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[thebeck]

I have completely rebuilt my DNS-323, installed 1.08b, and only installed the Bonjour add-on.  My Mac can see the DNS-323 after a fresh boot, but after a few minutes the DNS-323 disappears from Finder.  Moreover, Time Machine is not able to see the DNS-323 at all (even after a fresh boot).

Generally speaking, is anyone else having this problem?

One of the strange things that I noticed is that there are three (3) mDNSResponder processes running (confirmed with "ps -ef" and top).  It seems that different shell scripts (start.sh and bonjournamescript so far that I can find) all call this process at startup.  Is it possible that these processes are competing against each for ip server port access?  Is it possible that these processes are competing for other resources?

Another strange thing that I noticed is that if I disable Bonjour on the DNS-323 (confirmed that the three mDNSResponder's are not running), I get the exact same behavior as described above.  This leads me to believe that Bonjour, as a piece of functionality, is not working correctly at all.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to why I would see this behavior?

[e280l132]

I have completely rebuilt my DNS-323, installed 1.08b, and only installed the Bonjour add-on.  My Mac can see the DNS-323 after a fresh boot, but after a few minutes the DNS-323 disappears from Finder.  Moreover, Time Machine is not able to see the DNS-323 at all (even after a fresh boot).

Generally speaking, is anyone else having this problem?

One of the strange things that I noticed is that there are three (3) mDNSResponder processes running (confirmed with "ps -ef" and top).  It seems that different shell scripts (start.sh and bonjournamescript so far that I can find) all call this process at startup.  Is it possible that these processes are competing against each for ip server port access?  Is it possible that these processes are competing for other resources?

Another strange thing that I noticed is that if I disable Bonjour on the DNS-323 (confirmed that the three mDNSResponder's are not running), I get the exact same behavior as described above.  This leads me to believe that Bonjour, as a piece of functionality, is not working correctly at all.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to why I would see this behavior?

Not sure what is causing your trouble, but I have had no trouble with 1.08 and my mac. Time Machine works fine and it stays just fine in finder.  Maybe you need to reset back to factory default?

[thebeck]

Thank you e280l132, I don't know why or how, but resetting factory defaults at least got my DNS-323 to show up in Time Machine.  Now I have a new problem...

Time Machine fails with the following error message:

Time Machine Error
The backup disk image could not be created.


e280l132, did you encounter a similar problem with your setup?  If so, how did you resolve?
Has anyone else encountered this problem?

I have checked file permissions on the Time Machine directory (chmod 777 to ensure everyone can read and write).  I have touched a ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" file in the Time Machine directory.

[e280l132]

Thank you e280l132, I don't know why or how, but resetting factory defaults at least got my DNS-323 to show up in Time Machine.  Now I have a new problem...

Time Machine fails with the following error message:

Time Machine Error
The backup disk image could not be created.


e280l132, did you encounter a similar problem with your setup?  If so, how did you resolve?
Has anyone else encountered this problem?

I have checked file permissions on the Time Machine directory (chmod 777 to ensure everyone can read and write).  I have touched a ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" file in the Time Machine directory.

Yes I have seen this issue..  do a google search for time machine and NAS.
you basically have to "pre create" a sparse image file and copy it to the DNS323.
It must be named EXACTLY right as per the instructions. Once I did that, everything worked fine.  I also had the image file located in the top level directory of the DNS323.

[thebeck]

I now have my DNS-323 working with Time Machine; however, there definitely is a defect in the Bonjour package.  Time Machine only works after I reboot the Mac (because there seems to be some sort of broadcast after the NAS boots that the Mac picks up).  After a while, the NAS still disappears and Time Machine fails.

After some investigation, I have narrowed the problem down to the Nas_Prog/Bonjour/sbin/bonjournamescript shell script.

The current file looks like this:

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh

kill -9 `pidof mDNSResponder`

#re-write config file
host=$(hostname)
echo "$host" _http._tcp local. 80\n"$host" _smb._tcp local. 445 >/etc/howl/mDNSResponder.conf

mDNSResponder &


It turns out the echo line is incorrect.  The correct echo line should be as follows:

Code: [Select]

echo -e "$host" _http._tcp local. 80\\n"$host" _smb._tcp local. 445 >/etc/howl/mDNSResponder.conf


This will correctly insert a new line in the /etc/howl/mDNSResponder.conf file that the mDNSResponder reads from.  Once I manually changed the bonjournamescript shell script and restarted the Bonjour service via the NAS's UI, Time Machine started working every time and over time.

Moderators, would you mind confirming this defect?  And if I solved it correctly?

[thebeck]

I may have spoken too soon.  I woke up this morning to check things out...  My Mac can no longer 'see' the NAS (the Mac was sleeping all night and I just brought it out of sleep).  Pinging the NAS from the Mac yields unknown host.  I definitely think the mDNSResponder.conf file needs to be corrected (described in my previous post), but perhaps there is another issue whereby the mDNSResponder process is not broadcasting itself frequently enough or something else.  Thoughts?  Is there a way to have the mDNSResponder process log itself somewhere?

I am going to do some additional research in parallel (see resources below).  I'll let you know what I find out.
http://developer.apple.com/networking/bonjour/faq.html
http://www.dns-sd.org/ServiceTypes.html

[thebeck]

Alternate (and probably preferred) fix for bonjournamescript (based on some more research online):

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh

kill -9 `pidof mDNSResponder`

#re-write config file
host=$(hostname)
echo -e "$host"\\t_http._tcp\\tlocal.\\t80 > /etc/howl/mDNSResponder.conf
echo -e "$host"\\t_smb._tcp\\tlocal.\\t445 >> /etc/howl/mDNSResponder.conf

mDNSResponder &

My Mac, however, still cannot 'see' the DNS.  Note that the Mac can successfully ping the NAS via IP address (it's always been able to do this).  It's just that it cannot 'see' the NAS using the hostname of the NAS (e.g., ping returns unknown host).

I'll still continue to research and post what I found out (if anything new).

[thebeck]

Been running various tests all day.  Seems like the following setup makes Time Machine work 'most' of the time now (ping via the host name still does not work, but I am getting the feeling that is okay from the Time Machine perspective -- Time Machine seems to fail every time the laptop comes out of sleep, with details that point to the host not found, which could be an issue with the mDNSReponder not correctly replying to multi-cast DNS queries from the Mac or a problem with the Mac not sending the right multi-cast DNS query).

start.sh

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh

#re-write config file
bonjournamescript

echo mDNSResponder startup: `date` >> /mnt/HD_a2/Nas_Prog/Bonjour/mDNSResponder.log
mDNSResponder -d 1>>/mnt/HD_a2/Nas_Prog/Bonjour/mDNSResponder.log 2>&1 &


stop.sh

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh

kill -9 `pidof mDNSResponder`

echo mDNSResponder Shutdown: `date` >> /mnt/HD_a2/Nas_Prog/Bonjour/mDNSResponder.log
echo >> /mnt/HD_a2/Nas_Prog/Bonjour/mDNSResponder.log


bonjournamescript

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh

kill -9 `pidof mDNSResponder`

#re-write config file
host=$(hostname)
echo -e "$host"\\t_http._tcp\\tlocal.\\t80 > /etc/howl/mDNSResponder.conf
echo -e "$host"\\t_smb._tcp\\tlocal.\\t445 >> /etc/howl/mDNSResponder.conf

# start.sh will be responsible for starting the multi-cast DNS responder
# mDNSResponder &


You will notice that I am running the mDNSResponder in debug mode and piping its output to a log file to see if it starts up okay.  I think there is a problem trying to double start the mDNSResponder (in start.sh and bonjournamescript), so I commented it out of bonjournamescript.  The log file looks like the following:


mDNSResponder startup: Sun Jul 19 07:48:25 DST 2009
[assert] error: 95 (Operation not supported)
[assert] where: "Posix/posix_interface.c", "sw_network_interface_link_status", line: 296

[howl] registered interface 192.168.150.201 (6772)
[howl] registered homeNAS1(6768)
[howl] registered homeNAS1(6768)
[howl] starting up... (6772)


The 6772 and 6768 match the pid's that show up via top.  There is a 3rd mDNSResponder process for which the pid is not reported in the log file.  Of important note, though, is it is observed that the mDNSResponder logs some sort of assertion error.  Is this a problem?  Is this error affecting the zeroconfig nature of bonjour?  Is this why only two of the three pids are reported in the log file, which means the 3rd process is stuck?

Side note...  If you run mDNSResponder -v, you get the following output:

posix_main begin
mDNSResponder release 1.0.0 Copyright(c) Porchdog Software 2003-2005.


Is it realistic to believe that Porchdog has not released any updates since their 2005 1.0.0 release?  Apple's last mDNSResponder update came in Sept, 2006 (http://developer.apple.com/opensource/internet/bonjour.html), which leads me to believe Porchdog's open source version has some updates post 1.0.0 out there (or at least has some defects?).  Is this possible to confirm?  It's a bit suspect to see a pure 1.0.0 release with no patch numbers, but I could be wrong.

In any event, would it be possible to add my shell script updates to the final 1.08 firmware for the Bonjour add-on?  And if there is a newer version of the mDNSResponder, would it also be okay adding it to the 1.08 firmware?

[thebeck]

Hi D-Link,

I contacted the support folks over at Porchdog.  Seems that their howl mDNSResponder is no longer developed and no longer supported.  They suggested you move onto Avahi (http://avahi.org/).

So, any chance you would replace your howl implementation with Avahi?