(Parallels desktop 5) prl_disp_service problems! ID 2874892

Hi,

I've problems about prl_disp_service ... I've sent a ticket to technical support : ID 2874892

Application doesn't start after login and a message error "prl_disp_service doesn't start... check your firewall... eyc. etc.." .. but I haven't firewall on ...


Please help me

 

I got exactly the same message after I installed the latest version on my Mac (Parallels Desktop Build 5.0.9310). This is the first time I installed Parallels on my MacBook Pro. After every start of Parallels that message appears. Reboot of MacOSX doesn't help. I was really confused that Parallels doesn't work the first time I started that application. I submitted the Error to Parallels and checked all the solutions in KB wich didn't helped at all. I didn't hear anything from Parallels so I decided to do some research on my own.

I realized that in Activity Monitor the prl_disp_service doesn't appear. Because every application wich starts at boot has a StartupItem or somewhat like "launchd daemon". I checked the launchd daemon script from parallels wich executes

upon start of MacOSX. Then I debugged that script in Terminal.app with this command:

then something strange appeared at the end of the debug output:

in the ParallelsDispatcherService it happens at this code:

wich means when the PARALLELS property in file /etc/hostconfig is not set to

it doesn't start the services. But when I checked that file /etc/hostconfig everything seems ok, but that comparision [ "${PARALLELS:=-YES-}" != "-YES-" ] fails because of that "\r" character at the end of -YES- (in red above)

I checked the /etc/hostconfig file and compared it to an older TimeMachine backup. Now everything comes clear. After the install of Parallels the line delimiters in /etc/hostconfig are corrupted (DOS-Style line delimiters: \r\n instead of the UNIX line delimiter: \n). In this case the comparision fails and the Parallels Services don't start (ex. the prl_disp_service).

By executing this command in Terminal.app

if this returns

you have the same problem as I have.

This can now be fixed with following command executed in Terminal.app:

wich replaces all these DOS-style line delimiters into standard UNIX line delimiters. Now after a reboot or after executing this command in Terminal.app:

Parallels works fine for me!

 

Hi Helix,
thanks a lot for Your reply, You're very kind. Technical support doesn't reply me...

Your solution is ok, and is rock solid for me but only if I digit commands by terminal for the session..if I restart my macbook pro, it doesn't work ..I must rewrite the command by terminal... the solution isn't definitive?

I've discovered that if I connect to Internet , the service starts always and quickly! Why? It's very strange..

Can You help me? I don't know like to go on

Thanks, sorry for my bad English... I'm Italian boy

 

Hi Helix,
thanks a lot for Your reply, You're very kind. Technical support doesn't reply me...

Your solution is ok, and is rock solid for me but only if I digit commands by terminal for the session..if I restart my macbook pro, it doesn't work ..I must rewrite the command by terminal... the solution isn't definitive?

I've discovered that if I connect to Internet , the service starts always and quickly! Why? It's very strange..

Can You help me? I don't know like to go on

Thanks, sorry for my bad English... I'm Italian boy

 

Now Your solution doesn't work totally... I've try to repair permissions but nothing...

 

Parallels desktop starts only after Internet connection! But... Why? I don't understand ...

 

I've never said my solution works for everyone. I just posted the solution for my problem to possibly help people with the same issue. It seems this error is influenced by so many factors. Maybe I can help you when you post your parallels log files but without guarantee. These errors depends on your actual environment and can be different to anyone else's problem with the same message.

What did you mean with:

My solution is:
execute "file /etc/hostconfig" to check if you have the same problem as I have, wich means you get this output: "/etc/hostconfig: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators"
then execute "sudo perl -pi -e 's/\r\n/\n/g' /etc/hostconfig" to fix that file. Then execute "sudo launchctl start com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon" to start the prl_disp_service and others.

Wich commands you executed after every reboot of Macosx to make it work? That it just works when you connect to internet is really strange. Have you really never had any firewall software like littlesnitch, waterroof or others installed? Because Parallels works as a Client-Server architekture, it needs some basic network services to work.

 

Hi,

Thank you helix5 for your solution posted. I tried to follow your direction and these are what happen to me.

After typing the command:

I received this

However, when I type:

It returns in the middle

and in the end

then I can run parallels desktop but it's just temporarily. After rebooting, the problem happen again.

My result of the command line "file /etc/hostconfig" is

What should I do to solve this problem permanently.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

 

Hi,

I've same results of Tinyn ! Same! We haven't "with CRLF line terminators " string ...

 

Thanks you helix5! Your post finally fixed the problem I was having with "Unable to connect to Parallels Service" error.

Parallels support, you should consider beefing up the following KnowledgeBase article (http://kb.parallels.com/en/8455) to check if the /etc/hostconfig file has the proper end of line characters as helix5 illustrates above. Thanks!