IDL 8.3 Workbench may crash when running on a recent Linux version on a machine using an Intel "Haswell" CPU

The IDL 8.3 Workbench may crash at launch time when running on a recent Linux version (for example, Fedora 20 or openSUSE 13.1) on a machine that uses an Intel "Haswell" family CPU.

SOLUTION

To fix this problem, download and install the latest ENVI 5.1/IDL 8.3 Hotfix from the Exelis VIS website. The hotfix download link can be accessed by clicking on the "MY ACCOUNT" link on the Harris Geospatial website, logging in, and then clicking on the "Downloads" link that will appear.

You can also directly follow this link (website login and export control agreement acceptance is still required):

    http://www.exelisvis.com/MyAccount/Downloads/tabid/411/mv/vw2/id/6640/Default.aspx

DETAILS

With this IDL Workbench crash, the resulting JRE crash log will indicate a "problematic frame" such as:

    # C [libpthread.so.0+0x11298] __clone@@GLIBC_2.2.5+0x11298

-or-

    # C [libpthread.so.0+0x113d8] __lll_unlock_elision+0x18

For context, here is the beginning of one such JRE crash log resulting from an IDL Workbench crash:

#
# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
#  SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007f68de15e298, pid=1912, tid=140086443058944
#
# JRE version: 7.0_25-b15
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (23.25-b01 mixed mode linux-amd64 compressed oops)
# Problematic frame:
# C  [libpthread.so.0+0x11298]  __lll_unlock_elision+0x18
#
# Failed to write core dump. Core dumps have been disabled. To enable core dumping, try "ulimit -c unlimited" before starting Java again
#
# If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
#   http://bugreport.sun.com/bugreport/crash.jsp
# The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
# See problematic frame for where to report the bug.
#

This problem can occur when running the IDL 8.3 Workbench on a machine that uses an Intel "Haswell" family CPU that supports the "TSX" (Transactional Synchronization Extensions) advanced feature and is running a Linux operating system version that supports lock elision functionality.

(For information about "Haswell" processors and "TSX", see the Intel Corporation web site or other web sites.)

 

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Reference: IDL-69166

Reviewed for external publication by JU (31-jul-2014), CS (01-aug-2014)