Bootpicker Delay

[bmittleider]

I have OS X 10.6.8 and Windows 7 installed on my Intel Macintosh computers. I have installed Bootpicker and when the computer starts it flashes the OS choice screen then disappears and falls back to the OS X login screen. After 5-10 seconds the Bootpicker screen reappears with the OS choice screen. Is this the normal behavior?

[HodgeHi]

I think so. I have seen it where it disappears for a few seconds. Usually when the Network Accounts status changes and gets updated and also I think when IP address is obtained. The info is all in the login window so I assume that whenever the info is changed the login window is refreshed to update and bootpicker disappears for a few seconds. 10 seconds though seems a little long.

[AntonioRocco]

Hi

 

I also see this but only rarely. In all of the cases where i have seen it the problem has been down to the physical structure of the network itself. Network outlets and cables as well as switch and - occasionally - even the gateway. I would not rule out Duplex mismatching either. Ironically I have never seen this delay in environments that use split DNS or base their internal domain around something other than .local and moreover a .local domain that has only one word in its namespace. For example: domainname.local rather than subdomainname.domainname.local.

 

I happen to know that HodgeHi's network is not based around .local but I think when he's seen the problem it's probably down to the NVIDIA chipset that came with the majority of his iMacs? I think he may agree with me on that one?

 

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

[bmittleider]

I just re-cabled the entire lab where we are seeing this issue prior to the install of the operating systems. I also upgraded the switch to a 1GB HP ProCurve 2900. From this lab the uplink runs back to an HP ProCurve 5412 and then another uplink (fiber) to another 5412 where the DNS, Mac and Active Directory servers are located. All lines in use are at least Cat6 or fiber. I hope it isn't physical hardware the is causing this. As for the other possibilities, I will look to see what video chipset is being used. Our domain the computer are binded to is not a .local but .net.

[AntonioRocco]

Hi

 

Looks like you've eliminated those potential issues!

 

Just for a giggle disconnect the network cables and see if the problem goes away. I recently (last week in fact) did 42 iMacs - same OS for Mac and PC as yourself - and saw the problem on two of the 27" iMacs briefly for about 2-3 seconds. This was a music suite only recently 'professionally' re-cabled. Turns out the Sparkies did the cabling. Disconnecting them from the network, swopping the new switch for another new switch, followed by a reboot 'cured' the problem - or at least it appeared to. I use the Deployment Tools Apple provide rather than something like DeployStudio. I have heard from a colleague who has seen similar problems. His solution was to build another image which did not have BootPicker installed. He used ARD to install and configure it afterwards. Problem went away.

 

You have to bear in mind BootPicker is showing its age now. It's 32-bit and has not changed since Mike Bombich first made it available. He appears to have dropped support for it - AFAIK - 3-4 years ago. Perhaps you should consider rEFIt instead?

 

HTH?

 

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

Edited August 20, 2011 by AntonioRocco

[HodgeHi]

Hey Tony,

 

Hope things are ok.

 

Don't know if you are aware of this but boot picker was picked up by apple from mike bombich and has recently been updated. The system preference is now a 64 bit preference, at least to the extent that you no longer need to close and re-open system preferences. Also boot picker can also be managed by WGM. maybe this is a reason for slow updates. DNS perhaps?

 

Anyway if you search for boot picker I think a link pops up for Apple's education section of their website. It is only intended for education establishments though as far as I'm aware from a licensing point of view.

[bmittleider]

A little update here: I did a test by unplugging the network and still no change. I then reinstalled Bootpicker from a fresh download and again no change as I was still seeing a delay. I do believe it tied to network accounts as while doing my tests I have the login screen showing the indicators for network accounts and when it refreshes and becomes green the Bootpicker goes away and then reappears starting the countdown from the beginning. We have the iMacs bound to both Open Directory and Active Directory with a domain not using .local but .net (e.g. example.net). As a further test I tried this on a couple computers in our MacBook lab and I see the same issue. Also I have imaged them using DeployStudio both with the same image and a stripped down image that is the OS only.

 

Thanks for the suggestions so far, hope this can be resolved.

 

I will look into rEFIt if I can't get Bootpicker to behave.