kraemies Author

Level 1

26 points

High Sierra: qmasterd/opendirectoryd: Too many corpses being created

Hi all, on our family white Macbook (2009), which used to work fine, we have since yesterday a spinning boot.

In verbose mode can be seen:

Waiting for DSMOS...

Process[187] crashed: qmasterd. Too many corpses being created.

Process[188] crashed: opendirectoryd. Too many corpses being created.

Disk tool first help and fsck are ok, I did not see errors in the details when I ran it.

I can also find thru the harddisk without issues at the recovery console.

So the filesystem is ok, and since it can boot in recovery mode, I assume hardware and filesystem are generally ok. Disk space is plenty.

Creating rc.server did not help. I reinstalled OS without a resulting change.

/var link also seems ok. I can change directories and ls in single-user mode, but not create files since mounted in read-only.

I removed the Mac from my WLAN (Fritzbox), so it cannot connect any more. No change.

I renamed the directores of the virus scanner as an attempt to isolate that. No change.

Attempts to start in safe mode are also unsuccessful. If anyone has a hint to start in safe mode with verbose, appreciated.

I don´t want to USB attach the disk to my other MPB to backup, and to later reformat/reinstall, without understanding the root cause of this.

I saw quite few other discussions on similar topics, without having found the right hint or solution.

Can you please help?

Many thanks / Stefan

VIN, MacBook (13-inch Late 2009), macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), Assume it is 10.13.2 - cannot check

Posted on Jan 10, 2018 9:14 AM

Top-ranking reply

frankv.

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Feb 17, 2018 7:41 AM

This should solve the problem:

If you want to remove all users (without removing home folders)

If you suspect that the local database which stores user accounts is damaged, follow the steps for the version of OS X you're using below. These steps remove all user accounts without removing their related Home folders, and make Setup Assistant open again.

Start up in Single-User Mode by holding Command-S when you turn on the computer. Wait until white text appears.

At the prompt, type each of these commands on single line as they appear below, and press Return at the end of each line.

mount -uw /

cd /var/db

mv dslocal dslocal.old

mkdir -p dslocal/nodes

cp -Rp /System/Library/DirectoryServices/DefaultLocalDB/Default dslocal/nodes/

rm .AppleSetupDone

reboot

Once the computer restarts, complete Setup Assistant to create the administrator user account again. When creating the account, the short name entered into the Account Name field should match the name of the user's home folder in /Users, so that the new user will use the existing home folder.

After Setup Assistant, open Terminal and type this command:

sudo chown -R username:staff /Users/username

Note: There is a space before "/Users/". Replace "username" with the user's short name that was entered in Account Name field during the previous step.

If there was more than user on the computer, use the Accounts pane of System Preferences to re-create any remaining users. When creating each account, the short name entered into the Account Name field should match the name of that user's home folder in /Users, so that the new user will use the existing home folder.

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42 replies

Feb 11, 2018 12:22 PM in response to kraemies

I have found a link that gives a description to make the Mac work again. See link below...

http://robinmonks.com/2018/01/crashed-too-many-corpses-being-created-how-to-reco ver-high-sierra/

May 14, 2018 5:59 PM in response to kraemies

This fix worked effortlessly https://mrsystems.co.uk/blogs/news/too-many-corpses-being-created

John Galt

Level 10

155,882 points

Jan 12, 2018 10:04 AM in response to kraemies

Can the virus scanner be the original cause? I doubt it.

So do I, but Rule 1 of using Macs is don't install junk. If you already installed it, Rule 2 is to uninstall it. Non-Apple "anti-virus" software is categorically worthless, can't possibly help, and its continued presence or potential latent effects of having used it will only complicate troubleshooting. Continued discourse regarding that subject will just be a waste of your time and mine.

Feb 3, 2018 1:01 PM in response to Claudiavilega

With regards to how I created the usb flash drive with the High Sierra Installer I followed the OSXDaily link below:-

http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/27/create-macos-high-sierra-bootable-installer-usb/

Running from the USB drive worked for me, twice now. Reinstalling takes a long time!

YAG887

Level 1

4 points

Mar 11, 2018 1:38 AM in response to John Galt

I'm in the exact same predicament as kraemis, and I have not installed any anti-virus nor any software that I would qualify as "junk".

I'm currently trying moving out some of the kext files - My files are backed up, but I would really prefer to avoid losing many hours for a clean reinstall of OSX.

Mar 24, 2018 10:04 AM in response to rew10000

THANK YOU!!!!

After trying Multiple fixes - this WORKED!!

I did return to the old Library directory as other posts suggested. Apps are working fine and I didn’t lose any data.

kraemies Author

Level 1

26 points

Jan 11, 2018 1:17 PM in response to John Galt

Thank you John.

"If you can get into Safe Mode then run EtreCheck." Unfortunately I cannot get into Safe Mode.

"/etc/rc.server" I tried before, but no change.

What I dont like is many others seem to have the same issue, and the only solution is to reinstall from scratch? This isnt Windows?!

Also I think unless this is properly diagnosed, so that workaround or solution exits, one may reinstall from scratch and end up having the same issue short time afterwards, after a lot of effort.

Isnt this for Apple to put the foot down to find the cause?

Thanks

John Galt

Level 10

155,882 points

Jan 11, 2018 6:08 PM in response to kraemies

Isnt this for Apple to put the foot down to find the cause?

Until some other cause is found, sure, but you wrote that you used a "virus scanner". That's a popular way of ruining perfectly good Macs. Apple has zero interest in Macs affected by such garbage and neither do I.

Why can't use boot Safe Mode? Did your "virus scanner" disable that ability?

kraemies Author

Level 1

26 points

Jan 12, 2018 1:31 AM in response to John Galt

Hi John,

I don´t believe the boot reaches the point where the virus scanner kicks in. So not sure if it is related to my issue.

I renamed the directories of the virus scanner, so startup scripts wouldn´t even find it. It also didnt make a difference to my startup issue.

This Mac is used by my Son, I can`t have it without. But I share your concern.

Can the virus scanner be the original cause? I doubt it.

Safe mode, the Mac won´t come up, like during regular boot. I don`t know how to enable verbose during safe boot, so I can`t see where it is stuck, assume it´s the same. As per documentation, I am supposed to hold shift until end of the boot, which never completes.

Thanks

Feb 9, 2018 3:29 PM in response to John Galt

Hi, I have exactly the same problem!

Suddendly my iMac doesn't boot cause is stuck with the progress bar at 100%. Starting in Verbose mode show the same error as yours (opendirectoryd too many corpses being created).

I've already reinstalled in all known ways without success :-(

We all should report this High Sierra bug to the Apple support contacts! I will open a bug case cause I think it's not acceptable one has to format the HDD for this kind of error!

daDrop

Level 1

4 points

Feb 13, 2018 3:11 PM in response to rew10000

Oh, that's nice to know. Thanks. I think doing it next time I would use your technique instead, but that is a lot of terminal for most people 🙂.

I'm going to add your solution to my page because it is more elegant. I'll give credit of course.

masthax

Level 1

4 points

Feb 19, 2018 9:17 AM in response to kraemies

This same problem came up to me out of nowhere. I've been running OSX High Sierra for some time on my 6 year old iMac now without any problems really (haven't reinstalled once in all those years). This morning out of nowhere my iMac quit working (rc.server not found, along with the corpse process messages).

I have not updated my system anytime recently (maybe 2 weeks ago last time) so that should not be the issue. I've scrolled over dozens of topics on apple, macrumor but in my experience 90% of the people here who suppose to give "support" on Apple forums are not even close to tech savy, I myself have an extensive background in Unix/Linux systems so first thing I did was all sorts of diagnostics and tried several "fixes" which resulted in absolutly nothing. It saddens me every time when I search for some fix for a particular problem in OSX Apple support forums are the worst of any kind when it comes to these actually having understanding of the problem and the system and clogs up my google search results with worthless answers or solutions. 99% of the comments are worthless junk and mainly boils down to, put back a timemachine backup or reinstall it... and that's exactly what I'm going to do now because I've been working for more than 5 hours to fix this ***** problem which came out of nowhere with no apparent cause.

Feb 21, 2018 7:47 AM in response to kraemies

Hi, I have exactly the same problem!

Suddendly my iMac didn't boot cause is stuck with the progress bar at 100%. Starting in Verbose mode show the same error as yours (opendirectoryd too many corpses being created).

I've already reinstalled in all known ways without success :-(

We all should report this High Sierra bug to the Apple support contacts! Post a tweet to @AppleSupport (so they cannot deny anymore there's a real problem), then write a direct message to open a case number and ask them to send you the "Capture Data" software to create a full diagnostic (it can be run on another partition of the same drive which is not booting). Then submit a bug on this page: Feedback - macOS - Apple

Feb 28, 2018 1:55 AM in response to rew10000

Solved! Thank you so much for your instructions. I also kept the "Volumes" folder but renamed the "home" one (it was empty). I also deleted the Spotlight and PKInstallSandboxManager-SystemSoftware files. Now the Mac is booting again! I hope this bug will be solved officially by Apple, we all should open a ticket with their tech support.

How did you delete the old system folders? With the usual "sudo rm" or else? I got an error with that, do I need to boot in Recovery or is it possible to delete them in another way? TIA.

Mar 1, 2018 5:48 PM in response to kraemies

Same thing here! I shut down my MacMINI last night and, when I went to boot it up this morning, the screen got stuck at white timeline at the end. Ive been trying all day to get this fixed. It Won’t start in Safe mode. Or recovery mode. No luck with DiskWarrior. Nothing.Nada. Zilch!!!

In verbose mode, i get the “opendirectoryd Too many dead corpses” error message. !

I need my MacMINI to be operating 100% soon. It’s beginning to look like this is some OS glitch from the recent update yesterday. Hope fully someone will find a fix long before Apple does.
Thanks in advance.

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High Sierra: qmasterd/opendirectoryd: Too many corpses being created