Kernel Panics on 10.8 GM
 

I'm running OS X 10.8 GM and getting kernel panics when I wake my Macbook Pro and I believe it's related to the display link driver.

I've attached the kernel panic.

I also notice the DisplayLinkManager has been crashing a lot, I'll attach crash dumps for those as well.

I also ran the displaylink info program this morning after I rebooted from the crash. I'm attaching that zip as well.

As a test, I also tried doing an kextunload on the displaylink kext. This results in an instant kernel panic. I don't know if that's expected behavior or not.

In one of the panic logs we found this backtrace:
Kernel Extensions in backtrace
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3.4)[5D671681-D21B-3CCA-9810-B15E648C1B27]@0xffffff7f96afc000->0xffffff7f96b33fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7)[8C9E06A4-13D0-33F5-A377-9E36F0ECC229]@0xffffff7f96aac000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer

This should be not-related to the DisplayLink driver, but since our kernel extension has dependency on the IOGraphicsFamily we can't exclude that our driver is the cause of the problem.
If you can easily replicate the issue, I will suggest to uninstall the DisplayLink driver and test the sequence that causes the panic. If you can't reproduce it anymore without the DL driver, reinstall it and retry once again the sequence.
Would be great if you can post the new kernel panics.
Could you please clearly describe the sequence to get the panic. We have a similar machine in our labs and we can try to reproduce the issue.
Thanks

I've had several kernel panics when waking up my Macbook Pro from sleep while having the displaylink driver installed. For the past two days I've been running without the displaylink driver installed and I'm not having any kernel panics. So there's definitely a correlation between these panics and the DisplayLink driver when waking up my mac on 10.8.

My next step is to reinstall the driver and see if the kernel panics come back.

I'll capture all the panics I can and post them here.

I have a MacbookPro 15, Feb 2011 with AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics, and with the DisplayLink software installed, I experienced kernel panics everytime my computer woke from sleep. Upon clamshell opening, the login screen would show briefly, then would change to a solid gray screen, followed immediately by the GSOD prompting me to restart my computer due to a problem. I have no captured kernel panic data, other than a description of the issue.

After uninstalling the DisplayLink Mac 1.8 Alpha 1 software, the computer woke from sleep normally. Upon reinstallation of said software package, sleep problem was reproducible. Immediately upon uninstallation, computer slept and woke as normal.

I also experience this same issue.

Thanks for your reports. Could you please collect debug information with this tool http://www.displaylink.com/support/ticket.php?id=269 and post the zip file? Thanks for your help in solving this issue.

I've been having kernel panics on Mountain Lion as well.

I'm attaching the output from your debug tool, a crash log from DisplayLinkManager, and 2 panic reports.

Confirmed, Display Link Kernal Panic 10.8
 

I can definitely tell you this software causes 10.8 Mountain Lion to Kernal Panic (Crash) when sleep/wake, switching monitors. :( I go from just to macbook pro 13 display to using 2 20'' displays, in closed lid mode, which will either work or crash, whenever switching between the two methods.

Thank you ryansh for the information. We're looking into the issue.

If anyone else is experiencing this kernel panic, please mention or attach the following information:
- The use case (what you need to do to invoke the problem)
- Your Mac model
- The output of the kernel panic window

(The output from the debug tool always helps too..)

Many thanks!
Carlo

I got the Gray SOD today when waking my computer. I haven't tried to reproduce the problem, but here's my use case.

Mid 2012 MacBook Air Mountain Lion clean install

1) unplugged my computer in clamshell mode from my apartment
2) took my computer and my DisplayLink adapter to work
3) plugged in my computer and DisplayLink adapter (still in clamshell mode) to different monitors
4) GSOD!

Thanks!
-Jeff

Exactly the same problem here:

unplugged both external 24" Monitors at work (MBP running), put it in sleep mode
opened it at home, saw the login screen for about 0.5s then SOD, restart.

I guess I'll uninstall it for now, as this is not acceptable for me. I have lots of windows open and that don't restore on restart.

This is my use case.

1. Use 2 external monitors at my office. One plugged in via DisplayPort the other via DisplayLink.
2. Unplug monitors and all other peripherals and close the lid to put the laptop to sleep.
3. Take laptop to another location without peripherals and open it to work.
4. Kernel panic.

This has happened every single time I've done this (3 times now).

Kernel Panic
 

I have had a number of kernel panics since upgrading to Mac OS X 10.8 last week, but the others seemed to be magic mouse related.

The kernel panic today occurred while running Parallels Desktop for Mac v8 beta in Coherence mode. I was resizing a Chrome for Windows on the external monitor driven by Displaylink when Gray SOD halted productivity.

Zip attachment with Displaylink Tool Info. I am running the July 2, 2012 driver.

I am having the same issue. Intermittently, when waking from sleep, the system will reboot itself and give me a grey kernel panic screen. I have confirmed that this behavior disappears when DisplayLink 1.8 driver is uninstalled

System: Macbook Pro 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

I can't get the information off of the panic window, because it goes away pretty quickly, but it seems like a generic error message.

Maybe remove OS X Mountain Lion from the diver download page
 

Maybe it might be worth removing OS X Mountain Lion compatibility from the driver download page until this issue is resolved so others don't run into unexpected problems. If I would have known I might have issues, then I would have held off upgrading to Mountain Lion until a new driver was built.

More info?
 

Hi Display Link Team. I too am having this issue on an Early 2011 15" MacBookPro 10.8. At this point do you have enough to identify the issue or would you like more debug info?

Model: Mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro

To reproduce:
1. put laptop to sleep at home (clamshell)
2. wake laptop next day at work, while plugging into monitor (via mini displayport - VGA adapter, not a USB)
3. shows desktop briefly, then says "your computer needed to restart because of a problem". Upon restart, kernel panic window appears.



I'm not able to run the debug tool currently as I'm away from my macbook.

Same issue here
 

Problems here as well.

- Mac OS X 10.8 on MacBook Pro, 15-inch, Mid-2010
- with the latest DisplayLink driver 1.8 for mac
- after waking up the mac from sleep
- CPU runs at 100%, system becomes very unresponsive until it freezes (but fans spin at full speed)

- a crash log for DisplayLinkManager was created (attached)
- also attached debug tool output

Thank Goodness I'm not the only one!
 

So after my previous post I see many people are experiencing the exact same issue and step needed to reproduce the problem. It seems using the external video adapter at one location, followed by leaving that location with the Mac in sleep, followed by opening the Mac at another location sans DisplayLink peripherals results in the Gray Screen Of Death. Please let me know when there's a solution, as this extra monitor on my desk is teasing me until I feel safe enough to use it again.

Two days ago I uninstalled the displaylink driver due to this issue and there was not a single kernel panic since then (before I had at least one per day). So I guess this pretty much confirms that the panics are related to the driver.

I'm very much looking forward to an update that fixes this issue - just having a black screen to my left all day now...

And mine is to my right :)

Same problem here using 10.8 Mountain Lion. I'm getting kernel panics. This is unacceptable. You should remove compatibility with Mountain Lion in your web page since this problem is solved.

Hope you can fix this problem soon.

Need this fixed!
 

This causes a panic on my 15" MBP i5 everytime it wakes from sleep after having the display adapter connected. Please get this resolved ASAP!

Yes, as I have said on the other thread related to this issue, I have the same problem. Since upgrading to mountain lion and upgrading the display link driver to the latest version I can no longer let my 15 inch macbook pro (late 2011)go into sleep mode because it simply shuts down after a while and on restart it tells me there was a problem that caused the shutdown......

When my mac is not on mains power this is a huge problem and has caused me to lose unsaved work etc.....

I also have uninstalled the driver and the problem has vanished, returning as soon as I reinstalled the driver.....

Please help!

I am also having the same issue on a mid-2012 Macbook Air (11") using the 1.8 driver on ML. The problem is very repeatable:
My DisplayLink device is connected to a USB on the back of my Thunderbolt Display. When I remove the computer, the next time I wake it up, it tells me it has restarted because of a crash. This happens 100% of the time.

I was wondering:
1) Whether DL has found the problem,
2) If so, what the estimated time until correction might be,
3) Whether this is something which is actually bad for my computer, or if I should just deal with it in the meantime. (I'd prefer not to uninstall the driver, and I haven't lost anything because I always save everything before I undock, but I also don't want to be creating new problems.)

Thanks!

Hardware acceleration?
 

It seems like the driver crashes because of displaylink's hardware acceleration. I've noticed that in Windows 7 on the same machine, videos (e.g. netflix) become really choppy and usually unplayable. On Mac, the videos are fluid. Seems to me like the Mac side is hw accelerated and the driver/usb connection has trouble keeping up. Then again, I have no clue but thought that this might be a potential cause.

I have the exact same issue. Crash after every sleep.

I have 2 setups for the monitors, one at home and one at work. This is a crash from when I'm at work with 2 USB monitors attached.

I've attached the kernel stack trace.

Actually if I sleep the machine, unplug from display link hardware, plug back into displaylink hardware and wake up the crash still happens.

I've got 2 external monitors at work and one at home that I guess I either have to not use, or get used to rebooting.

Also it seems that the "messages" app has very odd things going on with its fonts if used on the external monitor.

As a temporary solution, unplugging the USB of the DL device before undocking seems to prevent the crash. Still, the lack of response from DL is getting to be a bit troubling.

Tried to contact support...
 

Hi everyone,

I tried to contact displaylink support via "Ask a question" on the support page to make them aware of this issue and this thread. However, the submit only results in a blank page. So I sent them a tweet:

https://twitter.com/alexkli/status/232911450417532929

Alex

And I spoke (typed?) too soon- another crash even though I had unplugged the DL device before undocking.

Twitter - no no
 

Actually that was stupid. Their twitter looks dead (last tweet from April). And there were already official replies in this thread, they just seem to be quiet for a week now. What makes me wonder is all the "0 views" on the uploaded zip files with analysis information...

I'm guessing that this is so easy to reproduce that they didn't need the diagnostic info.

I had 1.8A installed when I did the mountain lion upgrade. WHen I went to try to uninstall the application, it said it wasn't there. So I found a folder that ML created called Incompatible Software. It had DisplayLink in there and I deleted the folder and file that were in there. I was still getting the error, so I installed 1.8 the actual release from their website and rebooted, then uninstalled it thinking that would clean up anything that was left.

My question is, how would I be able to tell if there were any remnants from the 1.8A that I installed? I am not sure where all the files are installed.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

The bundle in /System/Library/Extensions has already been moved by the ML installer, this removes all active software.
You may be left with files in /Library/Application Support/DisplayLink; /Applications/DisplayLink; /Library/LunchAgents/com.displaylink.something; /Library/LunchDaemons/com.displaylink.something

Carlo

Re: Kernel Panic
 

It is really frustrating situation , when I herad about your problem. i have also faced the same problem Kernel panic Mac error. The main reason for Kernel panic Mac error is harware failure , amlware infection. With the help od recovrey I would be able to solve my problem.

http://www.kernelpanicmac.com

Latest Driver Panic after Reboot
 

Latest is a long list of DisplayLink driver grief with 10.8 Mountain Lion :mad:

Another one with kernel panics
 

my debug info is attached.

Shutdown your Bluetooth - thats what worked for me
 

After quite a bit of research (http://blog.avatron.com/post/2813538...-and-bluetooth), I found (at least for me) that its not the Display Link drivers causing the problem. Its the bluetooth devices (ie mouse or trackpad) that aren't in range or available when the computer is awoken from sleep. I have just got in the habit of turning off my bluetooth (disconnecting the trackpad) when I undock (unplug from the externals, hubs, and DL) and go mobile. I have been doing this for days, and haven't had the kernel panic freakout upon awaking from sleep outside of the office.

I hope this helps some of you, its caused temporarily relief for me.

I do use a bluetooth mouse at work, but not at home. If this were the only problem then I would only have crashes when going from work to home, but I have them in both directions.

This may be a problem, but I don't think it is the only problem.

Might be one of many issues. I have an iMac that gives me kernel panics when it goes to sleep and then automatically restarts. Bluetooth is on and the computer doesn't get moved.

The lack of news from the Display Link folks is very frustrating and not very professional.