Kernel panics on Mountain Lion are normal?

Question

Level 1

5 points

Kernel panics on Mountain Lion are normal?

I made the mistake of upgrading my Mac Pro to Mountain Lion. Since then, I've been plagued by several nasty issues. They are:

4 to 5 kernel panics per day now on average. In the previous 4 years of owning this machine, I'd only seen one total before Mountain Lion.
Preferences are not being retained when saved. This is especially maddening in Mail where I have to correct a mail setting every single time it launches (or restarts from a hard freeze/kernel panic)
Whenever a kernel panic happens, the contents of my two monitors are swapped. What is supposed to display on the left display jumps to the right display and the contents of the right display move to the left display. This includes menubar, desktop images and my geektool scripts.
While not technically a bug, I feel completely mislead by Apple regarding Airplay capabilities. I upgraded solely for this one feature only to learn that my 8-core, 12Gb of RAM, Dual Video Cards and SSD Raid is not sufficient to utilize this feature. This is incredibly dishonest marketing on Apple's part.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? I'm leaning towards reverting back to Lion and askin

Posted on Aug 10, 2012 1:05 PM

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Answer 1

Carl Sieber Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 10, 2012 1:06 PM in response to Carl Sieber

For some reason, my post was trimmed.... Here's the rest.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? I'm leaning towards reverting back to Lion and asking for a refund as ML isn't ready yet.

Thanks,

Carl

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

361,731 points

Aug 10, 2012 1:08 PM in response to Carl Sieber

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch

If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive.

Boot to the Recovery HD:

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

Erase the hard drive:

Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
Quit DU and return to the main menu.

Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.

Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

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Answer 3

mcbuffy

Level 4

1,066 points

Aug 10, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Carl Sieber

Hello,

Kernel panics are never normal.

You should follow these instructions : http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11045

Restart

Start up in safe mode

Reset your computer's PRAM

Repair your disk

Restart without any external devices connected

Use Apple Hardware Test

If that doesn't work Reinstall OS X.

Hope this will help. 🙂

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Answer 4

Carl Sieber Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 10, 2012 1:32 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks Kappy,

Sadly I upgraded my machine to run off of a SSD RAID. Mac OS X does not support recovery partitions on RAIDs, so I don't have one. And since Apple no longer provides physical media, I have no way to do a clean install.

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Answer 5

Carl Sieber Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 10, 2012 1:34 PM in response to mcbuffy

I've started working down your list and have discovered that my machine will not boot into safe mode. I'm getting even more concerned about what ML has done to my once happy machine.

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Answer 6

Kappy

Level 10

361,731 points

Aug 10, 2012 1:38 PM in response to Carl Sieber

And, this is precisely why one should not install the operating system on a RAID. So, you might look at the following for alternatives: OS X Lion- About Lion Recovery.

It would be a big help if you provided a panic log: OS X- How to log a kernel panic. Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on diagnosing kernel panics.

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Answer 7

Carl Sieber Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 10, 2012 2:05 PM in response to Kappy

The RAID worked fine in all regards until Apple decided to move away from physical media for OS installations. I don't see the need to sacrifice a significant amount of performance just so I don't have to have DVD's anymore. If the OS performed as it should, I wouldn't need install DVDs anyway. Thanks for the tip though.

As far as logs go, here's the output of last night's kp:

Thu Aug 9 22:44:18 2012

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800c2b7b95): Kernel trap at 0xffffff7f8d749975, type 13=general protection, registers:

CR0: 0x0000000080010033, CR2: 0xffffff815ee0d000, CR3: 0x000000000e863000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660

RAX: 0xffffff8032d37b00, RBX: 0xffffff803024e000, RCX: 0xffffff80274278c1, RDX: 0x0000000000000000

RSP: 0xffffff816d0c3d90, RBP: 0xffffff816d0c3db0, RSI: 0xffffff80306b0700, RDI: 0xffffff80306b0700

R8: 0x0000000000000402, R9: 0x0000000000000000, R10: 0x0000000000001cdc, R11: 0x00000000ffffffff

R12: 0x0000000000000001, R13: 0xffffff8145ddd0b4, R14: 0xffffff8145ddd000, R15: 0xffffff802d039800

RFL: 0x0000000000010286, RIP: 0xffffff7f8d749975, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010

Fault CR2: 0xffffff815ee0d000, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x0

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff816d0c3a30 : 0xffffff800c21d5f6

0xffffff816d0c3aa0 : 0xffffff800c2b7b95

0xffffff816d0c3c70 : 0xffffff800c2ce4ad

0xffffff816d0c3c90 : 0xffffff7f8d749975

0xffffff816d0c3db0 : 0xffffff7f8d7496f3

0xffffff816d0c3e00 : 0xffffff7f8d7496ab

0xffffff816d0c3e50 : 0xffffff7f8d749936

0xffffff816d0c3e80 : 0xffffff7f8d72e5d2

0xffffff816d0c3ed0 : 0xffffff7f8d72c59f

0xffffff816d0c3ef0 : 0xffffff800c647078

0xffffff816d0c3f30 : 0xffffff800c645b8a

0xffffff816d0c3f80 : 0xffffff800c645cb9

0xffffff816d0c3fb0 : 0xffffff800c2b2677

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.GeForce(8.0)[91C40470-82BA-329A-A9D7-4C70F28275FD]@0xffffff7f8d728000 ->0xffffff7f8d7eafff

dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(8.0.0)[6A699209-FB98-316B-A3C0-DCA82AA8C86B]@0xffffff7f8c8 d8000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3.4)[E37F420A-B5CD-38ED-9441-5247583B6ACE]@0xff ffff7f8c8c4000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7)[8C9E06A4-13D0-33F5-A377-9E36F0ECC229]@0xffffff 7f8c84d000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3.4)[5D671681-D21B-3CCA-9810-B15E648C1B27]@0 xffffff7f8c881000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:

12A269

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 12.0.0: Sun Jun 24 23:00:16 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.7.9~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: 8D5F8EF3-9D12-384B-8070-EF2A49C45D24

Kernel slide: 0x000000000c000000

Kernel text base: 0xffffff800c200000

System model name: MacPro4,1 (Mac-F221BEC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 5301841160285

last loaded kext at 3634913569837: com.apple.filesystems.afpfs 10.0 (addr 0xffffff7f8e1dd000, size 348160)

last unloaded kext at 83957516249: com.apple.driver.AppleIntel8254XEthernet 3.1.1b1 (addr 0xffffff7f8d43b000, size 69632)

loaded kexts:

com.squirrels.airparrot.framebuffer 3

com.squirrels.driver.AirParrotSpeakers 1.7

com.apple.filesystems.afpfs 10.0

com.apple.nke.asp_tcp 7.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch 75.15

com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.5d0

com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 4.0.9f8

com.apple.filesystems.ntfs 3.10

com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver 1.0.2d2

com.apple.driver.AGPM 100.12.69

com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver 122

com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.60

com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 2.3.0f2

com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.0d1

com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.5.10

com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.0.33

com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver 2.3.0f2

com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHCIControllerUSBTransport 4.0.9f8

com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0

com.apple.GeForce 8.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.6.0

com.apple.driver.ApplePolicyControl 3.2.6

com.apple.driver.Apple_iSight 4.0.1

com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleRAID 4.0.6

com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 404

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.2.0

com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.5.1

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 5.1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.9.5

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1

com.apple.BootCache 34

com.apple.driver.Intel82574L 2.3.0b4

com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 5.1.5

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 5.1.5

com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.6.1

com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.5

com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.7

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.9

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 196.0.0

com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 4.0.39

com.apple.security.quarantine 2

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 196.0.0

com.apple.security.SecureRemotePassword 1.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 165.5

com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver 4.0.9f8

com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver 235.27

com.apple.kext.triggers 1.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 10.0.6

com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 2.3.0f2

com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 86.0.2

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 4.0.9f8

com.apple.iokit.AppleBluetoothHCIControllerUSBTransport 4.0.9f8

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController 1.0.10d0

com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 2.2.5

com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.8.9fc9

com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 2.3.0f2

com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 2.3.0f2

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI 1.0.10d0

com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal 8.0.0

com.apple.NVDAResman 8.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleGraphicsControl 3.2.6

com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.3.4

com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.3.4

com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.3d11

com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 5.2.0d16

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 5.1.5

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 5.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 3.5.1

com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.7

com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.7.1

com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.7.1

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI 2.5.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 3.5.1

com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.5.5

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 5.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 3.0

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.2.0

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 5.1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.6.1

com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.8.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1

com.apple.security.sandbox 220

com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1

com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 7

com.apple.driver.DiskImages 344

com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.8

com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore 28.18

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.6

com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.7

com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.4

com.apple.kec.corecrypto 1.0

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Answer 8

Kappy

Level 10

361,731 points

Aug 10, 2012 2:12 PM in response to Carl Sieber

Let's give this a try: reboot the computer into Safe Mode and see if the panics stop. If they do, then the problem is likely associated with the extensions installed with the AirParrot software.

If the above doesn't help then create a new admin user account. Log out of your account and log into the new one. Do the panics cease?

If in the process of dealing with your problem you have not cleared out cache files, then I suggest downloading a utility such as Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner 7.0 and clearing out all user, system, and font caches.

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Answer 9

Carl Sieber Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 10, 2012 2:46 PM in response to Kappy

My machine would not boot into safe mode. I've since called Apple Support and have been escalated to a Sr. Tech.

I have already run through the range of quick fixes (clearing caches, repair permissions, reset p-ram, etc...). I'll reply with more details once Apple has had a chance to straighten it out.

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Answer 10

Aug 10, 2012 2:59 PM in response to Carl Sieber

Can you try uninstalling AirParrot and seeing if the problem goes away:

com.squirrels.airparrot.framebuffer 3

com.squirrels.driver.AirParrotSpeakers 1.7

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Answer 11

Aug 11, 2012 12:05 AM in response to Carl Sieber

Hey Carl,

I'm in the same boat as you. (To clarify, I mean I am having seemingly "random" kernel panics throughout the day).

I will immediately say this: hold off on doing any more drastic measures to try to alleviate this issue (reinstall ML, etc); I can pretty much guarantee you they're not going to work.

Important: if you experience a kernel panic, do not "zap the PRAM" upon restart, as that will discard the kernel panic log that's stored temporarily in NVRAM until startup, where OS X saves it to a .panic log file.

You mention dual video cards: what model video cards do you have and what kind of arrangement (cards + resolutions would help)?

Here's the panic log I'm getting:

Sat Aug 11 02:04:56 2012

panic(cpu 14 caller 0xffffff80070b7b95): Kernel trap at 0x0000000000000000, type 14=page fault, registers:

CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x0000000000000000, CR3: 0x0000000009744000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660

RAX: 0xffffff801ad06400, RBX: 0xffffff802593b800, RCX: 0xffffff7f885fa6f8, RDX: 0xffffff7f885fa874

RSP: 0xffffff811f4e3d88, RBP: 0xffffff811f4e3db0, RSI: 0xffffff802593b800, RDI: 0xffffff801a2db000

R8: 0x0000000000000000, R9: 0xffffff801c7f2ed8, R10: 0xffffff80d9205000, R11: 0x00000000ffffff00

R12: 0x0000000000000001, R13: 0xffffff80d93aa0b4, R14: 0xffffff80d93aa000, R15: 0xffffff802e606800

RFL: 0x0000000000010286, RIP: 0x0000000000000000, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010

Fault CR2: 0x0000000000000000, Error code: 0x0000000000000010, Fault CPU: 0xe

Backtrace (CPU 14), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff811f4e3a20 : 0xffffff800701d5f6

0xffffff811f4e3a90 : 0xffffff80070b7b95

0xffffff811f4e3c60 : 0xffffff80070ce4ad

0xffffff811f4e3c80 : 0x0

0xffffff811f4e3db0 : 0xffffff7f885fa6f3

0xffffff811f4e3e00 : 0xffffff7f885fa6ab

0xffffff811f4e3e50 : 0xffffff7f885fa936

0xffffff811f4e3e80 : 0xffffff7f885df5d2

0xffffff811f4e3ed0 : 0xffffff7f885dd59f

0xffffff811f4e3ef0 : 0xffffff8007447078

0xffffff811f4e3f30 : 0xffffff8007445b8a

0xffffff811f4e3f80 : 0xffffff8007445cb9

0xffffff811f4e3fb0 : 0xffffff80070b2677

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.GeForce(8.0)[91C40470-82BA-329A-A9D7-4C70F28275FD]@0xffffff7f885d9000 ->0xffffff7f8869bfff

dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(8.0.0)[6A699209-FB98-316B-A3C0-DCA82AA8C86B]@0xffffff7f878 e1000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3.4)[E37F420A-B5CD-38ED-9441-5247583B6ACE]@0xff ffff7f878cd000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7)[8C9E06A4-13D0-33F5-A377-9E36F0ECC229]@0xffffff 7f87579000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3.4)[5D671681-D21B-3CCA-9810-B15E648C1B27]@0 xffffff7f8788a000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:

12A269

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 12.0.0: Sun Jun 24 23:00:16 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.7.9~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: 8D5F8EF3-9D12-384B-8070-EF2A49C45D24

Kernel slide: 0x0000000006e00000

Kernel text base: 0xffffff8007000000

System model name: MacPro4,1 (Mac-F221BEC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 7518876143375

I have an eVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition card in slot 1 running a display at 1920 x 1080, and the stock GT 120 in slot 2 running a CRT at 1600 x 1200 @ 75 Hz.

As far as I can tell, this kernel panic is caused by a bug in the new Nvidia drivers for ML, not by a hardware or software problem (at least one that we can fix by reinstalling, for example). The reason I say this is that on this very same machine I have Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, and Bootcamp w/ Windows 7 x86_64 installs and this setup is rock solid (and has been for years) on all of them. Also, after digging through some of my log files from earlier pre-release builds of Mountain Lion (back in late April and May), I have 3 occurrences of the same kernel panic with no third-party .kexts loaded.

I will probably submit an official radar tomorrow when I get a chance. Knowing your exact details and setup would help them reproduce this issue inhouse.

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Answer 12

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,179 points

Aug 11, 2012 12:19 AM in response to MarkDouma®

Hmmm… the common factor seems to be both of you have multiple video cards.

I've only got one and have had no issues.

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Answer 13

GeoXman

Level 1

5 points

Aug 11, 2012 4:25 AM in response to Carl Sieber

I only have one graphics card but I have problems as well. Today I noticed that the right click menu in my browser was appearing a few inches below on the screen. Then they actually started drifting diagonally down to the left and to hit a menu item was like playing a video game. I did all the stuff above and did a clean reinstall from my system. I was expecting an update from Apple but nothing yet. I have a real love hate relationship building with 10.8 so far. Great features but really causes some serious lag issues often. I am fortunate because I will be getting a newer macbook soon ( currently a mid-2009 13" macbook pro with 4 MB RAM) hope that fixes it. I am not a computer programmer or engineer but I suspected that it's my NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB graphic card that is the weak point, which seems where this thread has already concluded. If there is anything I can do to help you guys, let me know.

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP55.00AC.B03

SMC Version (system): 1.47f2

Serial Number (system): WQ******66D

Hardware UUID: *****

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

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Answer 14

Carl Sieber Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 11, 2012 2:32 AM in response to GeoXman

Interesting. My machine has two Nvidia GeForce 120's. I guess all I can do is let the tech know and hope the upcoming update takes care of it.

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Answer 15

Aug 11, 2012 12:15 PM in response to Carl Sieber

Just to let you know, I also cannot get my Mac Pro machine to boot into safe mode (on this ML install). I get the spinning indeterminate progress circle, then a gray progress bar below that. The progress progresses to about 1/5 or 1/6 the total length and then the system basically reboots itself.

BTW, I also have a software RAID 0 setup for my ML install, and lack a recovery partition, which may have something to do with it.

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