maxima seriously damaged--happened only after upgrade to 9.10

[Adam G.]

Binary package hint: maxima

The error message was the same as in bug # 303587, but this occurs with:
Maxima version: 5.17.1
Maxima build date: 14:9 7/13/2009
host type: i686-pc-linux-gnu
lisp-implementation-type: GNU Common Lisp (GCL)
lisp-implementation-version: GCL 2.6.7
It began after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10 and was not cured by uninstalling and reinstalling the various maxima packages. The easiest way to generate the error is to start xmaxima and click on the first example in the tutorial.
The error generated is;
Universal error handler called recursively (:ERROR NIL
                                            CONDITIONS::CLCS-UNIVERSAL-ERROR-HANDLER
                                            "" "Couldn't protect")
Maxima encountered a Lisp error:

 Error in CONDITIONS::CLCS-UNIVERSAL-ERROR-HANDLER [or a callee]: Caught fatal error [memory may be damaged]

Automatically continuing.
To reenable the Lisp debugger set *debugger-hook* to nil.
(%i2)
Some investigation suggests that GCL might not be the best lisp to use to run maxima.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: 49aa7d010669e01b15fee5c1cc69a567
CheckboxSystem: 0ce136248c79b44c0e3923499a777fdc
Date: Fri Dec 11 13:41:47 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/maxima/5.17.1/binary-gcl/maxima
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: maxima 5.17.1-1ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.53-generic
SourcePackage: maxima
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic i686

[Adam G. (agehr)]

I got a working system by going to http://zeus.nyf.hu/~blahota/maxima/karmic/ and loading
maxima_5.19.2-1_SBCL_i386.deb
and
wxmaxima_0.8.3a-1_i386.deb
Xmaxima grabs the 5.19 version of maxima and works. Note this uses SBCL and not GCL.
There is another version of maxima using CLISP at the same site which I did not try.