[X4U] Network Preference Pane Hangs on Edit

[Stroller]

On 9 Jun 2006, at 10:47, Rick Gordon wrote:
> ...
> However, if I log in as root, I can make the change with no  
> problem. Yet the SystemConfiguration folder and all its contents  
> are conforming to a just-redone permissons fix, via Disk Utility.
>
> The stall is accompanied by an entry into the system.log: "Message  
> NetInfo timeout connecting to local domain, sleeping."
>
> I have not been able to determine the cause of this error, which  
> seem ultimately likely to be a permissions problem. Any leads are  
> appreciated. Thanks in advance.


NetInfo is the system that Mac OS X uses for authentication - it  
stores things like usernames alongside things like password hashes,  
home directories and so on.

So the error message in the log seems to indicate that the problem is  
with finding what permissions the user has, not with the permissions  
on the file.

NetInfo is actually a deal more complicated, as I understand it, than  
just this. It seems to have sections for mount, printers & networks,  
and I believe that it can do authentication for large domains of many  
machines & users. You may find that the NetInfo Manager in Utilities  
(look in users/yourname) helps give you an overview of how its  
facilities relate to you.

I don't have a direct answer for you, although I can't help but  
wonder if you have the same problem if you create another Admin user  
& try changing the network settings? `apropos NetInfo` shows me a  
bunch of command-line utils and you may find `man netinfod` & `man  
nibindd` illuminating.

On my system:

    $ nicl -t 127.0.0.1/local -read users/$USER
    name: stroller
    home: /Users/stroller
    gid: 501
    picture: /Library/Caches/com.apple.user501pictureCache.tiff
    uid: 501
    hint:
    sharedDir:
    shell: /bin/bash
    passwd: ********
    authentication_authority: ;ShadowHash;HASHLIST:<SALTED-SHA1,SMB- 
NT,SMB-LAN-MANAGER>
    realname: Stroller
    generateduid: 9A225EA2-28A8-405C-9D2F-816AB6DB8679
    _writers_passwd: stroller
    _writers_tim_password: stroller
    _writers_picture: stroller
    _writers_hint: stroller
    _shadow_passwd:
    _writers_realname: stroller
    $

HTH,

Stroller.