Vensim PLE 10.1.2 crashing under macOS

[mallari_cristina]

Hi,

I'm experiencing an issue opening Vensim PLE 10.1.2 under macOS 11.7.10. I was able to install it, but when I try to open the application, it keeps crashing and stating, "VensimPLE quit unexpectedly." I've also tried it with my other Mac, and I'm getting the same response. See the error details below. I've also attached a file of the screenshot.

Process: VensimPLE [11404]
Path: /Applications/VensimPLE.app/Contents/MacOS/VensimPLE
Identifier: com.vensim.VensimPLE
Version: 10010200 (VensimPLE 10010200)
Code Type: ARM-64 (Native)
Parent Process: ??? [1]
Responsible: VensimPLE [11404]
User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2023-11-15 15:04:58.982 +0800
OS Version: macOS 11.7.10 (20G1427)
Report Version: 12
Anonymous UUID: 0947059F-DA88-AA68-F4C0-5E90FD2191A9

Sleep/Wake UUID: 6B935FAB-D6C9-4BFC-8EBD-904209B58007

Time Awake Since Boot: 21000 seconds
Time Since Wake: 1800 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process: exc handler [11404]

VM Regions Near 0:
-->
__TEXT 1003f8000-1015d0000 [ 17.8M] r-x/r-x SM=COW /Applications/VensimPLE.app/Contents/MacOS/VensimPLE

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, running initializers
/Applications/VensimPLE.app/Contents/MacOS/VensimPLE

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 ??? 000000000000000000 0 + 0
1 com.vensim.VensimPLE 0x000000010063b6d8 wxControlContainerBase::AcceptsFocusFromKeyboard() const + 204
2 com.vensim.VensimPLE 0x000000010064789c wxControlContainerBase::AcceptsFocusFromKeyboard() const + 49808
3 dyld 0x0000000101e38b54 ImageLoaderMachO::doModInitFunctions(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&) + 468
4 dyld 0x0000000101e38f6c ImageLoaderMachO::doInitialization(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&) + 56
5 dyld 0x0000000101e328a4 ImageLoader::recursiveInitialization(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&, unsigned int, char const*, ImageLoader::InitializerTimingList&, ImageLoader::UninitedUpwards&) + 620
6 dyld 0x0000000101e30260 ImageLoader::processInitializers(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&, unsigned int, ImageLoader::InitializerTimingList&, ImageLoader::UninitedUpwards&) + 192
7 dyld 0x0000000101e3032c ImageLoader::runInitializers(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&, ImageLoader::InitializerTimingList&) + 96
8 dyld 0x0000000101e1aa7c dyld::initializeMainExecutable() + 268
9 dyld 0x0000000101e2153c dyld::_main(macho_header const*, unsigned long, int, char const**, char const**, char const**, unsigned long*) + 8784
10 dyld 0x0000000101e19258 dyldbootstrap::start(dyld3::MachOLoaded const*, int, char const**, dyld3::MachOLoaded const*, unsigned long*) + 476
11 dyld 0x0000000101e19038 _dyld_start + 56

Thread 0 crashed with ARM Thread State (64-bit):
x0: 0x00000000000000f8 x1: 0x00000001015d2540 x2: 0x00000001003f8000 x3: 0x000000016fa07b90
x4: 0x0000000101ea0348 x5: 0x0000000000000000 x6: 0x0000000000000000 x7: 0x0000000000000000
x8: 0x0000000000000001 x9: 0x0000000000000002 x10: 0x0000000000000000 x11: 0x0000000000000002
x12: 0x0000000000000002 x13: 0x0000000000000000 x14: 0x0000000000000881 x15: 0x000000008000001f
x16: 0x0000000000000000 x17: 0x00000001fa0c9c78 x18: 0x0000000000000000 x19: 0x000000010173a7e0
x20: 0x0000000101ea0280 x21: 0x0000000101ea0348 x22: 0x00000000000001e8 x23: 0x00000001ea6a0040
x24: 0x00000001015d1358 x25: 0x0000000100647888 x26: 0x000000016fa03018 x27: 0x000000016fa03088
x28: 0x0000000100647888 fp: 0x000000016fa02f80 lr: 0x000000010119d440
sp: 0x000000016fa02f70 pc: 0x0000000000000000 cpsr: 0x60000000
far: 0x0000000000000000 esr: 0x82000006

[Administrator]

Someone else reported this as well on MacOS 11.7.1.

I don't have this version of MacOS on anything to test with, so it could me OS specific.

Have you used older versions of Vensim in the past?

Were you asked if Vensim could access files in "Documents" and did you click Yes?

[mallari_cristina]

Yes, I've used older versions of Vensim (the version around September 2023). I wasn't asked that question.

[Administrator]

You can try renaming the .vensim file (it's hidden in your home folder) and restarting Vensim. That will force Vensim to use the default settings it has.

[mallari_cristina]

How can I locate that file under MacOS? I can't seem to find a file with a .vensim file type.

[Administrator]

It's hidden, there is a combination of keys you can press to show/hide hidden files (I can never remember what that combination is).

It will be called .vensim or .venple.

[mallari_cristina]

I tried renaming already. Unfortunately, the problem is still there.

[Administrator]

The other Mac you tried it on, what version of MacOS was it running?

And can you try resetting the application permissions so it asks you on startup if it can access the documents folder. I have no idea how to do this though.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/m ... a35146/mac

[mallari_cristina]

The other Mac is running version 11.3.1.

[Administrator]

What happens if you set the permissions as I suggested?

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/m ... a35146/mac

[mallari_cristina]

Nothing different happens as I changed the permission settings.

[Administrator]

I'm out of ideas at the moment.

It may be that the latest Xcode (that we use to build Vensim) is at fault (Apple changed the default behaviour for windows only recently which has caused a lot of problems). I'm in the process of putting together an older build machine, but that will take a few more days.

[aliakhavan89]

Try running your Mac in Safe Mode to see if the problem persists

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-hel ... menu%20bar.

[Administrator]

I've uploaded a version build using an older Mac/Xcode, you could try that.

The link is
https://www.vensim.com/temp/InstallVensimPLE.dmg

[mallari_cristina]

It's working now. Thank you so much for the help!

[Travis]

@mallari_cristina I'm glad it works now. What computer are you using? Could you tell us the model, year, and processor CPU?

[Administrator]

It's an Arm processor (that is clear from the crash report).

I've gone back to using Xcode 14.2 on MacOS Monterry due to current problems. Ventura broke the old GUI on Vensim, Sonoma/Xcode is now producing code that crashes on Big Sur, I'm not convinced things will improve or get fixed.

[mallari_cristina]

I'm using the Macbook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020).

[Travis]

@mallari - thanks. Since your computer is pretty recent, I would suggest upgrading your version of macOS. Many developers support the current version (now 14) and maybe the previous two (12, 13). Ventana is doing a good job finding a solution for you, but you might start running into other software problems too. Apple, for instance, doesn't always do security patches for older OSes.

@Tony – I would hesitate to fall back to an old OS and old development environment as a long-term solution. Mac users tend to upgrade their systems pretty quickly and I know other developers had problems with keeping the old tooling. Eventually it leads to a backlog of work when Xcode 14 can't compile to the latest OS. It might make getting the latest Widget version harder too.

Helpful table of development targets:
https://developer.apple.com/support/xcode/

[Administrator]

@Tony – I would hesitate to fall back to an old OS and old development environment as a long-term solution. Mac users tend to upgrade their systems pretty quickly and I know other developers had problems with keeping the old tooling. Eventually it leads to a backlog of work when Xcode 14 can't compile to the latest OS. It might make getting the latest Widget version harder too.

We have no choice. We see a wide spread of versions of MacOS (so I disagree that users upgrade regularly), and supporting even one person that has a crash due to the latest Xcode is very time consuming.