what is kernel panic?

[toughboy]

few days ago my powerbook started showing a screen at the startup, with a picture of on/off button half-transparent and some writings in different languages telling me that I should restart my computer..

after investigating what may have caused the problem, I realised that the problem started after I installed my airport ext. card and so it is not working properly and causing that problem in the OS. so I just took off the card and my PB started working without crashing.. I asked a long-time-mac-user friend about the problem, and he said it's called "kernel panic" and usually happens when the computer has a hardware problem.

So, I just want to learn more about this "kernel panic" thing? could my powerbook be made fault just from the beginning or is it about the airport ext. card? what generally causes the kernel panic?

 

[Chappers]

macosx is having the panic - are you getting any desktop or just the thing to tell you to restart. Are there any other choices?

Iyi gunler

 

[Grimace]

a kernal panic is like the software having a domestic dispute with the hardware. It means you've crashed the OS, not just a program - hard to do. Frequently, people who unplug digital cameras, ipods, etc - WITHOUT ejecting them on the desktop first, get kernal panics.

 

[PlaceofDis]

a kernal panic is the result of your mac trying to do something and running into a brick wall

the reason for kernal panics can vary from printer drivers, usb devices, airport extreme, ram, ect ect

since you think it is your airport ex. card, which it sounds like it is, i would say that you might not have it seated properly in your Mac. This tends to happen a lot because the card has to be put in rather firmly, more firmly than most people realize. Since you have a powerbook you could go to the closest apple store and make sure that the card is in properly, i guess it could possibly be a faulty airport card, i havent heard about those yet though, but be sure that the card is in as far as possible on your book and then perhaps give it another try

 

[toughboy]

macosx is having the panic - are you getting any desktop or just the thing to tell you to restart. Are there any other choices?

Iyi gunler

I could not even see the desktop. It just had crash.

(size de iyi günler. )

 

[toughboy]

a kernal panic is the result of your mac trying to do something and running into a brick wall

the reason for kernal panics can vary from printer drivers, usb devices, airport extreme, ram, ect ect

since you think it is your airport ex. card, which it sounds like it is, i would say that you might not have it seated properly in your Mac. This tends to happen a lot because the card has to be put in rather firmly, more firmly than most people realize. Since you have a powerbook you could go to the closest apple store and make sure that the card is in properly, i guess it could possibly be a faulty airport card, i havent heard about those yet though, but be sure that the card is in as far as possible on your book and then perhaps give it another try

well probably it is about the placement of the airport card. because I had problems with installing it. but anyways, I'll show both my airport ext. card and my powerbook to the authorized dealer.

thanx all for the replies.

 

[Westside guy]

The kernel is the most basic, core level of your operating system - the part that is always in memory. Most modern OSes have a kernel of some sort (NT, Linux, OS X, Solaris, etc.).

A "kernel panic" basically means your core operating system has run into a problem that will not allow it to keep running. So the only actions that should cause a kernel panic are those that involve the kernel itself - and networking would be one of those (which is why your Airport Extreme card could cause it).

When there's a known action that can cause kernel panics consistently on many different machines, this usually means there is a bug in the kernel code. OS X is quite stable, but isn't quite at the level of BSD (from which it's derived) yet. I'm sure it'll get there though - it just needs time.

BTW this is why some people promote what's called a true microkernel (OS X isn't one). In a true microkernel, the actual kernel is only responsible for the initial boot, and then managing (starting and stopping) what amount to services that handle everything else - even low-level stuff like file system access, networking, etc. Because almost everything is handled by a process other than the true kernel, it is almost impossible to crash... in theory. In practice it seems to be quite difficult to write a true microkernel-based operating system. There's a project called "Hurd" that is the darling of some people in the Free Software movement. Hurd has been under development for something like 20 years, and is still basically unuseable - probably more the fault of the developers than a reflection of actual microkernel programming difficulty though. Hurd references are common in truly geeky jokes.

 

[QCassidy352]

when I first started using OS X, I tried to move the library folder... oop. Now there's a kernal panic-causing situation!

 

[Sparky's]

I love learning things in this forum.
Here's a site that may answer a few more questions.
http://www.macmaps.com/kernelpanic.html