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Bug caused by paclet update and fixed by paclet update.

I updated to Windows 10 and have been running Mathematica fine on it for over a month. For some reason, it has just stopped working. I don't remember any Windows updates occurring which would have caused this, and I didn't change any settings in Mathematica for weeks.

When I end task on the kernel, it gives the message 'Unable to launch kernel system'. Has anyone else has experienced this in Windows 10?

Alexey Popkov
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mitcheljh
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2 Answers2

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Yes, there was a recently pushed incorrect paclet update that will cause this startup hang. All platforms can be affected, not just Windows.

For a workaround, start a standalone kernel (WolframKernel.exe on Windows, WolframKernel in a terminal on Linux; on Mac you will need the full path to the kernel binary, typically a location like /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/MacOS/WolframKernel) and evaluate

PacletSiteUpdate /@ PacletSites[]

PacletUpdate["CloudObject"]

which should allow a normal startup afterwards.

It is also possible to

  • disable your computer's network connection
  • start Mathematica
  • turn on the network connection

  • evaluate

    PacletSiteUpdate /@ PacletSites[]

    PacletUpdate["CloudObject"]

after which things should work again, even if the network connection is left enabled.

Update

As of this edit, the broken paclet is no longer on the server. For those still experiencing the startup hang, the steps above still work, but the easiest fix would be to either delete the entire Paclets folder or just the pacletSiteData_10.pmd2 file, which is located in the user base directory, typically under

  • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mathematica\Paclets\Configuration on Windows
  • ~/.Mathematica/Paclets/Configuration on Linux
  • ~/Library/Mathematica/Paclets/Configuration on Mac OS X
Community
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ilian
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    Just FYI - It would be courteous to send an email informing users when a push is done, especially with fix information ASAP after discovery of a problem that breaks the system! This is the second time this year of paclet updates breaking my system. – Greg Moxness Sep 04 '15 at 20:29
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    For the Mac, open terminal and type: /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/MacOS/WolframKernel – Simon O'Doherty Sep 06 '15 at 09:36
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    Just testing this now, it fails for me with:

    PacletInstall::dwnld: An error occurred downloading paclet CloudObject-10.3.760 from site http://pacletserver.wolfram.com: Network error. Failure when receiving data from the peer

     – Simon O'Doherty Sep 06 '15 at 09:43
  • @SimonO'Doherty Very good point, running 'WolframKernel' simply does not work (it causes 'dlopen(/Users/SystemFiles, 1): image not found') even though the former just points to the later). It worked for me (In[1]:=PacletUpdate["CloudObject"] (*=> Out[1]= Paclet[CloudObject, 10.3.760, <>]*) for MMA 10.0.2.0. – mmal Sep 06 '15 at 10:05
  • @JGregoryMoxness Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this unfortunate oversight. Our paclet updates are carefully tested and usually go much more smoothly, due to their frequency it may be unfeasible to email every user on every update. – ilian Sep 06 '15 at 14:11
  • @SimonO'Doherty Must have been a transient network error, because the same step succeeded on your second try in the notebook. – ilian Sep 06 '15 at 14:14
  • @mmal I have updated the answer to reflect that a symbolic link to WolframKernel will not work on OS X, one needs the full path to the kernel binary. – ilian Sep 06 '15 at 14:15
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    @JGregoryMoxness, illian -- My Mac OS updates are handled by requiring the me to click a button (or two) to start the update. MS Office, Google Picasa, Flash, etc. also are only updated when I click OK. Is it really not feasible for my local kernel to query me before proceeding with an update? – Michael E2 Sep 06 '15 at 14:15
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    @MichaelE2 Personally I would like to have this feature (as well as the ability to download only the documentation needed on demand), but it is not implemented within the current mechanism. – ilian Sep 06 '15 at 14:50
  • Hello, I have the same problem. Thank you for your help. Now, I manage to open mathematica. However, I still receive this warning when I open it : INTERNAL SELF-TEST ERROR: Printing|c|3547 Information:GetDefaultPrinterDevice failed with Windows System Error 12019: Click here to find out if this problem is known, and to help improve the Wolfram System by reporting it to Wolfram Research It is a bit strange. Do you have ideas to correct it ? – Bendesarts Sep 06 '15 at 15:47
  • @Bendesarts Perhaps try changing your Windows default printer setting; if that doesn't help, it's best to get in touch with technical support. – ilian Sep 06 '15 at 17:02
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    @ilian You sure could email us when you disable our installations like this, instead of letting your paying customers spend hours searching for a solution. You don't seem to hesitate to send marketing emails. – mdeceglie Sep 09 '15 at 21:34
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    @Italianice They should email non-premier service users too – Coolwater Sep 10 '15 at 13:05
  • Thanks, for your complete solution. I actually have performed it and it works. However, the problem is that everytime that I want to run Mathematica I have to delete the Paclets in the configuration folder (~\Roaming\Mathematica\Paclets\Configuration). I also uninstall my Mathematica 11.3 completely, by deleting the relevant folders but even for the first time I couldn't open the program and it stucks at "initializing Kernel connections". For the final attempt, I uninstalled it completely and installed the 10.4 version but the same exist. I don't know what to do. Do you have any suggestions? – KratosMath Aug 23 '18 at 12:15
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I'm adding an alternate solution for Mac, as the suggested answer did not work for me. It might be due to me force quitting it prior to looking for a solution.

This method is a bit of a scorched earth process though.

In Finder go to ~/Library/Mathematica. Once there delete the Paclets folder.

Next start up Mathematica again. Create a blank worksheet. Then evaluate PacletUpdate["CloudObject"].

Wait for the Out response before quitting Mathematica.

Simon O'Doherty
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