Configuring an Existing Installation of IDL 8.7.3 or ENVI 5.5.3 After Upgrading to macOS 10.15 Catalina

If you had IDL or ENVI installed and working on prior versions of macOS, upgraded to macOS 10.15 Catalina, and are now experiencing issues in using IDL or ENVI, please follow the steps detailed in this Help Article.

NOTE: For prior versions of IDL or ENVI, we recommend that you upgrade to the newest release, IDL 8.7.3 or ENVI 5.5.3. Versions prior to IDL 8.7.2 or EMVI 5.5.2 are incompatible with Catalina.

During your upgrade to macOS 10.15 Catalina, you may have seen a warning about IDL or ENVI not being optimized for your Mac that looked like this:

Assuming at this time "Continue" was selected and macOS upgraded, additional steps may be needed to get IDL or ENVI optimized on Catalina. In our testing, we have discovered that the OS upgrade either breaks your X11 viewer, XQuartz, removes the legacy Java 6 SE Runtime libraries required by IDL or ENVI, or both. The basic steps to resolving these issues are in the hyperlinked articles below:

 

I. Reinstall XQuartz 2.7.11 if upgrade to macOS 10.15 and File Relocation Causes Issues

When Catalina has been upgraded, the Desktop will include a folder containing “Relocated Items.” If you had XQuartz previously installed before upgrading to Catalina, it may have been quarantined within the "Relocated Items" folder.

In our testing, we did not find the relocation of these files to cause issues, however, if you do experience issues with your X11 viewer, you may need to reinstall XQuartz. Follow these steps if this is the case.

 

II. Installing Legacy Java 6 SE Runtime
If you have installed IDL 8.7.3 or ENVI 5.5.3, and when you go to double-click on an IDL or ENVI icon within Finder, you receive an error such as this:
'To open "idle.darwin.x86_64" you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime.'

You will need to install Legacy Java libraries to open ENVI/IDL. Click "More Info..." to visit the Apple download site to access this legacy Java dependency. Java 6 is used by the IDL Development Environment, by ENVI, bridge processes, as well as some newer graphics routines. L3Harris Geospatial Development is working to move off this legacy Java 6 dependency, but for now you will require this version to be installed on your macOS.

If you are experiencing an error or warning such as this, please follow these steps if this is the case.

 

For other installation scenarios involving macOS 10.15 Catalina, please visit the parent link here.

Jenny Bloom - 2/14/2020