xAct broken on 12.3.1?

Nathan Agmon

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Jul 8, 2021, 12:52:37 PM7/8/21

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I recently updated to Mathematica to 12.3.1, which runs natively on the new Apple Silicon. Now whenever I attempt to load the Act`xTensor package, I get a "Connecting to external Mac executable" message that never finishes.

Is xAct broken on 12.3.1?

Jose

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Jul 8, 2021, 10:16:50 PM7/8/21

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Hi,

Thanks for reporting this. I think we need to recompile the xperm.c executable for the new ARM architecture. I'll try to get this done soon.

Cheers,

Jose.

Nathan Agmon

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Jul 9, 2021, 12:45:21 PM7/9/21

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Great, thanks for the info/work. I'll monitor the website for updates.

Jose

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Jul 9, 2021, 6:16:09 PM7/9/21

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Hi,

I just reuploaded a new xAct_1.1.5.tgz tarball file. Nothing changed except for the fact that xperm.mac is now codesigned. It seems this is now compulsory in the new architecture.

Can you try it and let us know if this fixes the issue?

Cheers,

Jose.

Nathan Agmon

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Jul 9, 2021, 6:31:23 PM7/9/21

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I tried running xAct after downloading the new files. I now encounter the following system error message:

"xperm.mac" can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software. This software needs to be updated. Contact the developer for more information.

Jose

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Jul 14, 2021, 4:43:02 PM7/14/21

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Hi,

This is a separate issue. Because the xAct tarball is downloaded from the internet and it's not recognized by MacOS, it gets marked with the quarantine extended attribute. Before unpacking the tarball you should remove the attribute with something like

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine xAct_1.1.5.tgz

or you can clear all attributes with

xattr -c xAct_1.1.5.tgz

Then unpack the archive and xAct should be able to use the external executable.

Cheers,

Jose.

Nathan Agmon

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Jul 16, 2021, 3:33:15 PM7/16/21

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This fixed the other issue, thanks! Everything works as expected now.

Jie Jiang

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Jun 24, 2023, 12:02:22 AM6/24/23

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Hello,

I download the xAct_1.2.0.tgz and run

xattr -c xAct_1.2.0.tgz

to clear all attributes, and copy the whole folder and put it at /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/AddOns/Applications/, I run "<<xAct`xCoba`" to load, but I also get a "Connecting to external Mac executable" message that never finishes. My Mathematica version is 13.2.1.0 and my Mac is M1 MacBook Air. I also install it on the same version Mathematica on my M1 iMac, but it work well. I am confused and please help me to resolve this problem.