
Jetbrains products all crash on the 2020 MacBook Air, sometimes crashing the OS - api
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/JBR-2310
======
api
(Bug report mentions PHPstorm but it manifests on CLion, GoLand, and others.)

This is clearly an Apple bug as well as possibly a bug in Jetbrains' UI or
other native libraries or maybe upstream in the JVM. It's an Apple bug because
it can bring down the whole system, sometimes with an absolute hardest
possible crash that generates no debug logs! Sometimes it also just crashes
the JVM. Sometimes it's a softer crash with logs and sometimes a hard crash
with no logs. Logs show crashes happening at random different places in the
code.

Absolutely nothing else does this, including heavy stuff like running two
Parallels VMs at once (Windows 10 and Linux) and running heavy multithreaded
compiles. Also ran a RAM and CPU burn-in test. It's not a hardware problem.
Many others are reporting it too.

Given that the new 13" Pro is a slightly larger version of what seems to be
the same machine (10th gen Intel core, etc.) I would speculate that it will
probably show the same weird problem. (The 2020 Air is a "2020 13" Pro, No
Touch Bar Edition.")

People using Jetbrains products on earlier or different MacBook models have no
issues. This includes the 2019 Air.

Posting here to attempt to get Apple's attention. Drawing attention on social
media is the new way to get tech support focused on an issue -- "blue
checkmark service" as it's called on Twitter.

Edit: I bet there is a security vulnerability here given that it brings down
the whole OS. Any security researchers in the audience? The 2020 Air has a new
10th generation Intel chip and a new version of Intel integrated GPU graphics,
so my money is on drivers or kernel support for one of those. (Runs off to
disable WebGL and WebGPU...)

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Or possibly an Intel/hardware problem.

~~~
api
It'd be an extremely esoteric one if these products crash it and literally
nothing else does including:

\- Hours of CPU and RAM burn

\- Multiple concurrent VMs running different OSes (Windows 10 and Linux).

\- "make -j8" on a large C++ code base

\- Visual Studio Code and other large Electron apps that also run under a JIT.

\- I ran a 3D graphics demo to stress test the GPU, no issues.

Zero crashes of any kind, then I launch a Jetbrains app and _boom_ at a
frequency of about once per hour of app use. Sometimes the app just crashes,
sometimes the whole machine crashes and does so very "hard."

The simplest explanation is an Apple bug being triggered by a Jetbrains
runtime or JVM bug, or if not an outright bug something really odd and out of
the ordinary that this software is doing via some OS API. Given that it only
happens on this machine my bet would be on something video or screen related
as the GPU differs slightly from other Mac laptops and that's a common place
for bugs to hide.

~~~
_bxg1
Recent Mac GPUs have been... weird. I've had small artifacts on three
different 16-inch MBPs (one that I returned, a replacement that I decided to
keep, and one that I was issued at work).

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SigmundA
Not real impressed with Apple Mac OS stability lately. I am currently
experiencing the WindowServer crash coming out of sleep on my MacBook Pro 16.

Look like it has something to do with the AMD dGPU and Catalina so again
probably a GPU driver: [https://mrmacintosh.com/10-15-4-update-wake-from-
sleep-kerne...](https://mrmacintosh.com/10-15-4-update-wake-from-sleep-kernel-
panic-in-16-mbpro-2019)

Then you have another fun one probably related like it spinning up the fans
and the GPU consuming double power when you run the built in display and an
external monitor, but not with just external monitors:
[https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-
an...](https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an-external-
monitor.2211747/)

Of course the problem with Apple is zero communication even acknowledging an
issue leads to all sorts of wild goose chases usually involving reset pram or
whatever.

------
leoh
Fascinating. This could form the basis of a serious zero-day.

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nightowl_games
I wonder if this affects Android Studio.

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thorwasdfasdf
the thing that sucks about jetbrains is that you need to keep updating license
keys on your own end every year, even though you're paying a yearly fee. they
really need to make this much easier. the end user shouldn't have to do
anything.

~~~
zlepper
No? Just login to your JetBrains Account and it should just work in my
experience? No need to fiddle around with license keys.

~~~
thorwasdfasdf
nope, it just says "no suitable licenses found" even though i got the email
that i updated.

~~~
fgonzag
Something is wrong with your account. You should have support look into it.

I just login into my account on the IDE and all licenses are automatically
imported.

