Software Update (suhelperd) crashing

Question

Level 1

11 points

Software Update (suhelperd) crashing

Software Update is non functional for me with Snow Leopard. I did an upgrade over the 10.5 install, and have checked disk permissions, restarted, and still can't download the 2 updates showing up.

Digging in console reveals the background process Software Update uses (suhelperd) is what is actually crashing, leaving the gui in an odd state.

Anyone have any ideas how to fix this, or seen something similar?

Process: suhelperd [31592]
Path: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SoftwareUpdate.framework/Versions/A/Resources /suhelperd
Identifier: suhelperd
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]

Date/Time: 2009-09-02 16:20:04.110 -0500
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432)
Report Version: 6

Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Application Specific Information:
abort() called
* Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSRangeException', reason: ' * -[NSCFArray objectAtIndex:]: index (0) beyond bounds (0)'
* Call stack at first throw:
(
0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8883e5a4 __exceptionPreprocess + 180
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff8019d313 objc exceptionthrow + 45
2 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8883e3c7 +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 103
3 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8883e354 +[NSException raise:format:] + 148
4 Foundation 0x00007fff870850d0 _NSArrayRaiseBoundException + 122
5 Foundation 0x00007fff86fe7c4d -[NSCFArray objectAtIndex:] + 75
6 Admin 0x00007fff86ee620e +[User(UserPrivate) _userWithInfo:attributes:] + 71
7 Admin 0x00007fff86eedd6b +[User findUserByID:searchParent:] + 404
8 suhelperd 0x0000000100001274 0x0 + 4294972020
9 suhelperd 0x0000000100002860 0x0 + 4294977632
10 suhelperd 0x0000000100005967 0x0 + 4294990183
11 suhelperd 0x00000001000044b3 0x0 + 4294984883
12 suhelperd 0x0000000100004154 0x0 + 4294984020
13 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff87dbf358 mach msgserver + 357
14 suhelperd 0x00000001000036eb 0x0 + 4294981355
15 suhelperd 0x0000000100002a1f 0x0 + 4294978079
16 suhelperd 0x0000000100001080 0x0 + 4294971520
)

Mac Mini (early 2009), Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 2, 2009 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

ossapha

Level 1

0 points

Sep 2, 2009 8:19 PM in response to Tom Cramer

Similar problem here...
3/09/09 1:16:33 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.suhelperd[683]) Exited with exit code: 2

Just hangs on the blue progress bar screen...

Message was edited by: ossapha

Message was edited by: ossapha

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Answer 2

Sep 2, 2009 8:22 PM in response to Tom Cramer

Hello Tom:

It works fine here (FWIW).

Try trashing the preference file (com.apple.softwareupdate.plist) and restarting.

Barry

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Answer 3

Tom Cramer Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 4, 2009 3:57 PM in response to Barry Hemphill

I deleted the plist from both /Library and ~/Library, then restarted. Same issue.

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Answer 4

Zorbov

Level 4

1,678 points

Sep 4, 2009 7:42 PM in response to ossapha

Try software update from a new account .... if it works make sure your main account settings are the same in network config ...

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Answer 5

Sep 4, 2009 8:10 PM in response to Tom Cramer

Hello Tom:

I suggest that you reinstall OS X 10.6 over your current system. Something may have gone wrong with the upgrade.

Barry

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Answer 6

Sep 11, 2009 7:49 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

Same problem here.

I'm running software update from a network account on my machine.

I logged in as a local administrator on the machine and software update worked and suhelperd didn't crash.

Any advice?

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Answer 7

Sep 11, 2009 8:45 AM in response to Tom Cramer

@David Exactly the same situation here on two iMacs. Unfortunately I don't know if 10.6.1 fixed this, won't know until another update comes out. If not, it sounds reproducible enough.

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Answer 8

Sep 11, 2009 3:57 PM in response to Nathan Youngman

@Nathan--I can actually verify that 10.6.1 does not fix the update. Here's how I know:

When I try to run software update, it does the check, then comes up with the dialog that lets me click 'show details' and view the various updates. Upon trying to install the updates, it asks me to agree to license agreement, then enter my password, and then it fails to download or install--so that's when it crashes.

So when I was running software update, it listed 2 updates, 10.6.1 and an HP Printer Drivers update. I downloaded the combo update for 10.6.1 and installed successfully. Upon reboot I ran software update, it found the printer drivers update, but same behavior as before when I tried to install.

At this point I decided to try as another user on the machine so I logged into my local admin account on the box (I was using a networked account bound to an Active Directory network in my office). I ran software update, it found the printer drivers update, and it downloaded and installed successfully!

Are you also on Active Directory, @Nathan?

My assumption (or hope) is that this is something to do with the fact that I'm on a network account. My next idea is to un-join and then re-join my machine to the AD network and then wait for the next update to come out so I can check for the same behavior.

If it isn't the connection to AD, then my next guess is that there's somehow some corruption with my 'network user account' stored on the machine. So the next logical step before reinstalling Snow Leopard would be to backup my stuff, completely blow away the network account, and then re-add it and restore my files manually.

Based on all of the above, I'm drawn to the assumption that a reinstall of the operating system hopefully is not necessary since this works on local accounts on the machine.

Before I realized that this problem was linked to my network account somehow, I considered removing and replacing the actual file 'suhelperd' on my machine, as I found its path in the console logs. However, knowing now that suhelperd works on local accounts (and suhelperd does not crash), I don't think the system resource 'suhelperd', which is used by all user accounts, would be the culprit.

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Answer 9

Sep 11, 2009 4:00 PM in response to David Finstein

I should note that when I said that 10.6.1 installed successfully, I was indicating that I downloaded the updater from Apple's web site - not through software update. When I re-read my post I realized I wasn't clear about that.

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Answer 10

Tom Cramer Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 22, 2009 9:03 AM in response to Tom Cramer

It appears I'm in the same boat, Software Update fails if I'm logged in using a Windows AD network account. Logging in with a local admin account works. And the issue still exists in 10.6.1. Time to wait for 10.6.2 I suppose.

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Answer 11

Yiesla

Level 1

21 points

Sep 23, 2009 10:22 AM in response to Tom Cramer

Got the same issue... take a look at this link. I "may" have solved it.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2154493&tstart=0

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Answer 12

Oct 16, 2009 11:31 AM in response to Yiesla

I just wanted to let people know that following the link above definitely helped. This seems to happen with people (like me) who use Active Directory to authenticate their login credentials.

The solution is:

Open up System Preferences
Click Accounts
Login Options
Network Account Server: Edit...
Open Directory Utility...
Show Advanced Options
User Experience Tab
Check Create mobile account at login

Restart

When you log in again, the system will ask you to create a mobile account. I selected the default option to create the account. I ran software update and everything worked fine instead of crashing out like it did before.

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