[X-Unix] How to REALLY kill Finder.

[Stroller]

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.

   charlie
   --------------------------------------------------------------
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I actually made the restart yesterday, because I needed to rummage  
around in some folders and stuff. I did indeed finally have to hold  
down the power switch in order to induce the restart.

Stroller.