A strange "WINE" Process running in the background!!

[Vishy]

Hi all

Today with my newly reformatted and updated iMac (running system 10.6.7 with all updates in place) I suddenly had a MASSIVE drop in responsiveness, with the beach ball showing for ages without any action being possible. I have just reformatted because the system became corrupted and I could not mount my internal system disc at all by any means, even DiskWarrior could not resolve the problem, so retrieval and reformat was the only option left.

Anyway back to today's strange issue. The machine suddenly slowed down to more or less a full stop. Instead of restarting I was curious to see what was making this happen. So I opened Activity Monitor, and saw that everything was normal EXCEPT there was a process running with the title "wine" even though at this point I was not running any games or any other apps aside from Outlook for Mac, iTunes and App Store.

Wine was taking up a whopping 95% of my CPU... so I quit it and the machine immediately became responsive again, proving that that was the culprit.

Now my question is this. I do have a lot of games on this machine, but the only game I had run during this session was Battlestations Pacific Demo.app from Feral Interactive. At this point I did not have the program open. Aside from that I had had no games or other wine related applications running at all during the open session.

This is why I am assuming that the slow up was possibly the fault of the demo, in that perhaps it is the app that requires wine to run. Which means that it also does not quite wine when the game is exited.

So back to the question... Can any of you guys suggest what other explanation could be for wine running at all?
My basic Hardware overview is as below:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac10,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM101.00CC.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.53f13
(If anyone wants the full system profile I'd be happy to post it!)

 

[Vishy]

just had another look at the demo...

I just took a look at the package content of the game demo mentioned above. There seems to be no trace of a wine in the game It looks as though it is in fact a bonafide Mac game!!!! So I am still baffled!

 

[John T]

Have you tried going to > Log Out**** and then logging back in? This will effectively close down all running applications.

 

[Vishy]

@ JohnT

Hi John

No I know how to stop processes the question was not how to stop it but WHAT is it?

Anyway since then using Activity Monitor I have worked out what WINE is... It is my MacKeeper app that is the culprit.

I have MacKeeper virus protection on, and it seems it was running some "background" check, though the app itself was not open at the time... and as I said I had already stopped wine activity in AM anyway and regained full CPU use.

Well that, I guess puts that to bed. Just did not realise that there was anything in MacKeeper that would need to run wine... whatever it is in this case.

 

[GGJstudios]

Anyway since then using Activity Monitor I have worked out what WINE is... It is my MacKeeper app that is the culprit.

You don't need MacKeeper or any other antivirus app to keep your Mac malware free. As you have seen, some of these apps can do more harm than good. My best recommendation is to remove MacKeeper.

No viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

 

[Vishy]

@GGJstudios

Forgive me for saying so!!! but you really are not at all right. I've been an expert user of Macs for over 20 years! I have personally had to clean enough malware, trojans and worms from Macs to know you really don't understand the problem!

I have even had to recreate whole software CDs for software companies because, when we used to have CDs that were formatted for dual systems the Windows portion had corrupted the Mac Partition or some other malware attack that made the Mac partition useless or even dangerous.

The idea that Macs are immune to malware is a myth, comforting as it may be for Mac users it is nonetheless a falsehood. Yes indeed there are not that many of them, comparatively no where near as many of them as there are for Windows OS, but still there are many and they are growing in number if the analysts are to be believed.

For us old Mac users that was one of the most primary concerns when Macs changed over to Unix and Intel based systems. Now we have hackers out there who know how to make proper attacks on Macs too especially as the Mac market grows there will be more interest out there to find ways to hack into them. It is a challenge for hacker now and it will grow exponentially as the Mac market grows.

I believe that your tone is that of someone who thinks anyone putting protection on their Mac is a fool who worries too much!

Well sorry again but you really REALLY are wrong...

Oh well! Sadly it seems Mac users do more harm to the name of the platform than Windows users who refuse to take the platform seriously. They also forget that the Mac came before the PC in terms of defining desktop computing and most importantly what it means to design and create a functional GUI for facilitating the user experience of computers...

 

[Vishy]

Also just a little note... It has become a bit of an easy catch phrase this "In the wild" thing!!! It is stupid! It's just a nonsense, made up thing... In the wild!!! what a silly phrase that is. How many times have I had to reinstate peoples Macs because they threw out the user folder, leaving it in the trash fortunately, and then panicking because their Macs suddenly refused to start up anymore!? How many people, Mac users who've worked for years with the platform, who don't even understand the most basic functionality of their machines, such as how you even open a program? And buying into all the new catch phrases that come around every so often!

It's like saying that all, but ALL mac users are far too clever to fall for phishing or hacker tricks!!! No such thing. Most computer users (and I used to train people in computer use at university level, in London and Athens) panic all the time. If the computer asks them, for example, "are you sure you want to empty the trash?" (or some such thing) the majority, to my experience flinch and check and double check... Even when they deliberately dumped the file, the only file; that is in the trash... So tell me how many people out there would fall for the recent little hack with the messages that appear on their browser telling them that their precious little computer is in danger of imminent destruction?

I think the Mac community should sit up and take note. I don't think the present wave of attempts at hacking the Mac are too serious, they are as everyone in the know agrees, crude and amateurish! But how long before people start making serious attacks?

I don't think we should all go and curl up in cocoons now that we are no longer safe. The Mac is still the safest computing environment out there, but that does not mean we should sit around and feel smug about it either. There is no harm in being cautious. And the kind of chest thumping about there being no malware "in the wild" is just a little knee jerk response that has developed lately for those who are so loyal to the platform they would deny their Mac melting, on fire, just to say that they made the right choice of computer. (By the way once upon a time one of my old Powermacs actually did catch fire due to a massive electrical surge... It was a sight to see.

Anyway... I did not ask the question to start an argument nor to get advice on what programs I should use on my machine, I was just curious since I'd never associated Wine with any other function than making cross platform application use possible.

 

[GGJstudios]

I have personally had to clean enough malware, trojans and worms from Macs to know you really don't understand the problem!

First, how many of those were on Mac OS X? There have only been a handful of trojans that run on Mac OS X and no viruses. As I've said many times, there were numerous viruses and other malware threats to Mac OS 9 and earlier, but very few on Mac OS X, and no viruses.

I have even had to recreate whole software CDs for software companies because, when we used to have CDs that were formatted for dual systems the Windows portion had corrupted the Mac Partition or some other malware attack that made the Mac partition useless or even dangerous.

A Windows partition can't even access the Mac partition, unless you go to deliberate steps to make that possible. No malware can write from Windows to a Mac partition, unless the user has made such access possible though deliberate action.

The idea that Macs are immune to malware is a myth, comforting as it may be for Mac users it is nonetheless a falsehood.

Who is saying that Macs are immune to malware?

I believe that your tone is that of someone who thinks anyone putting protection on their Mac is a fool who worries too much!

No, if you actually read my posts in many of these threads and read the link I keep posting, you would know better. The danger is someone running antivirus on a Mac and having a false sense of security, thinking the AV will protect them from any future threats. Before you make assumptions about my position, read the link at the bottom of this post.

Also just a little note... It has become a bit of an easy catch phrase this "In the wild" thing!!! It is stupid! It's just a nonsense, made up thing... In the wild!!! what a silly phrase that is.

Read the link at the bottom of this post and educate yourself. It's not a "catch phrase" and it's not specific to Macs. Read and learn.

It's like saying that all, but ALL mac users are far too clever to fall for phishing or hacker tricks!!!

What are you talking about? There will always be neophytes using computers of all platforms, who don't know what they're doing. No software will prevent that. The best you can do is educate as many as are willing to learn.

The Mac is still the safest computing environment out there, but that does not mean we should sit around and feel smug about it either. There is no harm in being cautious. And the kind of chest thumping about there being no malware "in the wild" is just a little knee jerk response that has developed lately for those who are so loyal to the platform they would deny their Mac melting, on fire, just to say that they made the right choice of computer.

I don't know who you're referring to about being smug or not being cautious, but it's clear you haven't been reading my posts or the following link. Do so, and you'll learn something:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​