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

Mar 1, 2018 5:49 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.

kraemies Author

Level 1

26 points

Jan 13, 2018 2:02 AM in response to John Galt

Thanks John. Have you, or anyone, hints which can help to resolve my specific startup issue?

John Galt

Level 10

155,882 points

Jan 13, 2018 7:43 PM in response to kraemies

Yet another one: Update .2Supplement crashing my MacBook & Safe Mode crashing too. Help

daDrop

Level 1

4 points

Feb 13, 2018 1:34 PM in response to rew10000

I id just about the same thing few days ago...but by showimg hidden files rather than using terminal.

http://capitoladesign.com/2018/02/10/osx-too-many-corpses-the-30-minute-fix-no-d ata-loss/

rew10000

Level 1

4 points

Feb 13, 2018 2:32 PM in response to daDrop

Yes, your post was really helpful, thanks. I just took a different approach leading up to the renaming, as I didn't have a second computer & didn't want to boot from another drive.

Feb 20, 2018 1:19 PM in response to masthax

The same thing happened to me yesterday and still I can't find a solution. I reinstalled but it does not fonction at all.

Feb 27, 2018 11:15 AM in response to rew10000

Hi, did you rename the "home" and "Volumes" folders too?

Mar 8, 2018 8:59 AM in response to josephb76

Try the solution explained by rew10000 it worked for me!

zineer

Level 1

4 points

Apr 14, 2018 6:24 AM in response to zeroknowledge

Yes!!! This worked for me as well! Thanks!!!

mkjones2

Level 1

4 points

May 2, 2018 12:34 PM in response to pbromelkamp

This worked for me after Security Update 2018-001! Thanks!

Feb 10, 2018 12:27 AM in response to Beauvoir17

You should reinstall the operating system but not from Time Machine unless you use a earlier backup other than the current one as it will hold the corrupted files. Better to install a new system an make sure it works before using Time Machine to install your files otherwise you just corrupt what you have installed. Time Machine works well if it backs up a working environment but if it is set to backup everything then that is what you get.

My computer seems stable since removing old kexts files, no more corpse files so far!

GLaker33

Level 1

13 points

Feb 24, 2018 4:07 AM in response to masthax

I have to say, ditto on everything you've stated. I have a mid 2012 MBP and have been using High Sierra for a couple of months without any problems. Just like you stated, woke up one morning, tried to boot it up and it was taking forever. Went to verbose mode and saw that it hung on "crashed: too many corpses being created". The OS was up to date and I had not installed an update in weeks - so that didn't cause the problem. I tried everything. Went to my nearest Apple Store and had their techs look at the problem. They tested the HD - no problem. They ran some other tests - no hardware problems. They tried to re-boot several times - same negative result. They did not wipe the hard drive rather tried to re-install High Sierra - no luck. Now, this doesn't sound like it took a long time, but I was in the Apple Store for literally 5 hours because everything they tried took hours. Finally, the techs, with my permission, erased the hard drive and installed a clean version of High Sierra. It finally booted up like a new computer, of course. I took my MBP home and the next day started to rebuild my accounts. I received a pop up message that there was an update to High Sierra that I should install. Thinking that I should install that update before I went too far in my rebuilding process, I installed the update. WOW! Right back where I started - failure to boot. I started to get "files missing or corrupted file" messages. I was ready to throw the MBP in the trash. Fortunately, several months before I updated to High Sierra, I made a bootable copy of my computer on an external drive. You might ask why I didn't go to this backup right away, but I had some data, since that backup was performed, that I didn't want to lose. That back up was still using El Capitan. Reinstalled from that backup and everything is working perfectly again. In conclusion, I think there are some major problems using High Sierra on older Macs at least. Makes me wonder if Apple cares about older computers. Kudos to the Apple Store techs though, no other computer company would do what they did - for free.

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