Sonoma 14.4 crash/kernel panic/reboot with Kontakt 7

[hammerman]

Just a heads up that I recently discovered in a session today that opening any Kontakt 7 instance in DP 11 with the latest Sonoma update causes a complete freeze, then black screen, then reboot. It's the Sonoma 14.4 update according to this thread:

https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... nd.149783/

I tried Kontakt 7.8.1 and 7.8.0 and DP 11.3 and DP 11.31. They all crash. As long as the Kontakt instance is not opened, it works fine. Apparently going back to Rosetta solved the problem for Logic users. It appears to be an iLok issue with the update. I haven't had time to try Rosetta yet.

I've never had this thing happen before. Literally every single time a screen freeze, black screen and reboot.

Good luck...

[James Steele]

I hate to be the "not happening here" guy, but I'm running Sonoma 14.4 on my Mac Studio (which I don't recommend ANY flavor of Sonoma right now with Console 1 but it's too late for me) and I just opened a project that I knew had an instance of Kontakt 7.8.1 in it. It loaded up and played fine. I double-clicked the insert to open the instance and it does NOT crash for me. I do not know why.

[James Steele]

Looking at your sig, I wonder if it might be some strange issue related to you being on an M2 processor and I'm on an M1?

[James Steele]

One last follow up. Tried the same thing on my Mac with Logic 10.8.1 and no crash either. Not sure why. I think there's speculation that it's iLok related. I'm storing my licenses on an Gen 2 iLok dongle. No issues here. Also, have to wonder how this would affect Kontakt since Native Instruments uses their own authorization scheme, yes? They do not use iLok.

I have to leave soon for a trip... maybe you could ask on VI Control of some of these people having issues are on M2, because not having issues on my system and just off the top of my head, the easiest to notice difference in our systems is M2 vs. M1.

[mikehalloran]

Just a heads up that I recently discovered in a session today that opening any Kontakt 7 instance in DP 11 with the latest Sonoma update causes a complete freeze, then black screen, then reboot. It's the Sonoma 14.4 update according to this thread:

https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... nd.149783/

I tried Kontakt 7.8.1 and 7.8.0 and DP 11.3 and DP 11.31. They all crash. As long as the Kontakt instance is not opened, it works fine. Apparently going back to Rosetta solved the problem for Logic users. It appears to be an iLok issue with the update. I haven't had time to try Rosetta yet.

I've never had this thing happen before. Literally every single time a screen freeze, black screen and reboot.

Good luck...

Opening an existing project with Kontakt 7 was fine. Adding a new instance gave me the same crash.

On the phone with Apple Support. It happens in Safe Mode, too.

[James Steele]

Opening an existing project with Kontakt 7 was fine. Adding a new instance gave me the same crash.

On the phone with Apple Support. It happens in Safe Mode, too.

Are you on M1 or M2, Mike? I’m already on my way out of town, so can’t try creating a new instance. Opening an existing instance worked fine for me, however.

[mikehalloran]

Opening an existing project with Kontakt 7 was fine. Adding a new instance gave me the same crash.

On the phone with Apple Support. It happens in Safe Mode, too.

Are you on M1 or M2, Mike? I’m already on my way out of town, so can’t try creating a new instance. Opening an existing instance worked fine for me, however.

M2.

The stand alone app does not have this issue nor does it crash in Logic.

I spent a few hours on the phone with Apple Support who did promise a fix soon for many of the issues that 14.4 has created. Since one cannot roll back to macOS 14.31, the only suggestion was to create a new APFS Volume on my System drive and load Ventura onto it (I have one already for Acrobat Pro). I'm hoping this gets fixed first., however

Because I'm on Apple Silicon, booting into an external drive is not a solution. There are many .kxt files that cannot load onto an external and the drivers for MOTU audio interface are among them, no matter the Security Settings. This is by Design and Apple has no intention of changing this anytime soon.

So, I have no idea who needs to fix this: Apple? Native Instruments? MOTU? I do hope it gets fixed soon. I've already submitted this to NI Support and will submit a Tech Link today — Done

[James Steele]

Opening an existing project with Kontakt 7 was fine. Adding a new instance gave me the same crash.

On the phone with Apple Support. It happens in Safe Mode, too.

Are you on M1 or M2, Mike? I’m already on my way out of town, so can’t try creating a new instance. Opening an existing instance worked fine for me, however.

M2.

The stand alone app does not have this issue nor does it crash in Logic.

I spent a few hours on the phone with Apple Support who did promise a fix soon for many of the issues that 14.4 has created. Since one cannot roll back to macOS 14.31, the only suggestion was to create a new APFS Volume on my System drive and load Ventura onto it (I have one already for Acrobat Pro). I'm hoping this gets fixed first., however

Because I'm on Apple Silicon, booting into an external drive is not a solution. There are many .kxt files that cannot load onto an external and the drivers for MOTU audio interface are among them, no matter the Security Settings. This is by Design and Apple has no intention of changing this anytime soon.

So, I have no idea who needs to fix this: Apple? Native Instruments? MOTU? I do hope it gets fixed soon. I've already submitted this to NI Support and will submit a Tech Link today.

That’s interesting. I was pretty sure you were on M2. The other person reporting Kontakt problems was also on M2. I was able to open instances of Kontakt 7.8.1 in DP 11.31 in Sonoma 14.4 without any issues. I did not think to try creating a new instance of Kontakt. Either way, seems my M1 Max Mac Studio does not crash when opening the Kontakt GUI, and the M2 does (all things—OS, DP, and Kontakt versions—being the same).

I really hope Apple puts out a Sonoma update that fixes this soon. I’m having quite the ordeal with Console 1. Unless you ONLY have the Track Overview open and NOTHING ELSE, the Console 1 On Screen Display app becomes unusably sluggish, both in screen redraw and responsiveness to adjustments from the hardware controller.

I have been in contact with MOTU about it and they have told me it’s a graphics bug in Sonoma. This particular bug happened in 14.3.1 as well. It has to do with how certain graphic elements are drawn in DP, hence the issue does go away if you close all windows EXCEPT the Track Overview. Opening the Sequence Editor seems to have the biggest detrimental impact.

Oddly enough, this Sonoma/Console 1 bug does not manifest for me in Cubase, Logic or Pro Tools… just DP. I have pointed that out to MOTU, but they remain fairly certain it’s a Sonoma problem.

[mikehalloran]

Fortunately, none of my current projects require Kontakt so I'll hang back and wait for now.

[James Steele]

Fortunately, none of my current projects require Kontakt so I'll hang back and wait for now.

Yeah. Only reason I went to Sonoma 14.4 was out of desperation to solve the Console 1 issue. I was hoping it contained the fix from Apple. I sure wish OS downgrading from APFS snapshots was possible. Alas!

[hammerman]

James and Mike,

Thanks for your help here. So it's up to Apple. I will try running in Rosetta tomorrow to see if I can bypass the bug in the meantime.

I have both Time Machine backups and a cloned drive using Carbon Copy Cloner right before the update. I thought there would be a way to just roll back the OS to 14.3 and leave everything else untouched. I have EVERYTHING on that 4TB drive so I don't want to create any new problems. Oy.

Many thanks.

If I find out anything else, I will post here.

[James Steele]

I think you CAN roll back using Time Machine, but it’s just more involved that a quick restore from a local APFS snapshot. I don’t remember the process. Maybe Mike might be kind enough to describe it although I think he had elsewhere on this board.

Because I’m not currently working on anything too important, I’m resigned to wait for Apple to hopefully release an update to Sonoma that fixes this and other issues.

[hammerman]

It looks like a PACE/iLok issue which apparently can be fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling the software. This is from Sonoox on another thread:
"We have received reports of a compatibility issue with yesterday’s release of macOS 14.4 Sonoma on Apple Silicon Macs.

This issue affects plug-ins from all manufacturers protected by PACE / iLok when used with AU host DAWs such as Logic. Therefore, if you use Audio Units on an Apple Silicon Mac, please defer your update until more is known.

We are contacting PACE and will update you once we find a resolution."

Thread: https://uadforum.com/community/index.ph ... -it.70100/

[mikehalloran]

I think you CAN roll back using Time Machine, but it’s just more involved that a quick restore from a local APFS snapshot. I don’t remember the process. Maybe Mike might be kind enough to describe it although I think he had elsewhere on this board.

Because I’m not currently working on anything too important, I’m resigned to wait for Apple to hopefully release an update to Sonoma that fixes this and other issues.

Yes, a complete Time Machine Restore works.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computin ... r-version/

I can restore the System drive only without touching my external.

Just yesterday, I completed a full backup on a new NAS box with a pair of 8TB SSDs in a RAID 0 array that took about 36 hours to back up 13TB (more about that in another thread) and then ran the 14.4 updater. I’ve created little content since and can copy it over to a thumb drive. Unfortunately, a full Restore of just the 8TB System Drive will take quite awhile while TRIM and Garbage collection prepare the cells for new data. Since I want to get some work done tomorrow, I will pass – but it is an option.

In my case, I have nothing in the near future that requires Kontakt. If so, I’ll load DP and NA onto my Ventura Volume and point to the NI libraries residing on my Sonoma Volume.

Since Native Instruments doesn’t use PACE, the two are unrelated except for Sonoma 14.4. So far, none of my iLok licenses have given me grief but I’ve not fired up anything new with iZotope or UVI yet.

[James Steele]

I’ve have no problem so far with any of my iLok protected plugs but by no means have I tried them all.