Mathematica crashes X on start in 13.10

[Steven Pigeon]

Mathematica 9, on 13.10 with Gnome3, crashes X when launched (blanks screen; returns to login), whether or not -mesa or -opengl is provided.

Mathematica 9 was working in 13.04 and started doing this right after upgrade to 13.10 (and Mathematica not changed)

Xorg logs show nothing, as X crashes prevent loging.

How to repeat:
invoke mathematica.

Repeatability:
every time.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Anton (anton-xyz-deactivatedaccount)]

Same problem here but I am using Mathematica 8.01.

However, Mathematica did work a few weeks after I upgraded.
It stopped working today. I presume it's the fault of a recent update.

This problem really causes me a lot of trouble because I necessarily need Mathematica every day!

[Anton (anton-xyz-deactivatedaccount)]

Choosing a newer proprietary nvidia driver fixed this issue for me.
I switched from nvidia-304-updates to nvidia-319.

[Steven Pigeon (steven-p-pigeon)]

Upgrading from nvidia-304 to nvidia-319 solved the problem for me too.

[dek shap (nopede)]

I had the same problem and it was solved by upgrading to 319 as well. thanks!

[Karen T. Kohl (ktkohl96)]

Same problem here with an ATI card. I already have the latest fglrx-updates installed. Of course, removing those allows Mathematica to start, but that's not a good solution!

[Darko Veberic (darko-veberic-kit)]

related https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/1250635

[Darko Veberic (darko-veberic-kit)]

workaround posted in

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1256561

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Steven Pigeon, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p xorg REPLACE-WITH-BUG-NUMBER

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Darko Veberic (darko-veberic-kit)]

this is a real showstopper. in our institution we have delayed ubuntu upgrades since mathematica is used heavily and this bug appears on most of the hardware/driver combinations...

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Darko Veberic, thank you for your comment. So your hardware and problem may be tracked, could you please file a new report by executing the following in a terminal:
ubuntu-bug xorg

Please ensure you have xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information.

For more on this, please see the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu X.Org Team, Ubuntu Bug Control, and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Please note, not filing a new report will delay your problem being addressed as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]