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Emacs quits on Startup

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2000-10-13
2001-10-23
  • Carvel Baus

    Carvel Baus - 2000-10-13

    All,

    I downloaded Emacs last night and attempted to run it on a G4-400 with 9.0.4 and it started to go through the .emacs file and then quit unexpectedly with a type 2 error. I had and earlier version of emacs running on this same machine without trouble. Does anyone have any suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Carvel

     
    • Andrew Choi

      Andrew Choi - 2000-10-13

      Please check whether you have more than 256M of real or virtual memory on
      your machine.  That will stop Emacs from working with the symptoms you
      described.  There is a brief explanation of the cause of this problem in the
      FAQ.

       
      • Carvel Baus

        Carvel Baus - 2000-10-13

        I believe I have 192M (real) and I don't think virtual is turned on. Is the problem with the combined size of the two being greater or just one or the other?

        Carvel

         
        • Andrew Choi

          Andrew Choi - 2000-10-13

          If virtual memory is off, Emacs will not run on machines with more than 256M
          of real memory.  If virtual memory is on, Emacs will not run if the virtual
          memory setting in the Memory control panel is more than 256M.

          If memory is not the problem, please check that the files have not been
          compressed and decompressed by a utility that automatically converts new
          line characters (this will corrupt the compiled lisp files).  This will not occur if
          the .smi file is mounted as distributed.  I also suspect this is less likely the
          problem because if it is, you would not have got as far as the .emacs file.

           
          • Carvel Baus

            Carvel Baus - 2000-10-17

            I could not get the binary distribution to work so I did the next best thing: downloaded MPW, downloaded the full distribution and compiled. It compiled and works like a champ. I am suspecting there is something OS 9.0.4 on a G4/400 does not like about the binary version (perhaps even an extension.) Have you considered including the Emacs MPW with the binary distribution? If its there and I missed it, sorry.

            Carvel

             
            • Andrew Choi

              Andrew Choi - 2000-10-17

              Hi Carvel,

              The only time I remember that the MPW build was able to work on the
              same system that the CW one did not was when I was helping someone
              who has the Sophos anti-virus program installed.

              If this is the cause of your problem, I apologize for not remembering that
              case and the trouble you have gone through.  Anyhow, I am happy to hear
              you have now got it to work!

              Andrew.

               
    • Anonymous

      Anonymous - 2001-02-14

      Hi,

          I have dowloaded the binary distribution, and I am encountering the same kind of problem...
      I however have a powerBook G3 with 512M of built in memory... Is there anything I should be doing or
      vould be doing to make it work ?

       
      • Andrew Choi

        Andrew Choi - 2001-02-15

        Hi,

        Sorry for having been so quiet.  I have been busy working on Emacs
        however (see below).

        Emacs cannot run on Macs with more than 256M of main memory
        because it uses 28 bits of a 32-bit word to store pointers.

        On Unix, this places a limit of 256M on the amount of virtual memory
        it can use.  On Mac OS classic, unfortunately, since a program can
        be loaded anywhere in memory, this places a limit of the amount of
        *real* memory the machine can have *and* also the setting of what
        Apple calls "virtual memory".

        In theory one can compile Emacs to use 64-bit words, but this
        seems to be quite hard to do.

        On Mac OS X, each application will run in its own memory space
        so the restriction is like that on Unix (256 M).  I am working on a port
        of version 21 of GNU Emacs to Mac OS X with native GUI support
        (via Carbon).  Since Mac OS X contains BSD Unix, this version will
        have nearly all the features of "Unix" Emacs.  This means you can do GNUS, shell and comint modes, and what not.  There are also
        new features in version 21 (such as proportionally spaced characters
        and pixmap support) that are very nice indeed.

        In terms of release date, I can only say that it will only happen after
        GNU Emacs 21 is released.  The latter has been in pretest (alpha
        test) for about two months.  GNU Emacs 21 will build on Mac OS
        classic "right out of the box".  Since I'm still working on the Mac OS
        X port, when GNU Emacs 21 does get released, I hope I can have
        some sort of pretest version of the Mac OS X port ready.

        I'll announce any news regarding this on this list.

        Andrew.

         
    • Edward Dodge

      Edward Dodge - 2001-10-22
       
      • Andrew Choi

        Andrew Choi - 2001-10-22

        Hi Edward,

        Oh, sure.  This one compiles out of the box on the Mac OS (classic).  I'll make the proper announcement and post some binaries soon.

        I'll also work out the patch for Mac OS X and post that soon afterwards.

        Andrew.

         
        • Carvel Baus

          Carvel Baus - 2001-10-22

          Andrew,

          I currently have 1.5G of Ram on my G4. I guess I am going to have a problem running 21 under 9.2 because of the memory issue? Is there any hope before OS X as I am not ready to switchover yet (need a lot of apps to be compliant before I do.)

          Carvel

           
          • Andrew Choi

            Andrew Choi - 2001-10-23

            Hi Carvel,

            Unfortunately I know of no method to circumvent this problem.  Emacs 21 has the same problem on machines with more than 256MB memory under Mac OS Classic.

            Andrew.

             

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