This report has been amended. See below.
I'm having a problem and it's pretty clear that avast! is significantly involved. Subsequent to applying the most recent update (and I can't tell you which one, because I had to remove it to get my system back but it was whichever one was available yesterday, Nov. 1), I got a pop-up message from avast! saying that an Internal Error had occurred ("Start avast! or check the logs", etc.). After I received the message, I was able to continue working but when I tried to quit applications, they just hung. After force-quitting them, I couldn't shut down. After forcing the system down, when I tried to restart, everything proceeded normally until avast! kicked in. I again got the Internal Error and the boot just hung at that point. Something was going on in the background because the system temperature started rising dramatically but I noticed that the fans were not increasing speed in response, so I forced another power-off. Problem repeated on two more attempted restarts.
I can't say, exactly, how much time elapsed after the avast! update before I ran into problems or if I had shut down and restarted successfully any time prior to the incident because I just don't remember. My impression, though, is that it had been at least several hours -- maybe even a day -- since the update.
The reasons I'm pretty sure that avast! is the source of the problem is that I restarted the Mac with a second partition that had not been updated to try to troubleshoot. I removed avast! from the first partition, scanned the drive to make sure that no virus was involved, and successfully restarted using the first partition. I then downloaded a copy of avast! from the c|net download site, installed it, reregistered and rebooted successfully. I started avast!, clicked the "Update" icon and went through the process of downloading all the virus database patches since the c|net file was created. I then got the message that a program update was available, so I proceeded to apply it. I immediately got the "Internal Error" message and all the system problems repeated as before.
So as not to omit anything, during the process -- after the Internal Error message displayed and the restart had hung -- I was able to start avast!. One of those times it told me that a repair was necessary. Going through the process did not fix anything.
It has been some time since I reported a significant problem, so you'll have to remind me which files or logs you might need to evaluate the situation. The System Diagnostic Reports contain about a dozen com.avast.MacAvast.MAD_....._localhost.crash listings from the events (the first of which is attached).
As a start, I'll tell you I'm running a MacBook Pro (mid-2010) with OS X 10.6.8 but (since, once I had a viable system, I went back to see what would happen if I updated avast! on the other partition) the problem also occurs with OS X 10.7.5.
What follows is a list of all the console messages specifically referring to avast from the time of my first start up of the day through my second or third attempt at a restart.
11/1/12 7:49:35 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.account[70]) Exited with exit code: 2
11/1/12 7:49:44 AM com.avast.install[227] info-wrc-safari-installed
11/1/12 7:49:45 AM com.avast.install[227] info-wrc-firefox-uninstalled
11/1/12 7:49:45 AM com.avast.install[227] info-wrc-chrome-uninstalled
11/1/12 7:54:48 AM com.avast.helper[228] Pop socket closed by peer
11/1/12 7:59:51 PM com.avast.helper[228] Pop socket closed by peer
11/1/12 10:10:56 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.account[73]) Exited with exit code: 2
11/1/12 10:10:56 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.daemon[71]) Exited with exit code: 1
11/1/12 10:10:56 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.daemon) Throttling respawn: Will start in 9 seconds
11/1/12 10:10:56 PM com.apple.ReportCrash.Root[177] 2012-11-01 22:10:56.848 ReportCrash[177:2903] Saved crash report for com.avast.MacAvast.MAD[167] version
(
) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.avast.MacAvast.MAD_2012-11-01-221056_localhost.crash
11/1/12 10:11:05 PM com.avast.install[227] info-wrc-safari-installed
11/1/12 10:11:06 PM com.avast.helper[228] Error connecting to master socket: connect(): Connection refused
11/1/12 10:14:40 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.account[73]) Exited with exit code: 2
11/1/12 10:14:41 PM com.apple.ReportCrash.Root[195] 2012-11-01 22:14:41.258 ReportCrash[195:2a03] Saved crash report for com.avast.MacAvast.MAD[168] version
(
) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.avast.MacAvast.MAD_2012-11-01-221441_localhost.crash
11/1/12 10:14:41 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.daemon[71]) Exited with exit code: 1
11/1/12 10:14:41 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.daemon) Throttling respawn: Will start in 9 seconds
11/1/12 10:14:41 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.proxy[68]) Exited abnormally: Broken pipe
11/1/12 10:14:41 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.proxy) Throttling respawn: Will start in 9 seconds
11/1/12 10:14:47 PM com.avast.install[239] info-wrc-safari-installed
11/1/12 10:14:47 PM com.avast.helper[240] Error connecting to master socket: connect(): Connection refused
11/1/12 10:14:47 PM com.avast.install[239] info-wrc-firefox-uninstalled
11/1/12 10:14:47 PM com.avast.install[239] info-wrc-chrome-uninstalled
11/1/12 10:18:43 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.account[73]) Exited with exit code: 2
11/1/12 10:18:43 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.daemon[71]) Exited with exit code: 1
11/1/12 10:18:43 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.avast.daemon) Throttling respawn: Will start in 9 seconds
11/1/12 10:18:43 PM com.apple.ReportCrash.Root[210] 2012-11-01 22:18:43.250 ReportCrash[210:1407] Saved crash report for com.avast.MacAvast.MAD[163] version
(
) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.avast.MacAvast.MAD_2012-11-01-221843_localhost.crash
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Amended 2012/11/02 10:49 PDT
I was wrong about the update on OS X 10.7.5. The "Internal Error" appeared after the Program Update Available notification but I declined the update at that time. The one difference between symptoms on 10.7.5 and 10.6.8 is that, with Lion, the boot continues successfully and I am able to work.
To recap -- The situation on 10.7.5 appears to be: Application Version 7.0 (37667) and update log shows 37682 downloaded
Performing vpsmac update (repository:
http://download.ff.avast.com/mac/vpsmac, filedir: /Library/Application Support/Avast/files/defs/12110200/../../Setup/filedir, workdir: /tmp, instdir: /Library/Application Support/Avast/files/defs/12110200/..)
Resolving download.ff.avast.com...
Resolved as 159.253.143.37
Downloading
http://159.253.143.37/mac/vpsmac/vpsmac.lat...
Current: 12110200 Latest: 12110200
Version vpsmac 12110200 already downloaded
Performing progmac update (repository:
http://download.ff.avast.com/mac/progmac, filedir: /Library/Application Support/Avast/files/Setup/filedir, workdir: /tmp, instdir: /Library/Application Support/Avast/files/defs/12110200/..)
Resolving download.ff.avast.com...
Resolved as 46.4.28.80
Downloading
http://46.4.28.80/mac/progmac/progmac.lat...
Current: 37682-7.0 Latest: 37682-7.0
Version progmac 37682-7.0 already downloaded
Virus definition version 121100200
Applying 37682 did not correct the Internal Error.
The section of the System Log relating to avast! startup on Lion is:
[Had to be attached as separate file (SystemLog.txt) due to length limitations]
