Bonjour services erratic or missing, mDNSResponder quitting on boot

Question

Bonjour services erratic or missing, mDNSResponder quitting on boot

I've searched the forum, and found that several users have had trouble after the update to 10.5.5. I think my problems stem from mDNSResponder not launching correctly. What happens is that my MacBook and my PowerMac G4 no longer see any Bonjour related services on the network. A printer connected to an AP express won't show up, Airport Utility can not see the AP express or the Time Capsule. +"File > Configure other..."+ will see the units, so the problem is down to Bonjour. Same for the printer, it works on the MacBook where it's already installed. On the G4 it's missing all together. Shared folders will not show up "bonjour-wise", but mounting them manually by IP-address works. This line appears frequently in system.log:

22.11.08 22.31.16 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.mDNSResponder[26]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault

In short, my network is functioning as it should, but none of the Bonjour-enabled services advertising across the network register on the Macs. The network consists of a single 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, a Time Capsule as the main router, an AP express connected via WDS and three connected computers, two Macs and a Vista PC. And all Bonjour services work on the PC! And it all worked just fine a few weeks ago, prior to the update.

Please help...

MacBook 2,0 GHz & PM dual 1,25 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5), Running OS X 10.5.5, Time Capsule & AP Express

Posted on Nov 22, 2008 2:25 PM

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Answer 1

Snoop Dogg

Level 4

1,502 points

Nov 22, 2008 7:43 PM in response to Tomas Siqveland

Tomas, do you have any files with "mDNSResponder" in the name located inside "/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/"? Could you try opening one of these logs in TextEdit and post the contents?

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Answer 2

Nov 23, 2008 4:50 AM in response to Snoop Dogg

Thanks Snoop! It just didn't spring to mind late last night... There are at least 20 entries from the last day, and they seem to be quite identical. The entries are about 10 minutes apart. Here's the crash log:

Process: mDNSResponder [178] Path: /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder Identifier: mDNSResponder Version: ??? (???) Code Type: X86 (Native) Parent Process: launchd [1] Date/Time: 2008-11-22 22:59:42.196 +0100 OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.5 (9F33) Report Version: 6 Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGSEGV) Exception Codes: KERNINVALIDADDRESS at 0x00000000c0000053 Crashed Thread: 1 Application Specific Information: mDNSResponder mDNSResponder-176.2 (Aug 15 2008 14:58:54) Thread 0: 0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x952d24a6 machmsgtrap + 10 1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x952d9c9c mach_msg + 72 2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x92b1e0ce CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1790 3 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x92b1ed54 CFRunLoopRun + 84 4 mDNSResponder 0x000368cb main + 2606 5 mDNSResponder 0x000022fc _start + 210 6 mDNSResponder 0x00002229 start + 41 Thread 1 Crashed: 0 mDNSResponder 0x0002783d FoundInstance + 187 1 mDNSResponder 0x0000c21d AnswerCurrentQuestionWithResourceRecord + 452 2 mDNSResponder 0x0000cb0a CreateNewCacheEntry + 1841 3 mDNSResponder 0x0000d6ca mDNSCoreReceiveResponse + 2933 4 mDNSResponder 0x00011bb6 mDNSCoreReceive + 5865 5 mDNSResponder 0x0002ed38 myKQSocketCallBack + 1167 6 mDNSResponder 0x00038be7 KQueueLoop + 3026 7 libSystem.B.dylib 0x953036f5 pthreadstart + 321 8 libSystem.B.dylib 0x953035b2 thread_start + 34 Thread 1 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit): eax: 0xc0000003 ebx: 0x00027799 ecx: 0x00111510 edx: 0xc0000053 edi: 0x0004feb0 esi: 0xc0000003 ebp: 0xb007f438 esp: 0xb007f400 ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010286 eip: 0x0002783d cs: 0x00000017 ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x0000001f gs: 0x00000037 cr2: 0xc0000053 Binary Images: 0x1000 - 0x46ff3 +mDNSResponder ??? (???) <ada5e47962cab12350ae84e7121abfcd> /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder 0x8fe00000 - 0x8fe2da53 dyld 96.2 (???) <c254337fa28c7eacb3d3e1d56aa141a4> /usr/lib/dyld 0x92aac000 - 0x92bdefff com.apple.CoreFoundation 6.5.4 (476.15) <e2869ad6dc1dd289f21b305b0bea9158> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation 0x92e3d000 - 0x9300bfff com.apple.security 5.0.4 (34102) <3a178df3d2ee0bb65cdbfe570618acf4> /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security 0x93519000 - 0x93576ffb libstdc++.6.dylib ??? (???) <04b812dcec670daa8b7d2852ab14be60> /usr/lib/libstdc++.6.dylib 0x936d8000 - 0x936dffe9 libgcc_s.1.dylib ??? (???) <f53c808e87d1184c0f9df63aef53ce0b> /usr/lib/libgcc_s.1.dylib 0x94263000 - 0x9428efe7 libauto.dylib ??? (???) <42d8422dc23a18071869fdf7b5d8fab5> /usr/lib/libauto.dylib 0x9446e000 - 0x94472fff libmathCommon.A.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib 0x946ef000 - 0x94726fff com.apple.SystemConfiguration 1.9.2 (1.9.2) <8b26ebf26a009a098484f1ed01ec499c> /System/Library/Frameworks/SystemConfiguration.framework/Versions/A/SystemConfi guration 0x952d1000 - 0x95431ff3 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) <3699b292cde73c2847f87c7e1510d87b> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib 0x955b7000 - 0x955c5ffd libz.1.dylib ??? (???) <5ddd8539ae2ebfd8e7cc1c57525385c7> /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib 0x955c6000 - 0x956a6fff libobjc.A.dylib ??? (???) <7b92613fdf804fd9a0a3733a0674c30b> /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib 0x96b08000 - 0x96b93fff com.apple.framework.IOKit 1.5.1 (???) <324526f69e1443f2f9fb722cc88a23ec> /System/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/IOKit 0x96e26000 - 0x96f5eff7 libicucore.A.dylib ??? (???) <3d8fdaf51c2664ab620f1688203caf26> /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib 0xfffe8000 - 0xfffebfff libobjc.A.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1780 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

The log files have been rotated and deleted, so it's hard to say exactly when it all started. Unfortunately Time Machine skips this folder (just found out...) so no luck there. Good hunting, and thanks again for your time and help!

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Answer 3

Nov 27, 2008 4:26 AM in response to Tomas Siqveland

Just thought i should update; I booted my MacBook from an USB disk with a Tiger (10.4.10) system. That made the different Bonjour services showing up and working correctly. I could "see" the printer attached to the AP Express, and both AP units showed up in Airport Utility''s window. Just as a check, a simultaneous peek at the PowerMac still running 10.5.5 showed that the problem was still present as far as that machine is concerned.

I would think this rules out this being a problem on my local network per se, and that the whole mess is a 10.5.5 update issue. I'm now considering trying to roll back to 10.5.4 via my Time Capsule, but that is a rather messy process. Alternatively reinstalling everything from scratch with a ton of apps and licenses is a nightmare. I tried rolling back just the mDNSResponder and mDNSResponderHelper (plus deleting prefs) files, but to no avail.

Anyone out there with a clue?

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Answer 4

Nov 30, 2008 11:25 PM in response to Tomas Siqveland

Oh, well... I ended up reinstalling everything from scratch, but halting the update cycle at Mac OS 10.5.4. Both my machines are now properly picking up shared printers and other Bonjour elements. And Airport Utility can "see" and edit my two Airport devices.

The Time Machine backup is working well, although I'm not using it to make a full restore. I pick up pref files and registrations while installing the apps themselves from original media. Lesson learned: It's vitally important to have backups!

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