site_archiver@lists.apple.com Delivered-To: darwin-kernel@lists.apple.com Forgot.... switching kernels is such a PITA on MacOSX and can easily leave a machine unbootable. So basically, it can be pretty painless. -- Terry _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Darwin-kernel mailing list (Darwin-kernel@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/darwin-kernel/site_archiver%40lists.a... On Apr 24, 2010, at 5:50 AM, Andrew Gallatin <gallatin@cs.duke.edu> wrote: All my machines have 3 partitions: two boot partitions I can ping-pong installs between, and a Data partition where I keep the stuff I'm not willing to trash with a reinstall. I keep .dmgs for apps I'd need to reinstall on the booted OS on the Data partition too. Some people who don't install new builds each day do the same thing, but instead of another OSl, they put a straight install .dmg on the other patition, which let's them boot "the install DVD" to reinstall the primary partition instead. Personally, I need to know "why did it fail?" too much for this setup. Yeah, people who don't start out with their machines set up this way have too much stuff to easily change setups. The alternative is to either use boot args to set an alternate boot kernel, or use bless to tell it to boot the alternate kernel once, and then go back to the default kernel on the next boot. If I do it on a local machine, I use the first; if I do remote kernel work, I do the second. In the case of a bad kernel, I hold down the power button and keep holding it until I get the NVRAM reset beeps (clears the boot args), and then just reboot into the original kernel. This email sent to site_archiver@lists.apple.com