Other Chromium Legacy: Google Chrome for OS X 10.7 – 10.9

[B S Magnet]

If you have the time and inclination,

…and obscene hacking skills (which I do not).

 

[WindowsXPuser]

This is just a quick PSA for anybody trying to run Chromium Legacy on 10.7.5: When the Github page says all updates need to be installed, they mean it. Every. Single. Update. Trust me, it'll save you a lot of headache. Also consider installing updated certificates to connect to some websites.

 

[MacBiter]

This is just a quick PSA for anybody trying to run Chromium Legacy on 10.7.5: When the Github page says all updates need to be installed, they mean it. Every. Single. Update. Trust me, it'll save you a lot of headache. Also consider installing updated certificates to connect to some websites.

Not quite sure I understand this. I just open the Preference Pane to install a version then just launch it without bothering about anything to do with updates. Mind you, I'm running 10.9.5 so perhaps this doesn't apply to me?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

This is just a quick PSA for anybody trying to run Chromium Legacy on 10.7.5: When the Github page says all updates need to be installed, they mean it. Every. Single. Update. Trust me, it'll save you a lot of headache. Also consider installing updated certificates to connect to some websites.

It's really just 2014-004 that you need, if you're running Lion. If you can install that, you should be all set!

Also consider installing updated certificates to connect to some websites.

Fwiw, the primary one you need—ISRG Root X1—will be installed automatically if you use the latest version of my Chromium Legacy Downloader.

(Although, I also really need to update this to fetch Bluebox's new stable builds more reliably. I intend to that as soon as I finish the current semester of grad school in a couple weeks, I just have no spare bandwidth for anything write now!)

 

[otetzone]

Theres's a stable build listed between 952358 and 952649 in the Chromium update list. However, it won't run on Mavericks. The previous builds would work as well as the latter ones. It's just the stable one that wouldn't run for some reason. And it takes suspiciously little time to download compared to the other builds. As if it's not being downloaded at all. There must be something wrong with it. There's still the icon sitting in the Applications folder behind the "forbidding sign" when there's the stable build.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I am done with finals and am literally in the process of fixing this. A new build will be out soon which, even if it doesn't completely handle stable builds "well", at least doesn't completely fall over.

Eventually, what I really want to add are automatic updates. Now that we have stable builds, it's time.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Okay, the latest version of the downloader won't completely fall over on stable releases. More updates coming soon!

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Okay, I've updated this again! The downloader will now default to installing the latest stable release, and new stable releases will be installed automatically. I've removed the Downloader from the Chromium menu bar since you should never need to manage it yourself, but you can of course still use System Preferences to downgrade to a previous build or switch to a non-stable build.

This was a pretty major change, so there may be some issues. Let me know if you encounter any weirdness.

 

[MacBiter]

Anyone else getting kernel panics? Earlier I had my 4th in 5 weeks - and I NEVER normally get them!

I'm only raising it here because Console reports for each panic :
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Chromium Helper

FWIW, it's not been the same build of Chromium each time - I think I've had 3 versions in that time? At least 2 anyway.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Anyone else getting kernel panics? Earlier I had my 4th in 5 weeks - and I NEVER normally get them!

I'm only raising it here because Console reports for each panic :
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Chromium Helper

FWIW, it's not been the same build of Chromium each time - I think I've had 3 versions in that time? At least 2 anyway.

There is absolutely a Chromium Legacy initiated kernel panic somewhere, and as far as I can tell it has been present since the earliest working builds of Chromium Legacy. Always with this (or similar) logged:

panic(cpu 6 caller 0xffffff8014bc7ab4): "kqueue_scan_continue: - invalid wait_result (3)"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2422.115.15/bsd/kern/kern_event.c:2167

I don't get them nearly so frequently, however. Looking at my logs, it looks like the last one I encountered was in early November, and the last one before that was in August. Bluebox has acknowledged the problem, but there's no Github issue tracking it right now. You might consider making one.

However, I suspect this will be extremely tricky to fix. The thing is, in theory, it shouldn't be possible for user space apps to cause kernel panics. If an app does cause a kernel panic—as Chromium Legacy obviously does—that's technically a bug in the kernel itself.

Of course, Apple is never going to fix a bug in the kernel of our old OSs†, so Chromium Legacy would need to avoid triggering it somehow.

If possible, it will likely be helpful to Bluebox if you can:

• Capture the kernel panic after booting with the keepsyms boot argument.
• Discover any sort of pattern in what causes the panic to happen. The gold standard would be steps to actually reproduce the panic.

---

† I suppose someone else theoretically could, XNU is open source and there are custom kernels for e.g. AMD Hackintosh. But I don't think anyone really wants to start doing kernel development, or requiring users to install a custom kernel...

 

[MacBiter]

Yes, my log reads:

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff80249c7ab4): "kqueue_scan_continue: - invalid wait_result (3)"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2422.115.15/bsd/kern/kern_event.c:2167

There seems to be no discernible pattern - I remember one occurred watching iPlayer in Firefox, another while in iTunes, today's when working in a Bean document. I wish (or rather, don't!) I could reproduce it, but it's rare and intermittent. Though as I say, 4 in 5 weeks is a lot for me! 23rd and 25th of November, 9th and 19th December. (Ok, that's 4 weeks not 5).

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Since it's happening so much more often for you, it would be great if you could capture a backtrace with keepsyms turned on. Run in Terminal:

sudo nvram boot-args="-v keepsyms=1"

And reboot. Whenever you're able to reproduce the kernel panic, make an issue on Github and post the backtrace. (Or post the backtrace here and I'll make a Github issue.)

Afterwards, you can turn keepsyms back off with sudo nvram boot-args="".

 

[MacBiter]

Since it's happening so much more often for you, it would be great if you could capture a backtrace with keepsyms turned on. Run in Terminal:

sudo nvram boot-args="-v keepsyms=1"

And reboot. Whenever you're able to reproduce the kernel panic, make an issue on Github and post the backtrace. (Or post the backtrace here and I'll make a Github issue.)

Afterwards, you can turn keepsyms back off with sudo nvram boot-args="".

I had another panic, first in about a month. Where do I access the backtrace?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I had another panic, first in about a month. Where do I access the backtrace?

It usually pops up after you finish rebooting? But, it should also be in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports.

 

[MacBiter]

What am I looking for? There's nothing there called "backtrace"....

 

[Wowfunhappy]

What am I looking for? There's nothing there called "backtrace"....

A file with today's date and the `.panic` file extension.

I think we actually know what's happening at this point, but might still be good to see a log with symbols!

 

[MacBiter]

oh I've seen that- but where in all that stuff is the trace?.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

oh I've seen that- but where in all that stuff is the trace?.

It's one of the first things in the log, after the date. But, just share the log file, please!

 

[MacBiter]

It's one of the first things in the log, after the date. But, just share the log file, please!

Ok, you asked for it!

Anonymous UUID: DE8EC4AC-F179-38A1-9016-E1E9A086447D

Wed Jan 19 13:14:55 2022
panic(cpu 6 caller 0xffffff80055c7ab4): "kqueue_scan_continue: - invalid wait_result (3)"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2422.115.15/bsd/kern/kern_event.c:2167
Backtrace (CPU 6), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff81f05a3ef0 : 0xffffff8005223139 mach_kernel : _panic + 0xc9
0xffffff81f05a3f70 : 0xffffff80055c7ab4 mach_kernel : _kqueue_scan + 0x8f4
0xffffff81f05a3fb0 : 0xffffff80052d7c67 mach_kernel : _call_continuation + 0x17

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Chromium Helper
Boot args: -v keepsyms=1

Mac OS version:
13F1911

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 13.4.0: Mon Jan 11 18:17:34 PST 2016; root:xnu-2422.115.15~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 8926E512-6714-34FC-B27C-6AE90EB51D5E
Kernel slide: 0x0000000005000000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8005200000
System model name: iMac12,1 (Mac-942B5BF58194151B)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 10735312397898
last loaded kext at 8709075255297: com.parallels.kext.vnic 11.2.3 32663 (addr 0xffffff7f87aca000, size 32768)
last unloaded kext at 1066956577481: com.parallels.kext.hypervisor 11.2.3 32663 (addr 0xffffff7f87a61000, size 307200)
loaded kexts:
com.parallels.kext.vnic 11.2.3 32663
com.parallels.kext.netbridge 11.2.3 32663
com.parallels.kext.hypervisor 11.2.3 32663
com.parallels.kext.usbconnect 11.2.3 32663
com.github.osxfuse.filesystems.osxfuse 3.10.3
org.pqrs.driver.Karabiner 10.22.0
com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport 4.1.4
com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower 1.5.2
com.ScreamingBee.driver.SBVirtualMic 1.0.4
com.Ondesoft.driver.OndeAudioRecorderDevice 1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC 4.2.1b5
com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch 80.14
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.5d0
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 4.2.7f5
com.apple.driver.AGPM 100.14.34
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver 124
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.60
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.5.13
com.apple.kext.AMDFramebuffer 1.2.4
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.0d1
com.apple.AMDRadeonX3000 1.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 2.6.3f7
com.apple.iokit.CSRBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.2.7f5
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver 2.6.3f7
com.apple.kext.AMD6000Controller 1.2.4
com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.2.7f5
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltIP 1.1.2
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.7.0
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight 170.4.11
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleSMCPDRC 1.0.0
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD3000Graphics 8.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleSMCLMU 2.0.4d1
com.apple.driver.AppleHWAccess 1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB 8.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCardReader 3.4.1
com.apple.driver.AppleIRController 325.7
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeLZVN 1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1
com.apple.BootCache 35
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.6.7
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 404
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 683.4.0
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Atheros40 700.74.5
com.apple.iokit.AppleBCM5701Ethernet 3.8.1b2
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 5.0.2
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 3.0.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 660.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 217.92.1
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 153
com.apple.security.quarantine 3
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 217.92.1
com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver 4.2.7f5
com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver 245.13.1
com.apple.kext.triggers 1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 10.0.7
com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily 98.26
com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 91.3
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 2.6.3f7
com.apple.vecLib.kext 1.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.9.7fc2
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.14
com.apple.kext.AMDSupport 1.2.4
com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl 3.6.22
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.2.7f5
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 4.2.7f5
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy 1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklightExpert 1.0.4
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 5.7.1d6
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController 1.0.12d1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 2.2.6
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI 1.0.12d1
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltEDMSink 2.1.3
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.4.1
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 2.6.3f7
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 2.6.3f7
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.8
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.4.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDMouse 180.9
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse 180.9
com.apple.driver.CoreStorage 380.70.2
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltDPInAdapter 3.1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltDPOutAdapter 3.1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltDPAdapterFamily 3.1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter 1.4.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 3.6.7
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass 3.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 660.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 650.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 656.4.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 3.6.7
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.7
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI 2.6.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 3.6.7
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltNHI 2.0.1
com.apple.iokit.IOThunderboltFamily 3.3.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 660.4.2
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 640.36
com.apple.iokit.IOEthernetAVBController 1.0.3b4
com.apple.driver.mDNSOffloadUserClient 1.0.1b5
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 3.2
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.6.5
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 686.4.1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 2.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox 278.11.2
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 7
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore 2
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 373
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.9
com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily 23
com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore 28.30
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.9
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.4
com.apple.kec.corecrypto 1.0
com.apple.kec.pthread 1

.

 

[MacBiter]

It's one of the first things in the log, after the date. But, just share the log file, please!

It's gone very quiet! Any thoughts on the trace data above?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

It's gone very quiet! Any thoughts on the trace data above?

Check the Github issue: https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy/issues/44

If you're desperate for a fix, I have compiled a custom XNU kernel for Mavericks which may make the problem go away (and if it doesn't, that would itself be useful to know). I am not necessarily recommending this, but it is an option, and I've been using it on my own machine for the past five days without problems. I'm also not sure there will be another (potential) solution in the near future, as no one working on Chromium Legacy has deep knowledge of the kernel.

The kernel is a hidden file named mach_kernel on the root of your boot drive. To use mine, you would rename the old one (as a backup), put mine in its place, run sudo nvram boot-args="-f -v keepsyms=1" in the Terminal, and reboot. Please at minimum have a full time machine backup available, and make sure you would be comfortable restoring the original kernel from recovery mode (using recovery mode's Terminal to put the old kernel back) in the event that something goes wrong and OS X is unable to start up!

 

[MacBiter]

Check the Github issue: https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy/issues/44

If you're desperate for a fix, I have compiled a custom XNU kernel for Mavericks which may make the problem go away (and if it doesn't, that would itself be useful to know). I am not necessarily recommending this, but it is an option, and I've been using it on my own machine for the past five days without problems. I'm also not sure there will be another (potential) solution in the near future, as no one working on Chromium Legacy has deep knowledge of the kernel.

The kernel is a hidden file named mach_kernel on the root of your boot drive. To use mine, you would rename the old one (as a backup), put mine in its place, run sudo nvram boot-args="-v -f keepsyms=1" in the Terminal, and reboot. Please at minimum have a full time machine backup available, and make sure you would be comfortable restoring the original kernel from recovery mode (using recovery mode's Terminal to put the old kernel back) in the event that something goes wrong and OS X is unable to start up!

Thanks for that. The technology is way beyond my paygrade, but I do understand that it's a low level (i.e. kernel) issue that can be resolved with a Terminal keepsyms change after inserting a different version of the kernel.

I'm not desperate for a fix, though if the panics start to occur more often than every 3 weeks or so on average, I may rethink that. I don't have a recovery mode and never have (probably due to the way I upgraded to Mavericks? My installer-from-new wouldn't do an 'in place' install so I Googled and found a way I could achieve this by modifying the main application install folder and perhaps making a change in InstallESD? - the end result is that I never got a Recovery partition) but I assume that I can simply boot from my Mavericks clone on an external HD and use Terminal there to restore the old kernel?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

that can be resolved with a Terminal keepsyms change after inserting a different version of the kernel.

It's the modified kernel that should fix the problem. The terminal command primarily disables something called the kernel cache (-f), which allows your Mac boot a few seconds faster but also makes it difficult to switch between different kernels. The other flags (-v keepsyms=1) aren't actually necessary, but make it so that if something does go wrong, we'll be able to see a more useful log.

I assume that I can simply boot from my Mavericks clone on an external HD and use Terminal there to restore the old kernel?

Yes! You could also reinstall Mavericks from scratch (from a USB key, or network recovery) and restore from a time machine backup, or use the opportunity to start fresh. I just don't want anyone to end up with an unusable computer they rely on.

The modified kernel should work fine. I only added three lines of code, copied from what Apple themselves added in newer versions of macOS. And I'm using it myself. But I'm not a kernel developer, so I'm being excessively cautious.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

^ FYI, it has come to my attention that modified kernels break iMessage. Not immediately, but after a month or so. (You can ofc switch back to a stock kernel to make it work again.)

 

[MacBiter]

^ FYI, it has come to my attention that modified kernels break iMessage. Not immediately, but after a month or so. (You can ofc switch back to a stock kernel to make it work again.)

I haven't yet actually modified the kernel. I haven't had a kernel panic for a while now. Sadly I've had a few freezes when my Parallels Sierra VM is being suspended (i.e. on a Quit) but that's a separate issue altogether.