Parallels crashes destructive to OSX apps.

[loughkb@yahoo.com]

Hello,

I've been following this forum since early last week. I've downloaded the beta, and pre-ordered what appears to be a fine product and excellent solution to many problems.

However, I am slightly alarmed by several posts indicating that a parallels crash led to the destruction of other installed apps. One post indicated that the contents of the Safari.app bundle were erased after a parallels crash. A recent post indicated that Mail.app was corrupted by a parallels crash.

I have never before witnessed an application that can crash and damage other installed programs like this. It's very worrisome to me. Is Parallels breaking some rules in order to accomplish its virtualization magic?

I've been following a few threads over on the Qemu forums as well. They are having a very difficult time getting virtualization to work in a safe manner, without mucking about in kernal memory space. These reports of Parallels corrupting the installation of other 'running?' applications makes me wonder if some dangerous shortcuts are being taken in it's programming.

Would one of the developers care to comment on the app corruptions? I notice no responses to those posts have been made so far.

Kevin L.

 

[t3knomanser]

Short Answer: I think so.

I know that looking at a few of the crash reports told me that there was an issue with a kext, which is a kernel extenstion, which is a "safe" way to add processes into the kernel memory space. Some apps, like the infamous "haxies" that allow you to skin your OS also use kexts, but they definitely carry risks. This is not to say they should never be used, but must be used carefully, and thoroughly tested.

Welcome to the world of being a BETA tester. I think we've all gotten spoiled by betas that are safe, just incomplete.