SOLVED Freeze on file transfer

[TheDubiousDubber]

I have a newly configured NAS with a CIFS share. From my Mac I can read, write and execute within the share. I have no problems creating folders, etc. My issue is when I try to copy a file from my Mac's HDD to the CIFS share, it starts to initiate the transfer, but after about 50mb my entire Mac locks up. I'm forced to do a hard restart. After which I can access the share and there is a partial file there, about 40-50mb in size. Any ideas of what I can do to troubleshoot this issue? I'm on 10.9.5 and running 9.2.1.7.

 

[Ericloewe]

Does the problem happen with a different computer? If not, it's most likely an OS X problem, which means help here might be very limited, unfortunately.

 

[mjws00]

There is certainly nothing inherently wrong with 10.9.5 writing to a cifs share. I routinely drag and drop 1GB+ files to my freenas box from my mac. But even transferring hdd images over 100GB have never glitched. I don't remember if I used caffeine to keep it awake for the huge transfer or not. It's possible. I'm rarely wired, but for 50GB+ I typically plug in as I am impatient.

Admittedly my mac is a pretty clean and bare mid 2011 air on 10.9.4. To troubleshoot I'd start with iperf, just like any other platform and try and get a solid read of network throughput. If it will happily pump gigs and gigs of data at speed, you know you have a software issue elsewhere. https://iperf.fr/

50mb isn't even time for a transfer to really get started, so you probably don't have power management issues or something like that. I'd be inclined to check the network itself. Maybe try a transfer via ftp? As much as I hate AFP I'd test with it as well. Drivers and oddball hardware are a non issue on the mac side. I don't see your FN hardware listed.

Lol. My mac sees a TON of hours but none of it is troubleshooting. ;) But we should be able to get some baselines established and the basics under control.

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

I have FreeNAS loaded on a SuperMicro x8sil-f with 16gb of ecc ram and 6x2TB HDDs hardwired to an Airport Extreme, my "Mac" is actually a hackintosh built on Z77 chipset also hardwired to the router. The odd part of it all is that I had my NAS previously configured and I didn't have any issues (at least none that I was aware of). I can't remember if I even tried to copy files over in the short time I was using it, but I wiped it and reconfigured it as my permissions setup was garbage and I wanted to start from scratch.

So I pose this question. Is it possible my router is at fault for causing the issue? Is it possible that a failing router could cause my computer to freeze when initiating large file transfers? This may be anecdotal, but I seem to be dealing with slower load times on webpages lately, and streaming video files sometimes results in frequent buffers despite no other use of my bandwidth.

I guess I will just have to try a transfer from Windows and see what happens.

 

[mjws00]

Heh. So you just added a crapload of variables. You need to limit them. Start with a direct cable connection, mac to Nas, iperf that sucker and see what is up. Unfortunately hackintosh... on a z77 could do all kinds of things. It can work perfectly, but we'd need to hit the gotchas one by one etc... and I have no way to duplicate any potential problems.

Essentially you need to get a wirespeed baseline, and prove it will move packets quickly and reliably. There is no foundation before that.

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

I use my hackintosh to dual boot windows. I booted into Windows and mounted the share. I copied over the same 1GB file I was trying to copy from the OS X side and it worked flawlessly. Transferred the whole file at around 11MB/s. That seems a bit slow, but at least it worked without any issue.

 

[mjws00]

Kinda sounds like 100Mbit network, not 1GBe. But that's a start. You still need to test your connection on the mac if you intend to use it. I'm not sure why it is dumping on the transfer yet... but your network performance is terrible.

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

My airport is pretty old I think it's a 3rd gen (from 2009). In any case I've ordered a new router as I've been intending on upgrading to 802.11ac. I'll have it by this weekend and we shall try again. I'm still baffled by the freezing though. Based on my findings so far, it is not a result of the network.

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

I imagine this won't help very many people, but I managed to figure it out after some digging. Apparently this is a common issue, specific to my particular motherboard. the GA-Z77-DS3H. The freezing or instability that occurs when transferring files over the network is due to an issue with the kernel extension I'm using for my LAN port to work in OS X. Luckily there is a different kext that can be used which supposedly fixes this issue.

 

[mjws00]

Awesome not surprised we landed there.