9.1.6 and Spinning Beach Ball - More Info

[n6smith]

Eric,

By any chance, do you happen to have another computer on the same network, that is also running Lion, when you see these delays? If so, can you try turning that other computer completely off or unplug it from your network and see what happens....

[EricBradley]

By any chance, do you happen to have another computer on the same network, that is also running Lion, when you see these delays? If so, can you try turning that other computer completely off or unplug it from your network and see what happens....

Thanks for hanging in there Nigel!

I have a few computers connected to the same network, some on Lion and some on Windows 7.
I tried unplugging all of them to no avail.
The only thing that has worked is unplugging the Mac Pro or turning off it's Ethernet port.

@jordito
Could you please tell me which packages you are blocking specifically from Logic Pro.app.
Is there any way for you to tell?

[jordito]

Could you please tell me which packages you are blocking specifically from Logic Pro.app.
Is there any way for you to tell?

I didn't look for anything specific to block. I just blocked Logic as an application in Little Snitch.
I've noticed it tries to connect to audiocontentdownload.apple.com, like Nigel has said before.

I was looking inside the Logic Pro.app package, and found 2 suspicious folders inside the language resources folders (English.Iproj, for example):

BasicContentDownload.nib and MAContentDownload.nib.

At first I thought that was it but it isn't (I removed them to see if the behavior changed but didn't). Whatever it is must be inside the Frameworks folder, I suppose.

J.

[EricBradley]

Ok thanks for the answer.
I'm almost positive that it is something inside the frameworks folder but the question s what?

@ Nigel. Do you now of any good package sniffer for Os x?

[n6smith]

@ Nigel. Do you now of any good package sniffer for Os x?

I use Wireshark

http://www.wireshark.org/

Cheers!

[darrentate]

I have the same problem but Logic is trying to call spr1-burn2-6-00-cust1145.bagu.broadband.ntl.com on TCP port 80.

Kill it off prior and it works - otherwise it hangs.

Sounds to me like it's doing an update check but pulling in the wrong IP somehow. Either way this sounds like an Apple fix is required.

[krist]

Are you guys noticing issues only at startup or did you notice any general degradation in performance?

Reason I ask is that I was using Express and it was so darn stable and reliable. Then I bought the upgrade to Pro (9.1.6), but couldn't really do any serious work last month so I'm only starting to use Pro and I notice that I'm having lots of glitches, errors, dropouts, and even crashes working on projects that are in no way as elaborate as the stuff I used to work on in Express (9.1.5).

[n6smith]

Darrentate,

That appears to be a Virgin Media Home IP address in the UK (one of the block of IP addresses they allocate to home users of their service) so i suspect you have some plugin or other program trying to phone home, installed in your system. I doubt it is Logic itself that is doing so to an address such as that.

[n6smith]

Krist,

Quite the opposite here. I have found 9.1.6 to be more stable and gives better performance through Logic so I suspect something else is going on with your setup. Maybe an errant plugin or something else running in the background that is causing such issues... Does the Activity Monitor App show anything else going on apart from Logic when this occurs?

[krist]

Thanks for the quick reply - I cannot think of anything that's changed w/ the exception of the upgrade to Pro. But besides that, I'm still using the same basic plug-ins/set-up.

Hadn't really done any troubleshooting yet, but I thought it was worth checking w/ you guys before. So I guess it'll be the next step.

Thanks again.

[darrentate]

Thanks for the response Nigel (you are correct regarding Virgin). It seems strange that a plugin would phone home the second Logic starts before it even attempts to validate the existence of the AU plugin (or is that normal)?

[n6smith]

Darren,

I've been spending a little more time looking into this.. and I think I have found a couple of things that can cause that 'very early' check that you see on your setup during the startup of Logic.. It can happen for at least three reasons I can think of at the moment..

1) If the plugin itself did not properly 'close' when Logic itself quit... and the plugin uses a form of external to Logic, program to check for updates as an example.. I've seen a couple of plugins that do this, one being Waves... and the other is Cakewalk Dimension or Rapture (and i am sure there are others out there..). Both use an odd technique of checking for updates and/or "phoning home' as part of their anti piracy protection... that is external to the actual plugin but can, under certain circumstances, occurs as soon as you start up Logic

2) An external controller and it's drivers 'calling home'.... which occurs almost as soon as you start Logic but before the Plugin validation routine.. That's about as normal an 'early' call as I can think of....

3) A messed up DNS server or even a screwed up Hosts table.. where a specific address is being redirected to another by error and somehow Logic's own phone home calls that it makes at start up are somehow being misdirected to the wrong/incorrect address. I saw a similar thing happen a few years back when my own ISP's DNS server had some messed data and whenever i would try to reach a certain website, it would redirect me to a completely different website..... I notified them of the error and after a few days they fixed the error and i could finally reach the correct website without issue.

However, in your case, I cannot think (apart from the faint possibility of #3) why something would be 'phoning home' to what appears to be a 'domestic' IP address that isn't registered to anyone/any company in particular.. and so I think there is something else going on here that is being 'triggered' by the start up of Logic rather than anything concerning Logic itself.. As to what that would be.. Frankly I have no clue.. but nothing else makes any sense given the IP address and the timing of the check...

Having said all this, I have often seen similar behaviors with Windows Computers and your typical Malware/Trojan type 'infections' where a library routine is replaced with another that 'phones out' to preset IP addresses when a given program calls that particular library routine.. but these are extremely rare on OS X. There are a couple out there in the wild... that have not been fully understood and/or protected against...but I think it is highly unlikely due to their scarcity. I think they are worth mentioning however, given the nature of that call to such an IP address.

If you ever work out what it is and why, please let us know as i, for one, would be truly interested in finding out what is going on...

Cheers..

[tedrogers]

Not a great deal of help to you all, although maybe some.

I have this problem, and it goes away if I disable to Internet connection...this must offer some clarity about the issue of looking up these apple servers on loading Logic.

[n6smith]

Been away for a while due to an extremely heavy workload while working on the new album but wanted to quickly post up something that might be of help to anyone still suffering from this issue even though it is quite an old thread now..

Check any entries in the hosts file... such as those referring to Verisign. I have come across several clients who had installed a version of Photoshop that required additional entries in the hosts file to block assess to Adobe's software protection system.. and once these were removed, the spinning beach ball issue vanished completely.

Also, In the case of three more clients who had this same issue, they had instead... installed a large preset list of hosts to block to prevent spam/suspect websites/ads etc.. and once that list was cleared out, Logic worked perfectly without the spinning beach ball which had plagued them since they last updated Logic to 9.1.6

Additional info: A similar issue has recently been reported affecting the new Game Center App in Mountain Lion that prevents users from logging in to the Game Center server... and again,. the same fix involving the Hosts File, fixed that too.

One can only assume that a server or some servers Apple is using, was/were blocked via a Hosts File entry and once removed things now work as expected.

Hope this helps...

Cheers!!

[jordito]

Been away for a while due to an extremely heavy workload while working on the new album but wanted to quickly post up something that might be of help to anyone still suffering from this issue even though it is quite an old thread now..

Check any entries in the hosts file... such as those referring to Verisign. I have come across several clients who had installed a version of Photoshop that required additional entries in the hosts file to block assess to Adobe's software protection system.. and once these were removed, the spinning beach ball issue vanished completely.

Also, In the case of three more clients who had this same issue, they had instead... installed a large preset list of hosts to block to prevent spam/suspect websites/ads etc.. and once that list was cleared out, Logic worked perfectly without the spinning beach ball which had plagued them since they last updated Logic to 9.1.6

Additional info: A similar issue has recently been reported affecting the new Game Center App in Mountain Lion that prevents users from logging in to the Game Center server... and again,. the same fix involving the Hosts File, fixed that too.

One can only assume that a server or some servers Apple is using, was/were blocked via a Hosts File entry and once removed things now work as expected.

Hope this helps...

Cheers!!

Thanks for this update Nigel! Where is this "hosts file" you mention?

J.

[n6smith]

Hi J...

This link provides a good guide on how to access and edit the hosts file...

Cheers..

[EricBradley]

Welcome back Nigel! To tell you the truth I was a little bit worried if something had happened to you.
And thanks for some new info about this subject

PS. Fixed your link that was not working.

[n6smith]

Welcome back Nigel! To tell you the truth I was a little bit worried if something had happened to you.
And thanks for some new info about this subject

My apologies... I just got absolutely swamped with the new album (and trying to meet the terms of the contract I signed to release it!) that meant I had to really focus for once... Should be done within about a month and then my life will be back to normal at last!

Mental Note: never sign contracts without being completely sure you can meet the deadlines set............

PS. Fixed your link that was not working.

Thanks Eric!!

[n6smith]

Hi J...

This link provides a good guide on how to access and edit the hosts file...

I've recently found a much simpler way of editing the hosts file that you might find useful...

http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/30/easily-e ... ence-pane/

Cheers..

[jordito]

Thanks Nigel, I'll check it out.

J.