Topic:

IDL 6.4 for Mac will not run properly on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). This article briefly discusses the IDL 6.4 1 patch which will allow IDL to work on this operating system version.

Some example symptoms of this problem include:

• IDL exits with a bus error when issuing a graphical command.
  
• Attempting to start the IDLDE an error such as the following may be encountered:
  
  
  The process has forked and you cannot use this CoreFoundation functionality safely. You MUST exec(). Break on __THE_PROCESS_HAS_FORKED_AND_YOU_CANNOT_USE_THIS_COREFOUNDATION_FUNCTIONALITY___YOU_MUST_EXEC__() to debug.

The IDL 6.4.1 patch is not a full distribution. You must first install IDL 6.4 before installing this patch.

Below is the contents of readme file for the IDL 6.4 .1 patch for Mac OS X 10.5.

(Note: The IDL 6.4 1 patch is also useful for allowing the IDL Development Environment (idlde) from an ENVI 4.4 installation to run properly on Mac OS X 10.5.)

Discussion:

IDL 6.4.1 update for Mac OS X 10.5

On October 26th, 2007 Apple released Mac OS X version 10.5 (Leopard). As a result of changes made by Apple, existing IDL 6.4 installations may not work correctly under the new version.

If you install Mac OS X 10.5 on your computer, you will need to install the IDL 6.4.1 update in order for IDL 6.4 to work correctly. This update replaces the libidl.6.4.dylib files in IDL's bin/bin.darwin.ppc and bin/bin.darwin.i386 directories with versions of the library modified to operate with Mac OS X 10.5. In addition, it updates the resource/X11/lib/app-defaults/Idl file to cause the IDL Development Environment (idlde) to run as a foreground process rather than a background process.

To install the IDL 6.4.1 update:

1. Ensure that you are logged in to an account that has write permissions in the IDL 6.4 installation directory.
   
   
2. Download the idl641_mac_osx10_5.tar.gz file attached to this Tech Tip and place it in the directory that contains the main IDL 6.4 directory. (If IDL is installed in the default location, this is the /Applications/itt directory.)
   
   
3. Ensure that IDL is not running.
   
   
4. Launch X11 from /Applications/Utilities.
   
   
5. In the X11 terminal window, change directories to the directory that contains the main IDL 6.4 directory. (If IDL is installed in the default location, this is the /Applications/itt directory.)
   
   
   $ cd /Applications/itt/

6. Execute the following commands at the shell prompt:
   
   
   $ gunzip idl641_mac_osx10_5.tar.gz
   $ tar -xvf idl641_mac_osx10_5.tar
   

After you have installed the IDL 6.4.1 update, IDL's !VERSION.RELEASE system variable field will contain the value "6.4.1".

• Tech Tip #4292: Problems using ENVI Zoom 4.4 and IDL "SEM_CREATE" routine on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

<<keywords: crash, dsappears, bus error, you must exec()>>

Home   |   Company   |   Products & Services   |   Academic   |   Events & Training   |   Downloads   |   User Community   |   Support |   Site Map

Privacy Statement ©2008 ITT Visual Information Solutions