vtk vtkWindBladeReader fails to be instanciated

[Gael Varoquaux]

Whether it is under Python, or C++, vtkWindBladeReader fails to be instanciated and crashes the process (full error below). The problem seems to be related to MPI.

This is a user-face issue, and not only a developer issue, as it's consequence is that mayavi2 and packages that depend on it (eg python-surfer and python-mne) no longer run.

The simplest way to reproduce the problem is with 'python -c "import vtk; vtk.vtkWindBladeReader()"'. I am attaching cmake and cxx files that show that simply instanciating the object under C++ reproduces the crash, and thus that it is related to vtk, and not only python-vtk.

The crash message is the following:

$ python -c "import vtk; vtk.vtkWindBladeReader()"
[gael:13146] [[INVALID],INVALID] ORTE_ERROR_LOG: A system-required executable either could not be found or was not executable by this user in file ess_singleton_module.c at line 231
[gael:13146] [[INVALID],INVALID] ORTE_ERROR_LOG: A system-required executable either could not be found or was not executable by this user in file ess_singleton_module.c at line 140
[gael:13146] [[INVALID],INVALID] ORTE_ERROR_LOG: A system-required executable either could not be found or was not executable by this user in file runtime/orte_init.c at line 128
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
It looks like orte_init failed for some reason; your parallel process is
likely to abort. There are many reasons that a parallel process can
fail during orte_init; some of which are due to configuration or
environment problems. This failure appears to be an internal failure;
here's some additional information (which may only be relevant to an
Open MPI developer):

  orte_ess_set_name failed
  --> Returned value A system-required executable either could not be found or was not executable by this user (-127) instead of ORTE_SUCCESS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
It looks like MPI_INIT failed for some reason; your parallel process is
likely to abort. There are many reasons that a parallel process can
fail during MPI_INIT; some of which are due to configuration or environment
problems. This failure appears to be an internal failure; here's some
additional information (which may only be relevant to an Open MPI
developer):

  ompi_mpi_init: orte_init failed
  --> Returned "A system-required executable either could not be found or was not executable by this user" (-127) instead of "Success" (0)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[gael:13146] *** An error occurred in MPI_Init
[gael:13146] *** on a NULL communicator
[gael:13146] *** Unknown error
[gael:13146] *** MPI_ERRORS_ARE_FATAL: your MPI job will now abort
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
An MPI process is aborting at a time when it cannot guarantee that all
of its peer processes in the job will be killed properly. You should
double check that everything has shut down cleanly.

  Reason: Before MPI_INIT completed
  Local host: gael
  PID: 13146
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This crash message makes me strongly believe that it is due to a misconfigured MPI or a missing dependency.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: libvtk5.10 5.10.1+dfsg-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-18.22-generic 4.2.3
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-18-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Thu Nov 26 17:23:11 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-03-19 (252 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Release amd64 (20141022.1)
SourcePackage: vtk
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to wily on 2015-11-21 (5 days ago)

[Alexandre Gramfort (alexandre-gramfort-z)]

see

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=800135

for the corresponding bug on debian.org for python-mne

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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