6 posts tagged “windows”

Sun Jan 27 19:59:23 2008
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x0039CD77): "m_free: freeing an already freed mbuf"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.0.2/bsd/kern/uipc_mbuf.c:2742
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x3aeef708 : 0x12b0e1 (0x455670 0x3aeef73c 0x133238 0x0)
0x3aeef758 : 0x39cd77 (0x48e03c 0x1 0x2117701c 0x3c893c8)
0x3aeef798 : 0x39d073 (0x1cfbbc00 0x0 0x3aeef7b8 0x3ad8eca8)
0x3aeef7b8 : 0x9cf821 (0x1cfbbc00 0x133db000 0x0 0x37adf78)
0x3aeef8e8 : 0x9d89e5 (0x1 0x0 0x3ad4c3d0 0x3ad8ed24)
0x3aeefc08 : 0x9dd93a (0x12a6b2c8 0x0 0x3aeefc38 0x3d9e57)
0x3aeefde8 : 0x9defb1 (0x12a6b2c8 0x12c 0x3aeeff08 0x127206)
0x3aeeff18 : 0x41d149 (0x12a6b000 0x30c5f80 0x1 0x19ccc1)
0x3aeeff68 : 0x41c2a6 (0x30c5f80 0x0 0x0 0xbfff7630)
0x3aeeff98 : 0x41bf88 (0x30cfc00 0x0 0xbfff7630 0x0)
0x3aeeffc8 : 0x19e2ec (0x30cfc00 0x0 0x1a10b5 0x2b49b80)
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0
      Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
         com.apple.driver.AirPort.Atheros(300.22)@0x9aa000->0xa34fff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family(200.7)@0x98c000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.4)@0x63c000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily(1.6.0)@0x64c000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
9B21

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.1.0: Wed Oct 31 17:46:22 PDT 2007; root:xnu-1228.0.2~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: Macmini2,1 (Mac-F4208EAA)

Happened twice today.

What sucks about MacOSX troubleshooting is that you I feel like a total n00b. On Windows I knew how to fix things and a crash like this happened maybe once or twice in four (4!) years with my laptop's XP (Professional install). I am not even sure if it happened really twice, I am pretty sure it only crashed once. Yeah, I know, I am a lucky bastard but what can I say. Also, my XP-install is four years old! It's the IBM install that came with my nifty X40.

Anyway, back to the crash:
http://timothyli.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/how-to-partially-fix-comappledriverairportatheros-crash/
(Summary in case the link stops working: Disable IPv6 on your Airport in System Preferences > Network > Airport > Advanced > TCP/IP)

Not sure why I had IPv6 in there to begin with. But now it's off! IPVv6 is dead anyway (sorry, I could not resist).

So I finally switched, or let's say - along with my IBM laptop, I now own a full flexed Mac Mini (2 Ghz core duo, 2 GB ram, huge harddrive and so on). The display I am using is my (old) DELL display, a 1704FPV - which I will replace sooner or later (with a larger DELL).

The initial setup (aka "getting up and running") took not even ten (10) minutes. Ten minutes from unpacking, hooking up all gear, starting, completing setup and being online. Here is the rest of what I installed and a couple issues I ran into on the way.

Here is the list of apps I got to "replace" my Windows:

1. Mac OS X 10.4 (Before: Windows XP Professional, SP2)
   Since I had used that at the old job, the switch didn't mean so much to me.
2. fink and Apple developer tools (Before: nothing like it)
   
3. Thunderbird (Before: Thunderbird)
4. Adium (Before: Meebo and Google Talk)
5. Transmission (Before: Azureus)
6. Aptana (Before: Nuphere PHPEd, but also Aptana)
7. svn-client through fink (Before: Tortoise)
8. VLC (Before: Media Player Classic)
9. Perian (Before: K-Lite Codec Pack)
10. Stuffit (Before: no need for sit's on Windows)
    
11. unrar through fink (Before: Winrar)
12. Plazer 3.0 (Before: Plazer 2.x)
13. NeoOffice (Before: OpenOffice 1.x/2.x)
14. Cyberduck (Before: Filezilla)
    

There's other thinks like that I replaced Safari with Firefox in order to get all my extensions back and so on, but apart from that the switch hasn't been too bad for me. I am evening using iTunes now. And I can say that I really recommend it to anyone out there struggeling on Windows.

Some things I (still) struggle with:

1. My Photoshop license does not "translate" to the Mac. So I am in need of buying a new one, but used Photoshop on ebay for the Mac is so expensive. For example, I have no idea why anyone (sane) would pay 200+ EUR for Photoshop 5.5. But people do it.
   Photoshop Elements is also not available for Mac, which means I have to buy Photoshop CS2/3 soon.
   
2. Quicktime works a lot better on the Mac, but some of it is just stupid. For example, they want you to buy PRO, so you can toggle subtitles. Like that is a PRO feature.
3. My printer (Samsung ML 1610) does not work - so far I tried using the 1710 driver, but that failed. On a sidenote, I think I have not dealt with drivers on Windows in four or five years. I guess you need them if you buy no-name stuff, but Samsung? At least, I expected them to have a native Mac driver.
4. StuffIt - with native ZIP-support, why is anyone still using this piece of junk?
   

Printer setup

I own a laser printer by Samsung (ML-1610), which does not have a native Mac driver. So the current work around is to get the ML-1740 driver and install it. It works. Just make sure you reboot after the install because apparently Mac OS X lost some Unix on way and requires a clean start every now and then.

Another shot worth while is Gutenprint - which I did not need, but it holds (alternative) drivers for over 800 models. In case of a Samsung printer, some people claim that samsung-gdi also worked well.

A false positive! Someone added distributed.net to the list of trojan horses and now each time I start up my laptop, I have to fight through a couple avira-popups which do not improve the start up by far. Hopefully this will go away soon - has been the first false positive in years of using AntiVir/Avira.

Working on websites, I've been using FileZilla for a long, long time now. Probably because for myself it is the #1 free FTP client on Windows which has a million features which most of the time only pay-ware on Windows offers.

So for example, as far as I know (and please correct me if I am wrong), there is no usable file transfer client on Windows which supports SFTP over SSH, except for WS_FTP and FileZilla. Which is probably one of the reasons why I always advocate the use of FileZilla whenever people ask for a recommendation. Which is also why I've recently donated a couple bugs to the FileZilla project on Sourceforge.

But this is why open source sometimes is so ridiculous:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=372241&aid=1704579&group_id=21558

So instead of a productive response he just claimed my hardware or drivers were broken and he simple refused any furter communication. I may add that my laptop maybe crashed six or seven times in over three years now - of those maybe seven times it crashed three times today because of a file upload in FileZilla.

The other times it was a driver issue indeed, but it also produced a so called "blue screen of death" which provided enough information to repair the software whereas this time I am left with nothing. Windows doesn't even want to send a report after I restarted.

Of course some may say, "He donated, so he expects high priority support.", but that's not the case here. It would be just as ridiculous if I had not donated and besides, I didn't have so much to give and only donated 10 bucks this time.

Following a couple different projects through mailing lists and forums, this is the way how many times open source projects are run.
Developers have their "I am spending my free time here, stfu."-argument point of view and like to bring it into any request/argument/discussion one has. People go on an ego-trip and think everyone has to appreciate it just because they spend time on it and so they reject feedback of any kind.

I am glad there are other open source projects like PEAR or for example the Zend Framework where bug reporting is  more appreciated.

Nearly all of the major, visible new features in Vista are already available in Apple's operating system, called Mac OS X, which came out in 2001 and received its last major upgrade in 2005. And Apple is about to leap ahead again with a new version of OS X, called Leopard, due this spring.

Read on.