Failure to dismount partitions

[Robert Peirce]

I have posted about this before but I have just generated some data for
partitions that do dismount as well as those that don't.

This one does not have an OS on it. It is just data. It dismounts.

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
mds 39 root 64r DIR 1,17 952 2 /volumes/Pictures
mds 39 root 67r DIR 1,17 952 2 /volumes/Pictures
mds 39 root 70r DIR 1,17 952 2 /volumes/Pictures

This one does have an OS and does dismount. It is a bootable partition.

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
notifyd 14 root 402r DIR 1,16 1394 2 /volumes/Depart
notifyd 14 root 403r DIR 1,16 442 60725 /volumes/Depart/usr
notifyd 14 root 406r DIR 1,16 238 178992
/volumes/Depart/private
notifyd 14 root 409r DIR 1,16 136 184993
/volumes/Depart/System
notifyd 14 root 412r REG 1,16 8192160 3557221
/volumes/Depart/mach_kernel
notifyd 14 root 420r DIR 1,16 2448 328117
/volumes/Depart/Library
mds 39 root 47r DIR 1,16 1394 2 /volumes/Depart

This one also has an OS on it but does not dismount. It also is
bootable.

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
notifyd 14 root 122r DIR 1,8 1360 2 /volumes/b1
mds 39 root 25r DIR 1,8 1360 2 /volumes/b1
UserEvent 2020 rbp 75r DIR 1,8 1700 431437
/volumes/b1/Applications
UserEvent 2020 rbp 76r DIR 1,8 1700 431437
/volumes/b1/Applications
UserEvent 2020 rbp 77r DIR 1,8 1360 2 /volumes/b1

It is obvious that the two OS partitions are different but I don't know
why. It looks like the OS should actually be establishing some kind of
connection to private, System, Library and the kernel on the bootable
partitions but this isn't happening. If anybody has any suggestions I
would like to hear them.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <bob-51438A.0...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> It is obvious that the two OS partitions are different but I don't know
> why. It looks like the OS should actually be establishing some kind of
> connection to private, System, Library and the kernel on the bootable
> partitions but this isn't happening. If anybody has any suggestions I
> would like to hear them.

The ones that don't dismount have "UserEvent"s running. I noted that in
a prior post but nobody has told me why they are only running on some
partitions or how to prevent them. I might understand them running on
all partitions but the idea of them only running on some partitions
baffles me.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <bob-D08F51.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

I logged on as root and there was no UserEvent on any of the partitions
and they dismounted as expected. Apparently, my login must create these
connections but I have no idea why. Nor can I guess why it would be to
some partitions and not to all.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-51438A.0...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Do this:

1. Run /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.
2. In the Filter box at the top-right corner of the window, enter
"UserEvent".
3. Double-click the UserEventAgent process running as your User name.
4. Click the Open Files and Ports tab.
5. Copy the listing.
6. Paste it in a reply to this post.

(It might also be helpful to know what that listing looks like for the
UserEventAgent process running in the "root" account.)

--
Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me.
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM
filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting
messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google
Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts.

JR

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-EA18F...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> Do this:
>
> 1. Run /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.
> 2. In the Filter box at the top-right corner of the window, enter
> "UserEvent".
> 3. Double-click the UserEventAgent process running as your User name.
> 4. Click the Open Files and Ports tab.
> 5. Copy the listing.
> 6. Paste it in a reply to this post.
>
> (It might also be helpful to know what that listing looks like for the
> UserEventAgent process running in the "root" account.)

There are no Open Files or Ports for root.

The following is an incredible amount of info. I hope you can make some
sense of it!

UNDER RBP:

/
/usr/libexec/UserEventAgent
/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/PlugIns/csparser.bundle/Con
tents/MacOS/csparser
/private/var/db/mds/system/mdsDirectory.db
/usr/share/icu/icudt49l.dat
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/ACRRDaemon.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ACRRDae
mon
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AirPortUserAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS/A
irPortUserAgent
/private/var/db/mds/messages/se_SecurityMessages
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AppleHIDMouseAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS
/AppleHIDMouseAgent
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AssistantUEA.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Assis
tantUEA
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AutoTimeZone.plugin/Contents/MacOS/AutoT
imeZone
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BTMMPortInUseAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS
/BTMMPortInUseAgent
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BluetoothUserAgent-Plugin.plugin/Content
s/MacOS/BluetoothUserAgent-Plugin
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleHDAHALPlug
In.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AppleHDAHALPlugIn
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BonjourEvents.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Bonj
ourEvents
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/CalendarMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Ca
lendarMonitor
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/CaptiveUserAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS/C
aptiveUserAgent
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/DiskUnmountWatcher.plugin/Contents/MacOS
/DiskUnmountWatcher
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/GSSNotificationForwarder.plugin/Contents
/MacOS/GSSNotificationForwarder
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/EAPOLMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/EAPOL
Monitor
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/LocationMenu.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Locat
ionMenu
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/PrinterMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Pri
nterMonitor
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/SCMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/SCMonito
r
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/alfUIplugin.plugin/Contents/MacOS/alfUIp
lugin
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.UserNotificatio
n.plugin/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.UserNotification
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.TimeMachine.plugin/Contents/Ma
cOS/com.apple.TimeMachine
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.bonjour.plugin/Contents/MacOS/
com.apple.bonjour
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.cfnotification.plugin/Contents
/MacOS/com.apple.cfnotification
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.dispatch.vfs.plugin/Contents/M
acOS/com.apple.dispatch.vfs
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.fsevents.matching.plugin/Conte
nts/MacOS/com.apple.fsevents.matching
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.iokit.matching.plugin/Contents
/MacOS/com.apple.iokit.matching
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.launchd.helper.plugin/Contents
/MacOS/com.apple.launchd.helper
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.locationd.events.plugin/Conten
ts/MacOS/com.apple.locationd.events
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.notifyd.matching.plugin/Conten
ts/MacOS/com.apple.notifyd.matching
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.rcdevent.matching.plugin/Conte
nts/MacOS/com.apple.rcdevent.matching
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.time.plugin/Contents/MacOS/com
.apple.time
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.universalaccess.events.plugin/
Contents/MacOS/com.apple.universalaccess.events
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.usernotificationcenter.matchin
g.plugin/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.usernotificationcenter.matching
/System/Library/Extensions/IOHIDFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOHIDLib.plu
gin/Contents/MacOS/IOHIDLib
/private/var/folders/qg/v4zctlzh8xjcg5001s7ljnmr0000gn/C/com.apple.Launch
Services-036501.csstore
/usr/lib/dyld
/private/var/db/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_x86_64
/dev/null
/dev/null
/dev/null
/dev/io8log
count=1, state=0x2
->0x892f504a214070ff
count=0, state=0
/private/etc/com.apple.screensharing.agent.launchd
/private/etc
/private
count=0, state=0
/private/var/db/PanicReporter
/private/var/db
/private/var
/private
count=0, state=0
/private/var/db/GPURestartReporter
/private/var/db
/private/var
/private
count=0, state=0
/private/etc
/private/etc
/private
count=0, state=0
/Users/rbp/Library/Services
/Users/rbp/Library
/Users/rbp
/Users
/Library
count=0, state=0
/Library
count=0, state=0
/Applications
/
/Applications/Utilities
/Applications
count=0, state=0
/Library/Caches
/Library/Caches
/Library
count=0, state=0
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent.launchd
/Library/Preferences
/Library
count=0, state=0
/Library/Documentation/Help/Hewlett-Packard
/Library/Documentation/Help
/Library/Documentation
/Library
/Library/Documentation/Help/Hewlett-Packard
/Library/Documentation/Help
/Library/Documentation
/Library
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B2/Applications
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B2/Applications
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B5/Applications
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B8/Applications
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B1/Applications
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/Arrive/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B8/Applications
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local
/usr
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B5/Applications
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B4/Applications
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B3/Applications
/Volumes
/Volumes/B6/Applications

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-102394.2...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-EA18F...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > Do this:
> >
> > 1. Run /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.
> > 2. In the Filter box at the top-right corner of the window, enter
> > "UserEvent".
> > 3. Double-click the UserEventAgent process running as your User name.
> > 4. Click the Open Files and Ports tab.
> > 5. Copy the listing.
> > 6. Paste it in a reply to this post.
> >
> > (It might also be helpful to know what that listing looks like for the
> > UserEventAgent process running in the "root" account.)
>
> There are no Open Files or Ports for root.
>
> The following is an incredible amount of info. I hope you can make some
> sense of it!
>
> UNDER RBP:
>

(snip)
> /Volumes/B2/Applications
(snip)

Something make me wonder why /Volumes/B2/Applications shows up so often
in this list. What do you have in /Volumes/B2/Applications? If any of
the applications in /Volumes/B2/Applications are running when you
attempt to eject B2, of course it will not eject.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-82334...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> In article <bob-102394.2...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
>
> Something make me wonder why /Volumes/B2/Applications shows up so often
> in this list. What do you have in /Volumes/B2/Applications? If any of
> the applications in /Volumes/B2/Applications are running when you
> attempt to eject B2, of course it will not eject.

That is also true of B1, B[3-6], B8 and Arrive, but not of B7, Depart
and Pictures. Everything but Pictures is a SuperDuper! backup of my
entire Macintosh HD, so Applications is going to be pretty much
identical across the board. I never run anything on the backups. I
just have them in case I have to restore something. That is why I
wonder why the system thinks I am trying to run something in them.

BTW, to the extent possible, Applications is identical to what you would
get if you did a clean install and checked for new software. There are
a couple of apps that ONLY work if they are in the Applications folder
but they are in all 10 partitions. I believe they are only Drobo's
Dashboard.app and TotalFinder.app. All other third-party apps go into
/Local/Applications.

I can see, with lsof, that the system thinks I am using the Applications
directory on all these partitions, but I am not and I don't know why it
thinks I am.

On a related note, when I log off at night, Depart, B7 and Pictures are
dismounted. The others are not. Last night, when the computer
"hibernated" (see my other post), everything got dismounted.

I can see what is going on, but I don't know why or how to stop it. I
thought there might be some kind of peculiar link or alias involved, but
that would involve all the partitions but Pictures. Further, as I do
backups to each partition, the situation doesn't change. B7, for
example, never shows a connection to Applications but all the others do.
I also tried using DiskUtility to erase a partition and that didn't
solve the problem. I am totally confused.

[Chris Ridd]

On 2012-10-23 15:25:15 +0000, Robert Peirce said:

> In article <jollyroger-82334...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
>> In article <bob-102394.2...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
>> Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
>>
>> Something make me wonder why /Volumes/B2/Applications shows up so often
>> in this list. What do you have in /Volumes/B2/Applications? If any of
>> the applications in /Volumes/B2/Applications are running when you
>> attempt to eject B2, of course it will not eject.
>
> That is also true of B1, B[3-6], B8 and Arrive, but not of B7, Depart
> and Pictures. Everything but Pictures is a SuperDuper! backup of my
> entire Macintosh HD, so Applications is going to be pretty much
> identical across the board. I never run anything on the backups. I
> just have them in case I have to restore something. That is why I
> wonder why the system thinks I am trying to run something in them.

So in other words you've got multiple identical copies of the same apps
on your system, just on different drives? Which one gets run when you
double-click a document, or open it indirectly in some other way (I
like opening apps via the Spotlight menu)?

--
Chris

[Robert Peirce]

In article <aeo66r...@mid.individual.net>,

Chris Ridd <chri...@mac.com> wrote:

> So in other words you've got multiple identical copies of the same apps
> on your system, just on different drives? Which one gets run when you
> double-click a document, or open it indirectly in some other way (I
> like opening apps via the Spotlight menu)?

Most of the apps I use regularly are in the dock and were dragged there
from the Mac HD. They are the ones that open. Sometimes I need to open
an app directly and again they are on the Mac HD.

The backed up versions are never opened directly. They are just there
in case I ever need to restore them. Generally, when I have to restore
something it is from the latest backup but sometimes I have to go back
further.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <bob-1EEF3B.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

I did a little testing. I thought there might be something on the
partition causing the problem so I erased it and ran lsof. I was still
connected so I tried writing 0 to everything. Still connected. I also
forced an eject and remounted the partition. Every attempt produced the
same output.

$ lsof +d /volumes/b3

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME

UserEvent 5946 rbp 88r DIR 1,8 340 2 /volumes/b3

I looked at the partition and it had five files/directories.

.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
.DS_Store
.fseventsd/fseventsd-uuid
.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist
.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/VolumeConfig.plist
.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/lots of stuff
.Trashes

I think these are on every apple disk so it doesn't look like there is
anything interesting on the partition itself that might be causing this.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-124AA0.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

And what gets sent to /var/log/system.log when you attempt (and fail) to
eject this volume?

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-B4D47...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> And what gets sent to /var/log/system.log when you attempt (and fail) to
> eject this volume?

This is from the time I click the eject button in the Finder Window,
through the Force Eject panel until I get the message that the disk has
been ejected. Each entry is pretty long so I put spaces in to separate
them.

Oct 24 08:35:03 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client
'/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [425] for authorization
created by '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [425] (100013,0)

Oct 24 08:35:03 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client '/usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd'
[15] for authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [425] (100002,0)

Oct 24 08:35:07 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] for
authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] (100013,0)

Oct 24 08:35:07 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client '/usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd'
[15] for authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] (100002,0)

Oct 24 08:35:09 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] for
authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] (100013,0)

Oct 24 08:35:09 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client '/usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd'
[15] for authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] (100002,0)

Oct 24 08:35:12 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] for
authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] (100013,0)

Oct 24 08:35:12 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client '/usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd'
[15] for authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] (100002,0)

Oct 24 08:35:15 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] for
authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] (100013,0)

Oct 24 08:35:15 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
'system.volume.external.unmount' by client '/usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd'
[15] for authorization created by
'/System/Library/CoreServices/UnmountAssistantAgent.app' [672] (100002,0)

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-3C0E06.0...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-B4D47...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > And what gets sent to /var/log/system.log when you attempt (and fail) to
> > eject this volume?
>
> This is from the time I click the eject button in the Finder Window,
> through the Force Eject panel until I get the message that the disk has
> been ejected. Each entry is pretty long so I put spaces in to separate
> them.
>
> Oct 24 08:35:03 Robert-Peirces-Computer.local
> com.apple.SecurityServer[28]: Succeeded authorizing right
> 'system.volume.external.unmount' by client
> '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [425] for authorization
> created by '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [425] (100013,0)
>

(snip)

That's just a bunch of unmount operations. Nothing seemingly special.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-2E693...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> That's just a bunch of unmount operations. Nothing seemingly special.

I think I may have found the problem -- Sophos Anti-Virus. As near as I
can tell it establishes a connection to every mounted partition and will
run anti-virus on them as it cycles through. I am also pretty sure that
these open connections are what is causing me to be unable to login when
my Drobo S is connected.

I found out how to turn this off in Sophos, the connections have
disappeared and so far I can log on the way I used to. However, I will
want to test the latter for a while before concluding all the problems
are solved.

I have had Sophos running for a long time. I can only guess that a
recent update changed its prior behavior.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <bob-880775.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

The Sophos entries do seem to be the cause of not being able to log on
when the Drobo S is connected, but not the reason I cannot eject the
partitions. I thought that this was being prevented by notifyd and mds.
However, lsof shows them running on all the partitions to which I have
backed up my Macintosh HD, but I can still eject two of the partitions.
Therefore, something else is involved.

I have 10 backup partitions. Two can be ejected with no problem. This
causes me to think there is some system operation that is limited to 8
attached devices. This did not change when I partitioned my Macintosh
HD to allow a small space for a Mountain Lion installation and notifyd
and mds are connected to that new partition, so I think it really only
applies to attached devices. Any guesses?

[Robert Peirce]

In article <bob-850DB7.2...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> I thought that this was being prevented by notifyd and mds.
> However, lsof shows them running on all the partitions to which I have
> backed up my Macintosh HD, but I can still eject two of the partitions.
> Therefore, something else is involved.

OTOH, I just connected the Drobo S to my wife's computer where all the
partitions mounted as expected. Her's runs on 10.6.8. Mine is 10.8.2.

Running lsof as root on the partitions did not produce a notifyd
indication, just mds, and eject all worked perfectly. Therefore, this
may have something to do with notifyd.

Is it possible to set up my system so notifyd will not run on certain
partitions? Then I could check to see if that is affecting anything.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-F372CB.2...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

My goodness. All this trouble because you want to run anti virus
software on a platform with virtually no viruses?

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-C82CA...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> > OTOH, I just connected the Drobo S to my wife's computer where all the
> > partitions mounted as expected. Her's runs on 10.6.8. Mine is 10.8.2.
> >
> > Running lsof as root on the partitions did not produce a notifyd
> > indication, just mds, and eject all worked perfectly. Therefore, this
> > may have something to do with notifyd.
> >
> > Is it possible to set up my system so notifyd will not run on certain
> > partitions? Then I could check to see if that is affecting anything.
>
> My goodness. All this trouble because you want to run anti virus
> software on a platform with virtually no viruses?

Not at this point. All this trouble is related to trying to get Drobo S
partitions to function the way they used to. Problem 1 was being able
to log on and that actually was related to Sophos. Problem 2 is being
able to dismount partitions so I can use the laptop as a laptop and it
seems this has something to do with notifyd, although perhaps not
entirely.

So I am trying to figure out how to turn of the notifyd connection to my
mounted backups. These connections aren't established on my wife's
laptop, running 10.6.8, but they are on mine, running 10.8.2. I can
"eject" the partitions on her computer but not on mine. When I run lsof
+d as root on one of these partitions I get:

$ sudo lsof +d /volumes/B1
dyld: DYLD_ environment variables being ignored because main executable
(/usr/bin/sudo) is setuid or setgid
Password:

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME

notifyd 14 root 332r DIR 1,16 1360 2 /volumes/B1
notifyd 14 root 333r DIR 1,16 442 151095 /volumes/B1/usr
notifyd 14 root 336r DIR 1,16 238 144683 /volumes/B1/private
notifyd 14 root 339r DIR 1,16 136 194348 /volumes/B1/System
notifyd 14 root 342r REG 1,16 8192160 3540015
/volumes/B1/mach_kernel
notifyd 14 root 350r DIR 1,16 2448 338568 /volumes/B1/Library
mds 39 root 73r DIR 1,16 1360 2 /volumes/B1

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-6CD0AB.0...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-C82CA...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > > OTOH, I just connected the Drobo S to my wife's computer where all the
> > > partitions mounted as expected. Her's runs on 10.6.8. Mine is 10.8.2.
> > >
> > > Running lsof as root on the partitions did not produce a notifyd
> > > indication, just mds, and eject all worked perfectly. Therefore, this
> > > may have something to do with notifyd.
> > >
> > > Is it possible to set up my system so notifyd will not run on certain
> > > partitions? Then I could check to see if that is affecting anything.
> >
> > My goodness. All this trouble because you want to run anti virus
> > software on a platform with virtually no viruses?
>
> Not at this point. All this trouble is related to trying to get Drobo S
> partitions to function the way they used to. Problem 1 was being able
> to log on and that actually was related to Sophos. Problem 2 is being
> able to dismount partitions so I can use the laptop as a laptop and it
> seems this has something to do with notifyd, although perhaps not
> entirely.

I guess I'm not convinced Sophos isn't the cause of that as well.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-5BDB4...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> In article <bob-6CD0AB.0...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
>
> > Not at this point. All this trouble is related to trying to get Drobo S
> > partitions to function the way they used to. Problem 1 was being able
> > to log on and that actually was related to Sophos. Problem 2 is being
> > able to dismount partitions so I can use the laptop as a laptop and it
> > seems this has something to do with notifyd, although perhaps not
> > entirely.
>
> I guess I'm not convinced Sophos isn't the cause of that as well.

Good point. I had already told Sophos to not check my backup
partitions, so I turned it off entirely, rebooted and tried to eject a
partition again. No go.

Since notifyd is being run by root, I can log on as root and eject and
that works. I can also just log off and pull the card. That sometimes
produces an error message but doesn't seem to cause any real harm.
Nevertheless, it is not as clean as being able to eject the partitions.

I should also add that Sophos is running on my wife's laptop, same as
mine, but notifyd isn't accessing the partitions when attached to her
computer and there is no ejection problem. She is running 10.6 and I am
running 10.8.

I am pretty sure that notifyd is causing the problem and I am also
pretty sure this was not the case prior to installing 10.8.1.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to tell notifyd to leave my backups
alone. I have not been able to find a config file and it just seems to
know the drive is attached and to make the connections on its own.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <bob-76DFA7.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-5BDB4...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <bob-6CD0AB.0...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> > Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Not at this point. All this trouble is related to trying to get Drobo S
> > > partitions to function the way they used to. Problem 1 was being able
> > > to log on and that actually was related to Sophos. Problem 2 is being
> > > able to dismount partitions so I can use the laptop as a laptop and it
> > > seems this has something to do with notifyd, although perhaps not
> > > entirely.
> >
> > I guess I'm not convinced Sophos isn't the cause of that as well.
>
> Good point. I had already told Sophos to not check my backup
> partitions, so I turned it off entirely, rebooted and tried to eject a
> partition again. No go.

I went further. I totally removed Sophos from my system. It has never
actually found anything so it is a small loss. After doing so I was
able to dismount and remount all my partitions, so there is an excellent
chance that was the problem.

This is reinforced by the fact all my problems cropped up around late
July or early August. It turns out I installed a Sophos update around
8/8. The update may have implemented something that didn't work
correctly with the Drobo S.

I will have to play with this for a couple of weeks but it looks like
you were on the right track. Thanks, again.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-76DFA7.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-5BDB4...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <bob-6CD0AB.0...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> > Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Not at this point. All this trouble is related to trying to get Drobo S
> > > partitions to function the way they used to. Problem 1 was being able
> > > to log on and that actually was related to Sophos. Problem 2 is being
> > > able to dismount partitions so I can use the laptop as a laptop and it
> > > seems this has something to do with notifyd, although perhaps not
> > > entirely.
> >
> > I guess I'm not convinced Sophos isn't the cause of that as well.
>
> Good point. I had already told Sophos to not check my backup
> partitions, so I turned it off entirely, rebooted and tried to eject a
> partition again. No go.
>
> Since notifyd is being run by root, I can log on as root and eject and
> that works. I can also just log off and pull the card.

Pull the card? What card?

> That sometimes
> produces an error message but doesn't seem to cause any real harm.
> Nevertheless, it is not as clean as being able to eject the partitions.
>
> I should also add that Sophos is running on my wife's laptop, same as
> mine, but notifyd isn't accessing the partitions when attached to her
> computer and there is no ejection problem. She is running 10.6 and I am
> running 10.8.
>
> I am pretty sure that notifyd is causing the problem and I am also
> pretty sure this was not the case prior to installing 10.8.1.
> Unfortunately, I have no idea how to tell notifyd to leave my backups
> alone. I have not been able to find a config file and it just seems to
> know the drive is attached and to make the connections on its own.

It's certainly very peculiar.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-6896D3.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Sure, no prob.

Hate to say it, but this will likely show up on my personal mental list
of why running anti-virus software on Macs, at the present time, is more
trouble than it's worth.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-B34E9...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> Hate to say it, but this will likely show up on my personal mental list
> of why running anti-virus software on Macs, at the present time, is more
> trouble than it's worth.

I had been running a prior release of Sophos for a long time, probably
2010, with no problem. It was the update that caused the problem, at
least I am pretty sure it did. So, I am not sure it is anti-virus
software, per se, but not completely tested updates. Of course, a
fellow I used to hire to do some programming for me used to say you can
never prove the absence of a bug!

In this case, there was no way to test all the different ways somebody
might attach a drive to the system. They did provide a way to exclude
specified devices, but it appears they never entirely let go of them.

Anyhow, in all the time I ran the software it never found a virus, so I
am not terribly concerned about getting rid of it.

Again, I am glad there are people like you around and willing to help.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-EF98BC.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Don't mention it. : )

[Robert Peirce]

Okay. Sophos anti-virus seems to explain why I could not log on while
trying to mount my Drobo S partitions, but it isn't the reason I can't
dismount. Even after removing Sophos and rebooting, I am still getting
a UserAgent connection to 8 of 11 partitions. Here is what one of them
looks like after double clicking in Activity Monitor:

count=0, state=0
/Volumes/Arrive/Applications
/Volumes/Arrive/Applications
/Volumes/Arrive
/Volumes

I logged on with the shift key down so none of my normal startups
started. I also tried booting with only the basic Mountain Lion package
and this isn't happening. Something at the system level and beyond the
base ML installation is checking these partitions and whatever it is it
can only check eight. Furthermore, it is always the same eight.

Is there any way to figure out what is doing this? Here is the Open
Files and Ports output. B8 is pointing to .Trashes because I tried
deleting something to see if it would have any effect.

/
/usr/libexec/UserEventAgent
/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/PlugIns/csparser.bundle/Con
tents/MacOS/csparser
/private/var/db/mds/system/mdsDirectory.db
/usr/share/icu/icudt49l.dat
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/ACRRDaemon.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ACRRDae
mon
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AirPortUserAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS/A
irPortUserAgent

/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AppleHIDMouseAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS
/AppleHIDMouseAgent
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AssistantUEA.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Assis
tantUEA
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AutoTimeZone.plugin/Contents/MacOS/AutoT
imeZone
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BTMMPortInUseAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS
/BTMMPortInUseAgent
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BluetoothUserAgent-Plugin.plugin/Content
s/MacOS/BluetoothUserAgent-Plugin
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleHDAHALPlug
In.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AppleHDAHALPlugIn
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BonjourEvents.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Bonj
ourEvents
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/CalendarMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Ca
lendarMonitor
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/CaptiveUserAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS/C
aptiveUserAgent
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/DiskUnmountWatcher.plugin/Contents/MacOS
/DiskUnmountWatcher

/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/EAPOLMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/EAPOL
Monitor
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/GSSNotificationForwarder.plugin/Contents
/MacOS/GSSNotificationForwarder
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/LocationMenu.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Locat
ionMenu
/System/Library/UserEventPlugins/PrinterMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Pri
nterMonitor

count=1, state=0x2
/dev/io8log
->0xe1a7882c566a143d

count=0, state=0
/private/etc/com.apple.screensharing.agent.launchd
/private/etc
/private
count=0, state=0

/Volumes/B1/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B1/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B1/Applications/Local-A
/Volumes/B1/Applications
/Volumes/B1
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Users/rbp/Library/Application Support
/Users/rbp/Library/Application Support
/Users/rbp/Library
/Users/rbp
/Users
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B2/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B2/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B2/Applications/Local-A
/Volumes/B2/Applications
/Volumes/B2
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B4/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B4/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B4/Applications/Local-A
/Volumes/B4/Applications
/Volumes/B4
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/Arrive/Applications
/Volumes/Arrive/Applications
/Volumes/Arrive
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B5/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B5/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B5/Applications/Local-A
/Volumes/B5/Applications
/Volumes/B5
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B3/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B3/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B3/Applications/Local-A
/Volumes/B3/Applications
/Volumes/B3
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B8/.Trashes/501/PDF Software
/Volumes/B8/Applications/Local-A
/Volumes/B8/Applications
/Volumes/B8
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/B6/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B6/Applications/Local-A/PDF Software
/Volumes/B6/Applications/Local-A
/Volumes/B6/Applications
/Volumes/B6
/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/Volumes/Arrive/Applications
/Volumes/Arrive/Applications
/Volumes/Arrive

/Volumes
count=0, state=0
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local
/usr
count=0, state=0

/private/var/db/PanicReporter
/private/var/db
/private/var
/private
count=0, state=0
/private/var/db/GPURestartReporter
/private/var/db
/private/var
/private
count=0, state=0
/private/etc
/private/etc
/private
count=0, state=0
/Users/rbp/Library/Services
/Users/rbp/Library
/Users/rbp
/Users

count=0, state=0
/Library

/Library
count=0, state=0
/Applications
/
/Applications/Utilities
/Applications
count=0, state=0

/Volumes/B8/Applications/Local-A

/Library/Caches
/Library
count=0, state=0
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent.launchd
/Library/Preferences
/Library
count=0, state=0
/Library/Documentation/Help/Hewlett-Packard
/Library/Documentation/Help
/Library/Documentation
/Library
/Library/Documentation/Help/Hewlett-Packard
/Library/Documentation/Help
/Library/Documentation
/Library

/Library/Caches

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-AB7FA1.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> Okay. Sophos anti-virus seems to explain why I could not log on while
> trying to mount my Drobo S partitions, but it isn't the reason I can't
> dismount. Even after removing Sophos and rebooting, I am still getting
> a UserAgent connection to 8 of 11 partitions. Here is what one of them
> looks like after double clicking in Activity Monitor:
>
> count=0, state=0
> /Volumes/Arrive/Applications
> /Volumes/Arrive/Applications
> /Volumes/Arrive
> /Volumes
>
> I logged on with the shift key down so none of my normal startups
> started. I also tried booting with only the basic Mountain Lion package
> and this isn't happening. Something at the system level and beyond the
> base ML installation is checking these partitions and whatever it is it
> can only check eight. Furthermore, it is always the same eight.
>
> Is there any way to figure out what is doing this? Here is the Open
> Files and Ports output. B8 is pointing to .Trashes because I tried
> deleting something to see if it would have any effect.

Nothing in that output jumps out at me.

Have you explained to us, in detail, how exactly these volumes were
created, and how exactly they are mounted in the system?

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-B97B9...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> Nothing in that output jumps out at me.
>
> Have you explained to us, in detail, how exactly these volumes were
> created, and how exactly they are mounted in the system?

I don't recall if I did. The Drobo S creates one huge file system. I
used DiskUtility to partition it. I have 10 partitions for backup,
B1-B8, Arrive and Depart. Each is 150GB. The balance is one large
partition I use for pictures and music. It is called Pictures. This
was done before Time Machine and I have yet to try that.

I use an eSATA express card to attach the Drobo S to the MBP. I can
also use FW800 and USB2, but eSATA is faster. However, if you want to
boot from a partition, it must be mounted via FW800 or USB2.

I use SuperDuper! for backups and I create bootable backups of the
Macintosh HD. I generally do one each night, in succession. If I am
leaving for a while, I use Depart. When I get back I use Arrive. Then
I continue where I left off on the Bs.

One thing I just noticed, after booting back and forth between the
Macintoch HD and the bare-bones Mountain Lion partition, is that notifyd
did not start up right away and, in fact, has not started yet! I logged
in with all startups active. Currently I can dismount all partitions
with no problems.

At some point, something is going to start notifyd and it is going to
access every partition except Depart, B7 and Pictures. Why it always
excludes those three is beyond me. Regardless, at that point I will no
loner be able to dismount the remaining partitions.

If I could figure out what is starting notifyd, I might be able to
figure out how to prevent it from accessing these partitions.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-A3061D.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-B97B9...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > Nothing in that output jumps out at me.
> >
> > Have you explained to us, in detail, how exactly these volumes were
> > created, and how exactly they are mounted in the system?
>
> I don't recall if I did. The Drobo S creates one huge file system. I
> used DiskUtility to partition it.

That's not supported by Drobo:

<http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/101/~/can-i-format-my-d
robo-and%2For-create-new-partitions-on-my-drobo-using>

"Although some utilities (such as Apple's Disk Utility in OS X 10.5 and
later) allow you to repartition or dynamically repartition a volume
without losing data, Drobo device volumes do not support these
utilities. Drobo storage device volumes should not be repartitioned
using any application other than Drobo Dashboard. If you repartition a
Drobo device drive using a third-party utility (including OS utilities),
you risk losing the data on the drive."

I can;t help but wonder if perhaps that is causing some issues with the
system and/or Drobo software.

It seems strange that you would have used Disk Utility when the Drobo
Dashboard software has built-in partitioning functionality. Or was it
that you didn't like the way Drobo Dashboard partitions all logic
volumes with equal size?

> I have 10 partitions for backup,
> B1-B8, Arrive and Depart. Each is 150GB. The balance is one large
> partition I use for pictures and music. It is called Pictures. This
> was done before Time Machine and I have yet to try that.

Aha. Drobo Dashboard enforces the same size on all logical volumes. You
must have decided to use Disk Utility rather than Drobo Dashboard for
partitioning so you could customize the volume sizes, right?

Still, it's not clear how this unsupported setup will behave...

> I use an eSATA express card to attach the Drobo S to the MBP. I can
> also use FW800 and USB2, but eSATA is faster. However, if you want to
> boot from a partition, it must be mounted via FW800 or USB2.

I've got my Drobo S connected to a Mac mini via Firewire, and I've never
been able to achieve anywhere near the maximum bandwidth for transfers
to or from the Drobo. So eSATA like overkill to me. IME, Drobo
throughput isn't inhibited as much by the interface (SATAm Firewire,
USB) as the Drobo itself. Drobos are slow because they value data
integrity and usability more than pure speed. That's a good focus to
have for such a product, IMO.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-B35F6...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> In article <bob-A3061D.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <jollyroger-B97B9...@news.individual.net>,
> > Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Nothing in that output jumps out at me.
> > >
> > > Have you explained to us, in detail, how exactly these volumes were
> > > created, and how exactly they are mounted in the system?
> >
> > I don't recall if I did. The Drobo S creates one huge file system. I
> > used DiskUtility to partition it.
>
> That's not supported by Drobo:

It isn't supported, but it works. Also, I did this early on, 2010 I
think, and it has caused no problems.

> I can;t help but wonder if perhaps that is causing some issues with the
> system and/or Drobo software.

I don't think there is a system problem. Drobo doesn't actually see the
partitions. Drobo Dashboard shows the device as one 16Tb drive,
although it is really less than 3Tb with 4, 1TB discs.

> Aha. Drobo Dashboard enforces the same size on all logical volumes. You
> must have decided to use Disk Utility rather than Drobo Dashboard for
> partitioning so you could customize the volume sizes, right?

Right. My 2007 MBP has a 150Gb drive, roughly. I wanted backup
partitions of about the same size and a large partition for pictures and
music.

> Still, it's not clear how this unsupported setup will behave...

It has been working fine. I don't think the Drobo even knows the
partitions exist but SuperDuper! does and it does the right thing, as do
my music and photo programs. They don't know its a Drobo, just a
mounted device.

> > > I use an eSATA express card to attach the Drobo S to the MBP. I can
> > also use FW800 and USB2, but eSATA is faster. However, if you want to
> > boot from a partition, it must be mounted via FW800 or USB2.
>
> I've got my Drobo S connected to a Mac mini via Firewire, and I've never
> been able to achieve anywhere near the maximum bandwidth for transfers
> to or from the Drobo. So eSATA like overkill to me.

That is often the case except where you are backing up a 150Gb drive
where only, say, 10% has changed. FW800 is clearly slower in those
cases. A related issue is that I operate in two locations, with two
Drobos, and it is really inconvenient to us FW800 in one location and a
toss-up in the other, so I just stick with eSATA in both.

BTW, for whatever reason, notifyd is still not running and dismounting
is not an issue. I'm at a total loss as to what gets it started. I'd
like to think that in fooling around I accidentally corrected the
problem but that doesn't seem to be likely.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-BD4420.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-B35F6...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <bob-A3061D.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> > Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
> >
> > > In article <jollyroger-B97B9...@news.individual.net>,
> > > Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Nothing in that output jumps out at me.
> > > >
> > > > Have you explained to us, in detail, how exactly these volumes were
> > > > created, and how exactly they are mounted in the system?
> > >
> > > I don't recall if I did. The Drobo S creates one huge file system. I
> > > used DiskUtility to partition it.
> >
> > That's not supported by Drobo:
>
> It isn't supported, but it works. Also, I did this early on, 2010 I
> think, and it has caused no problems.

Yeah. I'm well aware - I formatted mine that way for a brief period when
I first got my original Drobo. Everything seemed fine, but since the
Drobo's primary purpose for me is long-term archival and backup storage,
I wasn't willing to risk there being a problem later on, after I already
had my data on the Drobo. So mine is formatted as a single 16TB volume.

> > I can;t help but wonder if perhaps that is causing some issues with the
> > system and/or Drobo software.
>
> I don't think there is a system problem. Drobo doesn't actually see the
> partitions. Drobo Dashboard shows the device as one 16Tb drive,
> although it is really less than 3Tb with 4, 1TB discs.

I'd say it's inconclusive at this point.

> BTW, for whatever reason, notifyd is still not running and dismounting
> is not an issue. I'm at a total loss as to what gets it started. I'd
> like to think that in fooling around I accidentally corrected the
> problem but that doesn't seem to be likely.

I'm pretty sure the notify daemon is usually running at startup. Here it
is running on my Mac Pro right now:

# ps ax | grep notify
16 ?? Ss 5:39.49 /usr/sbin/notifyd
111 ?? Ss 0:33.14 /usr/sbin/aosnotifyd

Note: We haven't established that notifyd is causing the problem you are
experiencing. Correlation doesn't imply causation.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-D600B...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> > BTW, for whatever reason, notifyd is still not running and dismounting
> > is not an issue. I'm at a total loss as to what gets it started. I'd
> > like to think that in fooling around I accidentally corrected the
> > problem but that doesn't seem to be likely.
>
> I'm pretty sure the notify daemon is usually running at startup. Here it
> is running on my Mac Pro right now:
>
> # ps ax | grep notify
> 16 ?? Ss 5:39.49 /usr/sbin/notifyd
> 111 ?? Ss 0:33.14 /usr/sbin/aosnotifyd
>
> Note: We haven't established that notifyd is causing the problem you are
> experiencing. Correlation doesn't imply causation.

That is running on my computer as well. That wasn't what I meant. I
was referring to a connection to eight of my partitions by notifyd. It
was identified, as I recall, as a UserEvent and pointing to the
Applications directory.

That connection currently does not exist and has not existed since
yesterday. Without it I can dismount (eject) the partitions with no
problem. I am as close to 100% sure as I can be that this was
preventing me from dismounting those partitions, especially since the
connection did not exist on the three partitions I could dismount.

I still don't know what caused it or if it will return. At first I
thought it was Sophos Anti-Virus but it continued after I deleted that
software and rebooted. Then, mysteriously, it was gone. I am running
Activity Monitor in the hope, if it returns, I will be able to figure
out why.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-D600B...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> In article <bob-BD4420.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
>
> > It isn't supported, but it works. Also, I did this early on, 2010 I
> > think, and it has caused no problems.
>
> Yeah. I'm well aware - I formatted mine that way for a brief period when
> I first got my original Drobo. Everything seemed fine, but since the
> Drobo's primary purpose for me is long-term archival and backup storage,
> I wasn't willing to risk there being a problem later on, after I already
> had my data on the Drobo. So mine is formatted as a single 16TB volume.

When I did this I was not aware I could use one large partition for
everything. The implication was SuperDuper! would replace the entire
contents with the current backup. I only found recently that I might be
able to use multiple disk images. However, I'm not sure how that works
so I am more comfortable with the status quo. Furthermore, I actually
have two, identical Drobo Ss, one in PA and one in VA. If I totally
lost one for some reason, the other, while not current, would only be a
couple of weeks old.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <bob-1FCC2D.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

I got badly sidetracked!! This is what I generally see on a partition I
cannot dismount (eject):

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME

notifyd 14 root 297r DIR 1,12 1360 2 /Volumes/B6
notifyd 14 root 298r DIR 1,12 442 421104 /Volumes/B6/usr
notifyd 14 root 301r DIR 1,12 238 130854
/Volumes/B6/private
notifyd 14 root 304r DIR 1,12 136 137088
/Volumes/B6/System
notifyd 14 root 307r REG 1,12 8192160 3538524
/Volumes/B6/mach_kernel
notifyd 14 root 315r DIR 1,12 2448 280507
/Volumes/B6/Library
mds 39 root 64r DIR 1,12 1360 2 /Volumes/B6
UserEvent 1754 rbp 109r DIR 1,12 2040 463868
/Volumes/B6/Applications
UserEvent 1754 rbp 110r DIR 1,12 1360 2 /Volumes/B6

It is the UserEvent, not the notifyd process, that is causing the
problem. I thought this might be traceable to Sophos Anti-Virus. When
I removed Sophos Anti-Virus this actually stopped for a while. Then it
came back. I conclude SAV had nothing to do with it.

This connection seems to be made as soon as I log on, even if I log on
with the shift-key held down. It doesn't happen when I log on as root.
Something is doing this but I can't begin to figure out what. I
previously posted the output from double-clicking UserEventAgent in
Activity Monitor, but there didn't seem to be anything there.

Sorry to have gone astray on notifyd!

[Robert Peirce]

I found a thread on this topic at

http://macmost.com/forum-external-hard-drive-wont-eject-normally.html

Apparently, this problem can affect a number of add-on drives beside the
Drobo S. However, if only affects some.

As near as I can determine there is no cure. The best course, if you
really need to dismount an attached drive in order to use your laptop as
a laptop is to log off, wait a few minutes and just disconnect it! You
may get an incorrect dismount error message, but hopefully if you were
doing anything on the drive before logging off, it will have had time to
flush.

At this point I am going to give up unless somebody has a better
solution.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-1FCC2D.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Wow, nice! You must feel very secure then! We're almost out of space on
our 10TB Drobo S, and have been thinking about possibly selling the
Drobo S and upgrading to something with more bays for expansion, like
the Drobo Pro or something.

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-FFDA1C.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

I'm equally perplexed. Have you already tried creating a brand-new Mac
OS X user account to see if the problem exists there?

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-0032A0.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

That's a bad thing to do, because it can lead to directory corruption on
the volume. You're really better off force ejecting it first from the OS
- especially for a backup volume.

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-6EEA3...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> In article <bob-0032A0.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
>
> > As near as I can determine there is no cure. The best course, if you
> > really need to dismount an attached drive in order to use your laptop as
> > a laptop is to log off, wait a few minutes and just disconnect it! You
> > may get an incorrect dismount error message, but hopefully if you were
> > doing anything on the drive before logging off, it will have had time to
> > flush.
> >

> That's a bad thing to do, because it can lead to directory corruption on
> the volume. You're really better off force ejecting it first from the OS
> - especially for a backup volume.

Please tell me more.

I only use the Drobo for nightly backups and as a source for music and
pictures. There is almost never any current activity when I log off and
I have found that if I wait at least two minutes to disconnect after
logging off that I do not get the error message.

OTOH, every once in a while, the Drobo will spontaneously reboot. When
that happens I always get the dismount error message but I have never
noticed any file corruption. In fact, from time-to-time, I check the
partitions with DiskUtility and I have never found an error.

I think I would be much more concerned if I was running TimeMachine or
any program that was actively accessing the drive, but that isn't the
case.

Am I covered or have I missed something important?

[Robert Peirce]

In article <jollyroger-B35F6...@news.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> "Although some utilities (such as Apple's Disk Utility in OS X 10.5 and
> later) allow you to repartition or dynamically repartition a volume
> without losing data, Drobo device volumes do not support these
> utilities. Drobo storage device volumes should not be repartitioned
> using any application other than Drobo Dashboard. If you repartition a
> Drobo device drive using a third-party utility (including OS utilities),
> you risk losing the data on the drive."

As I said in another posting, when I began I didn't realize I could make
a sparse image with SuperSuper!. I just tried it today and it seems to
work fine. That means instead of partitions labeled B1, B2 and so on I
could have sparse files with the same name. The only hangup seems to be
that they aren't bootable and I would have to work around that, maybe by
having the Drobo itself be bootable.

I could also have my music and pictures and maybe even TimeMachine all
working on the one box.

[David Empson]

I use a sparse image (sparse bundle, actually) for one of my SuperDuper!
backups. You are correct that you can't boot from a disk image, but you
can clone it to a real partition to boot from it. I have plenty of hard
drives, and could free up one for this purpose (or create a partition,
or buy another hard drive) if I needed to boot from that particular
backup.

> I could also have my music and pictures and maybe even TimeMachine all
> working on the one box.

A local Time Machine backup is problematic with a Drobo, because it will
want to expand to eventually fill the entire logical volume size, which
is typically larger than the physical storage available.

Data Robotics have articles advising how to set up Time Machine backups
on a Drobo to use limited spacae, with different procedures for 10.6 and
earlier (partition) or 10.7 and later (disk image).

Doing a networked Time Machine backup to a Drobo also has the "expand to
fill all space" problem, which can only be avoided by partitioning the
Drobo, or doing an unsupported modification to the sparse image/bundle
file to artificially limit its maximum size. (Jolly Roger posted details
about the disk image method a few weeks ago.)

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[Your Name]

> Failure to dismount partitions

Every time I see this topic I keep thinking that the judges must have
given the partition's "dismount" a very low score:

2, 2, 3, 1, 2

;-)

[Jolly Roger]

In article <bob-591676.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,

Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-6EEA3...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <bob-0032A0.1...@5ad64b5e.bb.sky.com>,
> > Robert Peirce <b...@peirce-family.com> wrote:
> >
> > > As near as I can determine there is no cure. The best course, if you
> > > really need to dismount an attached drive in order to use your laptop as
> > > a laptop is to log off, wait a few minutes and just disconnect it! You
> > > may get an incorrect dismount error message, but hopefully if you were
> > > doing anything on the drive before logging off, it will have had time to
> > > flush.
> > >
> > That's a bad thing to do, because it can lead to directory corruption on
> > the volume. You're really better off force ejecting it first from the OS
> > - especially for a backup volume.
>
> Please tell me more.

If you disconnect or power down a drive with mounted volumes without
first properly ejecting it, any data that is not yet written to disk
will be lost. Think about that. If that data contains directory changes,
those changes will be lost, which means potential directory corruption.
If that data contains changes to files, those files will not be updated
with that information. For instance, if changes to a preferences file
aren't saved, for instance, it could potentially result in that
application misbehaving. For a backup volume, where the quality of the
data is paramount, ejecting properly before disconnect or power off
should be mandatory, IMO.

> OTOH, every once in a while, the Drobo will spontaneously reboot. When
> that happens I always get the dismount error message but I have never
> noticed any file corruption. In fact, from time-to-time, I check the
> partitions with DiskUtility and I have never found an error.

I've had a Drobo (original) and a Drobo S, and I've never seen either
one spontaneously reboot. If I were you, I'd reformat the thing in the
supported manner. Your data is at risk, possibly due to the unsupported
method you used to format it. Also, be sure your Drobo's firmware is up
to date.

[Bob Harris]

In article
<jollyroger-DD0A9...@news.individual.net>,

It is more likely User Data that will be lost. The function of a
Journaled file system is to transaction protect file system
metadata changes, and the directory is considered metadata. The
Journal does not protect user data.

However, it is NEVER a good idea to disconnect a mounted volume
without properly dismounting it.

[Jolly Roger]

In article
<nospam.News.Bob-3F...@news.eternal-september.org>,

Good point. Thanks.

[Robert Peirce]

In article
<nospam.News.Bob-3F...@news.eternal-september.org>,
Bob Harris <nospam....@remove.Smith-Harris.us> wrote:

> It is more likely User Data that will be lost. The function of a
> Journaled file system is to transaction protect file system
> metadata changes, and the directory is considered metadata. The
> Journal does not protect user data.

I have noted JR's advice on this and yours. It is what I normally try
to do. All I said was logging off and waiting two minutes seems to
eliminate the dismount error.

However, a new and related issue that I observe in 10.8 but do not
recall earlier is that not using the machine for a while puts it into
such a deep sleep that waking up may not wake up the Drobo, at least
when connected via eSATA. This will produce the dismount error message!