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bugs - Mathematica 10.0.x freezes in Initializing kernels


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?



Answer



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\\AppData\Roaming\Mathematica\Paclets\Configuration on Windows

  • ~/.Mathematica/Paclets/Configuration on Linux

  • ~/Library/Mathematica/Paclets/Configuration on Mac OS X


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