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