2.4.0~RC1 hangs on macOS

[Richard Kimberly Heck]

On 1/20/24 18:08, list_email at icloud.com wrote:
> Thanks, el.
>
> I did as you suggested but there was no improvement and little change to the problem. As the rapidly cycling status messages continue in the Welcome file, I am able to start a new file and make a PDF of it. But I can’t close either the new (unsaved) file or the Welcome file because it says it can’t quit because of a background process. Normal quitting method has the same result. Clicking on the spinning circle or red dot has no effect. I tried this multiple times, each time deleting the Support file as you suggested.
>
> Next, I deleted the app as well as these:
>
> org.lyx.LyX-2.4.plist
> org.lyx.lyx.plist
> org.lyx.lyx.savedState (a folder)
>
> and re-downloaded and re-launched the app. Now the behavior is worse, getting only the app main menu with Apple logo and “LyX” item, and then nothing but pinwheeling. It doesn’t even open the Welcome file or finish drawing the main menu. I put the three deleted items back but it still hangs on launch. Definitely going in the wrong direction here.
>
> While LyX is hanging as above, Activity Monitor indicates that LyX has launched one instance of Python and repeatedly launches and stops a second instance. My current Python is 3.9 but versions up to 3.12 are installed by macports.
>
> LyX 2.3.7 still works. I notice that I got this version through MacPorts.
>
> I just now updated all my macports stuff which includes Python and texlive. 2.4 still hangs on launch.

I'm going to guess a few things here.

I guess the first problem is the hanging on launch. LyX can seem to hang 
when it's reconfiguring. Deleting the user directory will have forced 
this. One symptom of this would be seeing various LaTeX-related 
processes being called over and over again.

If you can get LyX to launch, then we need to find out what this process 
is that's stopping LyX from closing. Do you have images in the documents 
you're opening? Lots of math? If the latter, are you using math preview? 
Or is this just a basic document?

Another possibility is that the PDF creation process is not exiting 
properly. I'm not sure how to debug that. Again, a symptom would be some 
LaTeX process still running.

One thing that might help (with both problems) is if you could start LyX 
from a terminal and post the output. This should let us see what 
processes LyX is launching, and where things are getting stuck.

Riki