Kernel panic after 10.5.6 download

Hey again. I am writng this from my iphone since my mbp has gone in to replace a failing hard drive. Apparently, the software update brought to light the fact that my hard drive was about to go, so in an indirect way, i guess i should be thankful. Any way, if u do a clean install and still get panics, could be something is about to fail, so try out as many diagnostic tools as you can and good luck!

Installed the 10.5.6 update on a G4 powerbook.

After the system crashed during the update process and couldn't reboot I decided to start from scratch:

1. reformated the hardisk
2. installed a clean system
3. updated to 10.5.6 using the automatic software update feature
4. did a full hardware test using the boot dvd

This time the update worked, but now the system crashes at irregular intervals (kernel panic) - sometimes a few minutes after the reboot.
The hardware test DID NOT bring up any problems, so I guess it's not a RAM, Mobo or harddisk issue. Any ideas?

arminbw: The problem is related to the 10.5.6 update when using the Automatic Software Update!

You need to try the manual Combo Update, there's a link in this thread to download it. BUT, if you are willing to again, wipe your drive clean and do a fresh install, there may be hope for you, and I'd be more than interested to know your results, so please come back here and post!

I'm posting what I did, that DIDN'T work (I didn't wipe my drive and do a fresh install of Leopard, and THEN do the MANUAL 10.5.6 Update)

This is what happened with me (on my G4 PowerMac:

I followed everyone's instructions after the first horrible attempt at the 10.5.6 update using automatic software update:

I did an Archive and Install of the original 10.5.4 on the same drive, and then the MANUAL 10.5.6 combo update, still same kind of kernel panic activity that you describe, a lot them happening a few minutes after I rebooted, did all the safe reboot stuff, disk verification, removed the contents from /Library/Updates, etc., still kernel panics.

Went back and re-archived & installed, kernel panic while doing the re-archive and install. Finally got back to 10.5.4, and then ran every hardware, drive and volume test in TechTool Pro 4.6.1, which took over 24 hours. No hardware problems, Disk Repair reports no problems.

It's a mystery, everything seems ok on 10.5.4, was going to try a fresh install on a different brand new hard drive, when I get one and then do the Manual 10.5.6 update. I think this is what you need to do as well:

Wipe drive, reinstall Leopard, then Manually Combo update to 10.5.6. Then if necessary try Safe Boot mode, then restart again.

I suspect the people that can't resolve these issues are all on PPC's, unless there are Intel people out there with the same unfixable problem.

Are the intel people able to resolve this bad update? Please post, as I'm just using the process of elimination to figure out if it's just the older Macs or is it ALL Macs?

I can confirm that I have a similar problem on my Intel MacBook Pro after starting the upgrade to 10.5.6. Upon restart, kernel panic every time. I've booted to the install CD and can mount the disk, verify that all appears to be well with the hardware, but no joy otherwise. I'll probably try to revert back via my Time Machine backup and see how that goes.

I appear to be having the same problem. Kernal Panics daily, but only once or so.

I'm hoping arminbw tries wiping his drive and doing a fresh install, using the Manual update & reports back to us! Though I will try it myself once I have another fresh empty drive, in about a week. It's that or stay at 10.5.4 forever.

Things became worse. At one point the once stable G4 powerbook didn't even boot any more, but crashed instantly with a "System Failure: cpu=0; code=00000009 (invalid pmap)".

Invalid physical mapping might be the result of malfunctioning hardware, so I went back testing it again, this time putting the hardware test into a loop. But after 6 iterations (about 5 hours of constant testing) no problems turned up. The disk utility didn't bring up any issues as well.

So I made a fresh install again (10.5) and downloaded the 10.5.6 Combo update from the apple website, consciously refusing an automatic update. I verified the downloaded file using the checksum and installed it patiently.

Somehow I really hope the automatic updater is the origin of all problems - but thinking it to the end - it actually bends my mind... And I have to add, I successfully updated a new mbp (2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) using the auto updater.

Doing some testing now. Will report again.

i took my macbook to the apple store today, to see if they could do something, he first connected his computer and checked the hard drive with disk utility, hard drive was fine, he then suggested an archive and install, since i don't have my leopard disk with me he did an archive and install for me, so my macbook is now on 10.5.4 and working fine again, i think i'm gonna leave it on 10.5.4 for now.

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I've had the same problem of being able to start up in Safe Mode, but not in regular mode. I've repaired permissions, repaired the disk (the disk appeared ok), reinstalled from my original Panther disk, reinstalled Leopard from the Leopard disk. Nothing fixes it. This makes me wonder if it's a different problem than the Leopard update since I can't get it to work right even in Panther or 10.5.1. People have mentioned bad RAM. Would something as simple as replacing the RAM possibly work? Is there anything to be done regarding this:

"Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later: A Safe Boot deletes the dynamic loader shared cache at (/var/db/dyld/). Restarting recreates this cache. A cache with issues may cause a blue screen on startup, particularly after a Software Update."

Have you tried running a hardware test, using either the disc supplied by Apple or a 3rd party app, like TechTool Pro? The version I used 4.6.1 works on both 10.4 and 10.5. I lost my Apple supplied disc, so I don't know how expansive the tests are, I DO know TechTool Pro has a very expansive set of tests for all hardware, drives, volumes, etc. Plus you can create a boot drive with it, to do repairs on your start-up disk, that I think, goes way beyond Disk Utility's repair disc option.

Also, regarding the cache, as far as I can tell, safe boot mode should work at least to clean the cache in that one directory, and replaces it with a new fresh cache. There is also a 3rd party app called Tiger Cache Cleaner and Leopard Cache Cleaner which both have several levels of cache cleaning for situations exactly like this.

A number of people have run hardware tests which come back clean, unfortunately. I suspect all the Archive & Installs I personally have done may be part of the problem, maybe something problematic is being copied back to the new install and am waiting for a new hard drive to do a fresh install, and then run all the tests, and clean caches again, before I know for certain that it's 10.5.6 absolutely and not something else.

According to my Panic Reporter log file, I have had kernal panics as follows:

Dec 17 (2), Dec 19 (1), Dec 23 (1), Dec 26 (1), Dec 27 (1), Dec, 28 (1), Jan 1 (1), Jan 2 (1), Jan 4 (1), Jan 5 (1), Jan 7 (1) and today (2).

The latest log reads:
Fri Jan 9 05:39:34 2009
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x0014355E): "zalloc: \"kalloc.8192\" (104 elements) retry fail 3"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.9.59/osfmk/kern/zalloc.c:769
Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x21163aa8 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x21163adc 0x1335e4 0x0)
0x21163af8 : 0x14355e (0x45cd34 0x45b97c 0x68 0x3)
0x21163b58 : 0x12fddb (0x17652d8 0x1 0x21163be8 0x19fb89)
0x21163b88 : 0x12fdfa (0x1690 0x1 0x0 0x48ba08c)
0x21163ba8 : 0x11dd51 (0x1690 0x1 0x21163bd8 0x1a8e6c)
0x21163bd8 : 0x12d47e (0x10f0 0x0 0xd 0x11dd27)
0x21163c18 : 0x120489 (0x2bdef00 0x21163cac 0x24 0x0)
0x21163c58 : 0x12d718 (0x2bdef00 0x10000 0x0 0x19edb3)
0x21163c88 : 0x14c3a5 (0x21163cac 0x24 0x0 0x3be09cc)
0x21163cd8 : 0x12151c (0x41cfe38 0x1 0x1293e000 0x0)
0x21163cf8 : 0x123d1f (0x41cfe38 0x1 0x1293e650 0x1293e650)
0x21163d48 : 0x127fa0 (0x28fd78c 0x656b 0x1293e650 0x12f0d1)
0x21163d78 : 0x14cde3 (0x28fd78c 0x656b 0xe 0x11dd27)
0x21163db8 : 0x12d506 (0x2bde8a0 0x2bde7a0 0x0 0x0)
0x21163df8 : 0x126609 (0x2bde800 0x0 0x24 0x21163ee4)
0x21163f08 : 0x198153 (0x21163f44 0x0 0x0 0x0)
Backtrace continues...

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: SystemUIServer

Mac OS version:
9G55

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.6.0: Mon Nov 24 17:37:00 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.9.59~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: iMac5,1 (Mac-F42786A9)

Any ideas?

Last Tuesday, 13th January, I downloaded the software update for 10.5.6 to my macair. It has refused to restart since then. I got on to apple support, who sent me a link to reinstalling the OS. I tried this, but could not get the archive option. The only prompt was to wipe the hard drive. As usual (I know, I know!) I had not backed up the system, so I would lose everything, including my installed software, the original discs of which are 6000 miles away.
Rather than risk anything, I have left my machine to an authorised repairer, an hour away by car, with a note pleading with them to save my hard drive and its info. They haven't even had a chance to look at it, so it looks like I will be without my macair for some time. I understand from them that they are getting a lot of problems from the download. I cannot believe that apple could put out an update that can do so much damage to their customers, and not come up with a solution.
I do not know how much this debacle is going to cost me, but I am extremely unhappy about the situation.