Zotero 5.0.96.3 causes Kernel Panics (macOS 12.x)

hendrikerz
Hey all,

I have intermittendly started to get kernel panics which are caused by Zotero, i.e. those very rare "blue screens" on macOS. I have no stack trace right now, because I decided only now to report this, but I know how to reproduce this:

Whenever I save an article using the Chrome Connector, while being behind my University Library's proxy (EZProxy) and the article PDF takes a long duration to download (mainly while my girlfriend and I are simultaneously in a Zoom meeting). If that duration until the PDF can be retrieved is too long, the computer stops responding, and a few seconds later restarts.

As soon as this happens again, I will share a corresponding stack trace, but I suspect that Zotero is doing some arcane magic under the hood that creates a file pointer under the hood, which at some point causes macOS to go rampant…?
  • dstillman
    edited January 30, 2022
    This is not a Zotero problem. A regular userland program by definition isn't responsible for a kernel panic. It's a bug in the OS, a bug in a kernel extension, or a hardware problem.
  • hendrikerz
    Ah okay. I didn't know that kernel panics cannot be caused by software. Well, then I guess the problem holds true that Monterey is still somewhat buggy.

    Thanks for letting me know!
  • emilianoeheyns
    edited January 30, 2022
    By design of the OS, running software should not be capable of causing a kernel panic; if running software can do anything that causes a kernel panic, that fact in and of itself is a bug in the OS.

    It's like if your doorbell is wired in such a way that if someone rings it, your TV explodes. Sure, someone who rings that bell can be said to have "caused" your TV to explode, but the doorbell-ringer should never have been able to make your TV explode this way, and the party at fault for allowing that to be possible is the electrician (in this case, Apple).
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