Bug Report – Walt-O-Matic

Files Gone on Drobo FS with OS X Lion? Get ’em back!

Using DroboFS and OSX Lion only to discover that your Drobo shares have no content!? Yikes! But fret not, you merely have a small corruption problem brought on by the firmware, and in moments you can force a rebuild of that database and all your files will be back safe, happy, and sound with no data loss. Here’s how.

I recently updated my DroboFS to firmware 1.2.0 and dashboard 2.0.3 when I switched to Lion, and while my volume mounted there was no data in it although the Drobo lights showed there was capacity, as did the Drobo Dashboard, and the health reports indicated everything was just fine.

I spoke with Drobo Tech Support that indicated this was a known problem they are actively addressing as high priority; the problem is with Lion and their firmware, and we can expect an updated firmware release.

What’s curious about this is that if one uses the Finder and mounts the Drobo drive with SMB, using smb://Drobo-FS/, the files are there. However afp://Drobo-FS.local/ and cifs://Drobo-FS.local/ mount but reveal nothing.

A detailed description of the problem is at the article entitled: “Missing” Data (AFP) and/or CNID DB Errors. This article then leads to a second one, but is only for the brave.

Using Dropbear (SSH) with Drobo FS to regenerate the AppleDB (CNID DB) has detailed steps for regenerating the apple database.

Walt’s More Verbose Directions

Using the Drobo Dashboard login to your Drobo as Administrator.
Unmount all shares.
Under All Devices / Settings / Admin you’ll want to check the Enable DroboApps setting, which will mount a volume entitled DroboApps on your system.
Download a copy of DropBear from the Drobo Apps page.
Unzip this .zip file, resulting in instructions and a compressed dropbear.tgz file . Move the dropbear.tgz file to the root of the DroboApps directory.
Restart the DroboFS by going to Capacity and Tools in the Dashboard, and selecting the Tools drop down on the right side, and selecting Restart. Or, just power off the unit physically for 20 seconds and then turn it back on.
When Drobo restarts, go to the Dashboard and select All Devices / Settings… / Network. Note the IP address given to the device somewhere.
From OS X’s Terminal enter the command ssh root@theIPaddressAbove
The default password is root, unless you’ve used Dropbear before and followed the instructions within it.
Enter the command ls /mnt/DroboFS/Shares to view a list of shares on the drive.
Tech Support promises the following will not cause any data loss, but anytime you’re doing reconstruction you should always have a backup (if you don’t, question your backup policy), and double check before hitting return. For each share of yours listed above, enter the command: rm -r /mnt/DroboFS/Shares/yourShareNameHere/.AppleDB and press return. Note the period indicating it’s a hidden directory.
Exit Terminal by entering exit.
Using the Drobo Dashboard unmount all your shares, which should be just the DroboApps share at this point; this is under the All Devices / Shares and you just uncheck all the boxes.
Restart the Drobo again (see above if you’ve already forgot how).
And just as important restart any Macs connected to the Drobo.
When the Drobo comes up, start the Dashboard, and test the mounts. They should be working.

1Password Woes with Safari Extension (fix)

Safari 5.1 and 1Password 3.7.x not playing well? Getting a Database error? No such column? Overview key missing? Try this… it worked for me.

I’ve been having a very nasty problem using Safari 5.1 with the latest 1Password software, while other browsers like Chrome and Firefox work just fine. I get a red ‘Problem with database’ message that says “Database error: no such column: overview_key”. It looks something like this:

1Password 3.7.1 build 21089 / Safari 5.1 (7534.48.3) / OS X Lion 10.7

Here’s how I fixed it
Start Safari, go to Safari / Preferences… / Extensions, and remove the 1Password extension if you have it. Close Safari. Re-open Safari. Close Safari using the magical sequence Command-Option-Q. Re-open Safari. Open 1Password and use it’s preferences panel to reinstall the Safari extension. Go back to Safari, and if you’re as lucky as I was, it’ll work.

MySQL Cascade Delete Problem

MySQL 5.1.51 introduced a nasty little bug that has the potential to really cause some production servers some ill — cascading delete and updates can sometimes fail if you’re dealing with “too much” data at once. Where “too much” is a relatively small amount. You may get bit if you have a one-to-many relationship.

A note of warning to MySQL users using 5.1.51, you may want to downgrade to 5.1.50 for a little bit.

There’s a problem with 5.1.51 in which cascading deletes or updates throw an error. Not good if you have constraints and one to many relationships.

ERROR 1030 (HY000): Got error -1 from storage engine

The mysql error log will say something like:

InnoDB: Cannot delete/update rows with cascading foreign key constraints that exceed max depth of 250

This is a confirmed bug in MySQL and is repeatable. The error will cause a transaction rollback. Not good news for people running production systems.

See MySQL Bug #357255.

While the problem was quickly identified and apparently resolved, as the defect report is closed, it does not look like the 06-Oct-2010 change has made it out to the production baseline as of the time of this writing.

Additionally, the MySQL pre-release snapshots on labs.mysql.com show there is a mysql-5.1.52 pending with a September date, and this hasn’t made it to general production yet.

That leaves one to speculate that the fix will appear in the 5.1.53 version, and we won’t be seeing that for a month or two. Yikes.

WPF Responsiveness Problem

Ran into an interesting problem where a WPF application was acting really, really, really slow. So slow that moving the application window was jumpy. Selecting items in a grid would take several seconds. Scrolling a list box of simple items would grind the CPUs for a while. And even typing in a regular text box was so delayed that I could type a word, sit back, and every few seconds a character would appear.

The problem turned out to be with the input stack at the operating system. Seems that the Pen / Tablet Driver was bringing the system to its knees, but only affecting WPF applications.

Disabling the driver and restarting the WPF application instantly showed colossal speed improvements for response time; the application responded near instantly. Re-enabling the driver while the application was running reverted the system to the broken state, although turning the driver back off did not bring the WPF application out of it’s slow like crawl. Restarting the WPF application resolved the problem, but the driver had to be disabled.

(Test conducted with WPF 3.5 SP 1 and Windows 7.)

Pages: 16 Exabytes

Pages just asked OS X for 16 Exabytes. Got a clue just how large that is?

So I decided to make some business cards using Pages, however after adding a few tiny JPGs, I started getting the spinning beach ball — you know the one, the one you’re never supposed to get in OS X.

So, I decided to open Activity Monitor to see what was up.

Pages had allocated 16 Exabytes of memory. My computer has 6 Gig.

Remember, it goes from Megabytes, to Gigabytes (1,000Meg), to Terabytes (1,000Gig), to Petabytes (1,000 TB), to Exabytes (1,000 PB).

Drag’n’Drop Problems with Parallels 4

Since installing Snow Leopard, I can no longer Drag’n’Drop files from Windows to the hosting OS X environment, though the inverse works just fine. Is anyone else having this problem, because I’m not seeing much about it on the Parallel’s forums. I think the bug is real.

To say that I’m distrusting of Microsoft Windows’ security is putting things lightly. And when I’m in a situation where Microsoft’s anti-open standards force Microsoft as a necessity, I tend to use a virtual machine to sandbox its activities.

On Mac OS X, I use a wonderful product called Parallels, which has the added bonus of being able to drag’n’drop files and directories between the guest operating system (Windows) and the host operating system (OS X).

After installing the latest Snow Leopard (10.6), I found that while I could drag files into Windows from OS X, the reverse was no longer true. Dragging something from the Windows desktop out to the OS X desktop, which used to work in Leopard (10.5), simply results in nothing happening.

Parallels 4.x Shared Services Drag'n'Drop

Now, I’m aware that Apple did some pretty big changes under the hood in Snow Leopard. And, I’m aware that even the Finder got a fairly intensive overhaul. And, I’m even willing to accept that there might be bumps during the transition process, as the good folks at Parallels update their product to address little tidbits like this.

However, I’m kinda surprised that this kind of thing snuck past testing. Even more to my surprise is that I don’t hear many people talking about it. Such conclusions lead me to think that perhaps I have a local configuration issue.

But then I heard from another user of Parallels that updated to Snow Leopard. He ran into the same problem: Drag’n’Drop worked only in one direction now.

Most of the Snow Leopard fuss currently centers on the fact that Parallels 2.x and 3.x no longer work under Snow Leopard. Parallels made such a good and stable product that early users saw no need to update as it met their needs. However, Apple’s approach to operating systems is far more progressive than Microsoft’s, as they are willing to sacrifice backwards compatibility in software and hardware, if the technology is substantially old and the new benefits far outweigh the trouble. Thus, Apples tends to fix problems, rather than bandaid-ing workarounds; in the long haul everyone benefits with faster, smaller, more featured applications instead of bloatware.

However, I’m riding the Parallels 4.x wave on the bleeding edge. I’ve got the Parallels Tools installed. I’ve got the Enable Drag’n’Drop checked in the Shared Services config. Still, nothing.

I did a little digging around and found one user, Jamie Daniel, who was experiencing the same problem. As his question went unanswered, I tried myself.

I wrote an entry in the Parallels forum entitled Drag files from Guest to Host no longer working, detailing the problem.

And, while I was luckier than Jamie and got an answer, it was fairly clear someone gave a cursory glance and cut’n’pasted a response without reading what I was asking. In short that I did not want Windows to be able to read or write to any OS X drives. For, should Windows get a virus, I didn’t want it having free reign of the OS X filesystem to corrupt. Thus only I, via Drag’n’Drop, should be able to marshal content between the two environments.

Willing to accept the fact that I may have a configuration problem, despite being a power user of Parallels since day one, I am also willing to accept that this is simply a Snow Leopard compatibility issue that Parallels will soon be addressing. Problem is, I can’t seem to raise the issue to a level where someone can confirm or deny it.

Worse yet, I can’t seem to be able to login to Windows via the Finder anymore to mouse a Windows disk within OS X, where as I used to be able to do that as well. While workarounds, from using a USB disk (which mounts in both environments), DropBox, and using the Windows Guest account’s Parallel’s mount point, I’d really like the old capability back.

So, I ask, Parallels 4.x users that are using Snow Leopard, are you no longer able to drag from Windows to the OS X desktop?

If you can, how are you doing it?

If you can’t, please head over to the Parallels forum and let them know it’s broken for you as well. This is not an attack Parallels request, they’re good people — this is just to raise awareness to let them know the issue is real so they can look into it.

UPDATE 14-Sep-2009: Found a work around, but I’m not happy about it. What I don’t like about it is that it appears to expose Windows disks to OS X. While I trust OS X, the inverse does not appear to be necessary to perform a Drag’n’Drop from OS X to Windows. I’d expect the Enable Drag-and-Drop to be enough.

If you turn on the Share All Disks with OS X, then Drag’n’Drop from the Windows desktop to OS X Desktop works.

Safari 4 Beta – OS X Users: Wait

Installing the new Safari 4 Beta gave a great browser experience, but it stopped OS X’s Mail from working. Uninstalling it restored normality. Anyone else getting this?

Yesterday I downloaded a copy of Safari 4 Beta for Windows, and I have to say that the speed increase was obvious. Just a little playing around with the browser [especially in developer mode] tells me that Apple has something good. Real good.

However, my experience when installing the Safari4.0BetaLeo.dmg version on OS X wasn’t as hot. Well it was, but the collateral damage was unexpected.

In short, the browser worked great, just like on Windows. The speed up was there, but certainly not as dramatic as when you’ve got Internet Explorer to compare it to.

Safari 4 Beta Kills Mail My problem, however, was that when I went to open up OS X’s Mail, the Mail program crashed. Hard.

Repeated attempts did the same thing. Open Mail, it shows the cached list of old messages, it attempts to download from the IMAP servers, and clicking anywhere causes the Mail application to implode.

It was certainly repeatable.

Two things about the crash impressed me, though.

Number one, Mail was blaming it on a Growl extension. That’s nice to know that an application can tell where it’s detecting a fault.

Number two, after a few repeated failures, it was just like Apple to automatically sense my frustration and have mail automatically ask me if I’d like to reset my preferences and try launching again.

I did. And, it didn’t work.

So, after logging a few problem reports, I decided to uninstall Safari using the Safari4.0BetaUninstall.pkg.

No surprise, Mail returned to normal, and my Growl extensions were functioning just fine.

This raises the question about what the new Safari is doing that affect Mail to begin with.

But the real point here is that this software really seems to be beta. Good beta. But still beta. If OS X Mail stops working and you don’t know why, revert to your original Safari install. I bet it’ll help.

Can any other OS X users confirm or deny this is happening to them?

CONFIRMED WITH SOLUTION: Thanks to reader comments and feedback, it’s clear the problem is with current Growl extensions not being compatible; simply remove them (see comments on how) and wait for Growl to come out with an update.

Macbook Pro Screen Goes Dark on Wakeup

My MacBook Pro should have woken up when I lifted the lid, but all was dark. However, while checking the battery level, I noticed it had woken up. The problem was the backlight wasn’t coming on. Here’s the solution. It isn’t the brightness button either.

Today I learned that there’s a nifty little utility called Maintenance 3.8 out on Apple’s site. You can find it by going to Apple / Mac OS X Software…, and when the web page pops up, type Maintenance in the search box.

It’s an automator script to repair permissions, verify preferences, updating prebindings, do cleanup, update databased, rebuild indexes, empty Trash, and so forth. My guess is it’s much like Onyx.

Deciding to give it a try, I downloaded it, opened the .DMG file, and double clicked the automator icon, selecting Restart when done. And while I got a very little in the confirmation department that things were working, I saw a lot of CPU activity running utilities I was familiar with.

So, with the laptop plugged in, I left to to chug away. I heard the restart sound several minutes later. And, I ignored it.

Later, I picked up my laptop and went to login.

Nothing.

The “breathing LED” on the front was off, and nothing was responding keyboard or mouse wise. The screen was black.

So, I decided to check the battery. Full power.

But then I noticed something. At the steep angle, in the near pitch black of my LCD screen, I saw the login window. What was happening: the backlight wasn’t coming on. Fiddling with the brightness control didn’t help either.

Sure enough, I could make out the cursor once I located where it was.

I tried opening and closing the lid. Nope. Backlight still off.

So, I restarted (as I mentioned, it was operational, I could barely make out the GUI).

The machine sprang to life, showed me the blue background, and right before it went to the login screen, the backlight cut out again, leaving me in pitch black.

Titling the screen back again (with the keyboard sticking up in the air and the screen flat on the table), again I could make out the login box and mouse. I did a restart again.

This time I held down Command-V as it booted. And I watched as it came up, lots of normal diagnostic messages, and then the blue background, and right as the login screen appeared, back to pitch black.

Annoying. But now I’m wondering if all the times I’ve ever woken my laptop after a case where the lid didn’t quite clasp perfectly, was this what was happening — could the machine be up, but the backlight off?

So, one last time, I restarted. Only I held down Command-Option-P-R (four fingers) to reset the power management settings. Several chimes later, I let go, and the machine booted perfectly, and the login box appeared, backlight and all.

I’m hoping that my experience may lead to an additional piece of the puzzle about the Mac waking up funny. I would have never have noticed anything on the screen if I looked at it dead on, as I always do.

It’s fairly well known that if you close the Mac’s lid, but down engage it fully, the lid will pop back up, but not after putting the machine to sleep. At that point, it becomes a little dance with the lid, trying to get the lid back down, so that the machine can see it re-open, and that usually wakes it. But sometimes the screen is still dark, and you have to play with the power button (and if frustrated, hold it down to restart).

Sometimes this same problem manifests when you wake the machine, enter your password, and suddenly everything goes dark. You wiggle the cursor and hit the keys and nothing happens. Caps Lock toggles, but it feels like it’s gone back to sleep.

Well no more. From now on, I’m going to tilt my screen back and see if I’m operational. That way I won’t lose data from an unnecessary restart.

iChat Problems: Fixed

Got Leopard? Find that iChat isn’t working? Do you run Parallels? Guess what, that may be it. What? You’re not running Parallels at the same time you iChat? Not relevant, Parallels has network services active even if the client isn’t. Here’s the workaround to get you chatting…

iChat and Parallels
While trying to iChat using Leopard to a system running Tiger, I ran into a problems that I never had using OS X 10.4 before: bad video quality to downright refusing to connect.

With a little research, I ran across this article and that was enough to resolve the problem.

Here’s how to get iChat working on OS X 10.5
…if you’re running Parallels.

See, turns out that Parallels, I’m using 3.0 Build 5582 (Dec 5, 2007), appears to be running some services, even when the virtual machine is active, that gets in the way of iChat.

Get out of iChat.

Go to Apple / System Preferences…, select Network, and click on Parallels NAT and change the Configure drop down to Off; then go to Parallels Host-Guest an change the Configure drop down to Off. Press Apply.

Get back into iChat and try again. For me, it instantly fixed the problem.

OS X 10.5.1 Finder Crash – repeatable

Found a very simple way to crash the Finder in OS X 10.5.1 – while repeatable for me, do other people’s desktops do the same thing? (No data loss, just Finder windows close.)

I’ve just discovered that I can crash the Finder, not that this inhibits anything in that it instantly restarts…

Pick any FOLDER that’s on your desktop. Press Command-I to get info.
In the bottom right is a pad lock, click it, and enter your password so you can change permissions on the folder.
To the far left of the padlock is a plug sign. Press it.

For me, I instantly get an error on the console that the Finder exited abnormally with a bus error; this is usually a pointer trying to access memory that it’s forbidden to. The CrashReporter logs the event, and Finder restarts, closing the Info window that was just open.

While I can reproduce it effortlessly, can any one out there?