help me interpret console.log

[Cox Orange]

Hello,

since there is no Subforum under "Mac OS X" for 10.4.11 PPC, I post it here...

Can you tell me what this log tells. What went wrong that forced my ibook to restart?

Mac OS X Version 10.4.11 (Build 8S165)
2011-02-12 17:09:16 +0100
2011-02-12 17:09:18.897 McAfee Reporter[89] Could not find image named 'NSNetwork'.
2011-02-12 17:09:18.996 Menulet[88] Menulet : Caught an Exception while Registering with FMP
2011-02-12 17:09:18.997 Menulet[88] Failed to register with FMP
2011-02-12 17:09:19.034 McAfee Reporter[89] *** Illegal NSTableView data source (<Reporter: 0x41faa0>). Must implement numberOfRowsInTableView: and tableViewbjectValueForTableColumn:row:
2011-02-12 17:09:20.558 SystemUIServer[82] lang is:de
EyeTV Helper version 2.5 build 266

What did I do:
saved windows data from my fathers HDD (in external enclosure) to his USB-stick (FAT32). (He couldn't access the data on his Win-PC anymore and wanted me to save them).
After copying I clicked on eject USB-drive in the menu. I pulled off the USB stick (HDD was still running). After lets say 2 sec. I got a grey window in the center of my desktop, telling me I had to restart the computer by choosing restart or pressing the power-on button. Since it did not react I pushed the power button.
I then opened the crash log. after restart.

 

[smirk]

I don't think this section of the log is relevant. Is this the last snippet just before it rebooted?

 

[Cox Orange]

Interestingly, when I looked this up in the console.log it showed the above cited log.
I closed it, then did something different for about 5 min. and then opened it again, when I started this question here and this time it showed two more lines. I did not write them, though because I thought I would have to write the report I got after the first restart after the error-message.

If I now go to the system.log it shows many more... I searched the two lines I did not mention the last time herein and am able to cite it now:

Feb 12 17:13:38 myname-ibook-g4 kextd[158]: kld_load_from_memory() failed for module /System/Library/Extensions/MyUSB.kext/Contents/MacOS/MyUSB
Feb 12 17:13:38 myname-ibook-g4 kextd[158]: a link/load error occured for kernel extension /System/Library/Extensions/MyUSB.kext

Since one can read something about USB I think this might be the relevant part (that did not show the first time after restart, though).

 

[smirk]

I did not write them, though because I thought I would have to write the report I got after the first restart after the error-message.

Actually, what you're looking for is *before* the restart. You're hoping you'll see some error messages that were written shortly before a crash, reboot, etc.

Are you getting repeated restarts or did it just happen once?

 

[Cox Orange]

it just happened once, when I ejected and pulled off the USB stick from my father, where I had transferred windows data to, from a defective HDD.

Ok, I know this seems to be no real issue, but I would like to understand, if there is anything that harmed my system...

What does the afore cited dialog actually say about this McAfee thing. I had installed it only for a short time, a few months ago and then uninstalled it. I do only have "MacScan" installed, now. (I know I do not need it, but sometimes one tries things out...)

Quote "what you're looking for is *before* the restart."
the system.log shows so much, that I do not know what I would have to post for you in this case.

 

[smirk]

Ok, well first of all it is common to have various errors detailed in the system log. If you examine your log file regularly you'll see that. Sometimes it is just recording a status, sometimes it contains debug info for the product's developers, sometimes it logs errors that a process encountered, sometimes it even seems to be messages from a called function to its caller letting it know that that function is about to be obsoleted and they should use a different function. You see, processes that run in the background can't simply pop up a window to you every time something goes slightly wrong, or you'd be inundated with messages all day. So instead they log this stuff to a log file.

So in your case you have messages from McAfee Reporter, which you say you uninstalled. Looks like at least part of it is still there, are you sure you uninstalled it correctly? The log entry from it indicates something went wrong with McAfee, but that doesn't mean it is harmful to your system.

It sounds to me that maybe you ejected the USB drive and then pulled it out of the computer before the OS had finished with the eject process. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for the icon to disappear off the desktop. Should that have caused a kernel panic, though? No... so I don't really know what happened.

If I were you I would work on uninstalling that McAfee reporter; if it is half installed it isn't doing any good. I would also verify that the hard drive isn't corrupted, because that's always a possibility if a computer freezes while in the process of writing out data. The way I do it is by booting into single user mode by holding down the command and "S" keys at startup until the DOS-like screen appears, and then typing "fsck -f". When it's done you can reboot the system by typing "reboot". Or you could use Disk Utility to verify or repair the disk.

I think this is a one-time freak occurrence, though, and your system is most likely fine.

 

[Cox Orange]

ok, thanks a lot!

No it wasn't the case that I unplugged the USB-stick to early, the icon had gone and I had waited a bit. As you said, this seems to be a singular event.

I had disk utility do the tests, after I had this event... I now did the Openfirmware thing you suggested and it said HDD seems to be OK, too.

I found mcafee things in the library, I deleted it but had to delete the .plist file twice, once after restart. So now it should be completely eliminated.

I also have SMART Reporter installed, unfortunatly it just says "drive ok", "neutral" or "failing". It says drive ok. I had a trial version of Volitans SMART Utitlity (http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php) installed, once. I really liked it, cause it showed every detail, maximum temperature, defective sectors (there were 0) and so on, but it said "overall status: pre-failing". So this Programm seems to be either more accurate or too cautious... I do not know, if I can trust SMART Reporter with its simple "ok".
I have smartcl installed, too, because I wanted to try it. But all it does is open and the symbol being shown in the finder menue bar (not in the dock). All I can see is the menue saying "no output" and "quit smartcl". So I quit it having nothing done.

 

[smirk]

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it. It's not like your computer crashing can make the hard drive fail, I'm just cautious because in the past I've experienced some directory damage from the computer crashing (or shutting off due to a power failure) while data was being written to the disk. Since the Mac started using a journaling file system the likelihood of this happening has probably decreased.

As far as removing McAfee, I'm hoping you ran an uninstaller or followed uninstall instructions from their site instead of just deleting whatever McAfee files you happened to find. Some apps place various bits in different folders or, I suppose, could register themselves with the OS in such a way that you'd want to properly uninstall it to remove those changes. (And as an aside, a .plist file isn't an executable, it's just a text file that stores settings and data used by an application, so leaving it on your system harms nothing but disk space.)

Anyway, you're in good shape now, hopefully you won't ever see another kernel panic.

 

[Cox Orange]

Thank you very much for your help.
(to answer your "hope": no I just deleted what I found, unfotunately there was no uninstaller and no advice on their site. It was a "crippled" trial version with no expiring date...)