Catalina OS 10.15.6 Crashing: Kernel Panic from com.apple.driver.watchdog

Question

Level 1

8 points

Catalina OS 10.15.6 Crashing: Kernel Panic from com.apple.driver.watchdog

I am running a 2017 MacBook Pro with 2 27" Apple Thunderbolt monitors and am not using Time Machine for backup. I did recently apply the Catalina 10.15.6 update and now am seeing a Kernal Panic from a watchdog timeout causing the machine to freeze and die.

Perhaps this is a common class file, common but when I look at the backtrace the issue appears in the AppleSMC driver.

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.driver.watchdog(1.0)[832CC890-EE61-33E0-8FD4-8D354BCD0921]@0xffffff7f8c6f9000->0xffffff7f8c701fff

com.apple.driver.AppleSMC(3.1.9)[AB612149-B321-3B95-8741-B99E79274FCD]@0xffffff7f8c741000->0xffffff7f8c75ffff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.4)[68557A36-4EE1-372A-983B-BB2769FDB8E0]@0xffffff7f8c6f0000

dependency: com.apple.driver.watchdog(1)[832CC890-EE61-33E0-8FD4-8D354BCD0921]@0xffffff7f8c6f9000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[B130A8B7-967F-330E-942F-E0BB93C71C56]@0xffffff7f8c702000

I have seen recommendations to reinstall MacOS to a lower version, but that will take way too long and will be tedious.

Another recommendation I saw was regarding the continued Key Input using the "Caffinate" terminal command. Rather than do that, I am going to attempt to modify my energy saver preferences to prohibit the machine from sleeping and the Hard Disks from spinning down. Perhaps that is the cause.

I'll try to keep you posted.

My new power setting are:

System Power Settings:

AC Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0

Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0

Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 180

Wake on AC Change: No

Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes

Wake on LAN: Yes

AutoPowerOff Delay: 28800

AutoPowerOff Enabled: 1

Current Power Source: Yes

DarkWakeBackgroundTasks: 1

Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

GPUSwitch: 2

Hibernate Mode: 3

High Standby Delay: 86400

PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep: 0

ProximityDarkWake: 1

Standby Battery Threshold: 50

Standby Delay: 10800

Standby Enabled: 1

TCPKeepAlivePref: 1

Battery Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 30

Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0

Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 20

Wake on AC Change: No

Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes

AutoPowerOff Delay: 28800

AutoPowerOff Enabled: 1

DarkWakeBackgroundTasks: 0

Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

GPUSwitch: 2

Hibernate Mode: 3

High Standby Delay: 86400

ProximityDarkWake: 0

Reduce Brightness: Yes

Standby Battery Threshold: 50

Standby Delay: 10800

Standby Enabled: 1

TCPKeepAlivePref: 1

Posted on Jul 24, 2020 1:36 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Hallock27 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 27, 2020 10:54 AM in response to Hallock27

No dice - thought it may be related.

Error:

panic(cpu 6 caller 0xffffff7f94efaad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 120 seconds

service: com.apple.logd, total successful checkins since wake (25170 seconds ago): 2518, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

service: com.apple.WindowServer, total successful checkins since wake (25170 seconds ago): 2456, last successful checkin: 120 seconds ago

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.driver.watchdog(1.0)

Reply

Answer 2

Hallock27 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 31, 2020 4:09 AM in response to Hallock27

Continued running caffeinate again yesterday and NO crashes, however I did notice during past crashes that there was a sound stream error right before the issue would occur.

So yesterday, I did not use the Mac for any Mac based calls. Sound output is fine but thinking it may have to do with sound input, like using the Microphone.

I was using Gen 2 AirPods but switched to AirPods Pro’s yesterday.

I am going to try to reproduce today and see if I can pin down the cause of my issue.

Reply

Answer 3

Jul 31, 2020 5:42 AM in response to Hallock27

Did you've virtualization apps installed?

There are numerous reports from many users for kernel panics caused by a memory leak associated with a bug on the App Sandbox. VMWare and VirtualBox had already indentified the issue.

Apparently Apple is aware of the bug and I suppose a supplemental update containing a fix is currently in the works.

Reply

Answer 4

Hallock27 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2020 6:29 AM in response to dragontorc

Thanks for the response - This makes a lot of sense.

I use VMWare Fusion and to run a WIN10 VM for work.

I am thinking that the KERNEL panic has to do with the Instruction scheduling and the CPU threading, and the KERNEL panics when it loses touch with the scheduler, thus timing out and subsequently crashes.

I have also noticed this issue when VMWare Fusion is not running and I am doing heavy I/O (copying files, etc.), but I am not sure if it is Disk I/O or Network I/O.

Thanks again for cluing me in.

Reply

Answer 5

Aug 3, 2020 8:29 AM in response to dragontorc

I don't have ANY virtualization apps installed and my Mac Pro with 10.15.6 still has exactly the same panic trace from com.apple.driver.watchdog. So there's some deeper cause that may underlie this panic.

Reply