When OSX loses its mind: passwords don’t work, internet dead, but Appletalk OK
Sometimes, OSX loses its mind. Let me explain.
Earlier today, I left my home network (turned off Airport, put machine to sleep), did some work on the train (no network), came into work and joined the Ethernet. I could join all the Appleshares there (on Appletalk). But the internet was dead. No DNS. Couldn’t ping anyone.
I called IT, who hadn’t (as I wrongly thought) banned non-listed machines. So it had to be a restart. My daughter’s login was still active, so I thought I’d log her out before doing a graceful restart.
No dice. Can bring up the login window, but the password I know to be correct doesn’t work. Nor can I log her out from my (admin) account - it says I’ve entered the wrong password.
I see this occasionally: basically, OSX gets a sort of senile dementia when it’s been up for too long. It doesn’t know you, has never heard of your password, and whatever you put into it is wrong.
Sometimes, it will tell you that you’re that well-known user “?????” - see this Activity Monitor picture: 
My question: what the hell is going on here? How does it happen? I’ve got unlockupd running - could that be a cause? I thought it just checked to see if lookupd is running. I’ve got updated 10.3 -> 10.4 on a Powerbook. Tons of RAM. I’ve got the Menu Extra Enabler and, now, thankfully, the Camino session Input Manager (which is marvellous: one day all browsers will have session retention as standard - probably Internet Explorer 9, in about 2015).
(Hmm, looks at Menu Extra Enabler. Now version 1.0.3. I have.. 1.0.1. Hmm, would that make the difference? Anyway, updated now. But if you’ve noticed something similar.. tell me. Or if you know of a filed bug, tell me. Put my mind at rest.)
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- Don't think, just repeat it loudly (9 July 2004; score: 67.74%)
- When OSX loses its mind, pt 2: because lookupd has gone mad (3 January 2007; score: 59.09%)
- The internet? Just a fad, don't worry. Your job doesn't depend on it (30 September 2004; score: 36.56%)
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December 30th, 2006 at 1:12 am
No prior experience with this bug, nor anything similar, but it seems as though repairing permissions might actually be relevant here… Couldn’t hurt, as the saying goes…(although it probably could, so back up everything first :-)
Here’s to the placebo effect!
December 30th, 2006 at 6:16 am
Here’s my advice - unsanity application extenders mess with your system no end. Here’s my 5 step plan that I used when I was an Apple Tech that fixes 95% of OS X software issues.
Step 1) Unistall the whole Unsanity affair
Step 2) Repair Privliges (Disk Utility)
Step 3) Create a new admin user account
Step 4) Delete the old account. It should archive the old user account into a disk image accessible by the new admin account.
Step 5) Move everything you want from the archive into your new account, only be selective about the files you find in ~/Library/Preferences
OS X is incredibly stable when compared to almost anything else, but it’s not infalible as you’ve found out. In my experience most issues are caused by corrupt .plist (preference) files or privliges out of whack.
Still, it’s a relativley painless affair to fix, and you don’t have to rebuild you desktopDB every week anymore… hehe.
-Tom
December 30th, 2006 at 9:46 am
Thanks Tom, but two things:
1) I really like and use the Menu Extra thing. It enables MenuCalendarClock, which is a fantastic little thing that lives in your menu and shows what appointments, todos etc you have today, tomorrow, etc. Really helps me plan.
2) I don’t see the point of creating a new account and moving everything into it. What’s your rationale? Sounds like a spell, not a scheme.
3) It’s not corrupt .plists: I’ve run Preferential Treatment multiple times and it doesn’t find anything, in my area or the system.
4) @won, thanks. Though repairing permissions is often reckoned just voodoo, this might be an exception.
I’ll post more - including messages I get - in a later post.
December 30th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Hi Charles, hope Christmas was good :-)
A bit low-tech, but (if you’re on PowerPC) have you tried running DiskWarrior? Rebuilding the directory can cure a multitude of sins, and DiskWarrior - in my humble - is the repair app with the highest ‘lazarus factor’ - it’s brought my system back from the dead on many occasions.
That said, if you’re on Intel, then all of this won’t work till the new DiskWarrior ships.
Regards,
Steve
December 30th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
I’d start by investigating what process is taking up 90+ percent of your CPU cycles in that screenshot.
December 30th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Try Mac HelpMate, it’s the one utility that can check out a variety of things and do all of the cleanup etc.
December 30th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
[…] I’m having a similar problem as Charles Arthur. My Mac is asleep, I wake it up, it asks for the password, I type the correct password (110% sure), and it responds “Wrong password” - over and over again. Only solution is to shut it down. It then takes forever to start up again, but now accepts the same password I’ve been using above. Weird. […]
December 30th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
I’m having a similar problem: http://brilliantdays.com/mac-not-accepting-correct-password/
It’s been around for two months now, and some days it’s everytime I try to wake it up, other days none. Very strange.
December 30th, 2006 at 11:54 pm
Oops. Sorry about the double post. Didn’t think about the automatic pingback. Feel free to delete both my “manuel” comments…
December 31st, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Not a problem, Oyvind. For those tuned in to this episode, the story continues over at Oyvind’s blog (URL @8) where we seem to have narrowed it down to .Mac keychain syncing. It’s not the Menu Extra Enabler, since he doesn’t have that.
If it is .Mac keychain, that would explain why it’s rarely seen - you’ve got few people who have .Mac, few who synchronise keychains across it, and so on.
December 31st, 2006 at 7:42 pm
We have more than 100 PowerBooks running Tiger. This problem is too common for comfort. We are currently at 5 to 10% of users experiencing the issue. None of the users has a .Mac keychain. So that isn’t the issue.
The issue started for most when the company initiated a change password every 90 days. Although a new hire with the company for only two weeks had the same problem. We aren’t bound to active directory. We use the utility “Change Password” for our users since they don’t have access to the Accounts preference pane. I could place the blame there except for the fact that this happens on my desktop G4 at home where I am the administrator on all accounts. The inability to log on is from both cold starts and wake from sleep at the logon window.
What normally happens is user will call in saying they have entered password and the machine refuses it. They try again and again until they are requested to enter the master password. Sometimes shutting down and restarting fixes this. Other times they have to let the machine “cool-off” for a few hours before the password works. We have a fairly clean image with no Unsanity hacks — to techs those are the work of the evil one.
None of the users have a .Mac keychain. So that isn’t the issue.
I can’t say definitely but I think the users are all 10.4.7 or .8, and Security update 2006-06 or 2006-007. We have not rolled out the latest Security Update as yet. Our help desk techs and Mac support techs have all come across this and none of us has an answer. We’ve done all the normal privilege and directory repair
December 31st, 2006 at 10:27 pm
That’s very interesting, Phil. Do any of them connect to Mac?
Though the password change thing is interesting - it begins to sound like an intermittent bug with keychain.
Except why would that have the effect (which I see) where the user has become “???” ? (Of course your users wouldn’t see that, if it is the same thing.)
I do occasionally get the situation where the keychain doesn’t seem to work - NetNewsWire can’t access it for password-protected feeds, for example. Hmm, is this all bound up with SyncServices, then?
January 1st, 2007 at 12:28 am
Have you tried running Keychain First Aid? (In Keychain, it’s in the “Keychain Access” menu.)
January 1st, 2007 at 3:57 am
It sounds to me that like mangled authentication/network configuration.
I would set-up a specific Location for each network the laptop regulary joins.
I would configure specific tcp/ip settings for each location.
If any of the networks use authentication servers configure the setings while the proper location is selected. Make sure the network interface that the authentication is on is the first listed in thee network control panel.
When moving between locations always switch to the correct location under the apple menu.
Evwn if the settings are identical.
January 1st, 2007 at 11:03 am
Actually, it sounds like classic NetInfo database corruption. You can always just delete the .nidb in single-user mode (command-S on startup).
$ /sbin/mount -uw /
$ mv /var/db/local.nidb /var/db/local.old.nidb
$ mv /var/db/.AppleSetupDone /var/db/.AppleSetupDone.old
$ reboot
On reboot it willwalk you through the setup assistant to create your first user account. Use the same shortname as the first time you did this. This is your 501 uid in NetInfo Manager. Once you create your first admin user account, you can create each respective additional user in order of original creation (uid #).
January 1st, 2007 at 6:41 pm
And if all else fails have you tried turning it on and off again?
January 1st, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Lookupd. My guess is that lookupd has gotten wedged in this scenario. Normally, if it crashes, it will exit and restart, because it is controlled by launchd. Sometimes, however, it will stop working, but not cleanly exit, meaning that it never gets respawned.
Lookupd mediates DNS lookups as well as connecting to Apple’s authentication system to log in to local resources. So, it fits with most of the symptoms. The AppleShare connection is governed by an external authentication system, so that is probably why it still works.
January 1st, 2007 at 11:43 pm
I think that of all these I prefer lookupd a great deal more. (Though I have unlockupd running, which is meant to see if lookupd is doing its stuff… but maybe lookupd can still mess up as Eric says.)
Though how would that have set my username (see the Activity Monitor picture) to “???” ?
@Erik - lordy, no, I do not want to set up my users database Netinfo thing again. How would I remember what to type on startup?
@Chris - hey, yes! That cures it! Oh no wait, what I want to do is not have to turn it off..
January 1st, 2007 at 11:55 pm
..OK, I ran Keychain First Aid, and it found
Item “imap.mac.com” has unspecified value for port attributeItem “pop.mac.com” has unspecified value for port attribute
Item “imap.mac.com” has unspecified value for port attribute
Item “mail.mac.com” has unspecified value for port attribute
Item “pop.gmail.com” is a duplicate; this item’s port attribute is not set
..which might mean something, or nothing.
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:39 am
I have found unlockupd to be… not entirely reliable… when it comes to killing off lookupd.
As for Activity Monitor: the numerical UID representing ownership of the process has to be mapped correctly to give you any information about the ownership of the process. This is handled by… wait for it… lookupd.
If you can get to a working terminal window (especially one in which you have a root prompt), you may be able to run:
killall -9 lookupd && killall DirectoryService
which should shut down everything that is not working, after which point launchd should spool them back up and things should be working again.
I’ve dealt with this mainly on servers, and if you think not being able to log in to your machine is bad, try having an entire organization not able to log in.
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Today it is behaving even more odd: The first time I type the password it is not accepted. Type it again and it is.
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Here is my two cents. Just a few days ago, I could not for the life of my keep my .Mac password on one of my Macs….I was locked out of iSyncing and everything for .Mac…..my other two Macs had no problem. Went thru hours of troubleshooting….even installed a new OS (Archive method)….nothing worked. Called Apple, and he gave me the hint…..trash the Keychain preference. Bingo….that worked! Somehow, the Keychain prefence got corrupted. I always use Keychain First Aid, and that does not fixed a corrupted perference evidently. Good luck
January 2nd, 2007 at 4:32 pm
@Bruce, I don’t think this can be my problem (though it might conceivably be Oyvind’s, or other peoples’). A corrupt Keychain wouldn’t alter the user ID to ???, nor prevent me accessing the internet. Bad lookupd would, or could.
I’m really surprised that you went through the whole “reinstall the OS” thing *first*. That’s burning the town to save it. And does your .Mac password really matter so much? (I suppose it might if your primary email is .Mac.)
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
[…] And there’s a thorny problem. It’s got a longstanding bug - known about since 2002, given the existence of the partial solution, unlockupd. Eric’s explanation - My guess is that lookupd has gotten wedged in this scenario. Normally, if it crashes, it will exit and restart, because it is controlled by launchd. Sometimes, however, it will stop working, but not cleanly exit, meaning that it never gets respawned. […]
January 16th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Hi Guys. Are you by any chance running IPSecuritas? I know I am, and I’m having the exact same problem. Check out this thread on the Lobotomo Support Forum:
http://www.lobotomo.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=IPSecuritas;action=display;num=1167892323
Regards,
Gunnar
March 15th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Same symptoms here. (unlaunched bouncing Dock icons, frozen finder, unability to force-quit ot relauch Finder). I have also the login problem, but solved it: my OSX is in french, but the bug seems to have turned my login window in english… not a problem as I know more or less where are the AZERTY key (it is indeed a second security then :-).
I have Shapeshifter installed. Someone mentionned Unsanity stuff… I will try ti uninstall it :-(
I will look this lookupd thing…
Maybe something may help: the bug appears on my MacPro 10.4.8 sometimes, randomly, but systematicly on one occasion: every time or 2 times I try to copy ŕ large file (ab. 700mb) on my FAT32 formatted TVIX M-5000, through USB2 or Ethernet, the copy freezes, then the Finder remains responsive for 1 or 2 minutes then freezes, end then the “lookupd” bug chain begins. So maybe it is related with non-HFS partition copying???
also a strange: normally when I have a BIG freeze, I just open Terminal, do a “top”, and kill the “loginwindow” process. This makes the Mac unlog and go straight to the login window, without neding all the reboot process. Well, with the “lookupd” bug, when I do this, the sessions logs out, but all I get is the f**g blue screen. So the faultive process is really a core one, because it “loads” prior to the login window (otherwise my trick would work). Do one of you when the lookupd process loads in the boot process?
March 15th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
+ when I have the bugchain, another symptom: everything which is related to the “mount” notion stall (hard disk, iPod, even .dmg fail to mount)
June 19th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Had the same issue with my pop passwords in all mail applications (mail + thunderbird). Tried everything (keychain firstaid, preferences etc…)
And it seems it was my PGP settings that kept me from seending the passwords to the server.
I reset the PGP settings for this specific account and the password got accepted again.
Very weird.