Slow boot - com.apple.afpstat-qfa[271]) Job failed to exec

Question

Level 1

2 points

Slow boot - com.apple.afpstat-qfa[271]) Job failed to exec

Hi,

I have a Macbook Pro Retina. All has been working fine since I first got the MBP, but now I have a 30 second delay in booting each time.

Looking in the log I see this:

16/08/2012 10:07:05.284 CalendarAgent[245]: Property list invalid for format: 100 (property lists cannot contain objects of type 'CFSet')

16/08/2012 10:07:05.798 NetUpdate[91]: Launch background checker (Post reboot: 0)

16/08/2012 10:07:25.244 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[170]: (com.apple.afpstat-qfa[271]) Job failed to exec(3). Setting up event to tell us when to try again: 2: No such file or directory

16/08/2012 10:07:25.244 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[170]: (com.apple.afpstat-qfa[271]) Job failed to exec(3) for weird reason: 2

16/08/2012 10:07:26.317 appleprofilepolicyd[286]: appleprofilepolicyd: profiling drivers not loaded, loading

Every time there is a delay in boot I see a gap in the boot sequence log just before the error message in red above.

Does anyone have any idea a) what this is doing; and b) what might be causing the problem?

I have tried repairing permissions etc. but that didn't solve it.

Thanks

Darren.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 16, 2012 8:02 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,649 points

Aug 16, 2012 10:19 AM in response to tenjinuk

I'm going to answer your question in more detail than you probably want, because it's somewhat important and I want to make a record.

The job referenced by those log messages is started when a user logs in, and the per-user launchd(8) process loads the following file:

/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.afpstat.plist

The file instructs launchd to invoke an executable at the path /usr/local/bin/afpstat. Although the syntax is correct, the executable doesn't exist. Even the directory doesn't exist, by default. I've searched all the Apple installer receipts in ML, and none of them refers to that file.

So what has happened here is that some extra pieces were inserted into ML during development, for debugging purposes no doubt. When the time came for release, the executable was removed, but the developer who removed it forgot to remove the corresponding launchd item. Every ML installation has it, and every one is being delayed during boot when it fails.

The solution to this problem is to delete the file that the Apple developer forgot to delete. In the Finder, select Go ▹ Go to Folder... from the menu bar, copy the text outlined above into the box that opens, and press return. A folder will open with the item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash, then empty. You'll be prompted for your login password.

Edit: On my Macs, although the same error is logged, it doesn't seem to be causing a delay of more than one second, so deleting the bogus LaunchAgent may not have a noticeable effect.

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 6, 2013 3:16 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc,

Thank you for tracking that down. While I understand launchd and friend fairly well, I didn't think that Apple would send our a bad LaunchAgent or perhaps a premature link to an currently non-existance Agent. But it now makes perhaps sense as you outlined..... Were you able to figure this out because of being a Apple Dev - as in a paid subscribe Apple Dev or is this just a good guess of what has happened in this case?

Terry

Reply