Freeze OSX 10.6.8 (DisplayLink v1.7)

[Zillode]

Hi,

Ever since I've been using the display link adapter, my PC freezes once every 2-3 days. I was hoping that more recent drivers (1.6->1.7) would fix the problem but it doesn't.
Without any indications, it completely locks down (e.g. keyboard not responding, mouse doesn't move anymore, ...) usually resulting in a loss of information on text I haven't saved in the last 5 minutes, very frustrating.

I've collected debugging information as attached to this post.
Hoping for a solution,

[Carlo]

Hi Zillode,

I'm seeing many errors I've never seen before. A very stable part of our driver falls over for some reason (this may be connected with the lock), another part is hanging (this is not going to lock, may be a side effect) and you have the most errors I've ever seen in a system log.

In particular the startup is quite worrying, if you look at your system profile in Logs->System.log starting at Jan 27 11:15:21 you can see errors of different kind, in particular network and USB. The USB part is likely caused by VirtualBox, but the network could be VirtualBox or Tap or Synergy that is littering the log with errors.
There is also a WindowServer issue at some point.

Given the amount of third party kexts you have (and 'optional' Apple ones) the first thing I'm thinking about is an SW interoperability issue. My best guess at the moment is that our USB discovery is falling over because of VirtualBox and this will bring down our screen while the DisplayLink frame buffer is still running. This in turn could create trouble to other SW that relies on a responsive frame buffer (Virtual Box again?) and lock everything up.

So what we can do on our side is try Virtual Box on Lion with our drivers. And double check if such a chain of events would be unrecoverable for us.

On your side it would be ideal to try and reduce the number of variables (SW installed) if at all possible.
And one more question: are the lockups connected in any way with power state transitions?

Cheers,
Carlo

[Zillode]

Originally Posted by Carlo

Hi Zillode,

I'm seeing many errors I've never seen before. A very stable part of our driver falls over for some reason (this may be connected with the lock), another part is hanging (this is not going to lock, may be a side effect) and you have the most errors I've ever seen in a system log.

In particular the startup is quite worrying, if you look at your system profile in Logs->System.log starting at Jan 27 11:15:21 you can see errors of different kind, in particular network and USB. The USB part is likely caused by VirtualBox, but the network could be VirtualBox or Tap or Synergy that is littering the log with errors.
There is also a WindowServer issue at some point.

Given the amount of third party kexts you have (and 'optional' Apple ones) the first thing I'm thinking about is an SW interoperability issue. My best guess at the moment is that our USB discovery is falling over because of VirtualBox and this will bring down our screen while the DisplayLink frame buffer is still running. This in turn could create trouble to other SW that relies on a responsive frame buffer (Virtual Box again?) and lock everything up.

So what we can do on our side is try Virtual Box on Lion with our drivers. And double check if such a chain of events would be unrecoverable for us.

On your side it would be ideal to try and reduce the number of variables (SW installed) if at all possible.
And one more question: are the lockups connected in any way with power state transitions?

Thanks for the reply,

1) I will uninstall VirtualBox and see if that helps. It could take 2 weeks before I reply as I'm on holidays from next week.
2) Not sure, as the freeze is rather gradually. I first lose my second screen (display with the usb adapter is not getting updated anymore), then the 'clicking' of the mouse is gone together with the keyboard and then everything locks up graphically. I'm still able to connect to my machine over the network via ssh to perform a clean shutdown. I don't think power state transitions are the cause, but I'm not sure.

[Zillode]

Still freezes without VirtualBox drivers, added debugging information.
This time my displaylink-powered monitor didn't update anymore for 30 seconds, while the main monitor was still running fine. Then I tried to perform 'detect displays' and then both screens did not update anymore.

[Zillode]

This error log should be unrelated to power state switching.
Note: my screens were rotated by 90° in this log.

[supacyat]

I'm having the same problems.

I just upgraded from the dynadock U (PA3575U-1PRP) to the dynadock U3.0 (PA3927U-1PRP), and I am now have the same problems Zillode reported above.

Prior to connecting the U3.0, I first upgraded my displaylink drivers from 1.6 to 1.7 (assuming I'd need it for the newer U3.0 hardware).

Well, the instant I plug in my USB cable from the U3.0 into the Mac... it freezes, and I get the dimmed screen with the message about holding down the power button to reboot.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.8, and under displaylink 1.6 with the older dynadock U, it worked fine! Now the new U3.0 is a brick to me.

I'm assuming (hoping) this is a bug in 1.7, and it will be fixed soon. If so, any idea when that will be?

If not, I'm gonna have to return the U3.0.

Also, I'd like to try the 1.6 displaylink driver with the U3.0. Its not on the main download site anymore. Any idea where I can get it?

[Carlo]

Originally Posted by supacyat

I'm having the same problems.

I just upgraded from the dynadock U (PA3575U-1PRP) to the dynadock U3.0 (PA3927U-1PRP), and I am now have the same problems Zillode reported above.

Prior to connecting the U3.0, I first upgraded my displaylink drivers from 1.6 to 1.7 (assuming I'd need it for the newer U3.0 hardware).

Well, the instant I plug in my USB cable from the U3.0 into the Mac... it freezes, and I get the dimmed screen with the message about holding down the power button to reboot.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.8, and under displaylink 1.6 with the older dynadock U, it worked fine! Now the new U3.0 is a brick to me.

I'm assuming (hoping) this is a bug in 1.7, and it will be fixed soon. If so, any idea when that will be?

If not, I'm gonna have to return the U3.0.

Also, I'd like to try the 1.6 displaylink driver with the U3.0. Its not on the main download site anymore. Any idea where I can get it?

Your Mac is in kernel panic, it's a different issue than Zillode.
The U3 issue is a known bug in the built-in audio drivers in Mac OS. We worked around it with later firmware but DL-3x00 devices are not yet supported on Mac so you won't be able to use the U3 right now.
Please let me know if the package or literature or website of the U3 mentioned Mac support so we can invite Toshiba to rectify it.
I'm afraid I can't comment about the release date of Mac drivers with DL-3x00 support.

Best regards,
Carlo

[Carlo]

Originally Posted by Zillode

This error log should be unrelated to power state switching.
Note: my screens were rotated by 90° in this log.

Hi Zillode,

Well this is really annoying. I have a theory about in which area the issue might be but we need to debug it directly to find out more and we can't reproduce your issue!
I think the WindowServer is locking up.. if you can ssh to your machine I'd try to kill the DisplayLinkManager process and if that fails also kill the WindowServer process (you'll need to sudo kill).
By closing the WindowServer all applications will be terminated so not much gain over a reboot unfortunately.

You might try an uninstall/reinstall as well. If I'm correct about the nature of the problem I think that Lion should be immune from it so a possible solution is to upgrade.
I can't say much more without seeing the issue in our lab. Please let me know how this goes.

Best regards,
Carlo

[Zillode]

Hi Carlo,

Thanks for the help already,

Originally Posted by Carlo

Hi Zillode,

Well this is really annoying. I have a theory about in which area the issue might be but we need to debug it directly to find out more and we can't reproduce your issue!
I think the WindowServer is locking up.. if you can ssh to your machine I'd try to kill the DisplayLinkManager process and if that fails also kill the WindowServer process (you'll need to sudo kill).

I killed the DisplayLinkManager (nothing happened, display-link screen freezes, my keyboard doesn't work but my mouse pointer kept moving on my normal screen).

Originally Posted by Carlo

By closing the WindowServer all applications will be terminated so not much gain over a reboot unfortunately.

After killing the WindowServer I saw the rotating flower on my main screen, but nothing happened after 5 minutes

Originally Posted by Carlo

You might try an uninstall/reinstall as well.

I have tried this many times before (was using different versions of 1.6 and 1.7 to try to fix this issue.

Originally Posted by Carlo

If I'm correct about the nature of the problem I think that Lion should be immune from it so a possible solution is to upgrade.
I can't say much more without seeing the issue in our lab. Please let me know how this goes.

Best regards,
Carlo

[romeas]

Same here - the flower was rotating with me about 15 minutes and then I restarted the whole thing because I couldn't bare waiting any longer. Damn, that was annoying. More annoying that waiting too long for getting flowers to post. Unbelievable.