Console Yourself: Understanding Mac OS X Logs August 3rd, 2001. Underneath the bright and shiny new Aqua interface of Mac OS X comes a completely new Unix foundation that is unlike anything Mac OS. If your Mac is from 2012 or earlier and has OS X 10.8.3 or earlier, use the system software disc or USB flash drive that came with your Mac. Use Apple Diagnostics Print these instructions: Click the Share button in the Help window, then choose Print. A quick update on CandyBar! Updated for 10.8. First, we’ve updated CandyBar for Mac OS X 10.8! You can now customize the 10.8 system icons. Just launch the app and click the big “Update” button to get the latest IconData. But there’s a catch, or two: in Mountain Lion, Apple changed how the Dock is rendered, so it’s no longer possible to customize the Dock’s look.

• Understanding Panic Report For Os X 2017

How to solve Kernel Panic error

What is Kernel Panic?

Kernel Panic, though sounding scary, is simply an occurrence when your Mac keeps restarting for no obvious reason. Your Mac’s screen goes black giving you various warning messages like “You need to restart your computer.” Note that the presence of the warning message is what distinguishes Kernel Panic from usual Mac restarts and app crashes. In other words, Kernel Panic is just a Mac version of “blue screen of death” on Windows, but luckily, it can be fixed. So, let’s face the issue head-on.

Understanding Panic Report For Os X 2017

What happens is your Mac encounters a critical error that it can’t handle, so it automatically shuts down. If it happens rarely enough (like once in a few weeks) that shouldn’t be a trouble. A basic restart should help it. It’s worse when Kernel Panic happens regularly, especially if your Mac crashes right on startup. It might be a sign of a damaged hardware, which isn’t funny, given your Mac is almost unusable by that time.

What’s causing Kernel Panic on Mac

There are a million reasons. One user reported he had simply installed the iTunes folder on a different drive than a system one. But in 90% of cases software conflicts are to blame. Here’s a list of main suspects:

• Not enough RAM and lack of hard drive space.
• Outdated drivers or plugins
• Broken disk permissions
• Conflicting apps
• Hardware issues and incompatible peripherals

The first step should be to isolate hardware issues from software-related ones. It may be a combination of both, like when your RAM has turned off, while two apps are conflicting for memory. Anyway, there’s a path, laid out by great Mac experts which will now follow immediately.

Software solutions to fix Kernel Panic on Mac

1. Update all your software

Start by launching App Store app through Spotlight or Apple menu. Go to App store and click Updates to see the latest updates available for your Mac. If some tools haven’t been updated for long, it may well be the root of the Kernel Panic problem.

2. Find which apps are corrupted

If your Mac keeps crashing on a particular app, you know which one is to blame. That’s what you should do in this case:

1. Try updating the problem app and then reboot your machine.
2. If there's no updates or you cannot run them, delete and reinstall the entire app.
3. Alternatively, use a dedicated app-uninstaller tool.

If Kernel Panic occurs on random apps, you should look into deep-seated system drivers, specifically the ones that came with peripherals, like video cards, adapters, etc. Make sure you updated everything that deals with graphics, file system or networking. And, if it doesn’t help, here are more tricks.

3. Repair disk permissions

Sometimes applications are fighting each other in order to get access to files and folders. This is what disk permissions are all about. When your applications go awry, fixing broken permissions helps a big deal. Unfortunately, the option to manually repair disk permissions has been disabled in Disk Utility since OS X El Capitan. But if you are running OS X Yosemite or older OS, you need to:

1. Restart your Mac holding Command + R
2. Launch Disk Utility
3. Click First Aid > Repair Disk Permissions

If you’re on macOS Sierra or OS X El Capitan, the easiest is to fire up an app, like CleanMyMac X. The app has an advanced Maintenance module where you can repair disk permissions in one click. It also has the Verify Startup Disk command that may help you find Kernel Panic source.

4. Ensure you have enough free space on drive

Apple recommends reserving at least 20% of free space on your startup drive. Your Mac needs enough room to breathe freely. But when there’s lack of physical or virtual memory, your Mac’s performance drags down and Kernel Panic is quite common.

1. Choose Apple menu > About This Mac.
2. Switch to the Storage tab.

If your main volume is approaching full capacity, then you ought to make more room on it. The obvious solution would be to delete unused apps or whatever old junk is stored there. Or simply leave it to a dedicated app to free up your drive. For instance, try this one as it’s reported to find 74 GB of junk on an average Mac.

5. Launch Disk Utility

Kernel Panic may happen due to corrupted files or issues with external devices. Fortunately, Apple partially took care of this with their built-in Disk Utility. Launching Disk Utility’s First Aid tool would detect any disk errors and if it can solve it, you’re lucky again.

1. Choose Apple menu > Restart.
2. Hold down Command + R while you restart the computer.
3. Go to Disk Utility > First Aid.

Follow the onscreen commands and expect to see something like “Operation successful” in the report. In the worst case scenario, you might get “The underlying task reported failure” which suggests a disk repair failed. At this point you should start thinking about saving your data and reformatting the drive.

6. Disable startup items

There is a good chance login items are the reason your Mac randomly restarts. With dozens apps launching on startup, they could be too many for your processor to handle. To troubleshoot Kernel Panic, now your tactics would be to disable these programs and check how your Mac is behaving.
To disable login items, follow this path:

1. Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups.
2. Select your username in the menu.
3. Switch to the Login Items tab.
4. Choose a startup item you want to disable and then click the “–” symbol.
5. Restart your Mac to enable the changes.

Now, it’s time to put on your detective’s hat as we’ll be investigating which login item has been causing Kernel Panic. This time we’ll go in the opposite direction and will be turning on the login items — one at a time. If your Mac crashes after the particular login app is enabled, congrats, you’ve hit right on the nail. Note that you’ll have to reboot after each step, but finding the root of the problem is intriguing, right?

BTW, if you’re uncomfortable messing with system settings, there’s an easy alternative. CleanMyMac X, the app we’ve mentioned above, has a lot of tools for deep-level Mac maintenance. And there is a feature to disable/enable Login Items as easy as pie.

1. Download CleanMyMac for free.
2. Launch it.
3. Click on the Optimization module.
4. Go to Login Items.

Disable startup apps one by one.

Hardware fixes to Kernel Panic

All the connected hardware could be responsible for the crash fever on your Mac — it happens quite often, actually. So, let’s walk through the hardware solutions to Kernel Panics. And be prepared to restart your Mac a few more times when you follow the next tips.

1. Turn off peripheral devices

Just as we did with startup items, we have to figure out which exactly device is conflicting with your system. Now, you need to plug off everything connected to your Mac: printers, external video cards, network adapters, etc. Restart your Mac and connect one device at a time — if nothing happens, restart again with the new device plugged in. This trial-and-repeat approach should isolate the reason for Kernel Panic. Found which peripheral is corrupted? Well done, now reinstall it and update the software that came with it.

2. Run Apple Diagnostics

Depending on your OS, this built-in tool may be called Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test. These advanced Apple’s utilities shouldn’t be reserved for geeks only — in fact, they really save lives (okay, Macs).

1. Disconnect all peripherals.
2. Choose Apple menu > Restart.
3. Hold down D while you restart the computer.

Do nothing. Apple Diagnostics would launch automatically and test your hardware condition. If any problems are detected, you’ll get a detailed report which is now your official invitation to pay a visit to Apple Support.

The last-ditch solution to Kernel Panic

So, here we are. Nothing of the above helped and now you are desperately scrolling this on your friend’s computer (as your Mac keeps on crashing, obviously). In no way you should panic. Now, you can try a way that most definitely will save your Mac — reinstall your OS from scratch. It’s like starting a new life — and there’s nothing difficult to it.

If you’re running macOS Sierra, check out this article on how to reinstall OS.
Here you'll find instructions on how to reinstall macOS High Sierra.
If you wish to reinstall macOS Mojave, click here.

To reinstall macOS Catalina, follow these steps.

Hope this tricks helped you eliminate Kernel Panic. Mac should maintain its reputation as the best computer in the world, so let’s keep it healthy. Share this article if you liked it and thanks for reading.

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Kernel panics in OS X occur primarily because your Mac has faulty or incompatible hardware, or because you are using incompatible or poorly written kernel extension drivers. With either of these situations, the core system software component called the “kernel” may run into a fault from which it cannot recover, which will bring down the entire system. Kernel panics are relatively rare in OS X, but may occur if a piece of hardware has gone bad, or you introduce a bug by updating system software or third-party kernel extensions. If this happens, there are usually a couple of quick approaches you can take to overcome the issue.

Safe Mode

The primary cause for kernel panics in OS X is incompatible third-party kernel extension software. Since the core services in OS X require no third-party driver software, if you experience a panic, then first reboot your Mac into Safe Mode by holding the Shift key down when you hear the boot chimes. This will load only essential OS X software, and indicate so by displaying “Safe Mode” in the menu bar (your Mac will also run notably slower and have limited capabilities).

If your Mac boots, Safe Mode will ensure it remains remains stable while you investigate the cause for the problem. This is especially true if you run into repeated kernel panics. When in Safe Mode, your best approach for determining the cause of the panic is to look at the panic report. This may appear in an automatic popup window, but can also be found under the System Diagnostic Reports section of the Console utility, containing the date and time of the panic in its title and ending with the suffix “.panic” in its name.

These panic reports have three basic areas of importance associated with them:

1. The Backtrace

This section shows the memory addresses for the processes were active when the panic occurred, and will look like the following, with part of this section being a list of the relevant kernel extensions in the backtrace. This last part is the most important, which suggests the driver that is causing the issue:

In here, the line in red is the most recent Kernel Extension loaded, which suggests this is the root of the problem.

2. The process name

This section lists the process that caused the panic, which may indicate a specific program, or the “kernel_task” process itself, which is a more generic way of suggesting a Kernel Extension is involved. In general kernel_task or another process that is directly associated with kernel extensions (such as socketfilterfw for the firewall) will be listed:

3. The last loaded drivers

A final part of the panic report will list the most recently loaded drivers, which again can help confirm a specific Kernel Panic is involved. In this case, the last loaded extension is the one mentioned in the backtrace, suggesting it is the incompatible driver causing the problem here:

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It is useful to keep in mind that the driver or software associations in section do not mean they are at fault, but rather are the software that was perhaps included in triggering the fault in the process and corresponding kernel extensions in the backtrace. Often this is the same driver, but sometimes the associated driver is listed a few lines down. For instance, if Apple’s firewall drivers are crashing, you might see a driver such as that for the popular Little Snitch firewall software, or Parallels Desktop, or other software, listed in this area. This suggests the loading of one or more of these packages was involved with the panic.

Remove Faulty Software

Kernel panics may happen periodically on a healthy Mac for odd and rare reasons, so going about fixing them is not recommended unless you are experiencing regular panics. This is especially true when they occur in stereotyped conditions, like when launching a specific program.

To address most kernel panic situations, when in Safe Mode and with the faulty third-party software identified, you can look into uninstalling it either by contacting the developer, or by running a provided uninstallation program that may accompany the software. While you can attempt to manually remove third-party kernel extensions from your Mac, doing so is a more brute-force approach that should be taken as a last resort. Also note that in this approach, you should only consider removing third-party software, and not any core OS X components.

While removing just the kernel extension components from a third-party software package will likely cause problems with running that software, it should not affect how OS X loads, and should ultimately improve any problems you are seeing with this software package. If this gets the panics under control, then you can go about reinstalling, updating, or removing the faulty software.

You can get a quick and crude look a what third-party kernel extensions are on your Mac, by running the following two commands in the Terminal (run each separately):

Kernel Extensions will be located primarily in the following two directories on your Mac:

• Macintosh HD > Library > Extensions
• Macintosh HD > System > Library > Extensions

With the software uninstalled, you can now try rebooting normally to see if the problem persists.

Managing faulty hardware

If kernel panics will occur from loading Apple-provided extensions and other core system software, for the most part this means either another third-party software package is to blame, or that you have hardware faults at hand. This latter point is especially true if you see graphics-related extensions in the backtrace, or those for other hardware components (hardware sensor drivers, networking devices, etc.).

If you suspect hardware-related problems, then you can try several things to test the situation a little further. Naturally Safe mode is a good start, but this only limits the system so it will run stably, and is a difficult way to diagnose hardware problems as opposed to software-related issues.

1. Run Apple’s hardware tests — Restart your Mac with the D key held to load Apple’s hardware tests (hold Option-D to force-load these from the Internet). You can also use tools like Rember or memtest to run relatively thorough memory testing routines on your Mac’s RAM.
2. Install OS X to an external drive — Apple’s raw OS X software with no modifications should run any supported Mac hardware just fine, so you can test this by installing a fresh copy to an external drive and then booting to that drive. If OS X loads and runs fine from this drive, then you can likely rule out hardware problems.

Finally, if you have any third-party hardware installed or attached to your Mac, even if it is an upgrade like a new hard drive or more RAM, then consider investigating it. For RAM, you can run memory tests, swap out the replacement with your old RAM modules, or even try new modules (most have lifetime warranties against defects). The same goes for hard drives, though this can be somewhat tested using a secondary drive for a fresh OS X installation. Also consider checking any external device you have attached to your Mac via USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt, or any other hardware connection.

Managing drive formatting

One cause for kernel panics that can be relatively hidden is if your boot drive is failing. Anything from faulty sectors to firmware and controller faults with storage hardware can prevent OS X from loading necessary software or configurations, and thereby cause a panic, or hang. Unfortunately, OS X includes minimal options for thoroughly checking your hard drive, so you will have the following options for testing:

1. Thoroughly repartition and format your drive, followed by restoring your Mac from a recent backup.
2. Use third-party drive diagnostics software for running sector scans and checks.
3. Take your Mac in to an Apple Store for testing.

This last point will be the final step for managing any ongoing kernel panics, especially if you cannot seem to find the cause in hardware. If the hardware in your Mac is faulty, or the drive is failing, then you will need to have the system serviced.