diff --git a/src/Buffer.cpp b/src/Buffer.cpp
index 897e9604b0..cf34d74189 100644
--- a/src/Buffer.cpp
+++ b/src/Buffer.cpp
@@ -2392,6 +2392,15 @@ private:
 
 int AutoSaveBuffer::generateChild()
 {
+#if defined(__APPLE__)
+	/* FIXME fork() is not usable for autosave on Mac OS X 10.6 (snow leopard) 
+	 *   We should use something else like threads.
+	 *
+	 * Since I do not know how to determine at run time what is the OS X
+	 * version, I just disable forking altogether for now (JMarc)
+	 */
+	pid_t const pid = -1;
+#else
 	// tmp_ret will be located (usually) in /tmp
 	// will that be a problem?
 	// Note that this calls ForkedCalls::fork(), so it's
@@ -2401,6 +2410,7 @@ int AutoSaveBuffer::generateChild()
 	// you should set pid to -1, and comment out the fork.
 	if (pid != 0 && pid != -1)
 		return pid;
+#endif
 
 	// pid = -1 signifies that lyx was unable
 	// to fork. But we will do the save
diff --git a/src/support/ForkedCalls.cpp b/src/support/ForkedCalls.cpp
index 0768652cfb..496008e0d1 100644
--- a/src/support/ForkedCalls.cpp
+++ b/src/support/ForkedCalls.cpp
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ int ForkedProcess::run(Starttype type)
 
 bool ForkedProcess::running() const
 {
-	if (!pid())
+	if (pid() <= 0)
 		return false;
 
 #if !defined (_WIN32)
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ bool ForkedProcess::running() const
 void ForkedProcess::kill(int tol)
 {
 	lyxerr << "ForkedProcess::kill(" << tol << ')' << endl;
-	if (pid() == 0) {
+	if (pid() <= 0) {
 		lyxerr << "Can't kill non-existent process!" << endl;
 		return;
 	}
diff --git a/status.16x b/status.16x
index bc4df06056..5f86a8d018 100644
--- a/status.16x
+++ b/status.16x
@@ -215,6 +215,8 @@ What's new
 - Fix width definition in the box dialog after a box inset was transformed
   from "Inner Box" type "None" to "Parbox" or "Minipage" (bug 6298).
 
+- Fix crash with autosave on Mac OS X 10.6 (bug 6168).
+
 - Fixed problem involving inability to turn off auto-save (bug 6227).
 
 - Sort document classes case insensitively (bug 1492).