Console Geeks! What Do These 2 Messages Mean???

[Amie]

I see these 2 messages a LOT in my Console log. Any idea what they mean? (And I mean the term "Console Geeks" with utmost love and respect! )

loginwindow[35] in pam_sm_authenticate(): Failed to determine Kerberos principal name.

com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.SystemStarter) Failed to count the number of files in "/System/Library/StartupItems": No such file or directory

NOTE: I went to System/Library/StarupItems and the folder DOES exist, but it's empty. I've never made any modifications to this folder. Is it supposed to be empty by default?

 

[jbarley]

I just checked 3 separate computers (two different OS's 10.5.8 and 10.6.6), and in each case that folder is empty.

 

[Amie]

OK, thanks for checking, jbarley!

What about the other Console message? Any idea what that means?

EDIT: Another message I forgot to mention:

com.apple.Dock.agent[97]
DashboardClient[129:a03] needs update
DashboardClient[129] needs update

I thought that meant a Dashboard widget needed updating, so I checked my 3rd-party Dashboard widgets (which I only have two) for updates, and I have the latest version. I also checked Apple software update, and I am up to date. Anyone know what these messages mean? Sounds like it's telling me I need to update something, but I don't know what!

 

[Amie]

Anyone?

Sorry to bug you guys. I'm just getting into the "technical" side of computers and learning a lot about Terminal and the "guts" of the computer. It's really very interesting!

I've done a lot of research on my own, but I can't find an answer for those Console messages that I listed (see original post and the added message above this one).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DeltaMac]

Are you actually having problems with your Mac?

The only sure thing I can say is that those messages are not likely related to each other.
I don't find anything really relevant, searching for those messages - just some posts with generic problems, and not much in the direction of actual problems that those messages are reporting, if any.
I would suggest that you could reinstall your current combined OS X updater, which is a technique that has been used for years with good results for a variety of minor glitches that appear in OS X.