[SciPy-user] python crashes on scipy testing

[Robert Kern]

rainman wrote:
> Hello scipy-user,
> 
> God, that's one thing I hate about Open Source - having to hunt high
> and low for binaries... or to face tremendous nightmares of
> building-from-sources.
> 
> Let's see. I'm running WinXP on A-64. I have Python 2.4. Some time ago
> I decided to try SciPy. Aw, hell! No prebuilt binaries for Py2.4.
> And you need a ton of compilers to "make" sources.
> 
> But I'm stubborn. I had nerve. I took:
> 
> MSYS-1.0.10.exe
> MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe
> atlas3.6.0_WinNT_PIII.zip
> SciPy_complete-0.3.2.tar.gz
> Numeric-23.8.win32-py2.4.exe
> F2PY-2-latest.win32.exe
> 
> , then I tuned environment vars and started "setup.py build".
> 
> Oh! how cute! they forgot to put wgnuplot.exe inside! Let's take it
> from SciPy_complete-0.3.2.win32-py2.3-num23.5.exe. Trying once more...
> 
> Tada! Compilation finally finished without error message.
> Let's run:
> 
> import scipy
> scipy.test()
> 
> Yeah, a lot of "no test file" messages, dots, some cryptic mumbling
> ending with "zswap:n=3", more dots, WHOOPS! python crashes.
> 
> So, the question is... WHAT ELSE???

First, take a breath and try to relax. I know you're frustrated, but
being rude to the people you are asking help from isn't helping you get
your problems fixed.

Second, use scipy.test(verbosity=2) and give us the appropriate part of
the output (just the tail end before it crashes).

Third, you may also want to try the latest snapshot of the development
sources. 0.3.2 is quite old.

  http://ipython.scipy.org/tmp/scipy_cvs_2005-07-29.tgz

It's probably a problem with ATLAS since you are on an Athlon 64
processor and using Pentium-III binaries (and ATLAS is rather more
sensitive to the CPU than any other part of scipy). So fourth, you may
want to compile ATLAS from source, too. You can get the source package from

  http://math-atlas.sourceforge.net/

If you succeed in doing so, we would be interested in putting the
resulting binaries on the web site in order to save others using Athlon
64 chips the effort and frustration.

-- 
Robert Kern
rkern at ucsd.edu

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
 Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
  -- Richard Harter