Why does Vista complain about a dead process when I use Cygwin X11 ssh and how do I get it to shut up?

Question

When I log into a remote machine using ssh X11 forwarding, Vista pops up a box complaining about a process that died unexpectedly. Once I dismiss the box, everything is fine. So I really don't care if some process died. How do I get Vista to shut up about it?

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Specifically, the message reads:

sh.exe has stopped working

So it's not ssh itself that died, but some sub-process.

The problem details textbox reads:

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:   APPCRASH
  Application Name: sh.exe
  Application Version:  0.0.0.0
  Application Timestamp:    48a031a1
  Fault Module Name:    comctl32.dll_unloaded
  Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:   4549bcb0
  Exception Code:   c0000005
  Exception Offset: 73dc5b17
  OS Version:   6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
  Locale ID:    1033
  Additional Information 1: fc4d
  Additional Information 2: d203a7335117760e7b4d2cf9dc2925f9
  Additional Information 3: 1bc1
  Additional Information 4: 7bc0b00964c4a1bd48f87b2415df3372

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I notice the problem occurs when I use the -Y option to enable X11 forwarding in an X terminal under Vista.

The dialog box that pops up doesn't automatically gain focus, so pressing Enter serves no purpose. I have to wait for the box to appear, grab it with the mouse, and dismiss it. Even forcing the error to receive focus would be a step in the right direction.

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Per DrPizza I have sent an email to the Cygwin mailing list. The trimmed down subject line represents my repeated attempts to bypass an over-aggressive spam filter and highlights the need for something like StackOverflow.

Answer 1

Well, I don't know what the original problem was, but when I update Cygwin recently the error message stopped popping up.

My guess it that rebasing was necessary.

Answer 2

The problem is, the process didn't just die, it died unexpectedly. Sounds like there's a bug in your SSH client that Vista is pointing out.

Answer 3

I know this is going to be heresy for a cygwin user, but you could just use PuTTY instead.

Answer 4

What does unexpectedly mean in this context? Does it mean it core dumped or just exited non-zero?

It means it died with an unhandled exception, i.e. it crashed.

Answer 5

Fault Module Name: comctl32.dll_unloaded Exception Code: c0000005

Something had triggered loading of comctl32.dll, but it was later unloaded.

c0000005 means 'access violation'. Probably something tried calling a function in the unloaded dll.

I agree with one of the cygwin commentators that it's possibly a bug in some antivirus program or "desktop enhancement" software. Video card companies like to inject their stuff into every process, too. It's easy to use comctl32.dll for things without realizing it, however.

Try downloading and installing WinDbg from Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx Set it as the default JIT debugger "windbg.exe -I". Next time this happens you should get the nice debugger window pop up. Type "kv100" to get a stack trace. Look at the dlls listed in the calling path, there's a good chance one of them is the culprit.

If you see a dll that's not from Microsoft or Cygwin there, uninstall that application and see if the problem goes away. Otherwise, the Cygwin list might be interested in the stack trace.