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User profile for user: Dan Alderman
Dan Alderman Author
User level: Level 1
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Ethernet Link Negotiation

Hi there.

I'm having an issue with a new Mac Pro on our network. I have numerous other Intel and PPC Macs on the same network but this is the first one to give me any hassle in this way.

For various reasons we use NIS for login details with the home location on NFS, which is working fine on all the other Macs. When I enable NIS login on the Mac Pro the login screen hangs for ages and sometimes the machine never makes it through the boot sequence. The NFS mounts appear to work ok if I use a local account. I think it's related to the ethernet link not negotiating it's link correctly in time which is causing Login Window to hang. I have this output from my console log which is what is leading me to think is causing the problem. The directory service starts before the ethernet is up which is making it all fall apart? Seems like that shouldn't happen but...

I have tried altering the speed of the network card manually from 100TX to 1000T full/half duplex but that doesn't seem to make it any better.

It's plumbed into a Netgear 24 port GB switch (I can find the model out if required) which has been performing fine with all the other Mac/PC/SGI machines. Tried different cables/sockets etc but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

If anyone could give me some pointers/hints/help I would very much appreciate it.

Unfortunately due to a recent hip replacement I am doing this from a remote location via VPN/VNC so it's a little tricky to diagnose everything, but it's working so far...

Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Dan.

== Log snippet ==

Feb 6 18:27:26 localhost DirectoryService[50]: Launched version 2.1 (v353.5)
Feb 6 18:27:26 localhost lookupd[56]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Tue Feb 6 18:27:26 2007
Feb 6 18:27:26 localhost diskarbitrationd[45]: disk0s2 hfs 872FB89F-6EF0-3D26-AAA4-F39FEDBA5E0C snowcat-tiger /
Feb 6 18:27:26 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntel8254XEthernet: Ethernet address 00:17:f2:06:65:86
Feb 6 18:27:26 localhost configd[42]: No AirPort Driver found.
Feb 6 18:27:26 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntel8254XEthernet: Ethernet address 00:17:f2:06:65:87
Feb 6 18:27:26 localhost lookupd[65]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Tue Feb 6 18:27:26 2007
Feb 6 18:27:29 localhost mDNSResponder: Adding browse domain local.
Feb 6 18:27:30 localhost kernel[0]: Intel8254x -- Link Up -- 00:17:f2:06:65:86 -- called by interruptOccurred() --
Feb 6 18:27:30 localhost /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
Feb 6 18:27:30 localhost kernel[0]: -- Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xde1, Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0xc5e1, Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xe00, Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x7c00
Feb 6 18:27:31 localhost loginwindow[69]: Login Window Started Security Agent
Feb 6 18:27:35 localhost kernel[0]: Intel8254x -- Link down -- 00:17:f2:06:65:87 -- called by enableHardware() --
Feb 6 18:27:35 localhost kernel[0]: -- Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xde1, Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0x0, Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xe00, Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x4000
Feb 6 18:27:40 localhost kernel[0]: Intel8254x -- Link down -- 00:17:f2:06:65:87 -- called by enableHardware() --
Feb 6 18:27:40 localhost kernel[0]: -- Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xde1, Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0x0, Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xe00, Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x4000
Feb 6 18:27:44 localhost kernel[0]: Intel8254x -- Link down -- 00:17:f2:06:65:87 -- called by enableHardware() --
Feb 6 18:27:44 localhost kernel[0]: -- Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xde1, Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0x0, Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xe00, Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x4000
Feb 6 18:27:44 localhost kernel[0]: Intel8254x::increaseActivationLevel -- Tried 3 times still no active Ethernet link!
Feb 6 18:27:44 localhost kernel[0]: Intel8254x -- Link down -- 00:17:f2:06:65:86 -- called by selectMedium() --
Feb 6 18:27:44 localhost kernel[0]: -- Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xde1, Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0xc5e1, Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xe00, Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x7c00
Feb 6 18:27:44 localhost kernel[0]: Intel8254x -- Link down -- 00:17:f2:06:65:86 -- called by resetCurrentActivationLevel() --
Feb 6 18:27:44 localhost kernel[0]: -- Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xde1, Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0xc5e1, Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xe00, Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x7c00
Feb 6 18:27:46 snowcat kernel[0]: Intel8254x -- Link Up -- 00:17:f2:06:65:86 -- called by interruptOccurred() --
Feb 6 18:27:46 snowcat kernel[0]: -- Auto-Neg Advertise Reg (04d) = 0xd01, Link Partner Ability Reg (05d) = 0xc5e1, Gig Advertise Reg (09d) = 0xc00, Gig Link Partner Ability Reg (10d) = 0x4000
Feb 6 18:27:46 snowcat configd[42]: setting hostname to "snowcat.local"
Feb 6 18:27:48 snowcat configd[42]: executing /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Kicker.bundle/Contents/Resources/enable-net work
Feb 6 18:27:48 snowcat configd[42]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Feb 6 18:27:48 snowcat lookupd[79]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Tue Feb 6 18:27:48 2007
Feb 6 18:27:48 snowcat configd[42]: setting hostname to "snowcat.thefoundry.co.uk"




Mac Pro 2.66Ghz 4GB RAM Quadro 4500 250GB disk Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Feb 6, 2007 10:42 AM

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User profile for user: Dan Alderman
Dan Alderman Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Feb 7, 2007 12:55 AM in response to Dan Alderman

I think I have found the reason why here http://www.bresink.com/osx/nis.html. Looks like I've been lucky with the other machines up till now. Thought I'd post it up in case anyone else needs the info at some point.

Are there known problems with NIS support in Mac OS X Tiger?

Mac OS X Tiger is affected by a variety of design flaws. One of them is the asynchronous initialization of network client services during the startup phase. Most services are started via the new "launchd" daemon in unpredictable, almost random order. This can for example cause directory services to be launched before the network interfaces are up, or the login window to appear before directory services are ready. Although all services should be prepared for this situation because they have to support dynamic network reconfiguration at any time, this does not really work in practice. Note that not only NIS, but all directory services supported by Mac OS X are affected, so similar problems even occur if you are running Apple Open Directory in a pure Mac OS X network. Among other problems, the following effects can be seen:

Login at the GUI may fail for network users while it is working for non-graphical logins, e.g. a remote SSH connection.
Login at the GUI may fail for all users and the system has to be restarted.
The system appears to freeze during startup but automatically recovers after waiting 2 or 4 minutes.
The system freezes when waking up from sleep mode, hanging in a deadlock which cannot be resolved. The computer must be powered down.
Login works fine, but other components dependent on a directory services connection may temporarily fail. For example, when hosting network fonts on a central AFP file server via an automount entry defined in directory services, the mount operation may be executed too late, creating other cascading failure effects, like font cache corruption, the loss of all font deactivation preferences, etc.

Mac Pro 2.66Ghz 4GB RAM Quadro 4500 250GB disk Mac OS X (10.4.8)
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Ethernet Link Negotiation

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