[X-Unix] How to REALLY kill Finder.

[Eric F Crist]

On May 27, 2008, at 7:14 PM, Stroller wrote:

>
> On 23 May 2008, at 20:49, Stroller wrote:
>> ...
>> If I look for the process using `ps` I see the process name in  
>> brackets:
>>  $ ps -wwwwwx | grep Finder
>>  5958 ?? E 0:00.00 (Finder)
>>  $
>> I presume the brackets indicate that Finder is behaving badly, but  
>> `man ps` doesn't seem to explain exactly what they mean. Apparently  
>> the "E" in the above line indicates that the process is trying to  
>> exit.
>>
>> Anyway, I can't get any further using `kill -9 5958` or anything  
>> else I've tried so far.
>
> I got an update to this on the Apple discussion forums, and I  
> suspect the author has assessed the problem correctly:
>
>  --------------------------------------------------------------
>  Strolls wrote: *Obviously I could sort this by rebooting my computer,
>  but I really don't want to do that right now.* Can anyone suggest
>  a way of *properly* killing this process so that Finder can restart?
>
>  Hi, I think you might be stuck with a restart. I believe that when
>  you get the process name in parentheses in the process listing,
>  your process is hung waiting for something from the kernel. Of
>  course, I can't find that information now, but I've seen it quite
>  a bit in with Final Cut Pro.
>
>  Something would happen to the SCSI RAID controller, then Final Cut
>  Pro would hang or crash, but it wouldn't re-launch. A quick look
>  at the running processes showed an entry for Final Cut, but with
>  parentheses around it. It was unkillable, even with sudo, and a
>  restart was all I could do.
>
>  In some cases, normal shutdowns were also impossible, and I had no
>  choice but to hold down the power switch to kill the machine. I'd
>  usually give it 5 or 10 minutes just to be sure, though. But that
>  could have been related to the SCSI controllers, too.
>
>  Since networking and some of the file sharing stuff runs at the
>  kernel level, it's possible that force-quitting the Finder caused
>  a problem in the kernel that will require a restart to fix.
>

Funny you bring this up, as I've heard rumors there are upcoming  
updates to the kernel addressing network file sharing and kernel hangs/ 
panics and various page faults.  10.5.3 is going to have something  
like 200+ fixes.  Sorry I wasn't able to find you a better solution.
-----
Eric F Crist
Secure Computing Networks