[SciPy-user] illegal instruction error in scipy.linalg.decomp.svd

[Lev Givon]

On a Pentium 4 Linux box running python 2.5.1, scipy 0.6.0, numpy
1.0.4, and lapack 3.0, I recently noticed that
scipy.linalg.decomp.svd() fails (and causes python to crash) with an
"illegal instruction" error. A bit of debugging revealed that the
error occurs in the line

lwork = calc_lwork.gesdd(gesdd.prefix,m,n,compute_uv)[1]

in scipy/linalg/decomp.py. Interestingly, scipy 0.5.2.1 on the same
box (with all of the other software packages unchanged) does not
exhibit this problem. Moreover, when I install scipy 0.6.0 along with
all of the other packages on a Linux machine containing a Pentium D
CPU, I do not observe the problem either.

Being that I am running Mandriva Linux, closed scipy bug 540 caught my
eye. I'm not sure how it could be related to the above problem, though
(and I also do not know what the lapack patch mentioned in the ticket
could have been - even though I have been maintaining Mandriva's
lapack lately :-).

Thoughts?

     	     	   	  	       	      	     L.G.