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barbarian · Nov 10, 2003, 11:10 AM

I was networked to a computer when the second computer went out of range on my airport network.

My finder asked me if I wanted to disconnect. I said yes and then it went into endless spinning beachball mode. (at least at this location... this is what always happens if someone disconnects unexpectedly)

Force quitting the finder just brings back the finder complete with spinning beachball. Same thing with using the process manager to kill the finder.

I tried launching Pathfinder (luckily launchbar is installed), but it has the same beachball problem (although it can be force-quit).

The problem is I have a terminal program running that has been going for over 48 hours and has another 36 hours to go. And I need to use the finder for something else. Does anyone know if there is some way to get out of this safely. My tools: the terminal, launch bar.

This is a snapshot of my top:

PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
24369 fix_prebin 0.0% 0:00.59 1 27 32 356K 804K 1.18M 27.4M
23779 Finder 22.8% 65:52.65 2 96 181 3.62M 16.7M 20.0M 174M
23602 umount 13.6% 44:25.86 1 11 16 76K 324K 280K 17.6M
22718 perl 6.4% 4:14.25 1 11 80 11.7M 3.16M 14.0M- 35.0M
22716 perl 0.0% 0:00.29 1 11 33 3.54M 1.52M 4.69M 21.0M
22637 natd 0.0% 0:03.59 1 9 24 128K 408K 228K- 17.8M
22622 lookupd 0.0% 0:01.97 2 36 66 560K 820K 1.25M 28.5M
21939 Microsoft 0.9% 2:25.23 3 191 207 3.11M 22.6M 16.9M 174M
21663 tcsh 0.0% 0:00.06 1 13 22 316K 716K 900K 22.1M
21662 xterm 0.0% 0:00.20 1 11 63 464K 2.91M 4.11M 29.7M
21661 quartz-wm 0.0% 0:00.22 3 39 68 896K 4.46M 9.29M 112M
21659 Xquartz 1.5% 0:43.10 5 203 191 7.05M 14.4M 25.8M 175M
21658 X11 0.0% 0:00.05 1 19 27 160K 1.55M 1.68M 28.1M
21622 perl 0.0% 0:00.27 1 11 35 3.82M 1.52M 4.96M 20.9M
21620 Launcher 0.0% 0:00.07 1 15 21 188K 604K 1.27M 27.2M
21599 FinkComman 0.0% 0:07.80 5 96 253 4.69M 16.5M 26.5M 176M
19776 tcsh 0.0% 0:00.11 1 13 22 340K 696K 904K 22.1M
19775 login 0.0% 0:00.02 1 13 38 120K 416K 500K 26.9M
19699 iCal 0.0% 0:06.75 3 95 261 8.85M 19.1M 34.1M 178M
19696 Alepin 0.0% 0:07.54 6 113 282 10.7M 26.7M 35.1M 197M
19691 Microsoft 0.3% 8:20.97 9 214 332 16.6M 38.7M 27.2M 218M
19686 mvnotifica 0.0% 0:03.08 1 14 20 184K 460K 3.44M 26.9M
19683 Authentica 0.0% 0:01.70 2 26 84 408K 2.70M 6.15M 45.9M
19680 Dreamweave 0.3% 15:43.47 8 115 888 52.6M 75.7M 106M 371M
19669 QuickTime 0.0% 0:01.43 3 190 177 3.21M 21.9M 17.6M 180M
19666 Preview 0.0% 0:06.11 2 63 147 2.58M 9.32M 18.2M 163M
19356 check_afp 0.0% 0:00.73 4 38 34 364K 644K 3.98M 28.3M
19341 TinkerTool 0.0% 0:01.72 2 66 200 2.63M 10.5M 17.6M 165M
19307 AppleSpell 0.0% 0:01.49 1 63 38 712K 1.77M 2.14M 36.3M
19306 TextEdit 0.0% 0:05.15 3 104 150 2.31M 9.70M 18.0M 164M
19268 SecurityAg 0.0% 0:00.79 2 59 142 1.89M 9.69M 14.2M 163M
19227 iChat 0.0% 20:28.53 7 242 465 9.98M 21.1M 30.4M 196M
17796 tcsh 0.0% 0:00.05 1 13 22 344K 784K 908K 22.1M
17795 login 0.0% 0:00.01 1 13 38 124K 424K 500K 26.9M
14145 iTunes 0.6% 25:55.80 7 242 1624 51.2M 28.9M 73.6M 237M
10785 top 11.4% 0:03.45 1 16 26 552K 416K 2.02M- 27.1M
1007 iChatAgent 0.0% 0:27.97 4 65 57 752K 2.77M 8.31M+ 102M
983 System Eve 0.0% 6:18.28 2 62 127 1.24M 5.88M 8.99M 159M
661 Terminal 16.3% 4:20.59 5 73 222 5.11M+ 18.2M 20.2M+ 176M+
462 Adobe Phot 1.8% 30:56.00 3 102 925 127M 36.5M 117M 434M
395 Safari 12.9% 2:07:41 23 611 1484 145M 65.5M 167M 564M
386 Microsoft 0.0% 0:17.98 2 79 149 5.71M 7.56M 12.5M 156M
383 PowerMateD 0.0% 0:01.97 4 148 126 1.30M 6.38M 5.85M 152M
382 LaunchBar 0.0% 0:08.24 2 66 285 9.14M 12.1M 22.9M 173M

gorickey · Nov 10, 2003, 12:25 PM

Fast-User switch to another user?

barbarian · Nov 10, 2003, 12:52 PM

Ahhh... fast user switching does do the trick... I can use the finder as the other user...

My question, does the terminal app continue running as the main user or does it pause.

So annoying. There has to be a way to kill this thing...

gorickey · Nov 10, 2003, 12:56 PM

Originally posted by barbarian:
Ahhh... fast user switching does do the trick... I can use the finder as the other user...

My question, does the terminal app continue running as the main user or does it pause.

So annoying. There has to be a way to kill this thing...

It will run as the main user...

There are ways to kill the thing; however, it would involve restarting your computer to which you can't do right now....

Uncle Skeleton · Nov 10, 2003, 01:07 PM

tried killing that umount process?

this is exactly why I wish Apple didn't try to tack on all this network stuff to the Finder. I don't care if the Finder is technically "threaded", it's certainly not threaded very well, and you should never have new "features" that interfere with the primary functionality of your app...

barbarian · 01:49 PM

I logged in as su and did a kill -9 on both unmount and the finder.... no dice. It just keeps comin' back.

The weird thing is that under normal sircumstances I can enable the finder quit command and I can quit the finder. Under the situation, everytime I kill it, it pops right back up.

chris v · Nov 10, 2003, 02:16 PM

What if you kill the login window? That should give you a fresh login.

CV

barbarian · Nov 10, 2003, 02:37 PM

I had a feeling that killing login was going to be bad news, but the beachball problem was causing all sorts of weirdness (no open/save dialog, couldn't attach entourage files) and running as another user was a hassle (it was a pain to get to my files in my user folder)... so I went ahead and sent the kill message. It ended up stopping the terminal process I was trying to protect... sigh. anyway I'm all rebooted now and am firing up gcc again...

Please send feedback to apple about this bug...its kindof embarrassing especially when hanging out with unix geeks.

It is very easy to invoke:

1) share & connect 2 computers back and forth with each other on a network

2) have one unexpectedly go out of range (airport) or shut down (battery out of juice).

3) When the remaining computer asks if you want to disconnect. His disconnect. Then it's endless beachball time. At least around here.

Macanoid · Nov 10, 2003, 02:39 PM

could this be what you're looking for:

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/freebies/

escapepod

escapepod is a little application that lets you terminate the frontmost application by hitting Control-Alt-Delete, terminate the Dock by hitting Shift-Control-Alt-Delete, or do a force-logout by hitting Command-Control-Alt-Delete.

There are times that Mac OS X appears to be hung (especially in some games) when it really isn't -- just the frontmost application's GUI is wedged. The Dock also occasionally stops responding under some circumstances, which can be cured by terminating it . Additionally, when the entire GUI appears to be hung, it is safer to do a force-logout than to simply reboot your machine (and it is quicker, too).

barbarian · Nov 10, 2003, 05:16 PM

actually the finder wasn't the frontmost app... it was in the back... all the other apps were running fine... but I might recreate the situation in 2 days after I recompile just to see if this works.