Maxima encountered a Lisp error on start up

Le Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:05:08 +0100,
Nicolas FRANCOIS <nicolas.francois at free.fr> a ?crit :

> OK, I'll check the Ubuntu forum. Maybe some geek will fix the GCL
> problem, or bring a package with another Lisp interpreter.

This link on the Ubuntu site reports the problem :

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/maxima/+bug/303587

and provides some fixes. Some are just workarounds for bypassing address
space randomization :

Jorrit Kronjee  wrote on 2009-11-01:  	  #14

This problem occurs when address space randomization is enabled (which
is enabled by default on newer kernels). When this option is set to 0
or 1, the error does not occur (default is 2). As a workaround, you
should add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf:

kernel.randomize_va_space = 1

After that, run sysctl -p

Good luck!

Others propose to reinstall Maxima (and wxMaxima) from sources :

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Maxima
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/wxMaxima

I used this last option, and noticed that by default, Maxima is
compiled with CLISP and not GCL. Trying to force GCL resulted in this
error :

nico at gaston:~/maxima-5.20.1$ make
Making all in src
make[1]: entrant dans le r?pertoire ? /home/nico/maxima-5.20.1/src ?
test -d binary-gcl || mkdir binary-gcl
test -d binary-gcl/numerical || mkdir binary-gcl/numerical
test -d binary-gcl/numerical/slatec || mkdir binary-gcl/numerical/slatec
gcl -batch -eval '(progn (load "../lisp-utils/defsystem.lisp")
(compiler::emit-fn t) (funcall (intern
(symbol-name :operate-on-system) :mk) "maxima" :compile :verbose t)
(load "../lisp-utils/make-proclaim.lisp") (compiler::make-all-proclaims
"*/*.fn" "*/*/*/*.fn"))' && \ gcl -batch -eval '(progn (load
"../lisp-utils/defsystem.lisp") (funcall (intern
(symbol-name :operate-on-system) :mk) "maxima" :load :verbose t) (when
(fboundp (quote si::sgc-on))(si::sgc-on t)) (si:save-system
"binary-gcl/maxima"))'

Warning:
REQUIRE is being redefined.
/bin/bash: line 1: 12586 Erreur de segmentation  gcl -batch -eval
'(progn (load "../lisp-utils/defsystem.lisp") (compiler::emit-fn t)
(funcall (intern (symbol-name :operate-on-system) :mk)
"maxima" :compile :verbose t) (load "../lisp-utils/make-proclaim.lisp")
(compiler::make-all-proclaims "*/*.fn" "*/*/*/*.fn"))' make[1]: ***
[binary-gcl/maxima] Erreur 139 make[1]: quittant le r?pertoire
? /home/nico/maxima-5.20.1/src ? make: *** [all-recursive] Erreur 1

So there definitely is something very wrong with GCL and the last
Ubuntu !

Hope this helps Ubuntu users.

\bye

-- 

Nicolas FRANCOIS                      |  /\ 
http://nicolas.francois.free.fr       | |__|
				      X--/\\
We are the Micro$oft.		        _\_V
Resistance is futile.		    
You will be assimilated.         darthvader penguin