Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Diggory Laycock · Oct 1, 2003, 06:11 PM

My powerbook beachballed on a logout. I waited five minutes just in case it sorted itself out. It didn't so I force restarted it.

On restart I am met with a horrible experience: When logging-in the Finder would crash instantly every time It tried to launch. The console mentioned CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData so I renamed my Finder prefs and it launched OK.

Then iChat and Mail crashed. I tried to look at the offending app's PLists but PList Editor crashed trying to load one.

I used the terminal to look at the Finder PList that I had moved - It was all nonsense - it looked nothing like a PList.

And now Mail Thinks I've never used it before.

Has anyone seen anything like this before?

All the Crash Reporter logs show the same kind of errors:

Code:
Console log:

2003-10-01 23:47:54.579 Mail[638] CFLog (0): 
	CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
	com.apple.iChat.plist -- /Users/diggory/Library/Preferences/
	The parser will retry as in 10.1, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
Oct  1 23:47:56 localhost crashdump: Crash report written to: /Users/diggory/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Mail.crash.log

2003-10-01 23:49:20.054 Property List Editor[642] CFLog (0): 
	CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
	com.apple.LaunchServices.000a95a095ec.plist -- /Users/diggory/Library/Preferences/ByHost/
	The parser will retry as in 10.1, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
Oct  1 23:49:21 localhost crashdump: Crash report written to: /Users/diggory/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Property List Editor.crash.log



Crash Reports:
**********

Date/Time:  2003-10-01 23:49:21 +0100
OS Version: 10.2.8 (Build 6R65)
Host:       DiggorysWideBook.local.

Command:    Property List Editor
PID:        642

Exception:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes:      KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x01993000

Thread 0 Crashed:
 #0   0x90165558 in __CFFromUTF8
 #1   0x901ac8cc in __CFStringDecodeByteStream3
 #2   0x901abdcc in __CFStringCreateImmutableFunnel3
 #3   0x9013ebb0 in _CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData
 #4   0x00004668 in 0x4668
 #5   0x932816c0 in -[NSDocument loadFileWrapperRepresentation:ofType:]
 #6   0x93281990 in -[NSDocument readFromFile:ofType:]
 #7   0x00004708 in 0x4708
 #8   0x931c5628 in -[NSDocument initWithContentsOfFile:ofType:]
 #9   0x931c5248 in -[NSDocumentController makeDocumentWithContentsOfFile:ofType:]
 #10  0x931c4a58 in -[NSDocumentController _openDocumentFileAt:display:]
 #11  0x93283cd8 in -[NSDocumentController _openFile:]
 #12  0x93207fb8 in -[NSApplication _doOpenFile:ok:tryTemp:]
 #13  0x93207e50 in _tryToOpenOrPrint
 #14  0x931615d0 in _requiredAEEventHandler
 #15  0x91b56570 in aeDispatchAppleEvent(AEDesc const*, AEDesc*, unsigned long, unsigned char*)
 #16  0x91b590cc in dispatchEventAndSendReply(AEDesc const*, AEDesc*)
 #17  0x91b56478 in aeProcessAppleEvent
 #18  0x96a83778 in AEProcessAppleEvent
 #19  0x9308e0a8 in _DPSNextEvent
 #20  0x930a0158 in -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:]
 #21  0x930b1d88 in -[NSApplication run]
 #22  0x9315fc58 in NSApplicationMain
 #23  0x00003e94 in 0x3e94
 #24  0x00003d14 in 0x3d14

PPC Thread State:
  srr0: 0x90165558 srr1: 0x0000d030                vrsave: 0x00000000
   xer: 0x20000000   lr: 0x9016539c  ctr: 0x9016538c   mq: 0x00000000
    r0: 0x00000000   r1: 0xbfffe5f0   r2: 0x24082280   r3: 0x00000800
    r4: 0x0197704a   r5: 0x00004a52   r6: 0x01992ffc   r7: 0xfffffa9e
    r8: 0xbfffe6e4   r9: 0x01993000  r10: 0x000000c0  r11: 0x00000030
   r12: 0x9016538c  r13: 0x00000000  r14: 0x00000000  r15: 0x00000000
   r16: 0x00000000  r17: 0x00000000  r18: 0x00000001  r19: 0x00000000
   r20: 0x00000800  r21: 0x0197704a  r22: 0xbfffe6e4  r23: 0x00000000
   r24: 0x00000001  r25: 0x00000000  r26: 0xfffffa9e  r27: 0x00004a4f
   r28: 0x0197704d  r29: 0x00000000  r30: 0x0000001e  r31: 0x9016539c


**********

Date/Time:  2003-10-01 23:47:56 +0100
OS Version: 10.2.8 (Build 6R65)
Host:       DiggorysWideBook.local.

Command:    Mail
PID:        638

Exception:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes:      KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x013ad000

Thread 0 Crashed:
 #0   0x90165558 in __CFFromUTF8
 #1   0x901ac8cc in __CFStringDecodeByteStream3
 #2   0x901abdcc in __CFStringCreateImmutableFunnel3
 #3   0x9013ebb0 in _CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData
 #4   0x9014d8a8 in _loadXMLDomainIfStale
 #5   0x9014d680 in getXMLKeysAndValues
 #6   0x9016c384 in _CFPreferencesDomainCopyDictionary
 #7   0x97e387b0 in -[NSUserDefaults persistentDomainForName:]
 #8   0x94ad7c30 in +[Person usesAlternateStatusImages]
 #9   0x94ad476c in +[Person _loadStatusImages]
 #10  0x94ad6284 in +[Person imageForStatus:]
 #11  0x00072cac in 0x72cac
 #12  0x00073200 in 0x73200
 #13  0x0002ab14 in 0x2ab14
 #14  0x00013e28 in 0x13e28
 #15  0x930a0534 in -[NSTableView drawRow:clipRect:]
 #16  0x941f82a8 in -[ASExtendedTableView drawRow:clipRect:]
 #17  0x930cede8 in -[NSTableView drawRect:]
 #18  0x930809ec in -[NSView _drawRect:clip:]
 #19  0x93096a34 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayAllDirtyWithLockFocus:visRect:]
 #20  0x930761e8 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #21  0x930765d0 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #22  0x930765d0 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #23  0x930765d0 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #24  0x930765d0 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #25  0x930765d0 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #26  0x930765d0 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #27  0x930765d0 in -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #28  0x930c8224 in -[NSFrameView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #29  0x930b2c14 in -[NSThemeFrame _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:topView:]
 #30  0x930963f4 in -[NSView _displayRectIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:]
 #31  0x930a5778 in -[NSView displayIfNeeded]
 #32  0x930b5608 in -[NSWindow displayIfNeeded]
 #33  0x930a03b0 in _handleWindowNeedsDisplay
 #34  0x90148464 in __CFRunLoopDoObservers
 #35  0x901487d4 in __CFRunLoopRun
 #36  0x90180f58 in CFRunLoopRunSpecific
 #37  0x969a3b70 in RunCurrentEventLoopInMode
 #38  0x969b3b00 in ReceiveNextEventCommon
 #39  0x969dabbc in BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode
 #40  0x9308dedc in _DPSNextEvent
 #41  0x930a0158 in -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:]
 #42  0x930b1d88 in -[NSApplication run]
 #43  0x9315fc58 in NSApplicationMain
 #44  0x00004464 in 0x4464
 #45  0x000042e4 in 0x42e4

Thread 1:
 #0   0x9002568c in select
 #1   0x90161830 in __CFSocketManager
 #2   0x90020c28 in _pthread_body

etc...

SMacTech · Oct 1, 2003, 06:24 PM

I have only seen this occur with low disk space and running certain apps which chew RAM like there is no tomorrow.

Diggory Laycock · Oct 1, 2003, 06:29 PM

OK - on closer inspection only the defaults of the apps that were running at the time got shredded - which was mercifully few.

Excuse me while I recreate 58 Mail rules and swear a lot.

SMacTech · Oct 1, 2003, 06:38 PM

Your rules may not be gone. I have transferred them between computers without recreating them. Will have to find my notes.
How much space is left on your drive?
All of this reminds me to run the following in terminal:
rsync -avz /Users/mactech /backup

rsync -avz /Users/mactech/Documents /Volumes/x2/backup

Faster than heck backing up files, as it only writes out the changes.

Diggory Laycock · Oct 1, 2003, 06:49 PM

Originally posted by SMacTech:
Your rules may not be gone. I have transferred them between computers without recreating them. Will have to find my notes.
How much space is left on your drive?
All of this reminds me to run the following in terminal:
rsync -avz /Users/mactech /backup

rsync -avz /Users/mactech/Documents /Volumes/x2/backup

Faster than heck backing up files, as it only writes out the changes.

There's plenty of room left - 22Gb

It turns out I was panicking unnecessarily, you are right - the rules have survived.

Yes, I really have to sort out a proper back-up system. RsyncX probably.