Shared Networking grayed out

More clues:

I did a "Safe Boot" (shift key down) on the Mac, deleted the "null" port configurations, uninstalled and reinstalled Parallels, and then saw two new ports in Network Prefs. This time, they are named "Parallels Host-Guest" and "Parallels NAT". They have IP addresses assigned and are "active". The "ifconfig" terminal command shows that ports en2 and en3 exist. Launched Parallels and no network type choices are grayed out. Joy! Can't get the XP VM to start under the Mac's safe boot conditions, but that's expected.

Did a standard reboot and the new port configurations changed back to "Ethernet Adaptor ((null))" and Parallels has Shared Networking and Host Only grayed out again! "ipconfig" shows no en2 or en3 ports exist. No joy.

To me, it appears that the Parallels installer can indeed set up the correct new ports and port configurations, but something that occurs during a regular boot (but not with a "safe boot") deletes the new ports.

I will next try to temporarily bypass items I believe fit this category, but under Mac OSX it is difficult to identify all "startup" items (they are not all in "login" or "startup" folders), and for those you see via the "Accounts/Login Items" pref pane, you can delete any, but it is usually not evident how to put one back. Suggestions are appreciated. If we can identify the culprit, it should be of help to the Parallels community.

Bill Halberstadt
 
halberstadt said:
I will next try to temporarily bypass items I believe fit this category, but under Mac OSX it is difficult to identify all "startup" items (they are not all in "login" or "startup" folders), and for those you see via the "Accounts/Login Items" pref pane, you can delete any, but it is usually not evident how to put one back. Suggestions are appreciated. If we can identify the culprit, it should be of help to the Parallels community.

Bill Halberstadt
Click to expand...
To add a login item in the account preference pane, click the plus sign at the bottom, and choose the app to start.
 
halberstadt said:
Please read the first post in this thread. I also stated there that I run XP and a Boot Camp partition.
Click to expand...

Sorry--I too overlooked the fact that you have Boot Camp, so please disregard my message above, which is not pertinent to your situation. I have the same setup as you but no Boot Camp.

David
 
David5000 said:
Sorry--I too overlooked the fact that you have Boot Camp, so please disregard my message above, which is not pertinent to your situation. I have the same setup as you but no Boot Camp.

David
Click to expand...

Can you access the network when booting directly into Boot Camp, ie not using Parallels?
 
joem said:
To add a login item in the account preference pane, click the plus sign at the bottom, and choose the app to start.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. However, there are two problems: Small problem: You have to first note exactly where the file is that the startup list is referring to (before you delete it). The only way I know to do that is to hover the cursor over the list item and try to write down its path before the path disappears. Repeat for each item on the list.

Larger problem: most of my items were resources within "package contents". Using the plus sign does not permit seeing inside of application packages, so you cannot restore those login items. Luckily, I had kept the installers for those items.

Results of further testing: Temporarily moving all items (except a Parallels folder) out of /Library/StartupItems did not cure the problem (reinstalling Parallels appeared to immediately generate the "...((null))" port configs). Similarly, deleting all Login items from my account in System Preferences (except iCalAlarmScheduler and iTunes Helper, which belong to MacOSX) did not help.

I now need to figure out what else "doesn't happen" when doing a "Safe Boot", but I'm not sure how to proceed.

Bill Halberstadt
 
EDIT: Ive been playing with networking on my mac this morning and I think maybe this might be an issue with a preferences file. When you uninstall Parallels it does not remove stuff from the preferences file, so if it was broke the first time, it will be broke on consecutive reinstalls....

You can try this (tho no warranty implied ok ;) )

Uninstall Parallels using the uninstaller from the Parallels DMG file

Open Terminal

cd /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

sudo mv preferences.plist old.preferences.plist

reboot

(upon reboot OSX will not show ANY interfaces installed.. dont panic.)

Open System Preferences > Network

Under the Show manu, select Network Port Configurations

You should see here, the standard modem, ethernet, airport etc listed here.

Highlight Built-in Ethernet and click Duplicate. Accept the default name.

Click Apply now (this writes a new preferences.plist file)

Now delete the interface you just created (Built-in Ethernet Copy)

Click Apply Now again.

now you should reboot and confirm that your networking is working correctly again.

Now reinstall Parallels and see what happens with the network configurations.


END EDIT

---------------------------------------------


try creating a new user account on the machine and then try running parallels. I havent read back, but have you also tried running a disk permissions check using disk utility ?

The "(null)" as the device name suggests the port namer had trouble assigning this device a name for some reason and may be unrelated to Parallels itself.

Failing that, as with another users problem that has been discussed at length recently regarding full screen issues, this may be a problem that is completely solved by an OSX reinstall.. Pretty drastic i know, but at this point, your OSX is doing something very strange and it could be one of many things that is causing the interfaces to fail to come up properly when you boot.
I'd be suprised if something in your user accounts startup items was causing the problem, it sounds a little more fundamental to me.
 
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I've spent a few hours now trying various configuration changes. Per darkone's suggestions above, I moved /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist to the desktop, rebooted, duplicated and then deleted a Built-In Ethernet configuration, which recreated a fresh preferences.plist file. Rebooted, installed Parallels, but same problem.

I have a pref pane named "Diablotin" which allows disabling many things, including many system items. I disabled all but the few mandatory system fonts, no luck. Disabled all startup items except a very few mandatory system ones, no luck.

I created a new user, and installed Parallels while booted in that account. No luck.

Using "AppleJack", I have done disk repairs, permission repairs, preference corruption checks, and cache purges.

In all these attempts, I first uninstalled Parallels and deleted the two bogus "Ethernet Adaptor ((null))" network port configurations, and rebooted. "No luck" means that the Parallels Network config has "Shared Networking" and "Host Only" grayed out, Terminal command ipconfig shows no en2 or en3 ports, and the Mac Network pref pane shows 2 identical port config names of "Ethernet Adaptor ((null))".

I used the Mac OSX 10.9.4 Combo installer to "refresh" Mac OSX.

Still, so far, the only way to get the Parallels installer to create en2 and en3 ports is under a "Safe Boot", and any regular boot after that deletes them. I believe the port deletion is the problem, and is why the port configuration files get their odd name of "Ethernet Adaptor ((null))", presumably because the ports to which the configurations applied no longer exist.

I can continue to try and figure out what else a Safe Boot omits, but pickin's are getting pretty slim.

Bill Halberstadt
 
SOLUTION - Culprit is Keyspan USB Server

Finally! With great help from Dan Vargo, the problem is solved. There is a conflict with Keyspan's USB Server software. Specifically, if the system extension "KeyspanNHCI-T.kext" is present, it prohibits the creation of the Parallels ports en2 and en3; or, if the ports do exist, it will delete them during a system boot.

Bottom line: If you have the Keyspan USB server (at least the latest version, 1.3.4), you will always see "Shared Networking" and "Host Only" choices grayed out in Parallels. Keyspan has an uninstaller at: http://www.keyspan.com/downloads-files/us4a/macosx/

NOTE TO PARALLELS SUPPORT: This should be pointed out in the documentation!

Bill Halberstadt
 
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