under EFI/BOOT/
• BOOTx64.efi is loaded which then chain-loads OpenCore.efi from EFI/OC/
• NVRAM Properties are applied
• EFI drivers are loaded from EFI/OC/Drivers
• Graphics Output Protocol(GOP) is installed
• ACPI Tables are loaded from EFI/OC/ACPI
• SMBIOS Data is applied
• OpenCore loads and shows you all possible boot options
• You now boot your macOS installer

If you're having issues booting at this point, main things to check for:

For the rest of the possible issues, see here:

# boot.efi Handoff

This is where macOS's bootloader(boot.efi) comes onto the scene, specifically what it does is prep the environment for the kernel to load and where OpenCore injects kexts. If you're getting stuck at this point, there's likely an issue with loading the kernel, main culprits:

For the rest of the possible issues, see here:

Note: In macOS 10.15.4, Apple changed the boot.efi debugging protocol, so things will look quite a bit different from before but all the same rules still apply

# XNU/Kernel Handoff

Now that boot.efi has setup everything for us, we now get to watch the kernel do it's thing. This section is commonly referred as the Rooting phase:

This section is where SMBIOS data is verified, ACPI tables/Kexts are loaded and macOS tries to get everything in order. Failures here are generally a result of:

• Corrupted SSDTs
• Corrupted kexts(or incorrectly setup under your config.plist -> Kernel -> Add)
• Messed up memory map

See here for more troubleshooting info:

Now here we have [ PCI configurations begin ], this section can be seen as a hardware test for our systems, kexts and SSDTs we injected, and where IOKit starts hardware probs to find devices to attach to.

The main things that are tested here:

• Embedded Controllers
• Storage(NVMe, SATA, etc)
• PCI/e
• NVRAM
• RTC
• PS2 and I2C

For more specific info on how to get around this area, see here:

This is where the 15 port limit and USB mapping comes into play, and where the infamous 'Waiting for Root Device' errors pops in, main things to check for:

This is where our FakeSMC/VirtualSMC come into the scene and do their magic, DSMOS itself is a kext that verifies if your system has an SMC and will request a key. If this key is missing, then DSMOS will not decrypt the rest of the binaries and you'll get stuck here. You may also get stuck at AppleACPICPU which is just the same error.

Source: Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext

This is where Apple's audio driver comes in, and where AppleALC shines. Generally rare to see issues here but if you do, try disabling AppleALC and any other audio related kexts.

And here we get to the GPU driver initialization, and where WhateverGreen also does its magic. Generally errors here are due to the GPU and not WhateverGreen itself, main culprits:

# macOS Handoff

And you've finally got past all that verbose! If you're getting stuck at the Apple logo after all that verbose, then there's a couple things to check for:

Attachments

Change History

Changed 7 years ago by kirigiri

• attachmentVBox.log added

Changed 7 years ago by kirigiri

• attachmentVBox.4.1.12.MacOSX.7.5.3.log added

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• attachmentVBox4.1.16.MacOSX.10.8.3.log added

Changed 7 years ago by kirigiri

• attachmentVBox.4.2.12.MacOSX.10.8.3.log added

Mac Os High Sierra Still Waiting For Root Device

comment:2 Changed 7 years ago by frank

Virtualbox Mac Os Still Waiting For Root Device

Mac Os Install Still Waiting For Root Device

• Status changed from new to closed
• Resolution set to fixed