Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] CRITICAL: Ethereal 0.10.10 Locks up Windows XP Solid!

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From: Joerg Mayer <jmayer@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 20:30:08 +0200
On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 09:54:06AM -0800, Idon . wrote:
> This bug does not exist in Ethereal 0.10.9, and "Update list of packets in 
> real time" works in Ethereal 0.10.9 without locking up the system.  This I 
> confirmed yesterday.
> 
> I have been running Windows XP SP2 ever since its release.  I was even a 
> beta tester for a while.  My system does not get lockups like this.  Also, 
> I have been using Winpcap 3.1beta 4 practically since it was released, and 
> with various other applications: both those that capture data and those 
> that send data.  It has never given me problems.
> 
> Therefore, given that I have been operating with these components for 
> several monts, problem free, and given that "Update list of packets in real 
> time" works in Ethereal 0.10.9 without problems.  Could a developer please 
> look into this problem.  Saying it is Winpcap's fault, when one version of 
> Ethereal works and the updated version does not, is not very helpful.  Why 
> is this a problem with Ethereal 0.10.10?  What changed?

I don't know how much you know about operating systems. One of the requirements
for an OS like Win XP is, that it is the OS job to make sure that a users
process *MUST NOT* be able to lock the system hard. So if a user process
is capable of locking the system, this is definitely an *OS BUG*. It may
be *triggered* by a faulty application, but it first and formost still is
an OS bug. An OS bug may be some kernel bug or, for example, a driver bug.
In this specific case, this means the following:
In case there truly is a hard lock of your machine (and not just the
desktop), then this is an OS bug. The actual bug may either be in the
M$ provided parts of the OS or in the driver that comes with WinPcap.
So in the case there is a bug in Ethereal that *triggers* the OS bug, it
is *very important* that the OS bug be found and fixed too!

 Ciao
  Joerg

-- 
Joerg Mayer                                           <jmayer@xxxxxxxxx>
We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that
works. Some say that should read Microsoft instead of technology.