Problem: Finder Crash on Disk Get Info

Hi,

I'm just getting started with Parallels Beta 4 running on my MacBook Pro running 10.4.6 and both of the recent firmware upgrades (1.0.0 and 1.0.1) installed. It has 2 GB RAM, which passes three rounds of MemtestOS|X in single-user mode. The computer passes the long form of the Apple Hardware Test.

Yesterday I installed Parallels, and created a VM for Windows XP with a 50 GB virtual disk file residing on an external FireWire drive and installed a very recent release of the OEM form of Windows XP (SP2, of course). I ran the VM throughout the install, installed the Parallels Tools, did a bit of tuning and tweaking (set up a 1200x800 display, ran Windows Update as far as it would got without Activation, set up Windows Explorer defaults and a backround image, not much more than that) and then shut down. Everything went perfectly smoothly with this.

The next day (today) I started it up again and booted Windows in the VM and all was well. I switched to the Finder, opened a default view and right-clicked (using an attached Mighty Mouse) on the MacBook's internal drive icon and did a Get Info. At this point, the Finder crashed.

I submitted the problem report to Apple through the built-in crash reporter software that activates whenever an application crashes. The symptom was repeatable and continued even after the Parallels VM was shut down. I then booted with the Apple installation disc and verified the file system using Disk Utility and no problems were reported.

I've attached the log entry for this crash.

As an addendum of sorts, upon rebooting after performing a lengthy round of diagnostics subsequent to the Finder crash symptom, I found other spurious symptoms such as the inability to save files on my internal hard drive and the Finder hanging when attempting to mount a network share and the inability to unmount ("eject") the FireWire drive. After the Finder hung, the AFP Client also hung, in a tight loop consuming all the CPU it could get, just as the Finder had been (before I force-quit it).

All of these symptoms started happening after rebooting the VM-hosted Windows XP, so it seems quite clearly related in some way to Parallels.


As it stands, I cannot really use Parallels, since it renders my system unstable and unusable. I will continue to monitor the forums and when Beta 5 is available, I'll try that.


Randall Schulz

 

Hi,

I'm a little surprised I got no response on this. It’s a serious problem, and it seems solidly tied to Parallels.

Was the timing of the posting bad—the weekend, i.e.? Did it escape the attention of everyone at Parallels?

If I can help diagnose the problem further, I’d be happy to try. I was wondering it it might have something to do with the fact that I put the Parallels virtual drive file on an external drive.

Randall Schulz

 

Hi, Randy.

Sorry, this problem has really escaped from our attention. But actually, it's pretty hard to find connection between these Finder crashes and Parallels VM - did you try to reproduce the same thing without Parallels ? We will surely check this out before the Release, but could you please provide us ewith some more info on this ? How could we reproduce this by steps ?

 

{forum problems - second copy removed}

 

It’s very reliably correlated. The steps I gave will reliably reproduce the problems on my system. I’m not sure what else to try, since as I say, it happens whenever Parallels has been launched and never when it has not and renders my system for any practical purpose useless.

As I mentioned, too, the Finder crashing was one symptom, but the next time I tried to reproduce, the symptoms were different, but sill strongly correlated with Parallels and Parallels alone.


Randall Schulz

 

i can't reproduce it on my system. I have used all of the betas so far and never saw this issue. What kinds of things do you have starting up on the OS X side? Is it possible to reproduce this after launching another application?

HTH,
-Levi

 

I have nothing like these symptoms or any other similar flakiness under any other circumstance than launching a Parallels VM but it shows up immediately when I do that. So far I have only the one VM configured. It's running Windows XP Pro and uses a 50 GB non-expanding virtual drive that's being stored on an external FireWire drive.


Randall Schulz