How to eliminate mdimportserver crashes?

[tazzalenghe]

In the last few days, I have been experiencing a problem with mdimportserver crashes---and I have the impression that these are associated with system slowdowns (spinning pizza wheel of death pauses of 10-30 seconds).

I followed a suggestion here to look at
~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mdimportserver.crash.log
and I find many instances of an apparently identical scenario. Top os such a log is shown after this message (followed by a lot more binary image description).

Can anyone suggest who the culprit is and what the cure might be? Thanks.

Ian Morrison

Host Name: Imac-2
Date/Time: 2008-11-08 02:55:15.906 -0800
OS Version: 10.4.11 (Build 8S2167)
Report Version: 4

Command: mdimportserver
Path: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Support/mdimportserver
Parent: launchd [1]

Version: ??? (???)

PID: 8240
Thread: 2

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0xb01136f3

Thread 0:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90009cd7 mach_msg_trap + 7
1 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9082c227 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 2014
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9083d100 CFRunLoopRun + 60
3 mdimportserver 0x00007fb2 0x1000 + 28594
4 mdimportserver 0x00008e79 0x1000 + 32377
5 mdimportserver 0x00002ca2 0x1000 + 7330
6 mdimportserver 0x00002bc9 0x1000 + 7113

Thread 1:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90026d5c kevent + 12
1 com.apple.Foundation 0x927fa39c forkThreadForFunction + 123
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 _pthread_body + 84

Thread 2 Crashed:
0 <<00000000>> 0xffff0eb8 __memcpy + 1816 (cpu_capabilities.h:228)
1 ATS 0x9022bbcc SendOFAStrikeMessage + 424
2 ATS 0x90289fd1 _eOFAGetGlyphNameFromGlyphID + 235
3 ATS 0x902a3256 OFAGetGlyphNameFromGlyphID + 80
4 libCGATS.A.dylib 0x942b15fd ats_get_glyph_name_for_glyph + 93
5 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x905062e2 CGFontGetGlyphNameForGlyph + 58
6 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x9069596f getBuiltinType1Names + 200
7 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90695a79 CGPDFEncodingGetNameForIndex + 107
8 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90695b8c getUnicodes + 91
9 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90695cb3 CGPDFEncodingGetUnicodesForIndex + 37
10 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90697255 appendSimple + 808
11 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90697bd9 CGPDFTextExtractorShowText + 184
12 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90698314 op_Tj + 91
13 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90424c99 handle_xname + 159
14 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90424a04 read_objects + 532
15 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x904238bc CGPDFScannerScan + 154
16 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90696348 CGPDFTextExtractorGetTextString + 49
17 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x90689a90 CGPDFPageCopyTextString + 37
18 com.apple.MDImporter.PDF 0x002064d2 PDFSnifferFile + 1751
19 mdimportserver 0x0000618f 0x1000 + 20879
20 mdimportserver 0x000072ba 0x1000 + 25274
21 mdimportserver 0x0000793f 0x1000 + 26943
22 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 _pthread_body + 84

Thread 2 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0xffff07a0 ebx: 0x9022ba35 ecx: 0x00013b20 edx: 0x00000008
edi: 0xb0114e98 esi: 0xb01136f3 ebp: 0xb00ffb08 esp: 0xb00ffb00
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010286 eip: 0xffff0eb8 cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x00000037

Binary Images Description:
0x1000 - 0xdfff mdimportserver /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Support/mdimportserver
0x205000 - 0x206fff com.apple.MDImporter.PDF 1.0.3 (21) /System/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/PDF
0x8fe00000 - 0x8fe4afff dyld 46.16 /usr/lib/dyld
0x90000000 - 0x90171fff libSystem.B.dylib /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

 

[Satcomer]

This is a lauchd problem, a system level problem. Your best bet would be the install the "Combo Update" (Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (PPC) or Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (Intel)) to fix the problem. The combo update will reboot your Mac twice so be patient.

Hopefully this will fix your problem.

 

[jondear]

Anyone have any other suggestions? My log starts out like this:

Date/Time: 2009-03-18 13:26:10.019 +0000
OS Version: 10.4.11 (Build 8S165)
Report Version: 4

Command: mdimportserver
Path: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Support/mdimportserver
Parent: launchd [1]

Version: ??? (???)

PID: 730
Thread: 2

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x003ae002

Thread 0:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9000b348 mach_msg_trap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9000b29c mach_msg + 60
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x902b19ac __CFRunLoopRun + 832
3 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x902b12b0 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 268
4 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x902c0710 CFRunLoopRun + 52
5 mdimportserver 0x00008e80 0x1000 + 32384
6 mdimportserver 0x00006ca4 0x1000 + 23716
7 mdimportserver 0x00002da8 0x1000 + 7592
8 mdimportserver 0x00002c50 0x1000 + 7248

Thread 1:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002f08c kevent + 12
1 mdimportserver 0x00004aac 0x1000 + 15020
2 com.apple.Foundation 0x90b054d8 forkThreadForFunction + 108
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002bd08 _pthread_body + 96

Thread 2 Crashed:
0 com.apple.MDImporter.Font 0x0036ea84 SPFontImport_Suitcase + 312
1 com.apple.MDImporter.Font 0x0036eaa0 SPFontImport_Suitcase + 340
2 com.apple.MDImporter.Font 0x0036de9c GetMetadataForFile + 208
3 mdimportserver 0x0000638c 0x1000 + 21388
4 mdimportserver 0x00008568 0x1000 + 30056
5 mdimportserver 0x000089ec 0x1000 + 31212
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002bd08 _pthread_body + 96



So I've turned of indexing for the Fonts folder for my Fonts Utility, FontAgent , and it appears to have stopped crashing, but indexing not yet complete, it may return.

Before that I tried reapplying the Combo update as suggested, but that didn't help.

In my case this started AFTER cloning a new hard disk for use as startup. Seems like something could have corrupted in the process, maybe in that fonts folder, but hard to tell as yet.

Anyone else have any suggestions? Tried DiskWarrior, Permissions, clearing caches, nothing stops the 10 second crashes once they start, except turning indexing off. (And now turning ONLY that FontAgent fonts folder off).

My crash dialogs say the same EXC_BAD_ACCESS stuff with a different address, and then:

Thread 2 Crashed
SPFontImport_Suitcase + 312
etc