kernel problems (please define)

[jvaska]

i just installed osx 10.1.3 and i just had a kernel panic...

what does this mean?

how can i fix it?

my machine is old...a G4/400/384ram...two hard drives...osx installed on a drive by itself...

what can i do to resolve this issue?

thanks...jv

 

[Taft]

This is a very hard problem to solve, but I can provide a single very frustrating answer...you have a driver problem.

Mac OS X's kernel is very solid and stable. The kernel provides your system with a single point through which all calculations/device requests go. The kernel is the brains of the system and controls everything on the system. It allocates time for each application running on the system. It is very important.

But out of the box, the kernel can't do everything. Lets say you wanted to add a SCSI card to your system so you can use a SCSI hard drive. Well Mad OS X's kernel (called Mach) doesn't know how to interact with the SCSI card. That is where the kernel extensions come in.

Kernel extensions (known as drivers throughout much of the computing world) allow you to extend the functionality of the kernel. This allows you to add new devices and capabilities to your computer.

The problem is that the extensions are not always written all that well. Every once and a while a badly written kernel extension could perform an illegal instruction. For a regular program, an illegal instruction isn't all that bad. Each program is in its own memory space and the kernel prevents the program from doing harm to other programs, including the kernel itself. A kernel extension is different. It runs in the same memory space as the kernel and is not completely protected from doing harm to the system and the kernel. Therefore, an illegal instruction can be quite devastating; it may cause a kernel panic.

Taft

 

[Taft]

How to fix it.

Un fortunately nailing down where the problem happened is a very hard thing to do. And fixing it is damn-near impossible unless new extensions have been written.

Fortunately for you, 10.1.3 isn't the latest and greatest Mac OS X. You can always update to the newest version which may replace some of the old extensions with newer, more stable versions.

Also, this may have just been a fluke. I personally haven't had a kernel panic since OS X public beta(on three machines), but they do happen. You may never have it happen again. You never know.

Finally, if you've installed a driver on your system since installing it, that may be the culprit. Look for a new version of the driver or uninstall it.

Taft

 

[jvaska]

hmmm...it happened just as i reinstalled osx on another drive...???

but i'll try the upgrade...

os x so far is turning out to be a royal pain in the ass for me (exactly why i wasn't orginally going to do this until the G5's came out...but forking mac is WAY behind on this)...argh...

jv

 

[AlphaTech]

memories

You could also have inferior memory installed. If you have any from Microtech (black and silver label) pull it and try again. Try with just the original Apple memory installed and no PCI cards. Do you have the Yikes or Sawtooth motherboard (PCI or AGP video card slot)?

 

[jvaska]

Do you have the Yikes or Sawtooth motherboard (PCI or AGP video card slot)?

yeah...i have the AGP...what does that mean?

something i need for this?

thanks...jv

 

[MacMaster]

Originally posted by jvaska


yeah...i have the AGP...what does that mean?

something i need for this?

thanks...jv

AGP means advanced graphics port. It's basically a faster PCI slot that is designed only for graphics. It is where your video card is. It's that simple.

-MacMaster

 

[AlphaTech]

Have you updated to the latest firmware??? You need to do that from within OS 9.x (a valid reason to keep OS 9 installed, for now).

Try resetting the open firmware as well (apple+option+o+f on boot and then type "reset-all" when you get the prompt).

 

[alex_ant]

10.1.3 is generally acknowledged to be the poorest 10.1 release. Use 10.1.5 if you can, it's quite an improvement. 10.1.3 gave me the infamous crash-on-sleep problem that didn't exist in any other 10.1 release.