could not open ... could not unlink ... /var/db/BootCache.playlist

Question

could not open ... could not unlink ... /var/db/BootCache.playlist

In 10.5.7, on my QS 2002 Dual 1GHz, I keep getting this message.

Awhile ago, someone suggested I Trash this file
/var/db/BootCache.playlist,
thinking it would be regenerated next Startup.

Is there a Terminal command that I can use to accomplish this? Something that would signle my OS X, to regenerate this file next go 'round?

Here are the log entries I find troubling:

Jul 20 17:43:33 localhost com.apple.launchctl.System[2]: BootCacheControl: could not open /var/db/BootCache.playlist: No such file or directory
Jul 20 17:43:33 localhost com.apple.launchctl.System[2]: BootCacheControl: could not unlink playlist /var/db/BootCache.playlist: Unknown error: -1

I see this in a number of other threads, but have not located a solution.

Thanks.

QS 2002 Dual 1GHz + DA Dual 533 (Mac Plus, Performa 6116, PPC 8500 G4/450), Mac OS X (10.5.7), Tiger 10.4.11 on Yikes! oc'd @ 450 + Sonnet G4/450 on 8500

Posted on Jul 21, 2009 8:40 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 21, 2009 2:20 PM in response to Bill Connelly

I attempted:

sudo rm /var/db/BootCache.playlist

Not sure if it worked ... asked for my password.

Well ... the BootCache.playlist file is actually there ... but I still get the alleged error message above.

Comments?

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Answer 2

Jul 22, 2009 8:08 AM in response to Bill Connelly

Bill Connelly wrote:
I attempted:

sudo rm /var/db/BootCache.playlist

Not sure if it worked ... asked for my password.

Well ... the BootCache.playlist file is actually there ... but I still get the alleged error message above.

Tell us what you get from

ls -l /var/db/BootCache.playlist
file /var/db/BootCache.playlist

and if it replies "data" to the second, try

BootCacheControl statistics

Post all your output here inside
…
tags.

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Answer 3

Jul 22, 2009 9:15 AM in response to Michael Conniff

Last login: Wed Jul 22 10:13:18 on console
Even though I didn't get "data" on the second command, I went on and did all three (don't understand the

... [code] posting/reply request):   [code]   Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ ls -l /var/db/BootCache.playlist -rw-------  1 root  wheel  58716 Jul 22 10:00 /var/db/BootCache.playlist Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ file /var/db/BootCache.playlist /var/db/BootCache.playlist: cannot open /var/db/BootCache.playlist: Permission denied Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ BootCacheControl statistics BootCacheControl: could not fetch cache statistics: Operation not permitted BootCacheControl: could not fetch statistics: Operation not permitted Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$

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Answer 4

Jul 22, 2009 9:19 AM in response to Bill Connelly

Oh ... afterthought about Permissions ...

I use applejack in auto pilot mode, to "clean things up" periodically ... this does a Permissions Repair on the boot volume where the BootCache.playlist file if located.

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Answer 5

Jul 22, 2009 9:32 AM in response to Bill Connelly

Bill Connelly wrote:
Last login: Wed Jul 22 10:13:18 on console
Even though I didn't get "data" on the second command, I went on and did all three
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ ls -l /var/db/BootCache.playlist
-rw------- 1 root wheel 58716 Jul 22 10:00 /var/db/BootCache.playlist
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ file /var/db/BootCache.playlist
/var/db/BootCache.playlist: cannot open /var/db/BootCache.playlist: Permission denied
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ BootCacheControl statistics
BootCacheControl: could not fetch cache statistics: Operation not permitted
BootCacheControl: could not fetch statistics: Operation not permitted

Duh!

I forgot that I was root when I tried this. Try again:

sudo file /var/db/BootCache.playlist
sudo BootCacheControl statistics

(don't understand the [code] ... [code] posting/reply request):

You need to put

before and after the Terminal output, and the second one does not need the '/' which most of these formatting systems (eg HTML) require. Note these are 'curly' brackets, not square ones.
Thus

This text will be mono-spaced

like so:

This text will be mono-spaced{code}

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Answer 6

Jul 22, 2009 9:40 AM in response to Bill Connelly

cd to /var/db and then sudo those commands and it will open up your commands like;


doug-penningtons-power-mac-g4:db dougp$ sudo BootCacheControl statistics
Password:
initiated reads 3737
blocks read 278601
read errors 0
blocks discarded by error 0
batch 0 time 0.482s
batch 1 time 8.050s
batch 2 time 9.937s
blocks read in batch 0: 11377
blocks read in batch 1: 179754
blocks read in batch 2: 87470
reader thread rate 7541kB/s, 202tps
total strategy calls 7248
non-read strategy calls 1542
bypassed strategy calls 2084
bypasses while active 941
filled strategy calls 5164
filled during active I/O 3158
active time 59.713s
read/write strategy rate 95/25tps
callers blocked 36
time blocked on extents 39.705s
extents in cache 2189
extent lookups 5706
extent hits 5257
extent hit ratio 92.13%
hits not fulfilled 93
blocks requested 265566
blocks hit 247710
blocks discarded by write 24
block hit ratio 93.29%
leftover blocks 30843
leftover pages 0
block wastage 11.07%
history clusters 11
doug-penningtons-power-mac-g4:db dougp$ 
doug-penningtons-power-mac-g4:db dougp$ sudo file /var/db/BootCache.playlist
/var/db/BootCache.playlist: data

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Answer 7

Jul 22, 2009 9:44 AM in response to doug pennington

Posting lapse time. Excuse me.

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Answer 8

Jul 22, 2009 10:06 AM in response to doug pennington


Last login: Wed Jul 22 13:01:25 on console
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ sudo file /var/db/BootCache.playlist
Password:
/var/db/BootCache.playlist: data
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ sudo BootCacheControl statistics
initiated reads 3922
blocks read 269787
read errors 0
blocks discarded by error 0
batch 0 time 0.516s
batch 1 time 6.034s
batch 2 time 11.008s
blocks read in batch 0: 13753
blocks read in batch 1: 198866
blocks read in batch 2: 57168
reader thread rate 7682kB/s, 223tps
total strategy calls 8891
non-read strategy calls 1910
bypassed strategy calls 3515
bypasses while active 731
filled strategy calls 5376
filled during active I/O 3113
active time 59.209s
read/write strategy rate 117/32tps
callers blocked 19
time blocked on extents 8.504s
extents in cache 2446
extent lookups 6981
extent hits 5462
extent hit ratio 78.24%
hits not fulfilled 86
blocks requested 339025
blocks hit 267659
blocks discarded by write 16
block hit ratio 78.95%
leftover blocks 2000
leftover pages 0
block wastage 0.74%
history clusters 14
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$

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Answer 9

Jul 22, 2009 10:23 AM in response to Bill Connelly

I had shut down before booting again to obtain the data above.

I did not get the "could not open ... could not unlink ... /var/db/BootCache.playlist" sequence this time.

Trying to debug a possible conflict between PCI cards, earlier, I removed a Sonnet Tango USB/FW PCI and moved my M-Audio Delta 2496 PCI card to Slot4.

Apologies for the non-consistent testing hardware scenario ...

My logs appear normal now ... whatever that means to an amateur/expert.

What do my BootCacheControl Stats show?

If I put the Sonnet FW/USB card back in, and the "could not open ... could not unlink ... /var/db/BootCache.playlist" shows up again, what should I expect from the Stats as well?

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Answer 10

Jul 22, 2009 4:13 PM in response to Bill Connelly

I actually think my "/var/db/BootCache.playlist" file seems to be functioning again. Startup is fairly quick (12 spins of the Startup indicator) versus 23, sometimes 67 or more.

What do you think fixed the BootCacheControl functionality? my original issues sign is not there anymore, and the Startup is quick (purpose of the BootCache.playlist).

Doing the:
sudo rm /var/db/BootCache.playlist ???

And/Or removing a possibly conflicting PCI card ???

I'm considering putting it back in to see what happens ... although me likes the system.log remaining stable.

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Answer 11

Jul 22, 2009 8:04 PM in response to Bill Connelly

On reinstalling the Sonnet Tango USB/FW PCI card in Slot3, the problem arises again. The "could not open ..." dialogue appears again.

Here's the BootCacheControl Stats for such a hardware setup:


Last login: Wed Jul 22 22:56:15 on console
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ sudo file /var/db/BootCache.playlist
Password:
/var/db/BootCache.playlist: data
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$ sudo BootCacheControl statistics
initiated reads 0
blocks read 0
read errors 0
blocks discarded by error 0
blocks read in batch 0: 0
blocks read in batch 1: 0
blocks read in batch 2: 0
reader thread rate 0kB/s, 0tps
total strategy calls 7210
non-read strategy calls 1574
bypassed strategy calls 7210
bypasses while active 0
filled strategy calls 0
filled during active I/O 0
active time 60.867s
read/write strategy rate 92/25tps
extents in cache 0
extent lookups 5636
extent hits 0
extent hit ratio 0.00%
hits not fulfilled 0
blocks requested 277426
blocks hit 0
blocks discarded by write 0
block hit ratio 0.00%
leftover blocks 0
leftover pages 0
history clusters 11
Moonstone-Art-Studio:~ moonstoneartstudio$

Guess I need to remove the FW/USB PCI card?

Proves conflict with the M-Audio Delta 2496 PCI card?

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Answer 12

Jul 23, 2009 4:50 AM in response to Bill Connelly

Bill Connelly wrote:
My logs appear normal now ... whatever that means to an amateur/expert.
What do my BootCacheControl Stats show?

They look normal, whatever that is 😉

I actually think my "/var/db/BootCache.playlist" file seems to be functioning again. Startup is fairly quick (12 spins of the Startup indicator) versus 23, sometimes 67 or more.

What do you think fixed the BootCacheControl functionality? my original issues sign is not there anymore, and the Startup is quick (purpose of the BootCache.playlist).

Doing the:
sudo rm /var/db/BootCache.playlist ???

And/Or removing a possibly conflicting PCI card ???

I'm considering putting it back in to see what happens ... although me likes the system.log remaining stable.
I did not get the "could not open ... could not unlink ... /var/db/BootCache.playlist" sequence this time.

Probably the restart did this. Maybe your sudo rm /var/db/BootCache.playlist did work, but merely unlinked the file. It would only be actually deleted when closed, ie at shutdown.

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Answer 13

Jul 23, 2009 4:51 AM in response to Bill Connelly

Bill Connelly wrote:
On reinstalling the Sonnet Tango USB/FW PCI card in Slot3, the problem arises again. The "could not open ..." dialogue appears again.

Guess I need to remove the FW/USB PCI card?

Proves conflict with the M-Audio Delta 2496 PCI card?

Well, looks that way, but I'm no expert on hardware matters. Why not contact Sonnet and/or M_Audio?

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Answer 14

Jul 23, 2009 6:47 AM in response to Michael Conniff

Michael Conniff wrote:
Probably the restart did this. Maybe your sudo rm /var/db/BootCache.playlist did work, but merely unlinked the file. It would only be actually deleted when closed, ie at shutdown.

What might be the difference in using the "rm" command, and in dragging the BootCache.playlist to the Trash, both followed by a Restart? "rm" unlinks the file, and dragging to Trash does not?

Would Shutdowns followed by Cold Boots be necessary and/or different in lieu of Restarts?

I had to remove the Sonnet card so my system would return to normalcy. I have discussed this with Sonnet and M-Audio ... a few years ago ... they weren't talking to each other at the time, if I remember correctly. Now this particular Sonnet card is considered legacy, and M-Audio hasn't changed its drivers since Tiger 10.4.11 ... also, M-Audio's Uninstaller still doesn't work in Leopard ... so ... its probably an M-Audio driver setup/shutdown/restart issue ...

Both of these cards are multi-purpose PCI cards: Sonnet: FW400 & USB1.1 and M-Audio: Stereo In/Out, SPDIF Out, & MIDI I/O ... I'm thinking PCItoPCI Bridge conflicts of some sort between the 2 cards ... IIRC, they both work independently ...

This a.m., my setup is continuing to work with only the M-Audio installed.

Thanks for your helpful remarks!

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Answer 15

Jul 23, 2009 10:03 AM in response to Bill Connelly

Bill Connelly wrote:
What might be the difference in using the "rm" command, and in dragging the BootCache.playlist to the Trash, both followed by a Restart? "rm" unlinks the file, and dragging to Trash does not?

There shouldn't be any differences in using rm or the Finder. At the end of the day, both will use the unlink system call. As the man page for unlink says:

If one or more process have the file open when the last
link is removed, the link is removed, but the removal of the file is
delayed until all references to it have been closed.

So the restart is one way to force BootCacheControl to close the file, albeit in a roundabout way. No doubt using kill might work, but then again …

Would Shutdowns followed by Cold Boots be necessary and/or different in lieu of Restarts?

No difference.

This a.m., my setup is continuing to work with only the M-Audio installed.

Something to be grateful for, then! 😉

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