Everybody Staze…

So, this is mainly a note to myself, but…

Been having some issues password protecting a folder on the work server, and finally figured out the issue.

Had a valid .htaccess file in the folder, and an .htpassword that was accessible. Yet I kept getting 404 errors. Thanks to the popularity of wordpress (even though we don’t use it at work), I found the answer.

Apparently, apache needs to be able to find a 401 error file in order to trigger a login prompt. So, adding ErrorDocument 401 401.html then creating a 401.html in the protected folder, with anything at all in it, suddenly made it work.

Gar…

This weekend has been pretty good, and pleasantly (un)eventful. Got the yards mowed, pruned front tree (we call it “the ugly tree” because it leafs out late, drops leaves early, and has little leaflets that don’t rake up because they’re too small), a Gleditsia triacanthos inermis, or Thornless Honey Locust. The interesting thing is, this year is the first time the tree has flowered since we’ve lived here. So, it must be healthier than it has been. We’ll see if it sets any fruit. =/

I also planted some Glycine Max, or Edamame (variety Misono Green) in a raised bed. I planted 6 plants, hopefully I’ll get some nice Edamame out of it. =) I’d love to try making Tofu. Here’s some info on growing beans in the Valley: OSU Extension.

Work has wound down at this point. At the J-School, most projects are due dead week, and there are few finals. So, most students will be gone next week. Which means I should be able to start on my summer projects. I’ll probably start building a new image from scratch starting tomorrow.

Progress with AppleCare has kinda stalled. I ran some software they wanted, and got them more info. At this point, sounds like a 10.5 fix is unlikely. Hopefully we’ll see a fix in 10.6, but they can’t tell me one way or the other given Apple’s rather over zealous policies given unreleased products. We’ll see what happens. At this point, I’m looking at implementing NFS home directories as a short term “stop gap”. We’ll see how that goes… right now, I can’t get it to work at all.

Tomorrow is the WWDC keynote. My boss is betting we’ll see the new iPhone, the 3.0 iPhone OS, and possibly even 10.6 (or rather, a release date for 10.6). The rumor sites are saying a new beta build will be released to attendees… perhaps the last before GM. Who knows… I’d love to update to a new phone, since mine has been really laggy the past few weeks… but, I’m hoping 3.0 will help with that. I think the 2.x OS could use some help with memory reclamation after exiting an App. =/

The weather here is supposed to be fairly mild the next week. I’m hoping to get a bunch of yard work done before it warms up again. I’ve been trying to the last 2 years to remove the Morning Glory (Convolvulus sepium) from the yard. From reading online, it sounds like it’s nearly impossible. You just have to continually remove it. Unfortunately, it sounds like it’s pretty efficient at food storage, so just a few leaves can replenish food stores.

This is a pretty good PDF on Invasive Plants in the Willamette Valley: Remove Invasive Plants.

More later… maybe once I have some progress on NFS Home directories at work I’ll post again.

So, after my last post, I figured I’d give an update on that issue as well as other projects for the coming weekend.

As to my last post, there’s cautiously good news. My Apple SE escalated the case to AppleCare Enterprise, who have been very good about gathering the needed data, and keeping me updated as to the status of the issue. So, this last Tuesday, after a weekend of running with 10.5.7 and having a really crappy day Tuesday of trying to make things work, I decided I would downgrade back to 10.5.4. Well, after 3 hours of wiping the two servers, and installing 10.5.4 and things looking good, the next day we still had issues. Better, but not by much. So, I heard from AppleCare Enterprise that day (Wednesday, which I took off), and I got him the info he needed that night, and Thursday. Today, seemingly, Engineering thinks they have a fix. Bad news is, it might not make it into 10.5 but rather 10.6. But, they’re going to try. So, goodish news on that front.

Also for the past week (since 10.5.7), we’ve been having issues with a program called KeyAccess. Basically, this program allows us to “key” an application, and install it on all the computers in the building, then a server piece basically keeps track of how many instances of the programs are running, and keeps that inline with how many licenses we own. It’s the best thing since sliced bread. Job would be extra impossible without it. So, 10.5.7 comes out, I install it in 4 labs, and things seem to work. Only, I only tested on Intel Macs. On the PPCs, KeyAccess doesn’t launch on the client, and therefore applications won’t run. So, I email the company that makes the software (Sassafras Software, Inc), and tell them what’s up, and we think we have a fix, until the next day, when it’s still happening. At that point, I email back, and they say they’ve also had word from another location having the same issue. So, at home I email back and forth with one of their people who is 3 hours ahead of me about the issue. I send some logs, and some ls output, and he basically says they’ll try to work on it in-house the next day. So, next day, I’m working with them, and they get some more info, and finally get the issue reproducible in house. Today, they send me a new build that seems to work. Say it’s a timing issue (not sure quite what they mean by that, whether it’s coming up before networking, or whether it’s not syncing with the server)… so, 2 days, bug fix. Gotta really love small companies (I’m guessing they have probably 12-15 people, at most).

On the home front, we planted a medium sized Daphne ordora ‘Marginata’, which is a “typical” winter daphne, in the space formerly occupied by the very unhealthy Rhododendron (which, I placed in a pot, and is doing much better now). Hopefully we’ll have some nice, knock you on your ass, daphne to smell come next February.

Blueberries are doing about the same, though they seem far less impacted by the warmer weather we’ve been having recently than they have in the past. Be that the mulch, or the older plants, I can’t say. But they seem VERY happy.

This weekend is probably really going to be a fair amount of cleaning the garage, yard work, and various household tasks. I’m going to weatherstrip the front door, maybe trim the door so it’ll clear a rug, which also means changing the threshold. I don’t think I’ll be doing the PRV, but I might try to at least dig the old one out so I can tackle it next week.

Oh, btw, I got some new pedals for my bike. They’re Nashbar (http://www.nashbar.com/) Highlander Pedals, which are rebranded Wellgo WAM-D10′s (Review: here). They’ve got a nice big platform for normal shoe riding (with great spikes to bite into your shoes) on one side, and MTB clipless on the other. So far, I’m very happy. Previously I was using the stock Shimano clipless pedals with plastic clipless platforms, which sucked. Now if I could just get my saddle to not kill me. Oh, and btw, the Nashbar version was $30. The Wellgo ones are $50.

BTW, my bike is a 2001 Bianchi Volpe. I’ve replaced the Saddle with a more comfortable one, the pedals (now), and the tires with some 28 x 700 Gatorskins (hard, but smooth and nearly puncture proof).

That’s all for now… maybe I’ll post more this weekend.

Since January of this year, I’ve been actively seeing AppleFileServer crash regularly on a server at work. This server is our primary student account server, which at any given time has about 40-80 students logged in (network home directories).

Many days, AFP crashes several times. Every time, it’s the same error: kern_protection_failure. The thread that crashes is always talking about ByteRangeLockTreeKey. The only good thing about this problem, is seemingly AFP comes back up, and people’s computers reconnect (go autofs!). But this is a very poor consolation prize since for some people, this does cause a problem (anyone with Mail open usually gets an error about not being able to access their inbox, and do they want to rebuild, or quit, and some others occasionally get Final Cut project file corruption (this is rare, and only seems to impact those that have their autosave vault set to their home directory, and not the local HD)).

So, Apple was notified about this, officially, on Jan 22nd, 2009. Ticket number 6517425. After getting back to me and asking for some follow up info, they proceeded to roll the ticket into another one (6237420). This ticket, apparently, was not related, and after telling our Sales Engineer about this, he had them un-merge the tickets. Apple then rolled my bug into another ticket, 5859645. An even older ticket! From what I’ve gathered, this ticket may be related to some lower level issue than AFP… either filesystem level (perhaps ACLs?!?, or even general I/O level).

All the while, I am in contact with someone in Minnesota who is having my same issue, and has also opened tickets (and has the luxury of having AppleCare for 10.5 server (the high end AppleCare to boot). He had two open case numbers with them. He even had a regional service engineer come by and take a look at this system, which he said was set up correctly, and there’s nothing more they could do to help alleviate the problem until a patch was available.

So, also during this time, someone from London contacts me and says he’s having the same issue as well, and has a Developer account (pay for), so he tries a beta of 10.5.7. It does not fix the issue. Around this time, I downgrade to 10.5.4 hoping the issue will be lessened (long story short, it isn’t). But, a few weeks later, the gent from London says he’s fixed his problem by removing the “deny all” acl from all his share points and folders within share points. The “deny all” acl was added around 10.5.4 or so to mitigate something… no one’s sure what. Anyway, he then tells Apple about this “fix” and they reply that it’s an “unacceptable workaround” and that they’re working on a fix. This was April 9th he did this.

Well, so, 10.5.7 dropped last Tuesday (May 12th, 2009). I installed it on the server experiencing the issue Friday night, at about 2am. I didn’t have a single crash until Sunday, May 17th, 2009, at 5:52pm. Same exact error.

So, not only was Apple notified AT LEAST 110 days prior to 10.5.7 shipping, but they were notified of an actual “fix” about 33 days before hand. I really wish Apple’s bug database was public, so that I could post links to my bugs, but, alas it is not.

However, here are a few threads on the issue:

http://www.afp548.com/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=23311
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1975848
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8857952

At this point, I’m going to start actively poking buttons and prodding people until I get an answer. The last email I sent to devbugs@apple.com resulted in the “pat”, “There is no new information at this time”. What a load of horse crap. They know of at least one “option”… the least they could do would be to educate someone having this issue about that “fix” and it’s repercussions. Given the amount of time that 10.5.7 took to hit the street, and how far in advance I notified them about this bug, I have very little hope this will get fixed before 10.6. If we’re lucky, we’ll see the fix back ported, but I doubt it.

To cap this all off, the main reason I’m posting this is for posterity, as well as the hope that anyone else that has this bug can actually see they’re not alone! And that they can contact Apple and say “hey, I have some bug numbers here of others having this issue”. If you are having this issue, please, don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll work to get you in contact with others having this issue, or with someone at Apple that will actually listen.

UPDATE 1: Today I got a call from the local Education SE, who has created an escalation of this issue. Assuming it gets signed off by his boss, I should be hearing from Apple Engineering in the next few days… which is good since AFP crashed 5 times today. I have decided, in the interim, to remove the “group:everyone deny delete” ACL from many of the home folders on the server. Hopefully this will ease the problem. We’ll have to see. And I’ll post more once I hear from Engineering.

So, last week before leaving for Portland, I fertilized the blueberries again. They’re looking quite nice, though I’m still confused why only two are flowering. My hope is that with some judicious pruning this winter, we can get them all flowering (from reading, flowers are borne on 2 year old wood, so it could be that there’s just too much young wood on them. *shrugs*). Then yesterday, we went and picked up a yard of doug-fir sawdust. Turns out, this was way too much. So, we now have sawdust about 3-4″ thick under the berries, as well as all the way to the fence. =P Oh well, it should really keep the weeds down, and will certainly make the blueberries happy.

Now I’m reading up on lawn care. The front yard at our place looks the best it has, well, ever. It’s extremely healthy, very few weeds, and all and all very nice (bit of crab grass, but I hope to take care of that soon). The back, on the other hand, not as nice. TON of weeds on the north side, I’m guessing due to the lower light levels. So, I’ve been trying to weed-n-feed there. Hopefully that too will work.

We also finally got around to removing the very sick/dying rhododendron that had been planted next to the front door (in a built-in planter). It doesn’t get any rain in that location, and because of the make-up of the planter (mortar, bricks, etc), it was probably WAY too alkali for it anyway. I put it in a 25gal nursery container with a rough 70/30 mix of peat/perlite, some acid loving osmicote, and a good drench of Superthrive. Hopefully it’ll perk up. The one that was sick and dying elsewhere on the lot I did the same thing to last year, and it’s extremely healthy now.

Tonight I’m going to double the RAM in the web server/file server/energy monitor, etc. Hopefully everything will work. I tried turning on mod_deflate on the system yesterday, and was dismayed by the performance. I hope to just enable it on some of the stuff I’m working on that will be a lot of data (further using google visualizations for power use, which 3 days of data would amount to 700KB uncompressed).

Mac OS 10.5.7 came out yesterday while I was getting sawdust, and I’ve installed it at work. So far, so good. They said they fixed some error with Dvorak keyboards, but I never noticed anything. My hope against hope is that it will fix the longterm issue we’ve had with AFP crashing on the server. Somehow, I doubt it.

This month will be the first time I can check my utility bill against the TED. I’m hoping it’ll be close… I really don’t want to have to call the local utility company to check my meter, though a newer digital one would be sweet. PGE up in Portland has been going around replacing analog ones with digital ones. I’m somewhat jealous.

At work we’re writing up a proposal for what amounts to “grant” money to offset probably budget cuts this coming year. I’m really really hoping to get 1-2 servers out of the deal. 2 servers would let me switch all critical systems over to Intel Xserves, and jettison 5 original Xserve’s. 1 server would let me upgrade the mail server and implement CalDAV. I would still need to dual purpose a machine to take up the slack from not getting the 2nd server… so, I’m hoping for 2. Mind you, this should also lower our power usage.

That’s all for now, since I can’t think of anything else.

Links for future reference:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1521/
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/details.php?sortnum=0616&name=Lawns