crashed: too many corpses being created

So, here is the latest solution from Apple:

1. Restart your Mac and hold down Command-R tostart up from macOS Recovery.
2. If the startup drive has FileVault turned on, open Disk Utility and proceed with the next step. If FileVault is off, skip to step 5.
3. Select the startup drive and click Mount in the Disk Utility toolbar. When prompted, select a login name and enter the password. Then click Unlock to mount the startup drive.
4. Quit Disk Utility.
5. Choose Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.
6. Type this command in Terminal:cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/db/caches/opendirectory/
   Modify the command to reflect the name of the startup volume if it's not Macintosh HD. Remember to use an escape character \ before each white space in the command path.
7. Press Return.
8. Type this command in Terminal:mv ./mbr_cache ./mbr_cache-old
   The mv Terminal command is safer than the rm command. Errant white space in an rm command can destroy the user's data.
9. Press Return.
10. Quit Terminal.
11. Choose Apple () menu > Restart.

The first startup after running these commands takes longer than usual as the cache is recreated. Subsequent startups will take the normal amount of time.

Hope this will help you 🙂

Frank

So, I’m having the exact same issue on my recent install of High Sierra.

Having attempted to reinstall OS X multiple times, I’m almost at the limit of my patience. Even more frustrating is that I made a small partition on my HD and ran a clean install of High Sierra there, which works perfectly.

What Zcomuto was probably referring to is “OSInstallerScripts” - this is/was an option

that OS X’s installer app used to offer in a customisable install. It is used to install or repair the boot script that required for a Mac after a new install of OS X. Only problem is that OS X installer doesn’t seem to offer a custom install option anymore, so you can’t specifically choose to do this anymore (except for the developer beta installer, which is customisable, according to info found on Google)

I found this out by starting up my broken install in single-user verbose mode and tracking the script. I got an infinite amount of lines telling me each individual process had “crashed” with “too many corpses being created”. I had (and still have) no idea what this means, but found online that people installing older versions of OS X (and Hackintoshes, by the way) were able to fix the same problem, by running a custom install and selecting OSInstallScripts only, without reinstalling the whole OS

I’m posting this so people with the same issue today might know what they’re dealing with, and in the faint hope that anyone reading knows how to isolate OSInstallerScripts, to run for an install of High Sierra.

The following didn't work for me, but creating/fixing the file rc.server has worked for many others with a similar problem. To do this, boot up your Mac in Single User mode (hold Cmd+S immediately as you hear the Apple chime).

Once the initial verbose script has finished loading, enter the following two lines:

mount -uw /

/usr/bin/nano /etc/rc.server

The first line allows your Mac's system files to be written to. The second line opens/creates rc.server as a file, using the nano process. Once the file opens, delete any script that already exists (don't worry if it's empty) and then enter the following two lines:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/sbin/BootCacheControl jettison

Once finished, save your changes with Ctrl+O and then exit nano with Ctrl+X. Your Mac may then automatically reboot, but if it returns you to Single User mode, enter the following line:

reboot

Credit to Chris Hotte (a.k.a NightFlight) for originally discovering this fix

Hope this works for you!

Note: if you're using a UK-type keyboard like myself, you might have a hard time creating the # hash symbol required for the rc.server script. UK input requires Alt+3 to create #, but Alt seems to have no effect within Single User mode. To get around this, I used Recovery Mode (boot up and hold Cmd+R) and changed my input to a US keyboard, then rebooted. US input uses Shift+3 to get #, which works fine in Single User mode

Thanks for the kind answer Federica,

I also solved my problem, using another more appropriate Thread. There seems to be a general problem with "not so new" iMacs (my one is of 2014) and High Sierra. The iMac was healthy and the disk too, because I run the diagnostic (that part, worked). It was a pure software problem (thanks, Apple).

I restored to my last Time Machine backup (unfortunately 15 days old) and now it works again. But many other people experienced problems like the one that occurred to me.

Regards

Claudio

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8150691?answerId=32666713022#32666713022

Sticky bandit, this is very similar to my solution, I described here:

Boot failure after High Sierra Update

I simply migrated everything from the faulty volume, for the OS itself wont't be migrated and therefore the "too many corpses being created" error stayed away. We really got everything back. Hooray!

Good luck to everyone with the same problem!

Greetings from Hamburg

I have the same problem on my iMac 5K mid-2015 and a boot disk on external USB3 Seagate drive (new).

I've read many, many forums full of people reporting the same bug, and I've been in contact with Apple "assistance" for the last 3 weeks without an official solution!

It appears, comparing some users ideas, that creating a new user with the same short name as the buggy one in another partition with a fresh installation and importing the old data could solve the boot problem.

Now what really upsets me is Apple doing nothing to fix that bug! Or even denying... I'm an Apple user since 1985 and I'm so deceived.

Anyway my suggestion for everybody is to write a public tweet to the Apple Support, then a DM to open a case number and ask to send you the "Capture Data" software to send them a full diagnostic. Then submit a bug on this page: Feedback - macOS - Apple

It is unacceptable so many Apple customers are having the same boot problem, and no official fix! We must report the bug as much as we can.

I'm a very experienced Mac tech support consultant, yet I've been grappling with the "too many corpses" problem since yesterday. I tried a number of approaches, but was confident that a simple solution existed. YOU MAY NOT HAVE TO ERASE YOUR HARD DRIVE, or reinstall Mac OS. I found a couple of postings that explain this surprisingly quick solution. If you're able to get into Recovery Mode utilizing CMD-R, and you're not afraid to work in the Terminal program, THIS WORKS! If you follow these steps EXACTLY, a bad file named "mbr_cache" will be rebuilt and your Mac will reboot successfully (slowly the first time as the rebuild happens, then normal speed after that). This solution worked on my 2011-vintage 21-inch iMac (iMac 12,1) with Mac OS High Sierra. Someone should tell the Apple Geniuses and Tech Support Specialists about this. Or, better yet, they should be able to find these types of solutions themselves. Good luck!

The two articles where I found this solution are:

macos - Opendirectoryd too many corpses being created - Ask Different

https://mrsystems.co.uk/blogs/news/too-many-corpses-being-created

Steps from the articles:

1. Boot and hold CMD-R to start up from macOS Recovery
2. If Filevault is on, mount the disk with Disk Utility and enter password
3. Enter these two commands in Terminal

4. cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/db/caches/opendirectory

5. mv ./mbr_cache ./mbr_cache-old

6. Exit from Terminal
7. Restart the computer

Hi AlexGzz

The command jettison should be part of the second line of code, i.e:

/usr/sbin/BootCacheControl jettison

- with no line breaks

If this doesn't work, it seems like you have a similar issue to my own. If you start up in Single User mode and then continue to boot by entering exit <and pressing enter>, could you advise what the last lines of code are?

Hi. Since the code didn't worked for me and I needed the iMac working I restored the last time machine system backup. It took about 2 hours but the imac got to work all the day with no new issues so far.

Hi,

I understand most of the part, but the one i don't undertsand is : delete any script that already exists.

Since I've upgrade to high sierra, my mac won't open (stuck on the apple logo). I've try a lot of thing, but nothing is working.

Hi everyone

after installing High Sierra I think I’m experiencing the same. My iMac reaches only the end of the progress bar under the Apple logo and then hangs there indefinitely. In the verbose mode safe start I get all these messages “too many corpses being created”.

Can someone please provide a simple explanation what’s going on and how to solve the problem?

thanks a lot in advance

best regards

Claudio

Hi Claudio,

after some attempts, some found in this topic others elsewhere, I could not solve the problem by myself and I brought my macbook in assistance: the hardisk was broken and I had to replace it. I hope it's not the same for you and that the problem can be solved more easily.

by

Federica

Hi everyone,

I’ve been following this discussion because this problem happened to me too, just yesterday. I own a MacBook Pro 13 inches Early 2011 and unfortunately I have no Time Machine Backup.

- I tried reinstalling High Sierra but it didn’t work.

- I tried with the nano CommandCache modification but it didn’t worked neither.

- I tried to fix it from the Command+S mode with the fsck codes, but is still stocked.

- Command+Option+P+R makes no difference.

- Fix HD from Disk Utility was useless too.

Here is an idea, but I would appreciate your advices before I do this, my info and my work is highly compromised.

1. Make a partition of the HD and use the Clean part for the process.

2. Re install MacOS High Sierra in the clean part (I don’t know if that’s possible)

3. If the second step works I will be able to Open my desktop but my data will be hold in the “dirty” part of the HD

4. Using Disk Utility App, plug in an external Hard Drive and use the option Restore. This will give the option to restored it from a different image (in this case, the dirty part of the HD) copy all items there.

5. Open the External Hard Drive in another computer and take the essential info out of it. Format the External Hard Drive and them copy the info back, to paste it in the clean version of the HD.

Thanks! And BTW it’s really bad to read this is happening to so many users.

Apple do something about it!

Hi

same problem with my IMac with high sierra.

I called Apple Assistance and talked about DSMOS and “too many corpses being created”.

they asked me to follow all rebooting steps already done but it was useless.

I tried this topic and I’am still waiting for my computer to end rebooting...

It is a shame for Apple not to cope with this problem seriously.

I have yet to try restoration from time machine.

Agree! It is a shame. But we are Apple customers so it’s our problem, not theirs :-/. I had to recover via Time Machine and everything was fine again. Will NEVER NEVER again install a new OS until the next one “super perfect” OS is coming out. THEN I will install the previous one.