Civ III + Dual 800 = KERNEL PANICS!!!

[gfeier]

AAAUUUGGGGHHHHH!!! Two kernel panics.

One right after I started my first game, one about 1/2 hour into my second game. Has anyone else seen this? I wonder if it may only be a problem on dual 800s since no one else seems to be reporting it. What a downer!

 

[Rustus Maximus]

gfeier I couldn't find anything on the MacSoft website yet...but then again it's a little early for them to know every problem that may affect the Mac version. I did see that ST Voyager Elite force had the same problem (crashing with kernel panics) on a dual G4 system...

From the MacFixIt website...
17. MacFixIt.com: November 2001-a Archive X
http://www.macfixit.com/archivesx/november.01.a.x.shtml#odds-11-07 [11-07-01]
Star Trek:Voyager Elite Force Expansion Pack kernel panics: a workaround Joseph Prisco writes: "I was having frequent kernel panics and crashes when I tried playing this game under Mac OS X on my 450 DP system. I was told by Aspyr tech support that "We are finding that the multiprocessor code seems to be causing some problems, including the symptom you mention about the Escape key causing a crash. To correct it for now, disable the code as follows: Open the 'efconfig.cfg' file in a text editor, locate the line starting with 'seta r_smp,' and change the value at the end of this line from 1 to 0 (zero). That should take care of it for now. The programmer is investigating, and hopes to have a fix soon."

Could be the same code causing a problem here. If you can't get it to work I would contact their tech support right away and at least make them aware of the problem.

I'll have my game tomorrow and I'll post as to how it goes on my system (G4 DP/450)

 

[gfeier]

I don't think I want to try that workaround, Rustus, since I'm pretty sure it "fixes" the problem by disabling one processor. The game runs fine in native OS 9 and I'm going to give it a shot under Classic next.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for help from tech support anytime soon. The tech I talked to was friendly, but he was also surprised to hear the game had been released already and had never heard the term "kernel panic" before.

 

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by gfeier
AAAUUUGGGGHHHHH!!! Two kernel panics.

One right after I started my first game, one about 1/2 hour into my second game. Has anyone else seen this? I wonder if it may only be a problem on dual 800s since no one else seems to be reporting it. What a downer!

I think this is specific to your system. I did all the development on a Dual 800 and never saw a kernel panic. What's more, kernel panics are typically representative of bugs in OSX rather than bugs in the apps themselves.

Brad

 

[juanvaldes]

Just gonna chime in here for the benefit of anyone else with a DP system....been running for over a week nearly straight on my DP 450 without many problems. One crash, and one time when I quit Civ did not go down properly and locked up my GUI. Couldn't even telnet in.

 

[gfeier]

Originally posted by Brad Oliver


I think this is specific to your system. I did all the development on a Dual 800 and never saw a kernel panic. What's more, kernel panics are typically representative of bugs in OSX rather than bugs in the apps themselves.

Brad

When you did the development, were you running 10.1.2? Could it be the GeForce3? I've got a pretty plain vanilla system so I don't think I'll be the only one with this problem. BTW, what about the resource-clumping issue - they are appearing in groups of five on a huge map in Chieftan, and I was not the first to report this.

 

[Rustus Maximus]

Sorry I couldn't help more gfeier but at least it's comforting that tech support doesn't know the game has even been released and they aren't familiar with the OS the game is being played on...wait a minute...that's not comforting at all :crazyeyes

At least it's good to see that Mr. Oliver is visiting our forum often

 

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by gfeier
When you did the development, were you running 10.1.2? Could it be the GeForce3? I've got a pretty plain vanilla system so I don't think I'll be the only one with this problem. BTW, what about the resource-clumping issue - they are appearing in groups of five on a huge map in Chieftan, and I was not the first to report this.

I've got a GeForce 3 as well. I'm running 10.1.2 now, but I don't believe it was final when Civ3 was still in development. I _think_ I did run using 5P43 for some time during the tail end of development though. I don't remember now. At any rate, I still haven't seen a KP.

As for the resource clumping, that's an interesting one. I just saw that yesterday and haven't had time to investigate it.

Brad

 

[gfeier]

Originally posted by Brad Oliver


I've got a GeForce 3 as well. I'm running 10.1.2 now, but I don't believe it was final when Civ3 was still in development. I _think_ I did run using 5P43 for some time during the tail end of development though. I don't remember now. At any rate, I still haven't seen a KP.

As for the resource clumping, that's an interesting one. I just saw that yesterday and haven't had time to investigate it.

Brad

I'm just darn glad you're here. As for the resource clumping, I saw it in every game I started on Chieftan level, huge world, other settings standard, 8 civs, playing as Americans.

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Guys, resources are supposed to clump, especially luxuries. This is a) reflective of the real world, and b) forces you to compete for them as opposed to everyone having their own. Believe me, I've been playing since early November, and this isn't a bug

 

[gfeier]

Originally posted by Cunobelin Of Hippo
Guys, resources are supposed to clump, especially luxuries. This is a) reflective of the real world, and b) forces you to compete for them as opposed to everyone having their own. Believe me, I've been playing since early November, and this isn't a bug

Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[gfeier]

Very interesting. Just had another KP (after quite a few hours of play). I'm going to follow a hunch and set my screen resolution (normally 1152 X 870) to the same resolution that I am running the game at (1024 X 768) before I start back up. I have seen other games where setting the resolution the same fixed problems. BTW, all three KPs hit when a unit was active and awaiting orders.

Make that all five kernel panics. Screen resolution fix didn't work. BTW this is the ONLY kernel panic producing software on my system except Civ II, where I had ONE in many days of play.

 

[gfeier]

After KP number 6, I emailed the info on the screen after the crash to Brad Oliver. Here it is - if you understand this, please reply:

Unresolved kernel trap (cpu 0): 0x300 - data access DAR=0x00000014 PC=0x0008b8fc

Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (SV=0x16b9c800)
PC=0x0009B8A8; MSR=0x00001030; DAR=0x0028d500; DSIR=0x40000000; LR=0x0009b314; RI=0x103437e0; XCP=0x0000000c (0x300 - Data access)

Backtrace:
0x0009dca4 0x0020df96
bactrace terminated - unaligned frame address: 0x000310a4

Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (SV=0x16b9c800)]previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping...

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 5.2
Fri Dec 7 21:29:35 PST 2001; root xmu/xmu-201.14.obj~1/RELEASE PPC
Memory access exception (1,0,0)

Waiting for remote debugger connection.

 

[juanvaldes]

Send it to apple too.

 

[gfeier]

Originally posted by juanvaldes
Send it to apple too.

Done. Took a while to copy the info off the screen. Does anyone know if it's saved in a file somewhere?

 

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by gfeier
After KP number 6, I emailed the info on the screen after the crash to Brad Oliver. Here it is - if you understand this, please reply:

It's unfortunately not of much use to me. The raw data a KP gives out is mainly of use to Apple engineers.

 

[juanvaldes]

Originally posted by gfeier


Done. Took a while to copy the info off the screen. Does anyone know if it's saved in a file somewhere?

I do not believe so. A KP is the CPU dumping everything out to the screen in a final attempt to do good. So I really doubt it could be saved to file....

 

[gfeier]

Originally posted by juanvaldes


I do not believe so. A KP is the CPU dumping everything out to the screen in a final attempt to do good. So I really doubt it could be saved to file....

Right. My next KP had completely different info on the screen, but I'm only getting one KP about every other day now. Thanks to autosave, I'm still playing in X rather than 9. I REALLY like this game!

 

[gfeier]

It looks like a happy ending after all (if this post doesn't jinx me). First the KPs stopped and the program would simply exit gently to OS X, then I finally found the problem with my system and the game has been running perfectly since. Now, about those sounds... Oh well, I'm off to kick some Persian butt.

 

[juanvaldes]

Originally posted by gfeier
It looks like a happy ending after all (if this post doesn't jinx me). First the KPs stopped and the program would simply exit gently to OS X, then I finally found the problem with my system and the game has been running perfectly since. Now, about those sounds... Oh well, I'm off to kick some Persian butt.

what did you change?