Since the latest OSX 10.4.9 release, I've been unable to load some applications after a few hours of being booted. A reboot fixes things temporarily. Checking the /var/log/system.log, I found many of these messages: lsf_map: unable to allocate mapping.
After much digging, I landed on this post.
In a nutshell, if you execute from your console:
zprint load_file_server
You will see something like this:
elem cur max cur max cur alloc alloc
zone name size size size #elts #elts inuse size count
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
load_file_server 36 491K 492K 13994 13994 7584 4K 113
According to the post: "When the 'cur inuse' number reaches the 'max #elts' number, the zone is full and you've got problems."
After much goofing, I noticed I started getting errors in system.log when I loaded Dashboard for the first time and indeed my 'cur inuse' was the same as 'max #elts'.
I expect Dashboard isn't the problem, but it does aggravate it quite a bit. So until Apple releases a fix, I disabled it. Disable/Enable instructions can be found on the macosxhints site.
Note this problem may have started earlier than 10.4.9, but I'm just now noticing it on a daily basis. Rebooting my MacBookPro daily is just to PC like for my ego, so goodbye Dashboard for now.
[Update]
Bah, turns out that hint doesn't really work. Hitting F12 still loads Dashboard. Need to investigate.
But, killall Dock does restart Dock, and you get all your memory and resources back stolen by Dashboard. Just as good for now I think.
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