Hello.
So I am here to share with you a problem. Not a solution.
It affect the OS X Lion 10.7 guys (mostly) and OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 guys (a bit). Unlike what many many websites say about this error, I am gonna go ahead and assume that it is not Adobe related. But before judging, hear me out:
- The error happens “randomly”. As in, it does not happen when you go to a Flash-enabled website. It does not happen when you run any Adobe program, like Photoshop which has components of Air.
- It doesn’t matter what browser you use. Many people have said that it happens only with Safari. Wrong. I am using Chrome, Firefox, Opera – no difference.
- It crashes the Dock. Why would it crash the Dock. It is not only the Dock either. It affects the CoreServices module, which takes care of application launching and application management.
- It is hard to say this: but I ‘think’ that it only affects the User Memory. Once you log out or switch users, everything is fine. Well, define ‘fine’.
- It doesn’t affect the disk. Maybe because I am running on SSD I don’t see any data loss. Nor Journal inconsistencies.
Unfortunately, I do not know how to fix this problem. Not yet at least. For your records, have a look at the sites below for other people’s opinion and stuff:
If you have any question, or solutions to this, please let me know.
Regards,
Mo.
I posted about this issue back in July 2011. Adobe did not respond to my message in the Adobe Forums. While the release of Flash Player 11 made things bearable (the amount of the error messages is much less), still Adobe AiR and Adobe Flash are spamming the Console (kernel.log). Please do also post to the thread in the Adobe Forums. This is unacceptable!
here is the link to the official thread in the adobe forums: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3825457#3825457
and here is the thread on nanofunk.net: http://www.nanofunk.net/kernel0-iosurface-buffer-allocation-size-is-zero-a-never-ending-story-about-adobe-failing-to-get-their-flash-player-and-adobe-air-plugin-to-work-on-mac-osx-in-a-normal-way/
Hey. Thanks for the comment. I will checkout and leave a comment on the Adobe forums.
As I have mentioned above, I do sometimes get the error message in the console logs, but I don’t get the freezing anymore. I can’t recall for the life of me, what I did that ‘fixed’ this problem.
And as you said about the Chrome browser and etc having their own flashplayer, partially true. But I still use different browsers, including Safari, and I don’t get that issue.
Well let’s see what happens next. Waiting eagerly for Adobe to reply…..
I have the same problem since I have installed 5 Vertex 3 SSD in Raid 0 on my macro as system boot disks.
My mac randomly freezes…
Hi Mo
I’ve had the same problems on both Snow Leopard and then on a clean install of Lion (MBP late 2008) although I never noticed “IOsurface”-messages in the kernel.log on Snow Leopard. I also agree with you in that I do not think it is a Adobe problem. When upgrading to Lion I did not install flash, and it has occurred without me running any adobe programs. It seems though that the problem is more likely to occur when playing online video-content (html5 in Safari or flash in Chrome). When this occurs I have to hold down the power button to restart my mac, and this happens one to two times a day. I hope there will be a solution soon.
Greetings from Norway
Hey. Thanks for the comment and the heads up.
It somehow only managed in the first few days of my Lion install, and then somehow the problem just disappeared. No more kernel panic for me!
Have you got the latest updates?
Regards,
Mo.
In the Apple Discussions, one guy noted that it occurred every time he opened a new tab in the discussions.apple.com forums. This was confirmed by many other people myself included.
I am also using a SSD drive for my main system drive.
Hey,
Yep it occurs ‘randomly’ ?! Funny enough, I have not had any occurrences of a system crash ever since posting this blog. I haven’t checked the console though to see whether this ‘error’ happens or not.
I am starting to think that the random crashes are not related to the IO Surface. At the end of the day the error relates to buffers, and us running SSD shouldn’t need to worry for buffer allocation :/
I don’t know yet, I’m just happy that no crash has ever happened since 20th.
Good luck,
Mo.