Overwhelming log messages

O

OC_Don

Junior Member
When I start Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac version 12.0.2 (41353) in macSierra 10.12, before starting any virtual machines, the real time Console log becomes overwhelmed with:
default 13:18:22.225137 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 setting up listener for new peer 0x7faa3be00710
default 13:18:22.225239 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 received new request 2 for peer 0x7faa3be00710
default 13:18:22.225268 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 answering operation 2, result 0
default 13:18:22.225352 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 received new request 12 for peer 0x7faa3be00710
default 13:18:22.225376 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 answering operation 12, result 0
default 13:18:22.225504 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 terminating peer 0x7faa3be00710 because of connection error
default 13:18:23.225154 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 setting up listener for new peer 0x7faa3bd03410
default 13:18:23.225240 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 received new request 2 for peer 0x7faa3bd03410
default 13:18:23.225284 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 answering operation 2, result 0
default 13:18:23.225373 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 received new request 12 for peer 0x7faa3bd03410
default 13:18:23.225400 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 answering operation 12, result 0
default 13:18:23.225540 -0700 com.apple.ctkpcscd 5730 terminating peer 0x7faa3bd03410 because of connection error
These messages are definitely caused by Parallels, because if I quit Parallels, these are no longer generated.
My research says that com.apple.ctkpcscd is Apple's Smart Card services daemon. What does Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac have to do with Smart Cards?
These messages cannot just be ignored because these messages are so frequent, notice 12 messages in less than 2 seconds, messages from other processes are very hard to find. Whats worse, another process may write several lines, but the above messages are in between. The only reasonable way to use the real time Console is to not have Parallels in the mix.
Is this a reportable defect or is this, in some bizarre way, by design?
 
Hi, are you using VPN connection on the Windows side?
(because VPN Concentrator can terminate the client connection and that is why these streams appears)
 
No, I do not believe I am. I am not subscribed to, nor knowingly use, any VPN. Also, NO virtual machines are active. Simply macSierra plugged into ethernet. BTW, messages are pumped out even when not connected.

I have reviewed the problem a little further. Without the Parallels app running, I had 138 messages written in 5 minutes. Notably, every ~15 seconds there are messages from macSierra os. Merely starting the Parallels app, I had 3,043 messages written in 5 minutes. The above messages are written every 1 second.

It appears something is busy looping in Parallels 12 even though NO virtual machines are active. I believe Parallels should not be so active in trying to do whatever it is trying to do and should give up at some point, so the log is not so clogged with extraneous messages. Or, check whatever it is Parallels requests com.apple.ctkpcscd to do only every <n> seconds, n > 15.

I don't normally use the Console, but in this case I was trying to troubleshoot and Parallels gets in the way, big time. What is worse, I am now trying to troubleshoot between macSierra and a Linux virtual machine. I can work around the several thousand extraneous messages, but Parallels does not make it easy.

Is there any justification for this Parallels behavior or is a defect report in order? Perhaps there is a Parallels 12 "Preference" needs to be turned off/on so Parallels will not message com.apple.ctkpcscd every 1 second?
 
I tried 'Parallels / Control Center / Security / Isolate Windows from Mac' with no good result.
I found this: http://ludovicrousseau.blogspot.com/2014/11/os-x-yosemite-and-smart-cards-status.html
that talks about com.apple.ctkpcscd but I don't know if it adds anything useful to conversation.
I started trying to figure out how to kill
/System/Library/Frameworks/PCSC.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.ctkpcscd.xpc/Contents/MacOS/
com.apple.ctkpcscd
but then I got bogged down in XPC stuff and how things have changed in Sierra, and I started grinding my teeth because I don't need to be screwing around with this and I realized I couldn't even think of what it was I was trying to troubleshoot in Console. Oh, yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to fire the system standard cmd-up to go to the top of the file in Preview, which only knows about fn-left, and my Automator/AppleScript doesn't work, and I can't figure out why, and why the hell am I still having to do this low level crap that just sucks up all of my time after all these years and decades it never gets any better now they've made it so you can't copy the message text in Console any more and they're still putting in fixed-width dialog boxes with information that needs to be expanded to be useful and I don't want to do software engineering and programming and systems administration work that's my day job I just wanted to peacefully read a PDF about some quantum physics stuff for fun for the love of God it's 10:57 at night.

Edit: Console has been totally reworked in macOS 10.12 Sierra. There are lots of other interesting and sophisticated changes under the hood...
 
Last edited:
I installed the latest and greatest release of Parallels for Mac 12. I was hoping the problem might have been fixed as a side effect of fixing the many other problems reported in the release documentation. Such was not the case.

It appears Maria@Parallels has no other suggestions, does not justify the behavior nor admit that it seems to be a defect. Since I am not the only one experiencing the problem, thank you HaroldB1 for your report, I am submitting "Technical Data" to document the problem.

Hopefully sooner rather than later, "problem report with the ID number 134404348" will be addressed by the engineering team. We shall see.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top