NKE failure

[dnegvesky]

Have just upgraded a Mac Pro Intel to SL 10.6.3 and Monitor button (in Monitor tool) now fails on en0 interface (or any other I/F) with message "NKE failure". Have tried unloading NKE to no avail. Persists through reboots. Not sure where to start looking for possible causes. Have looked through console logs but IPNetMonitorX has no listing.

Has anyone else encountered this or have any ideas?

Thanks

[psichel_adm]

NKE Failure indicates the NKE failed to load. The most likely reasons are the version of the NKE in the HelperTools folder is not compatible with your system, or does not have the correct file permissions.

Please make sure you have the latest version of IPNetMonitorX (2.5) that is compatible with Snow Leopard.
Next, please manually remove the old helper tools folder at:

/Library/Application Support/IPNetMonitorX/HelperTools/

The next time you launch IPNetMonitorX, it will repeat the first run install process and should update itself correctly for your new system.

If for any reason that doesn't work, try removing the surrounding IPNetMonitorX folder and then repairing permissions on your hard drive. Sometimes as people upgrade their Mac, the User ID (UID) of their login account changes affecting the ownership and permission of previously written files.

Kind Regards,

- Peter

[psichel_adm]

On May 25, 2010, at 12:33 AM, David Negvesky wrote:

Hi Peter,

I was sure that was the missing step. Since I already had v2.5, I couldn't remember how to get back to the 'first run' state. Unfortunately, no luck.

So I did a search in Console for IPNetMonitor and sure enough, there it was, complaining it couldn't load IPNetMonitor_TNKE.kext. So I ran kextutil (as suggested) on that kext and it said the kext didn't contain the correct code for 64-bit! Seems upgrading to 10.6.3 somehow flipped me into 64-bit. Sure enough, when I checked "Software" in System Profiler, it read "64-bit Kernel and Extensions: Yes"!

With some help from the web, I edited /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist, removed the "arch=x86_64" value from the Kernel Flags string, rebooted, and I'm back in business. Might explain some of the strange behavior I was seeing with other apps, too. Weird!

Thanks for your help.

Dave Negvesky

[psichel_adm]

Thanks for that update. I'll go ahead and build the NKE for 64-bits.

- Peter

[sfrawley]

Removing the Helper Tools alone did not do it for me, but after I repaired permissions things were just fine.

[scandiainn]

Had to install a new hard drive and tried installing latest update. Running OS 10.5.8 and despite following above instructions a number of times I still get the NKE failure.

Help

thanks,
Bill

[scandiainn]

Today I reinstalled 2.5 and it worked with no problem.

[hopestar2067]

I also get NKE failure.

Have tried all of the above procedures and to no avail.

Also tried unloading NKE

mac OS 10.5.8
v2.6c1

[psichel_adm]

If re-installing the helper tools as described above doesn't help, there is another possibility for why the NKE might fail to respond, it's disabled by Mac OS X's built-in firewall. That might sound odd at first, but an NKE is a kernel extension and the way programs communicate between the kernel and client address space is through a BSD socket. The Application level firewall on Leopard and above allows you to restrict whether programs can open sockets or "allow incoming connections". In this case, IPNetMonitorX is trying to open a socket to connect with it's own NKE. If the firewall is enabled under "System Preferences -> Security", make sure IPNetMonitorX is set to "allow incoming connections".

- Peter

[GainSustain]

If re-installing the helper tools as described above doesn't help, there is another possibility for why the NKE might fail to respond, it's disabled by Mac OS X's built-in firewall. That might sound odd at first, but an NKE is a kernel extension and the way programs communicate between the kernel and client address space is through a BSD socket. The Application level firewall on Leopard and above allows you to restrict whether programs can open sockets or "allow incoming connections". In this case, IPNetMonitorX is trying to open a socket to connect with it's own NKE. If the firewall is enabled under "System Preferences -> Security", make sure IPNetMonitorX is set to "allow incoming connections".

- Peter

You pretty much nailed it on the head. Either that or some kind of cyberdefender is causing an issue. Either way NKE is good to go for me and I trust the owner of the site. Should have the best information, right?