OS X 10.11 tftpd no longer loads

May have a solution, but should be confirmed... Contacted Apple Support who tried, but could not provide a clue. <shrug> This may work for you:

Fixed the issue on my system running 10.11.3 by editing the /System/Library/LaunchDaemon/tftpd.plist.

Old tftpd.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Disabled</key>

<true/>

<key>InitGroups</key>

<true/>

<key>Label</key>

<string>com.apple.tftpd</string>

<key>ProgramArguments</key>

<array>

<string>/usr/libexec/tftpd</string>

<string>-s</string>

<string>/private/tftpboot</string>

</array>

<key>Sockets</key>

<dict>

<key>Listeners</key>

<dict>

<key>SockServiceName</key>

<string>tftp</string>

<key>SockType</key>

<string>dgram</string>

</dict>

</dict>

<key>inetdCompatibility</key>

<dict>

<key>Wait</key>

<true/>

</dict>

</dict>

</plist>

New tftpd.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Disabled</key>

<true/>

<key>InitGroups</key>

<true/>

<key>Label</key>

<string>com.apple.tftpd</string>

<key>ProgramArguments</key>

<array>

<string>/usr/libexec/tftpd</string>

<string>-s</string>

<string>/private/tftpboot</string>

</array>

<key>Sockets</key>

<dict>

<key>Listeners</key>

<dict>

<key>SockFamily</key>

<string>IPv4</string>

<key>SockServiceName</key>

<string>tftp</string>

<key>SockType</key>

<string>dgram</string>

</dict>

</dict>

<key>inetdCompatibility</key>

<dict>

<key>Wait</key>

<true/>

</dict>

</dict>

</plist>

Figured out that the launchd was trying to bind tftptd to an IPv6 UDP socket was probably the problem:

• Ran lsof to see if the right ports (69/udp) were being bound by launchd, but guessed that as an old service it might not support IPv6.
  sapphire:tftpboot root#lsof -n -i4UDP:69
  COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
  launchd 1 root 84u IPv4 0xd34d4a9746fde409 0t0 UDP *:tftp
  launchd 1 root 86u IPv4 0xd34d4a9746fde409 0t0 UDP *:tftp
  sapphire:tftpboot root#lsof -n -i6UDP:69
  COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
  launchd 1 root 84u IPv4 0xd34d4a9746fde409 0t0 UDP *:tftp
  launchd 1 root 86u IPv4 0xd34d4a9746fde409 0t0 UDP *:tftp
• As there was no limit to just IPv4 in the plist, so added to the Listeners dictionary:
  <key>SockFamily</key><string>IPv4</string>
• Stopped and unloaded tftpd:
  sapphire:tftpboot root#sudo launchctl stop com.apple.tftpd
  sapphire:tftpboot root#sudo launchctl unload -F /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.syslogd.plist
• Loaded and started tftpd:sapphire:tftpboot root# sudo launchctl load -F /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.syslogd.plist
  sapphire:tftpboot root# sudo launchctl start com.apple.tftpd

Feb 19 17:19:43 sapphire tftpd[26193]: recvfrom: Resource temporarily unavailable

Feb 19 17:19:43 sapphire com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.tftpd[26193]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1

YMMV

Hi

Many thanks for trying here. This did not work for me. What did work for me was :

• Using http://ww2.unime.it/flr/tftpserver/
• chmod sudo chmod a+rwx /private/tftpboot
• sudo chmod a+rwx /private/tftpboot/*

It is perfectly possible that I could have gotten away without the TFTP Server utility at the link above, but it did help, especially with being able to change the interface over which tftp was being supported.

The key change is the permissions on the directory and files though.

Regards

Nathan

Thanks! This did solve my problem.

Also, to avoid disabling SIP, what I do is copy the plist in a user's home folder and launch tftpd like:

sudo launchctl load -F /Users/userhomefolder/etc/tftp.plist ;

sudo /bin/launchctl start com.apple.tftpd

Running Mac OS X 10.11.5 and see exactly the same problem:

tftpd: recvfrom: Resource temporarily unavailable

Editing tftp.plist as per suggestion did not help. The only effect I see is that launchd is not listening on IPv6 UDP anymore. Looks like this problem has nothing to do with permission problems either.