IRAF Completely Freezing Mac Pro
tiger12896 wrote on Oct 27, 2008
Hello,
I've been using IRAF on a new Mac Pro for about a month. I've used it in the past on another Mac Pro with no problems. Basically, what happens is I'll be running a task, and IRAF causes the computer to freeze, although slowly. First, I'll notice that the music stops. Then, I'll try to quit the IRAF task using CTRL+C, but it won't work, and I'll notice that the cursor has turned into the spinning rainbow wheel which indicates that the program (X11) is not responding. I'll try to force quit, but command+option+esc will not open up the force quit window, so I end up having to kill it with the power switch.
I first noticed that this only happened when I used the gemini package nsreduce task (I'm working on Gemini NIRI data). So, using imarith, I decided to get around that, and it worked for awhile, but now just running imarith causes a crash. Also, running the LA.COSMIC routing also caused a crash. Whats interesting, is LA.COSMIC ran fine, then imarith caused a crash, then after I brought it back up, I tried LA.COSMIC, and it caused a crash.
I'm really out of ideas as to what could be causing this. I'm running a scisoft install of IRAF (v2.14) in Mac OS X 10.5.5. I have 10 GB of RAM. I thought that maybe the ram was the problem (it originally came with 2 GB). So when I got the new 8 GB, I tried all 10, and it crashed, then I tried just the new 8, and it also crashed.
Does anyone have any suggestions? These crashes are making it nearly impossible to reduce my data.
Thanks for any help!!!
Steven Finkelstein
I've been using IRAF on a new Mac Pro for about a month. I've used it in the past on another Mac Pro with no problems. Basically, what happens is I'll be running a task, and IRAF causes the computer to freeze, although slowly. First, I'll notice that the music stops. Then, I'll try to quit the IRAF task using CTRL+C, but it won't work, and I'll notice that the cursor has turned into the spinning rainbow wheel which indicates that the program (X11) is not responding. I'll try to force quit, but command+option+esc will not open up the force quit window, so I end up having to kill it with the power switch.
I first noticed that this only happened when I used the gemini package nsreduce task (I'm working on Gemini NIRI data). So, using imarith, I decided to get around that, and it worked for awhile, but now just running imarith causes a crash. Also, running the LA.COSMIC routing also caused a crash. Whats interesting, is LA.COSMIC ran fine, then imarith caused a crash, then after I brought it back up, I tried LA.COSMIC, and it caused a crash.
I'm really out of ideas as to what could be causing this. I'm running a scisoft install of IRAF (v2.14) in Mac OS X 10.5.5. I have 10 GB of RAM. I thought that maybe the ram was the problem (it originally came with 2 GB). So when I got the new 8 GB, I tried all 10, and it crashed, then I tried just the new 8, and it also crashed.
Does anyone have any suggestions? These crashes are making it nearly impossible to reduce my data.
Thanks for any help!!!
Steven Finkelstein
James Turner wrote on Oct 27, 2008
Hi Steven,
I wouldn't claim to be an expert in these things (especially Mac), but it sounds like a hardware problem to me. Whatever IRAF does wrong, it should not be able to crash your computer unless you have an OS bug or a hardware error. Can you also crash the machine by doing something CPU intensive, such as compiling code? In any case, there should be no problem reducing NIRI data in IRAF with 2Gb of RAM.
Since you have already tried changing the RAM, maybe there could be some problem with the processor or a cooling fan, for example? You can probably download a hardware diagnostics program from the Web that will boot from a CD and run continuous tests for a few hours to look for possible failures. If you find errors that way, you can presumably send the machine back. Alternatively, it might be worth searching the Web for known problems with your version of Apple's software such as the X server.
Someone else might be able to tell you where to look on a Mac for information such as kernel error messages or CPU temperature.
Cheers,
James.
I wouldn't claim to be an expert in these things (especially Mac), but it sounds like a hardware problem to me. Whatever IRAF does wrong, it should not be able to crash your computer unless you have an OS bug or a hardware error. Can you also crash the machine by doing something CPU intensive, such as compiling code? In any case, there should be no problem reducing NIRI data in IRAF with 2Gb of RAM.
Since you have already tried changing the RAM, maybe there could be some problem with the processor or a cooling fan, for example? You can probably download a hardware diagnostics program from the Web that will boot from a CD and run continuous tests for a few hours to look for possible failures. If you find errors that way, you can presumably send the machine back. Alternatively, it might be worth searching the Web for known problems with your version of Apple's software such as the X server.
Someone else might be able to tell you where to look on a Mac for information such as kernel error messages or CPU temperature.
Cheers,
James.
Don Carona wrote on Oct 27, 2008
Greetings Steven,
You may want to get rid of the scisoft IRAF install and use the install from http://macsingularity.org/ (much more stable)
I have a MacPro and have never had an issue with IRAF for Mac X11; so, the only difference in our computers is the IRAF install.
Last tip...if you have an aluminum keyboard...try to connect one of the pro keyboards (white) if you have one. You might find that this solves the issue.
Hope this helps,
Don
You may want to get rid of the scisoft IRAF install and use the install from http://macsingularity.org/ (much more stable)
I have a MacPro and have never had an issue with IRAF for Mac X11; so, the only difference in our computers is the IRAF install.
Last tip...if you have an aluminum keyboard...try to connect one of the pro keyboards (white) if you have one. You might find that this solves the issue.
Hope this helps,
Don
Last post on Oct 27, 2008