Symptom
You see one of these symptoms when AirPort or Built-in Ethernet is selected in the Show pop-up menu of the Network preference pane:
- After you click the TCP/IP tab, DHCP and BootP do not appear as choices in the Configuration pop-up menu. The choices that appear include Manually, PPP, and AOL Dialup.
- This alert message appears when you click Apply Now:
"The System Configuration server (configd) is not available."
- When you open the Network preference pane, a status message of "Loading Network" appears for a long period of time.
- These messages may appear in the Console log:
- "Error: Configuration monitor failed to connect to configd server"
- "Error: Couldn't commit network database changes."
- "Error: Unable to obtain write access for system configuration database."
Solution
As a workaround, restart the computer.
If restarting doesn't fix the issue, try this:
1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities). Type these lines in Terminal (one at a time), following each line with a Return. Note that there is a space after each ".xml" below, but no space in "SystemConfiguration".
Note also that after the first "sudo" command you will be prompted for your admin password.
cd /var/db
sudo mv NetworkInterfaces.xml NetworkInterfaces.old
cd SystemConfiguration
sudo mv preferences.xml preferences.old
sudo mv com.apple.airport.preferences.xml com.apple.airport.preferences.old
2. Quit Terminal when finished, then restart again.
This document will be updated as more information becomes available.