Some programs crash but not in safe mode or for guest user

Question

Hoping that some talented and kind Mac wizard will help me solve a bizarre problem: Some but not all of my programs have started crashing immediately upon launch, but not in safe mode, nor when I log in as a guest user.
The problem began on February 5th, right after I installed an update to my OS (bringing it up to version 10.7.3), which included an update to the firmware for my computer, a Mac mini from mid-2010. The programs that began crashing upon launch *may* be those that were open at that time, but I can’t be sure. They include Adobe Reader, Picasa, Word for Mac, and a sweet little utility called uCalendarX.
Specifically what happens with, say, uCalendarX, is this:  After I launch it, nothing appears on screen for a few seconds, and then comes a message that it is trying restore its windows, with a choice of whether to attempt restoring them or not. After a few more seconds comes the news that it has quit unexpectedly. The first several dozen lines of the crash log appear at the end of this posting.
So far my troubleshooting has revealed the following:
(a) When I reboot in safe mode, the programs that crash now work normally.
(b) When I boot the usual way but log on a guest user, the programs that crash now work normally.
(c) Fully emptying the trash made no difference.
(d) The problem was not solved by restoring my hard drive (via Time Machine) to its state the day before I downloaded that update to the OS and the firmware. (This was a drastic step, the intervention of last resort, and I was sure it would work. But no. Perhaps I did not go back far enough for the restoration.)
(e) Deleting the plist files and plist.lockfiles made no difference.
(f) Deleting the files for the app under Saved Application States made no difference.
(g) Disabing the user’s font cache (as happens in safe mode) made no difference.
(h) Uninstalling Adobe Reader, emptying the trash, downloading the latest version, and installing that made no difference – this latest version newly installed continues to crash (but not for a guest user, nor for me, the administrator, in safe mode).
(i  ) Repairing permissions on the hard drive made no difference.
I will be mighty grateful for a solution to this perplexing, vexing problem!
B.t.w., I don’t know Unix but was able to do all those (fruitless) interventions listed above.
Gordon Bear
Ramsey NJ  U S A
The log from one of the many crashes of uCalendarX begins as follows:
Process:         uCalendarX [750]
Path:            /Applications/uCalendarX 3.2.3/uCalendarX 3-2-3.app/Contents/MacOS/uCalendarX
Identifier:      com.riuz.ucalendarx
Version:         3.2.3 (3.2.3)
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [289]
Date/Time:       2012-02-20 00:38:48.931 -0500
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.3 (11D50b)
Report Version:  9
Interval Since Last Report:          2463 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           3
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  30 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   3
Anonymous UUID:                      0CA8DA26-8927-4AC3-B35F-3B2E9FD65A8E
Crashed Thread:  4
Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000008bcc45ab
External Modification Warnings:
Thread creation by external task.
VM Regions Near 0x8bcc45ab:
     CoreServices           0000000004fd0000-00000000051ee000 [ 2168K] rw-/rwx SM=COW
-->
     __TEXT                 000000008fe52000-000000008fe85000 [  204K] r-x/rwx SM=COW  /usr/lib/dyld
Application Specific Information:
objc[750]: garbage collection is OFF
Thread 0:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   libsystem_kernel.dylib            0x920136e6 __open + 10
1   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc5b403 TFileDescriptorContext::TFileDescriptorContext(char const*) + 77
2   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc5b1c5 TFileDataReference::TFileDataReference(char const*) + 65
3   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc5b056 TFileDataSurrogate::TFileDataSurrogate(char const*, bool) + 136
4   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc59af3 TFont::CreateFontEntitiesForFile(char const*, bool, TSimpleArray<TFont*>&, bool, short, char const*) + 2581
5   libFontParser.dylib               0x9cc58a7a FPFontCreateFontsWithPath + 193
6   libCGXType.A.dylib                0x950164b0 create_private_data_with_path + 26
7   com.apple.CoreGraphics            0x95349ecf CGFontCreateFontsWithPath + 33
8   com.apple.CoreGraphics            0x95349b09 CGFontCreateFontsWithURL + 442
9   com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1c1aa TCGFont::TCGFont(__CFURL const*, bool) + 90
10  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1bfb2 TCGFontCache::CopyFont(__CFURL const*) const + 92
11  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1be6c TBaseFont::CopyNativeFont() const + 50
12  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1bd6f TTableStore::CopyTable(unsigned int, TCFRetained<__CFData const*>&) + 81
13  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1bade TBaseFont::CopyTable(unsigned int) const + 72
14  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1ba0f TcmapTable::TcmapTable(TBaseFont const&) + 31
15  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b8fd TBaseFont::GetGlyphsForCharacterRange(CFRange, unsigned short*) const + 27
16  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b79b TASCIIDataCache::TASCIIDataCache(TBaseFont const*) + 83
17  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b70f TBaseFont::CreateASCIIDataCache() const + 47
18  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b690 TFont::InitAdvanceCache() const + 42
19  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e1b4ad TASCIIEncoder::Encode() + 45
20  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e4433f TGlyphEncoder::EncodeChars(CFRange, TAttributes const&, TGlyphList<TDeletedGlyphIndex>&, TGlyphEncoder::Fallbacks) + 925
21  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e19ff6 TTypesetterAttrString::Initialize(__CFAttributedString const*) + 322
22  com.apple.CoreText                0x90e19b9d CTLineCreateWithAttributedString + 47
23  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d2b2d TCoreTextEngine::LayoutSingleLine(THIThemeTextInfo*, float) + 23
24  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d2a9a TCoreTextEngine::Layout(THIThemeTextInfo*, float, float, TextLayoutType) + 64
25  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963ad2c9 TCoreTextEngine::VerifyLayout(THIThemeTextInfo*, float, float, LayoutIntent) + 309
26  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x96410b0a TCoreTextEngine::GetThemeTextDimensions(float, THIThemeTextInfo*, float*, float*, float*) + 54
27  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x9640fc51 DataEngine::GetTextDimensions(void const*, float, HIThemeTextInfo*, float*, float*, float*) + 283
28  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d1fc5 HIThemeGetTextDimensions + 187
29  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d1ca3 HIMenuBarView::MeasureMenuTitle(MenuData*, unsigned char, float*, int, unsigned char*) + 451
30  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d1a49 HIMenuBarView::MeasureAppMenus() + 261
31  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963abb5d HIMenuBarView::EnsureBarLayout() + 489
32  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963ab152 HIMenuBarView::DrawSelf(short, __HIShape const*, CGContext*) + 520
33  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963aac22 HIView::DrawCacheOrSelf(short, __HIShape const*, CGContext*) + 86
34  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963aaa42 HIView::SendDraw(short, OpaqueGrafPtr*, __HIShape const*, CGContext*) + 124
35  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x964395c7 HIView::RecursiveDrawComposited(__HIShape const*, __HIShape const*, unsigned long, HIView*, CGContext*, unsigned char, float) + 755
36  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x964398b9 HIView::RecursiveDrawComposited(__HIShape const*, __HIShape const*, unsigned long, HIView*, CGContext*, unsigned char, float) + 1509
37  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x9643a86b HIView::DrawComposited(short, OpaqueGrafPtr*, __HIShape const*, unsigned long, HIView*, CGContext*) + 1227
38  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x9643a9b3 HIView::Draw(short, OpaqueGrafPtr*, unsigned long) + 81
39  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x9643ad7b HIView::Render(unsigned long, CGContext*) + 45
40  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963d084f WindowData::PrepareForVisibility() + 137
41  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963cf893 _ShowHideWindows + 355
42  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963cf728 ShowHide + 44
43  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x96399b09 _GetMenuBarWindow + 872
44  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x96399765 GetMenuBarView(MenuData*, unsigned char) + 74
45  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963a2f3a MBarMenuRgn + 26
46  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963a2d27 _ZL7ShowBar21MenuBarAnimationStylehhh + 281
47  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963cd42a _ZL21UpdateAggregateUIMode21MenuBarAnimationStylehh + 772
48  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x963e38e5 ShowMenuBar + 163
49  com.apple.AppKit                  0x001a9cad -[NSApplication finishLaunching] + 1331
50  com.apple.AppKit                  0x001a9374 -[NSApplication run] + 142
51  com.apple.AppKit                  0x0043d261 NSApplicationMain + 1054
52  com.riuz.ucalendarx               0x00001eea _start + 216
53  com.riuz.ucalendarx               0x00001e11 start + 4

Answer 1

Thanks for thinking about my problem. I've already experimented with creating a new user, a co-administrator. The programs don't crash when that account is running, just as they don't crash when the guest-user's account runs. So it seems that the problem is limited to the default user's account, which is the one that was running when I installed the updates to the OS and the firmware. Another clue is that the programs that crash as soon as they are launched are *probably* the ones that were open at that time in that account. Yet deleting Saved Application States does not keep the programs from crashing when next launched.
So the mystery continues, but these additional facts will help with the diagnosis, I hope.
Thanks again for your suggestion.
Gordon