Why is Delora's KymaConnect not finding the Pacarana on Mac OS X Yosemite?

Question

My Mac's Ethernet port is directly connected to the Pacarana's Ethernet and the Mac is running KymaConnect. The OSX version is 10.10 (Yosemite). Sometimes when I power on the Pacarana KymaConnect shows that it cannot find the Pacarana. The only solution I have found is to either unplug the Ethernet cable, wait a few seconds, and then plug it back in, or I have to restart the Mac. How can this be fixed?

Comments

I-ve been having this problem too, its very frustrating. I simply cannot get Kyma Connect to work with my Macbook running a USB Ethernet adaptor. The IP Address is fine ... Kyma is happy with an IP address. I try the reset of port as you have suggested Doug, but this continues not to find the Pacarana. Is there anything else I can try?

---

OK! Doug at Delora gave me some quick and detailed tech support and now everything is working smoothly! I had an issue with network security being set too high on the Macbook and interfering with TCPIP communication.

Answer 1

OSX 10.10 (Yosemite) and iOS 8 both have well-documented Bonjour bugs that sometimes cause a Mac or iOS device to have invalid or stale Bonjour information. When this happens the Mac or iDevice may think there is a Bonjour service available when it is no longer present, or the opposite, an available service is not shown as available.

Unplugging the Ethernet cable causes OSX to reset the network interface, and this process usually causes the internal Bonjour system to somehow repair itself. In effect this "cures" the problem, at least until it happens again. Likewise restarting OSX also remedies the problem.

At present there is no fix for this problem until Apple provides a bug fix to the Bonjour subsystem. OSX 10.11 (El Capitan) has supposedly addressed this issue, as has iOS 9, but as of this writing it is too early to tell if the problem has been fixed.

On OSX there is an alternative fix to restarting the Mac, or disconnecting the Ethernet cable. Open up System Preferences, then select the Network preference pane. Once that is displayed select the Ethernet port connected to your Pacarana. Then perform the following steps:

1. Click the small gear at the bottom of the list and select "Make service inactive".
2. Press the apply button.
3. Wait a few seconds then select the same Ethernet port again.
4. Click the small gear and select "Make service active".
5. Press the apply button.

After performing these steps your Ethernet port will again connect to the Pacarana. Basically what this sequence is doing is similar to disconnecting and then reconnecting the Ethernet port. This seems to nudge the Bonjour subsystem into proper operatation, updating the list of available services.

On iOS you can perform something similar by switching Wi-Fi off momentarily, then back on. This too seems to clear whatever is causing the Bonjour subsystem to not update properly.

Incidentally this problem is not unique to KymaConnect, the Pacarana, or OSC. It can happen to any Bonjour service. So if something like iTunes Wi-Fi syncing has stopped working these work arounds may bring things back to life.

On Macs with built-in Wi-Fi (AirPort) you can also try toggling Wi-Fi off, then back on and reconnecting. Often this too clears any "bonjour blockage".

   

Comments

Just wanted to mention that I've been having this problem as well: every time I start it, KymaConnect doesn't detect my Pacarana, and nothing I do seems to fix it. I just tried what is suggested here, but it didn't work for me. I've even tried restarting OSX and the Pacarana multiple times, but it seems to make no difference. It usually just starts working about 30 minutes later if I leave it alone though, without me doing anything else. This seems to happen every single time.

I will update to El Capitan soon, and I'm hoping that will help. Thanks for the info!

---

I am on El Capitan and found that my Pacarana was more reliable at sending the bonjour updates (or my Mac was better at seeing them) if they were both on a hub and getting DHCP info.  I can get them to connect reliably when directly connected also, but I have found it better to leave the mac network port set to find an address by DHCP (rather than manually setting it).  It also seems to help if I do not have KymaConnect set to run at login, but rather wait until after my Pacarana is on, and then tell it to start.  That may not be necessary, but it is what I am doing now.

It probably doesn't matter, but I am running a "hackintosh", with an ASUS Z170 Motherboard and a Skylake chip.  If you enjoy futzing with things, I can recommend it.  If you want to plug it in and turn it on and have it work ... hackintosh is probably not for you.

---

@hbbenard: Take a look at my answer to this Q&A http://kyma.symbolicsound.com/qa/819/kymaconnect-cant-find-pacarana-since-the-latest-update. It discusses what I believe is causing your problem. If you would like me to help you trouble shoot your problem contact me directly at our the delora support email address so I can help you work through the problem. - Doug

---

@robert-efroymson: Involving a router that provides DHCP service may or may not improve Bonjour operational reliability; it all depends on the router. Also many configurations must directly connect the Mac's Ethernet to the Pacarana so the option to involve a router is not available.

Even so, historically Apple's Bonjour implementation has always worked better with static (manually assigned) IP addresses then dynamic ones. So I am at a loss why your system seems to work better with dynamic IP assignment.

---

Thanks Doug! I'll have a look at the article and will contact you directly to follow up.