Fitbit prevents reboot

[tonyarnold]

I mentioned this on Twitter, but lets get it on record: Presently, fitbit seems to prevent reboots under Lion (not sure if this effects earlier releases) — I've tested under 10.7.0, 10.7.1 and 10.7.2 and every time I choose "Restart", the white reboot screen just shows the indeterminate progress spinner indefinitely.

It would be awesome if you found a way to fix this.

[cbowns]

My MacBook Air hangs at a grey screen with a mouse on shutdown, and it drives me batty. I’ll see what I can figure out.

(Even weirder is how to force a clean shutdown: if I tap my power button, loginwindow respawns, and I can shut down from there.)

[tonyarnold]

I wonder if it's the fitbit daemon (fitbitd) respawning endlessly and trying to bring services back up. A poorly configured launch daemon can potentially do this.

[cbowns]

So it looks like there’s two parts to the fitbit software: fitbitd, which is the userland process hangin’ out with the base station, and com.silabs.driver.SiLabsUSBDriver, which is a kext loaded when the base station is attached (and unloaded when it’s disconnected, typically).

[cbowns]

However, in my testing just now on my 2011 Air, I was unable to reproduce the hang, at least on a rapid reboot cycle while on battery. I tried the following configs:

• Attach base station, let kext load, let fitbitd run, reboot: no hang
• Attach base station, let kext load, remove base station, verify kext unload, stop fitbitd, reboot: no hang
• Attach base station, let kext load, remove base station, verify kext unload, let fitbitd run, reboot: no hang
• Leave base station attached on boot, verify kext load, let fitbitd run, reboot: no hang
• Leave base station attached on boot, verify kext load, stop fitbitd, reboot: no hang

[cbowns]

@tonyarnold, what specifc OS version are you on?

[tonyarnold]

@cbowns I'm on 10.7.2 (whatever the latest seed is at the time of writing).

[cbowns]

Ok. I just saw the hang again on shutdown in a different config, so it may be related to machine uptime with the tracker attached, or possibly other USB devices. I’ll see what I can figure out.

[cbowns]

[Edit: just kidding, the tracker wasn’t plugged in. Original comment below:]

t tried unloading com.fitbit.fitbitd prior to rebooting on a config that typically hangs, and the system didn’t hang. Hard to tell if this is a real fix or not, though, since I’m still hunting around for a sureshot repro case.

[schwa]

Wait - the hang on shutdown is due to fitbit? Motherfuckers.

I've been getting this too - not 100% of the time but enough.

[cbowns]

Yeah, I just hit it again. It seems to repro more reliably when I’m on power and clamshelled to my Cinema Display, but I’m still trying to figure out why.

Hung when I tried: shutdown after unloading com.fitbit.fitbitd with the base station attached to my Air via a 27” Cinema Display via USB. Disconnecting the base station didn’t unhang it.

[cbowns]

I need to do a better A/B test, but it appears that this may have helped my machine not hang just prior to my latest reboot:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/SiLabsUSBDriver.kext

[tonyarnold]

Mine always occurs when I'm rebooting whilst my MacBook Pro is in clamshell mode connected to my Cinema Display via a ThunderBolt cable — I'll give the kextunload a go next time I need to reboot.

[cbowns]

Yeah, mine is in a very similar configuration: clamshell mode on a 13” TB Air, attached to a 27” (non-TB display). Give it a try, let me know how it goes.

[loganb]

I believe I'm experiencing this problem too; is there a way I can determine if it is actually fitbit preventing shutdown?

[cbowns]

@loganb Sort of: if you have a configuration that normally prevents shutdown with the Fitbit cable connected, try disconnecting it and rebooting.

[manufactured]

Just chiming in with a "me too."

On Aluminum iMac starting up in verbose mode, shutdown hangs indefinitely and fills the screen with:

com.apple.launchd 1 com.fitbitd 1687 PID is still valid com.apple.launchd 1 com.apple.launchd 1 System: Still alive with 1/1 (normal/anonymous) children.

Unplugging the fitbit USB cable made no difference after the mac already went into its shutdown sequence; I end up doing a hard shutdown by holding down power.

iMac was fine on reboot, problem seems intermittent now, troubleshooting as I can.

Running latest Lion.

[gabrielrinaldi]

I did the following test:

1. On a clean Mac running Lion tried to reboot/shudown - OK
2. Installed FitBit on a clean Mac running Lion and did the same - FAIL
3. Restarted the Mac with FitBit installed but without connecting the dock - OK

So the problem is because of FitBit on Lion, and it only happens if you have the dock connected.

Temporary solution for me: Stop using FitBit, not being able to shutdown/reboot my MacBook was really annoying.

[schwa]

I see exactly the same problems as Gabriel.

Perhaps some kind of daemon that notices the fitbit has been disconnected and the kills fitbit processes with a extreme prejudice might work

Overkill for someone else's buggy software but hey

[cbowns]

Fitbit has released an update to their OS X client software that, unfortunately, overrides the launchd-based output redirection, but probably fixes at least a few of their crappy bugs (like my persistent kernel panics when detaching from a Thunderbolt display). There’s a magical secret incantation I saw a long time ago that disables their logging (via a defaults write, iirc), and I’ll comment here once I find it.

[cbowns]

(Found the logging silence switch for enterprising souls: http://blog.newsyland.com/mac-os-x/silence-fitbitd-console-messages. I’ll fold it into this shortly.)

[tonyarnold]

Thanks @cbowns!

One of us should email Fitbit and offer to turn their whacky daemon into an app that users can run/quit. At least that way there could be some kind of UI for controlling crap like this. I wonder who writes their software now? (SHAAAAME! SHAAAME!)

[cbowns]

Yeah, it’s still pretty gnarly. From the looks of it, they’re now using a kext loading/unloading technique to help avoid some of the USB re-enumeration issues that may have been causing kernel panics when the host’s USB tree changes. So far, it seems better?

[cbowns]

@tonyarnold I haven’t had any issues with their latest daemon software, how has it been treating you?

[tonyarnold]

@cbowns I haven't done too much testing, but my Mountain Lion install seems to be fine with the Fitbit software installed. No issues with reboots so far (although I've only rebooted 2-3 times in the last month).

[cbowns]

Ok, I’m thinking of closing this out. I’m pretty convinced the latest fitbit software doesn’t have this bug anymore, and it would have been pretty hard to test a workaround if it did, as I haven’t hit it in months.