Can't start Macaulay2

[Heath Camphire]

I believe I have installed everything correctly for Macaulay2, but when I use the command M2 I get the following error:

Wrong __data_start/_end pair                                                                                           Aborted (core dumped)

I'm running Ubuntu through the Linux Subsystem for Windows on a very new Windows laptop. (I am completely new to Windows, let alone Linux and Ubuntu, so please keep things in simple terms.) I'm running Windows 10 Home version 1909 and Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS. I can provide more information if needed. If anyone could help me get the application to run, I would be incredibly grateful.

Thank you in advance!

[Daniel R. Grayson]

That's strange -- I can't even figure out where that error message might be coming from (by examining the source code).

[jche...@gmail.com]

Could you maybe post a screenshot of the error message on startup? And also list the steps you followed to install M2 on WSL?

Justin

[Heath Camphire]

Here's a screen shot of the error, as well as probably more details on my version of Ubuntu

[Heath Camphire]

I'll try to list the commands I followed to install Macaulay2, but it was a lengthy list that involved a lot of uninstalling/reinstalling different Ubuntu applications, for example

[Heath Camphire]

Since I couldn't get Synaptic Package Manager to open, I entered a string of commands to try and install Macaulay2 without it.

Here's the list of commands I entered after I gave up on Synaptic:

sudo emacs /etc/apt/sources.list
echo 'deb https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/Macaulay2/Repositories/Ubuntu focal main' >/etc/apt/sources.list.d/macaulay2.list

sudo bash

sudo apt install curl

curl -O https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/Macaulay2/PublicKeys/Macaulay2-key

sudo apt-get update -q

sudo apt-get install -y -q macaulay2

sudo apt-key add Macaulay2-key

apt remove gpg

sudo apt remove gpg

sudo apt-get update -y

sudo apt-get install -y gnupg1

sudo apt-key add Macaulay2-key

sudo apt-get update -q

sudo apt-get install -y -q macaulay2

M2

Many of these commands resulted in errors, but I can't remember which. The ones I listed multiple times must have given me errors the first time.

I remember I had to install curl to download the Macaulay2 key, and from there I tried to add the key to the key ring. In order to do that I had to reinstall gpg. I don't even remember what gpg was.

I hope this is helpful. I understand this may just confuse things further, and I'm sorry for that.

[Daniel R. Grayson]

I found the error message in the library "libgc", version 7.6.4.  Here's the relevant code:

      /* Try the easy approaches first: */

      if (COVERT_DATAFLOW(__data_start) != 0) {

        GC_data_start = (ptr_t)(__data_start);

      } else {

        GC_data_start = (ptr_t)(data_start);

      }

      if (COVERT_DATAFLOW(GC_data_start) != 0) {

        if ((word)GC_data_start > (word)data_end)

          ABORT_ARG2("Wrong __data_start/_end pair",

                     ": %p .. %p", (void *)GC_data_start, (void *)data_end);

        return;

      }

The source code indicates that the error message should contain the relevant pair of pointers, but your screen shot

didn't show that.

Maybe try updating the packages libgc1c2 and libgc-dev.

The command " apt show libgc1c2" will show what version you have.

[Heath Camphire]

I tried reinstalling and updating both libgc1c2 and libgc-dev. They're now both at version 1:7.6.4-0.4ubuntu1. I'm still getting the same error message.

[jche...@gmail.com]

Maybe you could try "manually" installing M2? Try running the following commands in Linux terminal:

sudo apt autoremove --purge macaulay2*

wget https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/Macaulay2/Downloads/Common/Macaulay2-1.16-common.deb

wget https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/Macaulay2/Downloads/GNU-Linux/Ubuntu/Macaulay2-1.16-amd64-Linux-Ubuntu-20.04.deb

sudo dpkg -i Macaulay2-1.16-common.deb

sudo dpkg -i Macaulay2-1.16-amd64-Linux-Ubuntu-20.04.deb

M2

All the other stuff (sources.list, gpg, public-key etc.) are to add M2 to your computer's package repository, which is indeed recommended, but not strictly necessary.

Another (temporary) option is to use the new and improved web interface: https://www.unimelb-macaulay2.cloud.edu.au/#home

By the way, out of curiosity: which laptop brand and CPU is this?

Justin

[Heath Camphire]

I tried your suggestion and ran into errors at the last command before the M2 command. Here's a screenshot of the error:

I will try to install these files and try that last command again.

My laptop is an OMEN by HP. My friend helped me pick out a gaming laptop that was pretty powerful. I'm not sure how to tell you what my CPU is.

[Heath Camphire]

Also, I separately installed all of the libraries (I think that's what they are?) that it the error said I needed and tried again. I didn't run into any errors until I used the M2 command. It gave me the same error I began this thread with.

[KSchwede]

One other thing worth trying perhaps, is switching over to WSL2.  I've had much better luck with that and Macaulay2.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-index

I think a student of mine also couldn't M2 to start, but switched over the WSL2, and everything worked.

Let me know if I can help with that process at all.