Watchdog Daemon Runs Wild On Halloween.

Whitehill

Whitehill

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Maybe before today. Anyhow, the console is full of stuff like below. This is from the wife's iMac (20" Early 2009) running 10.11.6. Other than its age, what else should I investigate?

10/31/16 8:24:19.313 AM watchdogd[691]: [watchdog_daemon] @( wd_watchdog_open) - IOIteratorNext failed (kr=0)

10/31/16 8:24:19.313 AM watchdogd[691]: [watchdog_daemon] @( wd_daemon_init) - could not open connection with the kernel watchdog

10/31/16 8:24:19.313 AM watchdogd[691]: [watchdog_daemon] @( main) - cannot initialize the watchdog service

10/31/16 8:24:19.314 AM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.watchdogd) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.
 
I found the problem. Rather, the problem found me. Over the weekend, we had a momentary power blip, not even long enough to reset my coffee maker. However, the offending iMac was off! I restarted it and looked at the log - sure enough, it died at the blip.

What makes this strange is, the iMac is on an APC battery backup, whose indicator light was a steady green. So I powered down, disconnected the APC and started playing with it. Only then did it start beeping like mad, telling me to replace the battery. So I did, with the same result!

I commandeered another APC that wasn't working too hard, connected it to the iMac, and ... drumroll ... it's up and running fine and ... fanfare ... no watchdog crapola in the log.

Upon further investigation in the log, I noticed that my daily SuperDuper! backup had recently been taking 4 hours. Now on the new APC, it takes the expected 30 minutes.

I'm happier than I was when I started this thread. But now I have an itch between my shoulder blades caused by my aging battery units.
 
Those APC units can die without warning. Are you using the model that has a back up drive on it as well? If so - stop using it. Just use the APC for the power back up only.

If you need an external drive for Super Duper - get a USB external. Those are pretty small in size, yet hold more compared to what use to be out there 6 years ago.
 
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