Since installing Catalina yesterday, multiple crashes from userspace watchdog timeout

Naturally I crashed not 2 hours after posting this. Paid more close attention to when it crashed and it was in Google Sheets. Found this link that may point the blame at Google Drive File Stream: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250743564

I also removed a DisplayLink driver I shouldn't need any longer. I've been doing a bit with Google Sheets and there may be a cause here.

For those of you who are experiencing this issue and using a CalDigit TS3 plus hub there are good news. Last January 6th 2020 CalDigit released a firmware update for this device that seems to fix the issue on my MacBook Pro 15" with Radeon Pro Vega 20 + 2 external monitors under macOS 10.15.3. Since then I haven't experienced more reboots when the screensaver was on.

This is the link to the update:

https://www.caldigit.com/updating-the-ts3-plus-firmware-via-macos-10-15/

The crashes completely stopped for me. I was prepping my system to upgrading the internal hard disk, so I updated firmware and backed up, booted Command-R, and ran disk utility first aid. I can't say what fixed the problem, but it hasn't happened in over two months and it was happening every day. If I let my computer sleep on it's own I got the panic crash. If I put it to sleep manually I didn't get the crash. But since running all those system level updates, the problem has disappeared. It hasn't crashed in weeks.

Using Catalina 10.15.3 on 2013 Mac Pro.

I wonder if we're looking at this the wrong way round, and need to keep GPUs busy.

In a similar way to taiyodayo saying that leaving QuickTime running helped; if I leave HandBrake encoding videos I can cut my freeze occurrences from 1-2 and hour to 1-2 a day.

Mark

I had everything in Notifcations / Turn on Do Not Disturb except "when the screen is locked" checked. I checked it and have gone 48 hours without a crash which is a record.

I'm on macOS 10.15.4 (19E287). MacPro 6,1

No that is not the case necessarily. Start your own thread and someone can advise you of your options and be rewarded for the effort.

I would start by installing the "combo" update 10.15.4

https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos

I experienced similar crashes while setting up new 2020 MacBook Air macOS Catalina 10.15.4 (19E287).

I may have solved the problem- it involved Photos uploading many photos to iClould during set up, of all things.

More in this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251353584

Just thought I contributed to the discussion. I am not a Mac expert at all and I only use my devices for DICOM viewers as what I use is only available for Mac and not Windows, so please excuse if not useful.

I have also had Watchdog crashes pretty much since installing Catalina with various degree of frequency depending on the update pushed out.

I did find though that, if I uninstall chrome, the crashes reduce in frequency dramatically. I.e. with chrome installed, the crashes are about every 5 minutes, while without I had not had a crash all day yesterday.

Just in case some Apple techie is monitoring the thread and this may be helpful, otherwise just ignore it.

Sorry to hear others are still having this problem. Seems to be cleared up on my system.

I did talk to someone I know (not in the kernel group) to get some attention on this. He said the best steps are to get "sysdiagnose" done during the problem and submit it with a bug report. Apparently those are quite helpful.

If you haven't yet I suggest you do so.

When I tried, sysdiagnose via command key was hanging. (sysdiagnose can be triggered by pressing Cmd+Opt+Ctrl+Shift+Period). But I found if I had the terminal open and ran it via CLI then I could get it to finish and send the details to apple.

A few months old Mac puts you in the winners circle if apple stores are around you and open. Bring it into them and have them fix it. They run advanced diags and will likely find it if it's a HW problem. If a SW problem perhaps they can capture it and escalate it... It's hassle but... if HW you definitely want it fixed while under warrantee. Or you want to eliminate HW as the cause.

I can bypass the issue by disconnecting external monitor before computer goes to sleep mode. Computer will restart 100% of times when went to sleep with external monitor connected (type-c to DP cable)

I'll repeat the only 2 workarounds I found (2018 MacBook using 3 monitors in clamshell mode):

• Leave a QuickTIme movie looping continuously in the background.
• Use an eGPU (Ever since I hooked one up the issue was solved.)

Good luck

Running 'caffeinate -u -d' in a Terminal and powering off my external monitor (leaving the USB-C cable attached) when I step away from the system for any extended period seems to be a reliable workaround for me so far. Thanks to all the folks here for those suggestions!

My last theory was blown to dust today (external devices).

So I'm invented a new theory. IPv6

I am standing on very thin ice with this theory, and it will not take much to disprove it.

The theory is that while IPv6 has been around for years, it has mostly been ignored, especially by home router vendors.

At work we have people that have to disable IPv6 to maintain a reliable VPN connection.

I think this is because there are hundreds of home routers old and new, and each with their own IPv6 implementation some which having not had their firmware updated in years. So IPv6 quality is questionable at best.

What if some of the watchdog timeout panics are because a change to Apple's IPv6 implementation running up against an IPv6 implementation that is not doing what Apple expects.

I know I'm grasping at straws, but I cannot find a common thread to watchdog timeout causes in the panics themselves.

To test my theory change IPv6 to "Link-local only"

System Preferences -> Network -> select interface in the left column -> Advanced -> TCP/IP -> Configure IPv6 -> Link-local only

Decided to see if Mac OS 11.0 Developer Beta 1 (20A4299v) would make a difference. As I noted previously, running 10.15.5 on my 2019 MacBook Pro 16" resulted in the WatchDog timeout as noted throughout this thread. Unfortunately, the problem remains. I submitted a Feedback / Problem report for what it is worth and referenced this discussion thread as well. With 26 pages of entries and more than 1000 saying "I have this question too", I sure hope this issue gets some attention. For now, I am just checking "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off". That seems to prevent the issue and I can use the clamshell mode. All other settings are default, including leaving "Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter" checked.

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panic(cpu 10 caller 0xffffff8012127a69): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 120 seconds

service: com.apple.logd, total successful checkins since wake (2900 seconds ago): 291, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

service: com.apple.WindowServer, total successful checkins since wake (2900 seconds ago): 266, last successful checkin: 120 seconds ago

service: com.apple.remoted, total successful checkins since wake (2900 seconds ago): 291, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

Backtrace (CPU 10), Frame : Return Address

0xffffffb0c81636a0 : 0xffffff800ecbe00d

0xffffffb0c81636f0 : 0xffffff800edfbf03

0xffffffb0c8163730 : 0xffffff800eded2da

0xffffffb0c8163780 : 0xffffff800ec63b2f

0xffffffb0c81637a0 : 0xffffff800ecbd84d

0xffffffb0c81638c0 : 0xffffff800ecbdb43

0xffffffb0c8163930 : 0xffffff800f4b88e4

0xffffffb0c81639a0 : 0xffffff8012127a69

0xffffffb0c81639b0 : 0xffffff801212778e

0xffffffb0c81639d0 : 0xffffff800f44191e

0xffffffb0c8163a20 : 0xffffff8012126c3c

0xffffffb0c8163b20 : 0xffffff800f44bc4b

0xffffffb0c8163c80 : 0xffffff800eda97c1

0xffffffb0c8163d90 : 0xffffff800ecc3ef7

0xffffffb0c8163e00 : 0xffffff800ec9a691

0xffffffb0c8163e60 : 0xffffff800ecb16f5

0xffffffb0c8163ef0 : 0xffffff800edd22c3

0xffffffb0c8163fa0 : 0xffffff800ec64316

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.driver.watchdog(1.0)[813A55E7-E453-3745-8BCB-454098C5D76F]@0xffffff8012124000->0xffffff8012127fff

Process name corresponding to current thread: watchdogd

Boot args: chunklist-security-epoch=0 -chunklist-no-rev2-dev

Mac OS version:

20A4299v