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Level 1

10 points

Odd console messages when ethernet cable is NOT connected

Summary: 3 Symptoms, all recurs simultaneously every minute or so when an ethernet cable is NOT connected:
1) Console: *"Firewall krb5kdc is listening"*...
2) HardwareGrowler *"Ethernet Deactivated Interface: en0"*
3) Network Preference Panel: Ethernet panel flickers. The Status changes from *"Cable Unplugged"* to *"Unknown State"* and then back to *"Cable Unplugged"* in less than a second.

I just bought a new 17" MacBook Pro (2010) to replace my old white MacBook that was running Snow Leopard. I used the migration assistant to transfer everything on the first bootup.

I use Growl and HardwareGrowl, which basically just alerts me to system changes such as mounting drives, connected and disconnected to networks, etc. I noticed that almost every minute I would see two identical consecutive Growl notifications pop up: *"Ethernet Deactivated Interface: en0"*.

Also, at the same exact time as the Growl notification this would print in the Console Log:
-----
4/20/10 11:35:24 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from :::88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:35:24 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from 0.0.0.0:88 proto=6

Then Oddly enough, if I leave the Network Preference Pane open, I can see the ethernet status go from its normal *"Cable Unplugged"* to *"Unknown State"* then in a fraction of a second, back to *"Cable Unplugged"*.

Weird, right!

The messages will stop if I insert a network cable into the MacBook Pro. The messages appear regardless of whether Airport is on. The messages even appear when there is no network cable and Airport is disabled.

I never saw this behavior on my old Macbook.

I went ahead and uninstalled Growl and a few other apps that mess with the networking (such as VMWare). I also created a 'virgin' test account. I am still having these entries show up in the log.

*I'm concerned that this may be a hardware issue. Does anyone have idea what may be going on?*

Sample log output:
------------------
4/20/10 11:36:35 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from :::88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:36:35 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from 0.0.0.0:88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:37:46 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from :::88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:37:46 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from 0.0.0.0:88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:38:56 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from :::88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:38:56 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from 0.0.0.0:88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:40:07 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from :::88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:40:07 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from 0.0.0.0:88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:41:18 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from :::88 proto=6
4/20/10 11:41:18 PM Firewall[44305] krb5kdc is listening from 0.0.0.0:88 proto=6

Activity Monitor:
-----------------
Active Memory: 533.2 MB
Free Memory: 2.40 GB
Wired Memory: 738.8 MB
Used Memory: 1.47 GB
Inactive Memory: 235.6 MB
Total VM: 141.14 GB
Number of processes: 54

PID Process Name User CPU Real Mem Virtual Mem
0 kernel_task root 11.1 141.9 MB 2.31 GB
1 launchd root 0.4 1.3 MB 2.36 GB
10 kextd root 0.6 3.3 MB 2.35 GB
11 DirectoryService root 0.0 5.1 MB 2.36 GB
12 notifyd root 0.0 640 KB 2.35 GB
13 diskarbitrationd root 0.0 1.7 MB 2.35 GB
14 configd root 0.0 3.4 MB 2.38 GB
15 syslogd root 0.0 752 KB 2.36 GB
16 blued root 0.0 4.8 MB 2.37 GB
17 distnoted daemon 0.0 1.4 MB 2.35 GB
20 mDNSResponder _mdnsrespo 0.0 2.0 MB 2.36 GB
23 coreservicesd root 0.1 29.5 MB 2.40 GB
26 securityd root 0.0 3.0 MB 2.36 GB
33 ntpd root 0.0 1.1 MB 2.32 GB
34 krb5kdc root 0.0 2.0 MB 2.34 GB
35 cron root 0.0 900 KB 2.32 GB
37 usbmuxd _usbmuxd 0.0 1.2 MB 608.1 MB
38 SystemStarter root 0.0 1.0 MB 2.34 GB
42 RFBRegisterMDNS root 0.0 1.7 MB 2.33 GB
44 mds root 0.0 70.2 MB 2.91 GB
45 loginwindow test 0.0 8.3 MB 2.65 GB
46 KernelEventAgent root 0.0 1.0 MB 2.34 GB
48 hidd root 0.0 1.5 MB 2.34 GB
49 fseventsd root 0.0 2.3 MB 2.36 GB
51 dynamic_pager root 0.0 796 KB 2.32 GB
57 autofsd root 0.0 1,008 KB 2.33 GB
65 socketfilterfw root 0.0 3.8 MB 2.36 GB
67 WindowServer _windowser 3.8 48.9 MB 2.99 GB
80 cvmsServ root 0.0 844 KB 2.33 GB
95 coreaudiod _coreaudio 0.0 1.8 MB 2.35 GB
115 launchd test 0.0 1.4 MB 2.36 GB
119 Dock test 0.0 28.7 MB 2.67 GB
120 SystemUIServer test 0.0 23.9 MB 2.73 GB
121 Finder test 0.0 13.6 MB 2.66 GB
126 pboard test 0.0 852 KB 2.32 GB
138 fontd test 0.0 4.6 MB 2.40 GB
142 UserEventAgent test 0.0 5.9 MB 2.37 GB
144 AppleVNCServer test 0.0 3.8 MB 2.60 GB
149 SIMBL Agent test 0.0 6.6 MB 10.67 GB
150 PenTabletDriver test 1.6 7.9 MB 2.66 GB
153 LMILaunchAgentFixer test 0.0 2.0 MB 630.7 MB
158 CCacheServer test 0.0 1.7 MB 2.35 GB
163 ConsumerTouchDriver test 0.3 6.7 MB 2.64 GB
165 TabletDriver test 0.0 5.3 MB 2.63 GB
192 Activity Monitor test 9.0 24.8 MB 2.74 GB
194 cvmsComp x8664 test 0.0 6.4 MB 2.34 GB
195 activitymonitord root 0.5 1.2 MB 2.33 GB
197 Console test 0.1 21.1 MB 2.69 GB
206 mdworker Patrick 0.0 6.0 MB 2.37 GB
208 mdworker test 0.0 9.6 MB 2.37 GB
218 DashboardClient test 0.0 21.1 MB 4.68 GB
234 Safari test 0.0 162.6 MB 5.02 GB
237 ocspd root 0.0 1.9 MB 2.37 GB
238 WebKitPluginAgent test 0.0 1,016 KB 2.35 GB

Message was edited by: bearboykahlo

Macbook Pro 2.53GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 20, 2010 10:50 PM

109 replies

TheSinTi

Level 1

0 points

Apr 26, 2010 9:27 AM in response to bearboykahlo

Confirmed MBP 15" i7

Now remember doing an ifconfig en0 down does work, but you need to do it every boot and it disabled auto ethernet when and if you plug it in.

Also just disabling the growl notification only solves one minor issue. The big problem is because of it deactivating your computer/display will never sleep, it also eats battery as things never sleep cause of it. Using ifconfig to down en9 fixes that, it looks like a driver/kext issue to me hopefully apple will find a proper fix as this is not only annoying but a major flaw IMHO if your computer can't sleep any devices.

chubbco

Level 1

8 points

Apr 26, 2010 11:18 AM in response to TheSinTi

I was just about to post this and saw this long thread.

So let me merely: me too!

Apr 27, 2010 5:27 PM in response to chubbco

Yea, that makes me three, then. So since apple is ignoring the issue, Can anyone advise other than being a nuisance, does this do anything to harm performance?

Apr 27, 2010 5:58 PM in response to QuestarKen

another mbp 13" 2010 to add to the list 😉

tomwynne

Level 1

10 points

Apr 28, 2010 4:39 AM in response to bearboykahlo

Add another 15" i7 to the list. As for the question about performance I'm not sure if there's an impact, but I can report that I'm getting FAR less than the published battery life… I've not managed more than 4-5 hours, and that's with backlight less than half, bluetooth off, and the integrated graphics in use. I'm only using it for light web surfing and email at the moment, so I'm pretty shocked at the battery life overall.

Apr 29, 2010 4:03 AM in response to bearboykahlo

Good, I've checked the discussion before submitting the prepared purchase of my new MacBook Pro i7. Now canceled the order.

I wait until this issue gets clearer - even if it hurts a little.

hexdcml

Level 1

15 points

Apr 30, 2010 6:11 AM in response to bearboykahlo

Just chiming in - just took delivery of a MacBook Pro 13-inch and I've getting exactly this issue. Have calle up AppleCare to log the issue. I didn't expect them to resolve it.

Thought I was going crazy with hardware growler popping up every minute.

Hopefully someone from Apple is reading this and investigating. It's a pretty consistent problem.

wifiguru

Level 2

240 points

Apr 30, 2010 11:21 AM in response to hexdcml

Can one of you guys post your kernel.log and system.log file here when you see this issue occur ?
This sounds like a Growl plugin issue to me.

Auctoris

Level 2

178 points

Apr 30, 2010 11:25 AM in response to wifiguru

It does it on a clean system install where Growl has never been installed on the machine. Just do a clean install, open Network prefs, and select an unplugged ethernet connection. You'll see it flash "Unknown Status" every 70 seconds.

Apr 30, 2010 11:37 AM in response to Auctoris

Growl has nothing to do with it. My MBP doesnt have growl installed and I am seeing the behavior.

bearboykahlo Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 30, 2010 11:43 AM in response to wifiguru

I'm the one who started this thread. As stated before i went to the Apple store and the tech noticed the same behavior on untouched machines they had in the back. It has nothing to do with Growl or any 3rd party software. He saw nothing in the logs. It looks like some people may have log messages when this occurs, but not on freshly imaged machines. The 70 second deactivation occurs regardless.

Apr 30, 2010 12:00 PM in response to bearboykahlo

The system log gets the entries only when used with certain Apple base stations running WPA2 Enterprise at 7.3.2 firmware. Other wireless hubs don't produce the log messages.

May 1, 2010 5:39 PM in response to tomwynne

Thats not surprising using a 15" with the i7, the 15" has only a 77.5 watt battery as oppposed to the 95 watt on the 17". It is only logical that on a 15" using the i7 the battery life would be considerably reduced over one with the i5. The 17" has the additional 20% battery availability that would make using the i7 processor have a much greater charge time. In fact it was the available battery capacity alone that drove me to buy the 17" with the i7 over the i5 or the i7 on a 15"
.

tomwynne

Level 1

10 points

May 1, 2010 5:58 PM in response to QuestarKen

I think you're missing the point here. I'm talking about the published battery capacity of the 15" vs. what I'm actually getting. I'm not comparing the 15" to the 17" or any other model for that matter.

As it turns out, although this ethernet issue may also have an impact, my poor battery life has been down to a bug on these machines related to the graphics switching. Any application that uses core animation causes the Nvidia to kick in, and battery life drops dramatically. Having found a way to identify when this is happening, I'm now getting more 6-7 hours of the battery.

pcsii

Level 1

0 points

May 2, 2010 4:01 PM in response to bearboykahlo

Good afternoon,

Thank goodness I have Win XP running under Parallels 5. That's the only way I can get Ethernet to keep working. I don't think it's hardware; I think it's OS X as you'll see below.

I'm a Mac newbie, but I consider myself at least reasonably computer savvy (actually got the Power User compliment from a software guy in my office) and can contribute this troubleshooting tidbit:

I had to edit some video off my company's server 2 days ago, and the Ethernet in OS X went from dropping to not being able to connect at all when I tried to hunt for the clips and open them off the server. I wasn't going to bring it in over Airport so I used Win XP to put the clips in the Parallels Shared Folder so I could open them in iMovie. Aside: iMovie rocks! I've never edited video #1 and have now made 2 short videos with fades and some animated text with just 30 minutes in the iMovie tutorials.

Just to make sure they weren't coming over Airport when I imported them into the Parallels Shared Folder in Windows (both Airport and Ethernet showed connected with assigned IP's, etc in Network Preferences even when Ethernet wouldn't work in OS X), I shut Airport off. Windows was solid the whole time, and I pulled the clips in over Ethernet as planned. For what it may matter, the Ethernet port is in Shared Networking mode in Parallels.

Imagine, having to have Windows rescue OS X. Not what I expected when I went all in Apple from my Verizon Blackberry (to iPhone) and Dell laptop.

Glad to be aboard. Hope this helps.

Odd console messages when ethernet cable is NOT connected