Failed to launch simulated application: Unknown error

Question

• OS X 10.5.7 (genuine Mac)
• Xcode 3.1.3
• iPhone SDK 3.0

When I try to execute my iPhone application in simulator, I get the dreaded error message:

Failed to launch simulated application: Unknown error.

My application has two targets, but this error occurs on both of them.

When error occurs, the simulated OS hangs — it displays black screen and no longer responds on any input. Simulator application itself does not hang — all menus are active.

All other applications I've tried running (mostly Apple samples) do work fine. Purging of caches, rebooting and howling on the Moon did not helped. Rebuilding project from scratch did not helped either. I guess I have to do it again in smaller steps.

Meanwhile, are there any other things to try than these below?

• Xcode | Empty Caches...
• Delete directory /Library/Caches/com.apple.DeveloperTools.###
• Full rebuild
• Reboot
• Change the product name (it did not contain any spaces anyway)
• Create new project and configure it manually from scratch

A quote from the system.log:

12.08.09 0:13:59 [0x0-0xa70a7].com.apple.iphonesimulator[5368] -[MonitorController forwardEvents]: unable to send msg to ffffffff: 10000003 
12.08.09 0:13:59 [0x0-0xa70a7].com.apple.iphonesimulator[5368] -[MonitorController forwardEvents]: unable to send msg to ffffffff: 10000003 
12.08.09 0:14:03 com.apple.launchd[166] (com.apple.iPhoneSimulator:com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Unknown key for integer: JetsamPriority 
12.08.09 0:14:03 com.apple.launchd[166] (com.apple.iPhoneSimulator:com.apple.apsd) Path monitoring failed on "/var/mobile/Library/Preferences": No such file or directory 
12.08.09 0:14:03 com.apple.launchd[166] (com.apple.iPhoneSimulator:com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Path monitoring failed on "/var/mobile/Library/Preferences": No such file or directory 
12.08.09 0:14:03 vot[9750] ******** AX INSPECTOR MODE ************ 
12.08.09 0:14:03 vot[9750] VoiceOverTouch exiting because accessibility is not enabled. To enable do this: 'defaults write com.apple.Accessibility AccessibilityEnabled true' 
12.08.09 0:14:03 Xcode[9079] Error launching simulated application: Error Domain=DTiPhoneSimulatorErrorDomain Code=1 UserInfo=0x39251e0 "Unknown error."

Note that something called VoiceOverTouch is mentioned in the log. My application does not contain (to the best of my knowledge) anything related to accessibility (could be brought in by some dependency though). I've enabled accessibility on my Mac as suggested in error message, but it did not helped. I've enabled Accessibility Inspector in the iPhone simulator. VoiceOverTouch message no longer appears in logs, but the Unknown error persists.

New logs:

12.08.09 11:01:20 com.apple.launchd[166] (com.apple.iPhoneSimulator:com.apple.AXInspector[10808]) Exited: Terminated 
12.08.09 11:01:28 com.apple.launchd[166] (com.apple.iPhoneSimulator:com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Unknown key for integer: JetsamPriority 
12.08.09 11:01:28 com.apple.launchd[166] (com.apple.iPhoneSimulator:com.apple.apsd) Path monitoring failed on "/var/mobile/Library/Preferences": No such file or directory 
12.08.09 11:01:28 com.apple.launchd[166] (com.apple.iPhoneSimulator:com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Path monitoring failed on "/var/mobile/Library/Preferences": No such file or directory 
12.08.09 11:01:28 vot[10812] ******** AX INSPECTOR MODE ************ 
12.08.09 11:01:28 Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x2e9b930, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:28 Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x495e240, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:28 [0x0-0xbf0bf].com.apple.Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x2e9b930, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:28 [0x0-0xbf0bf].com.apple.Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x495e240, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:28 Xcode[10200] Error launching simulated application: Error Domain=DTiPhoneSimulatorErrorDomain Code=1 UserInfo=0x49b0060 "Unknown error." 
12.08.09 11:01:29 Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x44e4ba0, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:29 Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x4537820, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:29 [0x0-0xbf0bf].com.apple.Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x44e4ba0, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:29 [0x0-0xbf0bf].com.apple.Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x4537820, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:29 Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x4775400, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:29 Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x478fa20, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:29 [0x0-0xbf0bf].com.apple.Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x4775400, has non-zero refcount = 1 
12.08.09 11:01:29 [0x0-0xbf0bf].com.apple.Xcode[10200] Xcode(10200,0xb0103000) malloc: free_garbage: garbage ptr = 0x478fa20, has non-zero refcount = 1 

Answer 1

Recreating project step-by-step showed that it was directory structure.

I've had directory named 'resources' with resources for my application. That directory was added to the bundle as is (via Folder References feature).

When I renamed that directory to less common name, error went away.

So, never name any custom directories in the bundle 'resources'.

Guys from Xcode (or simulator) team could improve their error reporting. I've had to spend whole day debugging this issue. :-(

Answer 2

I just encountered similar error after cleaning up our XCode projects and updated them to use XCode config files. It occured only to one of our iPhone application targets, not all of them.

XCode said

Error from Debugger: Failed to launch simulated application: Unknown error.

In Console, only information was following two lines:

30.9.2009 14.31.19 com.apple.launchd[99] (com.apple.iPhoneSimulator:com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Path monitoring failed on "/var/mobile/Library/Preferences": No such file or directory 
30.9.2009 14.31.19 Xcode[13827] Error launching simulated application: Error Domain=DTiPhoneSimulatorErrorDomain Code=1 UserInfo=0x389db50 "Unknown error." 

It turned out that I had accidentally deleted Info.list file build setting from the target and neither XCode nor iPhone simulator could emit any useful error message about that. Adding a build setting again fixed the problem.

Answer 3

Looks like this is your key bit (doesn't normally come up in system log):

VoiceOverTouch exiting because accessibility is not enabled. To enable do this: 
'defaults write com.apple.Accessibility AccessibilityEnabled true' 

Your app has some dependency on accessibility being enabled. Suggest you follow the instruction and run the bit in quotes on your system console.