Bizarre problem with ethernet driver vs. NVInject.kext

[hreb]

So I've developed a truly strange problem in my homebrew Mac. I now have a workaround, but first, my setup:

 

Intel E8400 CPU

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L motherboard (onboard realtek gigabit ethernet)

GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI-E card

Kalyway 10.5.2 install

NVInject 0.21

 

This machine has been working for months with basically no problems. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a cheap gigabit switch (Trendnet TEG-S50TXE in case anyone's keeping score) that was an insanely good deal.

 

Now, when my Mac starts up, I have this problem. With the onboard ethernet plugged into the new gigabit switch, MacOS X begins to boot, gets past the gray Apple with the spinning clock thing, and then the screen goes black. No Finder, no loginwindow, nothing. I can tell everything is working fine because itunes starts up and even syncs my iphone -- but there's no GUI. If I boot in safe mode (-x) it boots ok -- but of course NVInject doesn't load. Also, there's no network. ifconfig en0/network just reports that the link is inactive, even though the cable is plugged in and the green LED link light on the ethernet port is lit.

 

Of course, initially I had no idea the network had ANYTHING to do with the video problems. But eventually I figured out that if I pulled NVInject.kext out of /System/Library/Extensions I could boot without -x. But still no network. I couldn't ifconfig en0 up, either. That's when I suspected the new gigabit switch. But switching the network cable out of the gigabit switch and into my SMC cable router (100mbit) didn't make a difference. I had to start up with the network cable in the cable router, or it wouldn't work.

 

In conclusion:

1. With the Mac connected directly to the gigabit router at startup, networking doesn't work.

2. Without networking, NVInject.kext causes the GUI/loginwindow not to work.

3. If I switch the network cable from the cable router back to the gigabit switch AFTER startup, everything works fine.

 

I'll admit the gigabit switch is probably cheap piece of junk and is probably misbehaving. However, I will point out that I have Ubuntu installed on a different partition on this machine, and both networking and video work just fine, even with the gigabit switch in place...in linux.

 

So, something seems slightly wacky with the Kalyway/Leopard realtek ethernet drivers. Unfortunate, but forgivable. NVInject is doing something seriously deserving of a WTF award, though.

 

Other experiences or hypotheses welcome.