Understanding and Debugging Kernel Panics

When the kernel crashes on Mac OS X, the system displays a panic message. At this point the system will have to be restarted. But before hitting the reset button, how can one find out what caused the crash?

This technote addresses kernel panics: what they are and how to debug the code that caused the panic.

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2063.html

It's usually the last thing you did or installed.



It's easy to go hog wild and install all sorts of garbage on a new machine.

My suggestion to prevent problems is to:

1: Maintain a clone of your boot drive

2: Install things slowly and get to know your machine in between.