The Contivity VPN client (version 3.3) is causing a kernel panic when you want to stop it. As it is stops when you shut down or restart the computer, it means that sometimes your computer will go into a kernel panic instead of restarting or powering off. This was almost systematic before 10.4.2. However, I'm used to stopping the VPN client when unused, and since I upgraded to 10.4, I can't do it anymore.
The kernel panics happens when unloading the Contivity kernel extension, or sometimes after doing any non-realated action with Contivity). So the workaround is to remove the command that unloads the Contivity kernel extension. I have not really found any drawback to this. And since I have done this, I can now stop and start the Contivity daemon using these commands:
sudo /Library/StartupItems/Nleac/Nleac stop
sudo /Library/StartupItems/Nleac/Nleac start
You'll need administrator privileges to make the change.
Here's how to do it:
# Stops the Netlock EAC.
stop_km() {
kmp=`ps -x | grep nleac | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1 }'`
inmp=`ps -x | grep inm | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1 }'`
kill -9 $kmp $inmp
# Not sure this is needed or desired.
unload_kext
}
Just comment out the unload_kext, as shown:
# Stops the Netlock EAC.
stop_km() {
kmp=`ps -x | grep nleac | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1 }'`
inmp=`ps -x | grep inm | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1 }'`
kill -9 $kmp $inmp
# Not sure this is needed or desired.
#unload_kext
}
Personally, I have also removed the -9 option from the kill command, as I prefer to normally end processes whenever possible. All that's left is to restore ownership and rights...Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20051022044000366