Re: When people say Leopard is problematic...

In article <1ibky0b.10lpbizvbhio0N%dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Empson) wrote:

Harry Lockwood <hlockwood@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

And since having OS X, up to the present 10.4.11, I haven't had a kernel
panic. What are the symptoms?

Older versions displayed a text message in a monospaced font overlaid on
the top left corner of the screen, including a partial register dump. I
haven't seen that one for a while so don't recall the specifics.

The current appearance of a kernel panic is to have the screen partly
greyed out ("dimmed"), and a box appearing in the middle with a
multi-language message saying you must restart the computer.

And just in case I've tempted the gods, how do I fix it? RTFM?

A kernel panic might be a symptom of a hardware fault, or an OS bug, or
a kernel extension bug, or a compatibility issues between the OS and any
kernel extensions, or between two kernel extensions, or maybe even a
damaged preference file which is triggering a crash in a kernel
extension (if it is badly written). The kernel extensions involved may
have been supplied by Apple or a third party.

Fixing a kernel panic is difficult unless you have a good working theory
as to what triggered it, or can gather evidence over repeated panics.
For example, if the problem starting after you installed some new
software which may have added some kernel extensions, then that software
is a likely culprit.

Many kernel extensions are device drivers, so if you get kernel panics
only when using a particular hardware feature or peripheral, that might
provide a clue to narrow it down.

The most common hardware fault I've experienced is unreliable RAM. RAM
faults may be temperature related, so if you get kernel panics when your
computer is working hard or the ambient temperature is particularly high
and the computer is getting hot, then this might be a place to look.
Temperature related RAM problems might also occur at low temperatures,
e.g. shortly after startup if the computer has been in a cold
environment for a while. Once it warms up it might work OK.

There is a panic log created after a kernel panic, which you can examine
in "Console" and it might provide some clues, at least mentioning which
application was active when the kernel panic occurred.

Thanks for this detailed information, David. I will print this note and
keep it for future reference.

HFL

--
Change hlockwood to hflockwood in email address
.

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