[Gee4orce]

With one easy step I can bring OS X to it's knees - everything come crashing to a grinding halt. Application load times rocket into the minutes. Doing anything is nigh-on impossible - even a kill -9 in the terminal doesn't work

How do I do this you ask ?


Easy - mount my iDisk.


This is ridiculous. I'm as much a Mac fan as the next guy - and I love OS X. But something is seriously wrong when Windows 98 can mount my iDisk without causing major problems, whereas Mac OS X virtually collapses.

Now, I think what's happened is that some error to do with the firewall, or the network, has meant that the iDisk isn't fully or properly mounted. But so what ? The system should be robust enough to handle these kind of error - which are expected when you have airport in all your hardware.

It's taken me - no exaggeration - nearly 30 minutes to open an application - force quit it - log out - try and log back in. Fortunately I have an ssh login from another machine. I'm trying to run 'diskutil unmount <idiskname>' - but after 5 minutes the jury is still out as to whether that command will work or not. Next up is a 'sudo shutdown -r now'.

Oh - and I've written this whole message in the time I've been waiting for the unmount command to work.

[moonmonkey]

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
With one easy step I can bring OS X to it's knees - everything come crashing to a grinding halt. Application load times rocket into the minutes. Doing anything is nigh-on impossible - even a kill -9 in the terminal doesn't work

How do I do this you ask ?


Easy - mount my iDisk.


This is ridiculous. I'm as much a Mac fan as the next guy - and I love OS X. But something is seriously wrong when Windows 98 can mount my iDisk without causing major problems, whereas Mac OS X virtually collapses.

Now, I think what's happened is that some error to do with the firewall, or the network, has meant that the iDisk isn't fully or properly mounted. But so what ? The system should be robust enough to handle these kind of error - which are expected when you have airport in all your hardware.

It's taken me - no exaggeration - nearly 30 minutes to open an application - force quit it - log out - try and log back in. Fortunately I have an ssh login from another machine. I'm trying to run 'diskutil unmount <idiskname>' - but after 5 minutes the jury is still out as to whether that command will work or not. Next up is a 'sudo shutdown -r now'.

Oh - and I've written this whole message in the time I've been waiting for the unmount command to work.

Mine works fine on G3 266 with 128 meg of ram and 10.1.

[Gee4orce]

It gets worse - even the shutdown -r now didnt work. Screaming jezus !

Had to do a hard reboot for the first time in - phew! - years

[Gee4orce]

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
Mine works fine on G3 266 with 128 meg of ram and 10.1.

Sure - mine works fine when everything goes to plan. But all I did last night was try to mount my iDisk. Nothing happened. Tried again - ditto. Closed powerbook. Went to work next day, opened powerbook. Things were fine for a while - then the system grinds to a halt. I find a bogus /Volumes/<myiDisk> mount. Can't get rid of it, can't open apps, can do jack sh*t.

Sorry for ranting - but iDisk has never worked as well in Mac OS X as it does under a crappy OS like Win98 - and that's just not good enough.

[Lew]

As long as you don't need to use AFP, I'd definitely recommend using Goliath for your iDisk. I have a Goliath Connection Document sitting in my dock that points to my iDisk. One click and Goliath opens and connects to my iDisk in less than 30 seconds (on a dialup connection at that). The only thing I can't use it for is downloading some of the Apple software as it can't handle the resource forks.

[kovacs]

Yep anything network related in the finder, samba, idisk and ftp can bring OSX to it's knees, mount a drive from another mac, shut down that mac and watch the finder go nuts I know you have to unmount the drive first but this shouldn't be such a problem, a simple error message would be fine thank you. At least it's ten times better than in 10.0 and 10.1...

[Gee4orce]

Originally posted by GFive:
As long as you don't need to use AFP, I'd definitely recommend using Goliath for your iDisk. I have a Goliath Connection Document sitting in my dock that points to my iDisk. One click and Goliath opens and connects to my iDisk in less than 30 seconds (on a dialup connection at that). The only thing I can't use it for is downloading some of the Apple software as it can't handle the resource forks.

Good tip. Downloaded it, configured a connection and there it is. No fussing. Takes about 2 seconds to open and list my iDisk over broadband.

...which begs the question 'what the hell is the Finder doing ?'.

Here's hoping for a new Finder in Panther....

[Lew]

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
Good tip. Downloaded it, configured a connection and there it is. No fussing. Takes about 2 seconds to open and list my iDisk over broadband.

...which begs the question 'what the hell is the Finder doing ?'.

All that lovely Mac stuff wot gives us those pretty icons and all that

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

...but can you make it swallow?

[starman]

Ok, how about this...

I have a PC that I was using as a file server until I moved to using a Cube. However, I still use the PC for certain things. If I mount the shared PC drive on OS X and then shut the PC down without dismounting the drive under OS X first, the Finder locks up. FOR HOURS. I tried unmount which didn't work at all. Is there a solution for this?

iDisk uses WebDAV, but I'm using MS File Sharing under Windows XP Pro.

Mike

[cambro]

Originally posted by GENERAL_SMILEY:
...but can you make it swallow?

bwahahahaha
Oh man...

Anyway, on my T1+ connection, my iDisk mounts and ejects very snapily and doesn't cause problems at all. Perhaps you caught the iDisk server in a state of chaos? Also, on slow connections, it is a bear to be sure.

[Evinyatar]

This is one area where Windows is much better than OS X. KDE3 has a similar approach of accessing remote filesystems to Windows's, where these filesystems do not need to be mounted and file access happens dynamically.
I often shutdown my Linux PC with a Samba share still mounted on my Mac, and the only way to make the Mac useable again after that is to start the PC up again. This is one area where MacOS X can seriously improve.

[snerdini]

I share your frustration, my brothers and sisters.

The way I have managed to get around a lot of the problems is a routine that I follow:

1) Don't put the client machine to sleep with shares still mounted.

2) Don't put the server machine to sleep with shares mounted to the client.

3) Don't shut down the server machine with shares still mounted to the client.

4) Don't ever, ever try to remount an SMB share if it fails. First check /Volumes to make sure it just didn't show up in the Finder (Reproduceable KP's result if I don't).

5) Hop in counterclockwise circles on my right foot while balancing a bowl of tapioca pudding on my head while chanting, "Ooogala boogala! Unmount! Unmount!"

That seems to do it every time.
It really sucks that I even need a routine to get things to work smoothly. Here's hoping for Panther to fix this!

[::maroma::]

I too have experienced the Finder hang when a mounted shared drive is put to sleep or shut down. I usually just force quit the Finder and all is well. But sometimes it will still hang, so I have to reboot. Hope they address this soon.

[Zimwy]

What exactly do we connect to using Goliath?

I've tried idisk.apple.com, homepage.mac.com, etc., I'm not really sure what to enter. Any advice?

Thanks,
gabe

[bmedina]

Close the default dialog box that pops up. The select "File -> Open iDisk Connection." It threw me for a loop the first time, too.

[step]

the basic problem is that if there's any disk related problem the finder doesn't time out and tell you, it just sits there kicking it's heels (spining it's wheels).
idealy it would get a share behaviour with safari which ( annoyingly) insists on throwing up alerts if any old website can't load straight away!

[Africa]

I'm no expert, but I am running 10.2.6 over airport and my iDisk flies. 2 seconds to mount.

I would consider looking at how your network is set up as a possible issue. I have seen major issues trying to go over satellite internet when the same computer loads the iDisk faster when dialing up though AOHell. Your setup is most likely different, but it could be the source of you trouble.

[RooneyX]

I never had a good time with iDisk either, DSL or modem connections.

Goliath too did nothing for me.

[Deicide]

This will bring any Mac running MacOS X down.

I found this out while copying a users data from his old drive to his new documents folder. So he has about 2000 files that I need to dump into his documents folder. I have two windows open and after select all the files and trying to drag them I get the spinning wheel. For about a minute I hold the mouse button down over the documents window. I'm expecting the outline of the files to appear allowing me to release the button. I decided to let the mouse button go and about 2 minutes later a copy window came up but it was empty. Then when it updated about 10 minutes later I noticed that it was copying the files to the desktop! I waited 2 hours and decided to reboot. Everytime the desktop came up it would kill the Mac. I couldn't do anything! I finally logged into another account and used the terminal to move the files.

So what did we learn?

Never, Never drop over 100 documents on the desktop!

So much for the worlds most advanced OS.

[ambush]

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
Sure - mine works fine when everything goes to plan. But all I did last night was try to mount my iDisk. Nothing happened. Tried again - ditto. Closed powerbook. Went to work next day, opened powerbook. Things were fine for a while - then the system grinds to a halt. I find a bogus /Volumes/<myiDisk> mount. Can't get rid of it, can't open apps, can do jack sh*t.

Sorry for ranting - but iDisk has never worked as well in Mac OS X as it does under a crappy OS like Win98 - and that's just not good enough.

Use goliath

Edit: oops.

[brainchild2b]

People who have these types of problems:

This is either from at one point running a beta of Mac OS X on your computer, or using a pirated copy.

It's a known issue.

Not that webDAV idisk is fast or anything. idisk is slow in 10.2 simply because it doesn't cache any of the directories, it reloads them everytime. Goliath on the other hand caches the directories.

[awaspaas]

Originally posted by brainchild2b:
This is either from at one point running a beta of Mac OS X on your computer, or using a pirated copy.

Oh thats rich - you're kidding right? Cuz I can reproduce this problem on ANY machine running OS X you put in front of me.

[awaspaas]

Originally posted by Deicide:
So much for the worlds most advanced OS.

Best last-sentence-of-reply EVER

[Musti]

Easy - mount my iDisk.

I've never had problems with iDisk. However, shutting down/putting to sleep a SMB share machine while still connected, then trying to disconnect the share from OS X, completely locks my Finder. Reboot required.

[gatorparrots]

Ten terminals running top will also bring OS X to its knees.

[snerdini]

Originally posted by gatorparrots:
Ten terminals running top will also bring OS X to its knees.

And you would do this why?

[barbarian]

I can bring my mac to it's knees by:

1. sorting by kind on my big mp3 folder.

2. running fontagentpro and adding a font

[Mike S.]

I'm glad we've all learned a valuable lesson, POS apps can lock up computers and what daily use app is a bigger POS than the Finder?

My take on lock ups is Kernel Panic = OS problem, spinning wheels of death = application problem.

Then again, perhaps there's a scheduling problem in the kernel if it doesn't has enough cycles around to nuke a beach balling app...

I've seen similar lock ups with XP, so we can't point in that direction and say too bad it's not like that.

[wadesworld]

Waah, waah, waah.

Guys, the list of ways you can bring Windows to its knees is endless.

For years I could bring NT to its knees just by pasting text in HyperTerm.

Should there be fewer things which cause an unresponsive system? Yes. Will those things be fixed over time? Yes.

If there's a computing Nirvana out there to which you're comparing OS X, then by all means, go for it.

(No, I don't think OS X is perfect. Yes, I think in some areas Apple can do better. But endless whining threads accomplish nothing)

Wade

[ccrider]

Another thing that will bring OSX to its knees concerning iDisk is if you have a big movie posted to your idisk and click on it in column view. It basically has to download the entire movie to a cache before the finder responds again.

I found this out when I posted a 250MB file for a client to approve. I'll never do it again, that's for sure.

Apple definitely has some work to do on this front.

[icruise]

Originally posted by brainchild2b:
People who have these types of problems:

This is either from at one point running a beta of Mac OS X on your computer, or using a pirated copy.

It's a known issue.

What BS. Blaming the user is ridiculous. iDisk generally works fine on my machine, but I've had similar problems with the finder in general, and this is on a brand-new powerbook with the latest OS updates, and no "haxies" or anything of the sort.

[Appleman]

iDisk works, but I cannot say it's good.
It needs lot of improvement, and yes, all network related stuff can slow the Finder to a complete halt for a while.

Unplugging an ethernet cable and since it takes some time you almost forgot it and wonder why you Mac is doing strange.

Good for doing at work

[starman]

Originally posted by brainchild2b:
People who have these types of problems:

This is either from at one point running a beta of Mac OS X on your computer, or using a pirated copy.

It's a known issue.

Not that webDAV idisk is fast or anything. idisk is slow in 10.2 simply because it doesn't cache any of the directories, it reloads them everytime. Goliath on the other hand caches the directories.

I have a legit copy of Jag, f*ck you very much.

Mike

[gatorparrots]

Originally posted by snerdini:

Originally posted by gatorparrots:
Ten terminals running top will also bring OS X to its knees.

And you would do this why?

I just installed a power supply replacement kit in a MDD machine. I wanted to stress the CPU for an hour or so to more accurately guage the noise levels of the fans. I was surprised that just a few instances of top could accomplish that task, but it did.

[coolmacdude]

Originally posted by gatorparrots:
Ten terminals running top will also bring OS X to its knees.

Really? I just did that and it was far from "its knees". The finder was still quite responsive and browsing with Safari was as well. I even mounted my iDisk and that worked fine too.

[Deicide]

Mike S.:

I'm glad we've all learned a valuable lesson, POS apps can lock up computers and what daily use app is a bigger POS than the Finder?

My take on lock ups is Kernel Panic = OS problem, spinning wheels of death = application problem.

Then again, perhaps there's a scheduling problem in the kernel if it doesn't has enough cycles around to nuke a beach balling app...

I've seen similar lock ups with XP, so we can't point in that direction and say too bad it's not like that.

The problem I wrote about is a flaw in the design of the OS. The OS is completely unresponsive when it is trying to display the contents on the desktop. You can't even SSH in.

[11011001]

It's not just iDisk.. it's anything in the file system.. including ftp servers. Gawd.. those are the worst, try and logon to one that isn't working right, the file system weeps.

Or, the hang while waiting for a disk to startup, even when accessing another disk.

Worst, is a mounted network disc which goes to sleep, computer sometimes figures out that it was disconnected, often it just hangs.

The filesystem need a little work. Needs much multi-threading... that would be great..

Networking is the only thing that evers gives OS X kernel panics when I am using it.

[beb]

I have at work a custom built XP box that the dept uses as a file server. It works great! We no longer have to use that Dave crapola to connect to it. And via Applescript it automatically mounts as a login item at startup.

I also have the .mac account thing -just because I'm stupid and I still want an OS X native Groupwise client before I stop using my .mac email. I don't use the iDisk that often. It is far slower than my WebDav server but it doesn't grind the system to a halt. So something must be really really wrong on somebody's end somewhere to lock the system for around 30 minutes.

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

Originally posted by Deicide:
The problem I wrote about is a flaw in the design of the OS. The OS is completely unresponsive when it is trying to display the contents on the desktop. You can't even SSH in.

I completely understand your problem, although I think it still makes it a Finder, not an OS problem - a fine line I know.

An interesting answer to all of the problems expressed above is to try alternative apps eg. Pathfinder - you really will find some of the above disappear, Pathfinder has it's own problems but for copying large numbers of files it is much quicker and much smoother - Also by using it in tandem with the finder you don't get locked down, if one fails try the other. Also try DAVE, even if just to see a share browser which is instant, I think it is called DAVE browser, it instantly shows all the CIFS share available to you - so much quickker than the Apple connect thing.

[moreno]

For years I could bring NT to its knees just by pasting text in HyperTerm.

HyperTerm allow text paste?

[coolmacdude]

Originally posted by beb:
I don't use the iDisk that often. It is far slower than my WebDav server

If iDisk is to slow for you as WebDav you can still use AFP with it. Just go to Connect to Server and enter afp://idisk.mac.com/yourusername