Console question (learning)

[indefatigable]

Hey. So I recently posted a thread about a random "freeze" I had in leopard. After it occurred, I found it very interesting going through these forums and learning more than I knew about how OSX worked. In particular, I decided to peek in the console log and see if anything obviously horrible happened when my system froze.

When my computer froze, I was actively in Firefox, and while other programs were open, none had docs open. However, only a few apps show up in console, and I was wondering why that was.

For example, apple and the OS log things (obviously), and so does the CS suite, office, and symantec. However, I don't see anything from Firefox, mail, etc. Why is this?

Thanks!

 

[Eidorian]

I've had FireFox cause system hard locks with nothing written to the log before.

 

[indefatigable]

That helps a little for my problem, however, I'm not seeing anything in the log from Firefox at all when I open/quit, etc. Same for mail.

I was just curious as to why they don't log. Or should they be?

 

[indefatigable]

Wait... Sorry, I know this is kind of stupid. You'd think I'd know how my computer works better, considering I've worked on them and owned them for 6 years.

Anyway, do certain programs not log very often or at all? Is this why I don't see anything from Firefox or some other basic apps, because they aren't changing anything and working properly?

 

[TH-Gunner]

Hey, I've recently had two crashes while using Firefox as well. These were the only crashes I've ever had on my mac in the 1.3 years I've had it.

Also, both times it happened, it seemed like FF was doing something rather "intensive." Once, it was loading a video, the second time, it was loading someone's facebook page (which seems to be intensive, for some reason.) However, I didn't get a blue striped screen. Instead, the system just completely locked up. I couldn't move my mouse, and the clock stopped - everything. I let it run for about 5 more minutes, and the fans kicked up, so I guess an infinite loop was engaged.

I'm wondering if the problem actually is FF... I found no logs in the crashreporter folder or anything.

 

[Eidorian]

Hey, I've recently had two crashes while using Firefox as well. These were the only crashes I've ever had on my mac in the 1.3 years I've had it.

Also, both times it happened, it seemed like FF was doing something rather "intensive." Once, it was loading a video, the second time, it was loading someone's facebook page (which seems to be intensive, for some reason.) However, I didn't get a blue striped screen. Instead, the system just completely locked up. I couldn't move my mouse, and the clock stopped - everything. I let it run for about 5 more minutes, and the fans kicked up, so I guess an infinite loop was engaged.

I'm wondering if the problem actually is FF... I found no logs in the crashreporter folder or anything.

That's pretty much the situation that occurs on my MacBook. I think it might be related to the Flash plugin. Not that I can confirm that.