Barry_Green
Moderator
EDITED: Panasonic has updated their P2 drivers to get rid of this problem, so please be sure to update your drivers if you're still having the 4GB problem!
For anyone who's having to make do with the old drivers and can't update right away, I'll leave the rest of the post/thread intact.
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Hey guys, there have been some reports here and on the Cow about people using MacBook Pros and the Duel Adapter to offload P2 cards, and getting hit with Kernel Panics. Not a good situation and as this older thread points out, there's at least three points of contention where the problem could be: in OSX, or in the Panasonic driver, or in the Duel driver.
After some digging around and getting some mac experts involved, I think we have a line on what the problem is and a potential workaround for it. It appears that the problem only happens when you have 4GB of RAM installed. If you only have 2GB, you shouldn't be experiencing the problem.
I know that both Panasonic and Duel are aware of the issue, and I'm sure that if either of them finds out that it's not their fault they'll be sure to nag Apple to fix it, so all three potential parties are aware of the problem. No idea if or when a fix is forthcoming though. So if you need to use an MBP/Duel combination, and you've got 4GB, it looks like you have to cut that down to 2GB. And that can be done one of two ways: either by pulling out some RAM (obviously not desirable), or by using a software hack to limit the Mac to using only 2GB for those times when you'd want to use the Duel.
I'm not a Mac user so don't shoot me if I get this wrong, but I'm passing on the findings that a Mac user has put together on how to limit the OS to only using 2GB.
You'd probably want to find some way to automate this process so you could run a "config for Duel" automated process before using the Duel Adapter; it'll limit the system to 2GB and hopefully prevent any kernel panics from happening.
Later, when you want to restore the system to full 4GB for use with other programs etc., you follow the same procedure above but in step 2 you'd issue a different command to the Terminal program. Instead of the line in step 2 above, you'd use "sudo nvram boot-args=""
You can check the status of your system memory by using the Active Monitor->System Memory in the Utility folder.
For anyone who's having to make do with the old drivers and can't update right away, I'll leave the rest of the post/thread intact.
*********
Hey guys, there have been some reports here and on the Cow about people using MacBook Pros and the Duel Adapter to offload P2 cards, and getting hit with Kernel Panics. Not a good situation and as this older thread points out, there's at least three points of contention where the problem could be: in OSX, or in the Panasonic driver, or in the Duel driver.
After some digging around and getting some mac experts involved, I think we have a line on what the problem is and a potential workaround for it. It appears that the problem only happens when you have 4GB of RAM installed. If you only have 2GB, you shouldn't be experiencing the problem.
I know that both Panasonic and Duel are aware of the issue, and I'm sure that if either of them finds out that it's not their fault they'll be sure to nag Apple to fix it, so all three potential parties are aware of the problem. No idea if or when a fix is forthcoming though. So if you need to use an MBP/Duel combination, and you've got 4GB, it looks like you have to cut that down to 2GB. And that can be done one of two ways: either by pulling out some RAM (obviously not desirable), or by using a software hack to limit the Mac to using only 2GB for those times when you'd want to use the Duel.
I'm not a Mac user so don't shoot me if I get this wrong, but I'm passing on the findings that a Mac user has put together on how to limit the OS to only using 2GB.
1. Launch the Directory Utility from the Application->Utility Folder. Click the "key" icon to unlock it. Then click "Edit->Enable Root User."
2. Launch the Terminal program, from Application->Utility Folder. Then type in the following command: "sudo nvram boot-args="maxmem=2048"
3. Launch the Directory Utility again, and click the key icon to unlock it, then choose "Edit->Disable Root User".
You'd probably want to find some way to automate this process so you could run a "config for Duel" automated process before using the Duel Adapter; it'll limit the system to 2GB and hopefully prevent any kernel panics from happening.
Later, when you want to restore the system to full 4GB for use with other programs etc., you follow the same procedure above but in step 2 you'd issue a different command to the Terminal program. Instead of the line in step 2 above, you'd use "sudo nvram boot-args=""
You can check the status of your system memory by using the Active Monitor->System Memory in the Utility folder.
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