Bug with network shares in 10.4.7?

[jeremy.king]

All,

I was wondering if someone could help me see if this is a bug is local to my machine, the MacBook Pro, or OS X (10.4.7). If you can, please do the following and report your behavior.

1) Mount a network share using Finder
2) Put the machine to sleep
3) Connect to a different network (where that share from step #1 won't be visible)
4) Attempt a reboot

My system will quit Finder leaving the desktop wallpaper and the spinning circle of bars. The problem is it never reboots. I then have to use the power button method of rebooting.

I know it sounds like a weird scenario, but this is what I do everyday. At home I use OS X on my MBP where I use a network drive for all my docs, music, etc. Then I come to work and need to reboot into Windows, and OS X won't finish the reboot process. I am NOT complaining, just curious if this is a bug that someone else could verify.

Thanks.

Edit: Some more environment info.
* I connect wirelessly to both networks
* The network share I mount is an external drive connected to my mac mini

 

[jeremy.king]

A little different version, but same bug. Seems the secret is out of the bag...Good to know I am not crazy.

http://www.tuaw.com/2006/08/02/how-to-freeze-finder/

 

[Makosuke]

I've accidentally done this several times, and yes, it stalls the computer totally.

However, it's certainly not new to 10.4.7--OSX has had a problem with network shares that can no longer be accessed for as long as it's existed as far as I know. I've seen brutal freezing problems under 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4, and if anything 10.4 is FAR more forgiving of network shares that stop responding/can no longer be found than previous versions.

It's still an embarassment that there isn't a more robust system for handling this, but I've noticed that if you let Tiger (including 10.4.7) sit for a LONG time after it loses connection with a network share (probably 20-30 minutes), it will eventually pop up a helpful little dialogue saying "these shares no longer accessible--Disconnect?"

This is better behavior than in the past, and I like it very much--the only problem is that it takes so long to appear that generally it's not worth waititng for and I end up doing a hard reboot. Also, since the system blocks on disk access, you basically can't open any save dialogues or access the finder while you're waiting, and as soon as any app tries, it dies too. I don't think you can launch any probgrams while you're waiting, either.

I really wish Apple would implement something a little more robust to deal with unresponsive disks, especially network volumes.

(Note that I have experimented with this extensively as a result of my home computer getting put to sleep while I have it mounted, and problems with machines where I work waking from sleep but not having the network connection kick in fast enough for the mounted volumes to be recognized by open apps--and as soon as the app blocks waiting for disk access, the whole OS is toast.)