Kernel: IOSurface buffer allocation size is zero

I made a huge effort drill down what is causing the problem:

1. APPLE

2. ADOBE (flash)

1. Using Snow Leopard SSD (Vertex 3) drive - video on SKYPE freezing after 1 hour.

2. I got freeze on movies.

3. Returned SSD to OCZ that Apple found that SSD has SMART failure.

4. Put original HDD to MaBook Pro (2011) - Installing LION

5. Installed Lion on it - Freezing again

6. APPLE vs ADOBE

7. I noticed that I am freezing on that error mostly on videochat by using google talk plugin and can see the error in the console.

8. By reading forums I assume its a flash, Uninstalled Flash.

9. Still having the errors in the console - Assuming its APPLE - but not going to APPLE STORE - GENIUS knows nothing.

10. As I am developing website I got an idea that if even you uninstall flash still you can get the script by inserting it into HTML - I went to one of these websites: VERDURA.COM - you would say nice HTML 5 + JQUERY - NO FLASH and as I am keep refreshing it I am getting error in the Console, so I am thinking what is wrong.

11.Copied the code and removed all html except scripts and 1 of them was having SWF shockwave plugin.

12. Made HTML file with that 1 line of code and keep refreshing it and getting the error in console - NOW IT IS FOR SURE FLASH to be exact SHOCKWAVE!!!!

13. Break Point 🙂

Major Question: Why I am getting errors when the Flash is gone?

Answer: Looking for shockwave plugins, since CHROME is using own separated plugins I do

"chrome://plugins/"

Look what I have found even flash is gone:

http://cl.ly/1b3z3j1R1r0j44201H19

I disabled it, NO ERRORS SINCE THEN! Not even safari, firefox, chrome, console is clean.

Hope it helps.

Additional info:

I replaced plugin with older version and it doesnt work, you can try, but disabling it works. Maybe there is an older version and that can work.

/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/Versions/17.0.963.56/Google Chrome Framework.framework/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player Plugin for Chrome.plugin

Just adding my observations regarding the "IOSurface: buffer allocation size is zero"-error….

I don't have Flash installed on my 2011 iMac, so I use Google Chrome whenever I need Flash. The message ONLY appears when Chrome is open on my machine. If I don't use Chrome, I can go weeks without this error in the log.

I do get the "kernel: HFS: Very Low Disk" error too, occasionally - but also only when Chrome is in use. And it always comes in connection with the "IOSurface"-error. My 1TB drive has more than 800 GB free disk space, so the "Very Low Disk"-error obviously doesn't mean I'm running out of space… (and I don't have any external drives connected, either)

From what I've seen it definitely has something to do with Chrome/Flash - at least on my system.

My iMac handles the errors pretty well, though - I've never seen a crash in connection with them, so I can live with them (for now).

Type this in chrome: and turn off Chrome Flash Plugin (even if you dont have flash installed, chrome comes with its own)

"chrome://plugins/"

http://cl.ly/1b3z3j1R1r0j44201H19

then you shouldnt see the error anymore....but you wont be able to play shockwave items....

@rentgeeen - Although not every time, I can reproduce the IOSurface Kernel errors when I open Chrome. When I check my plugins in Chrome (chrome://plugins/) I have two Flash versions installed for 11.1.r102, 11.1.102.62 and 11.1.102.63. I have disabled the latest one 11.1.102.63 (keeping version 62 enabled) to see if I can isolate (click the +Details to expose the two versions installed). Monitoring the kernel.log in Console with "IOSurface" as the String, so far today no errors (yet).

Mid-2010 Macbook Pro 6,2 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256M)

sweet-jane wrote:

I do get the "kernel: HFS: Very Low Disk" error too, occasionally - but also only when Chrome is in use. And it always comes in connection with the "IOSurface"-error. My 1TB drive has more than 800 GB free disk space, so the "Very Low Disk"-error obviously doesn't mean I'm running out of space… (and I don't have any external drives connected, either)

That's interesting. I don't know if it's related to the IOSurface error, but I don't expect this error to come from “nowhere” either. Now, does it mean Chrome makes a virtual disk, in memory, or do you see an extra volume in the Finder (desktop, sidebar or “computer” window)?

@gliderjoe - Just got the IOSurface error again even with Flash v63 disabled in Chrome.

@gliderjoe Try to disable both of them, since then I have no errors but cant use gtalk video. I am going to install snow leopard on SSD and will try everything immediatelly after instalation to troubleshoot again on fresh install and drive...

@rentgeeen - no go. I received the IOsurface error again just now with Flash fully disabled in Chrome. I was trying to install Disk Inventory X to solve another problem when I received the kernel panic. Would love it if 10.8 came to the rescue with these issues.

IOSurface is an object encompassing a kernel-managed rectangular pixel buffer in the IOSurface framework. It is a thin wrapper on top of an IOSurfaceClient object which actually interfaces with the kernel.

IOSurface is private CoreFoundation frameworks for managing pixel buffers, or in official words, "sharing graphics surfaces between applications"^[1]. It is also a public framework in Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

In 2.x the same function is provided by the CoreSurface framework. On 3.x CoreSurface is deprecated, and its functions are now wrappers of the corresponding IOSurface functions.

My mac is crashing when using video but only when I have shockwave enabled in chrome and getting that error.

I dont know how to solve this, because I went to apple and only what they told me, chrome is 3rd party app its not our fault - nice help right? They didnt even try to troubleshoot it, last time I was there they blamed SSD that I returned and it is still freezing.

What I am going to do now, will install 10.6 Snow Leopard on SSD and after installation will lounch console and try mine HTML script if it will throw the error and will slowly install apps and monitor, apple should fix this, I know flash is bad but if people still use a portion of it like google video they should look at it, maybe something is conflicting somehow on both sides...

Just to throw my two cents in, although I don't not have

any crashing or otherwise strange behavior, I see this

message a lot in the kernel log file. A quick check at

the times and it has popped up several times while here

on this forum site.

As I stated, haven't seen any operational problems, but

the log entries are there none the less.

I too have had many performance problems in the last several months with my Macbook Pro (2011) running Lion. I now have Lion 10.7.3 and Safari 5.1.3, and the problems continue- things slow to a crawl, apps don't behave correctly, near freezes that require a reboot, and needing to shut down with the power button because the menu won't respond. Those are just the most noticable. I checked Console messages yesterday and had 4000 in four days with the "IOSurface...." being the most prevalent by far. I found this forum -thanks all- and have found relief at least for the last 24 hours.

I did not get any console messages to speak of when using Firefox. I tried quite a few sites to test with, but not any problem messages. I still like Safari better and to test that I just trashed the two flash files in "Library-Internet Plug-ins", and also, just for good measure, the Flash Manager app. in the Applications folder. No more problems since then. You could probably just use Firefox and not trash any files, but I was so mad by then I didn't want anymore of that stuff on my machine, at least until the dust settles.

Daphiel made a small but significant discovery in his post which seemed to have got sidelined:

Daphiel wrote:

hi, same issue on a macbook pro 15'' (mid 2010). The issue stop spamming my logs when I uninstalled Flash 11. But this problem appear again when I launch Photo Booth (you can test on your own mac with the Terminal and tail -f /var/log/kernel.log) and I switch between the various effects.

I'm not sure that this error results only from the adobe flash. Hoping this can help... Apple are aware of this bug?

Daphiel is saying that he uninstalled Flash and stopped getting the IOSurface message in Console when using Safari; all well and good.

I also tested the removal of Flash from Safari and it stopped the IOSurface messages.

However, he also said that when using Photo Booth and switching between effects pages he noted the message was re-occurring.

He suggested we test this for ourselves and I did; I recommend others do too.

Open Console. Open Photo Booth. Click on 'Effects'.

Watch Console as you select each effects page.

My findings are that I get nine IOSurface messages each time I switch to another effects page. That corresponds to the nine 'preview windows' on each effects page.

This raises questions rather than answers at this stage, perhaps the main one being: Is there a link between the two?

I had a brief look at Photo Booth with Inspector in Activity Monitor and didn't spot any obvious Flash references (not that I would expect any).

A number of posters have given us a better understanding of what IOSurface is and does. Sandman619, for example, gave some clear information along with some reassurance that this is not something that we should neccessarily be concerned about, and (in my case) I agree. Console shows approximately 200 of the IOSurface entries per day, which may well correspond with how many Flash-requesting web pages I view per day. This number does not cause any performance issues or freezes for my four year old MBP.

Those that are experiencing high levels of entries per minute or per second, and/or are experiencing freezes and crashes are, of course, in dire need of more answers.

It is important to back up Anic264b's posting. When we have these errors, issues and problems we need to look at them carefully and logically, try to test things, and then share the information we glean.

If we want to blame Adobe for these error messages we may well be right in doing so, but from Daphiel's findings (which I can fully substantiate with my own tests) we could also be blaming Apple for them, because they made Photo Booth and that produces the same error messages.

I've tested a number of other applications like QT, QT7, Google Earth and Aperture, and none of those generate an IOSurface message in use. Naturally, I am focusing on the more graphic-intensive applications.

Perhaps other forum members could test other applications and post their findings?

Ultimately, we may find that it is neither Flash nor Photo Booth in themselves that generate the problem, but the way our graphics card/graphics software handles those particular applications.

Do I have a resolve? Not yet, but I now know more than I did!

Like previously I mentioned, was experiencing freezing on Snow Leopard by using SKYPE (video only) after an hour it freezes with IO error.

Then I made the post above about switching SSD drive and LION and back to HDD and using website that is pulling flash and disabling chrome flash plugin finally error dissappeared. But I couldnt use GMAIL video chat because is using Shockwave Flash that caused my mac to freeze because I disable it - (Lion 10.7.3) - Quad Core, 2.2, 8 GB RAM.

What I did used my 2007 Macbook Pro and I have old chrome on that. I tried to make some video calls and no IO errors. So trasfered the Chrome to my new mac and it was freezing + IO Error. Used on HDD and SSD both threw that IO error. So what it tells me that probably it is an combination of APPLE hardware that something is wrong with the graphic card or how it is handling the video. Always it freezes either on Movie, Video Chat (gmail or skype).

Tested LIVEBOX idea and it gave me for each effect click 9 IO errors = 1 for each effect = 3x3 effects grid.

So I think it is something with the graphic card.

Livebox wrote:

However, he also said that when using Photo Booth and switching between effects pages he noted the message was re-occurring.

He suggested we test this for ourselves and I did; I recommend others do too.

Open Console. Open Photo Booth. Click on 'Effects'.

Watch Console as you select each effects page.

My findings are that I get nine IOSurface messages each time I switch to another effects page. That corresponds to the nine 'preview windows' on each effects page.

Yes, I see that too.

This raises questions rather than answers at this stage, perhaps the main one being: Is there a link between the two?

I had a brief look at Photo Booth with Inspector in Activity Monitor and didn't spot any obvious Flash references (not that I would expect any).

I don't think Flash is necessary for this bug. It's the other way around: Flash uses a component that produces this error, under certain circumstances. Other components, non related to Flash, may use the same component and produce the same error.

It is important to back up Anic264b's posting. When we have these errors, issues and problems we need to look at them carefully and logically, try to test things, and then share the information we glean.

Thanks for agreing 🙂

If we want to blame Adobe for these error messages we may well be right in doing so, but from Daphiel's findings (which I can fully substantiate with my own tests) we could also be blaming Apple for them, because they made Photo Booth and that produces the same error messages.

I'd rather say Apple made the graphics component that produces this error message. Of course, then, any company who use that component will throw messages like this in the console, even Apple's application.

I've tested a number of other applications like QT, QT7, Google Earth and Aperture, and none of those generate an IOSurface message in use. Naturally, I am focusing on the more graphic-intensive applications.

Then it seems like the error has to do with graphics transformation (QT normally doesn't transform the pictures, it just shows them as they are decoded. However, Photo Booth's effects transform the pictures. I'd say Flash also transform pictures (play/pause, etc. controls are embedded in the view, and Flash may also show composited pictures. Not sure I'm on the right track, but it may make sense)).

Ultimately, we may find that it is neither Flash nor Photo Booth in themselves that generate the problem, but the way our graphics card/graphics software handles those particular applications.

I'm convinced of this.

Do I have a resolve? Not yet, but I now know more than I did!

Can anyone resolve anything with no knowledge? 😉