Hello Christopher,
I hope this email finds you well! I’m a member of Arash Afraz’s lab at the NIH; Rosa Lafer-Sousa (CC’d) and I have been attempting to set up a new computer to run MWorks + Eyelink experiments on but have encountered some issues we’ve been unable to troubleshoot and would like to ask for your input on what might be going wrong and how to fix it.
The specifications of the computer are as follows:
Model: Mac Studio 2022
Chip: Apple M1 Max (Rosetta 2 is installed)
OS: macOS Ventura 13.5
MWorks version: 0.10 (2020.09.08)
Eyelink model: 1000 plus
Eyelink Developers Kit version: v2.1.762 (macOS 10.12 and up; Intel & M-Series)
The issue we’ve encountered is that when attempting to launch an experiment, MWServer crashes upon MWorks trying to initialize and connect to Eyelink. This then causes MWClient to hang. MWorks does recognize the installed Eyelink libraries because it attempts to run Eyelink actions, it just crashes while doing so. We’re aware that the Eyelink libraries are only compatible with Intel chip architecture and have installed Rosetta 2 for compatibility, but it hasn’t solved the issue. I’ve attached a file with the MWServer crash report, as well as the experiment file we attempted to run and the setup variables .xml file.
Please let us know what you think the issue might be and how to address it. If you need any other info on the system, I’d be happy to provide it.
Thank you,
Drew Nguyen
mwserver_crash_log.rtf (97.8 KB)
rosa_detection_2023_08_17_nando_SIZE_Exp2_LEDs_12_17_intermixed.mwel (48 KB)
setup_variables.xml (2.13 KB)
Hi Drew & Rosa,
I think there may be an issue with the latest EyeLink drivers (version 2.1.762). Can you install the previous version (2.1.1) and see if that resolves the issue? In case you don’t have a copy of them, I’ve posted the old drivers on Dropbox.
Cheers,
Chris
Sorry, scratch that. I just produced a similar crash with the old drivers, too. Let me investigate further and get back to you.
Chris
Thanks Chris, looking forward to hearing from you.
Hi Drew & Rosa,
The crash you’re seeing is due to an issue introduced in MWorks 0.12 (and still present in 0.12.1). I will get a fix in to the nightly build soon and will most likely include it in an MWorks 0.12.2 release, too. In the meantime, switching to MWorks 0.11 is a potential workaround.
Thanks for bringing this issue to my attention!
Cheers,
Chris
Thanks Chris, we will give that a try!
Hi Chris,
We just tried running with version 11 and it produced the same crash where abort() is called at some point after eyelink tried to initialize. We got the crash with version 10 too. Any other ideas? Do you know if anyone else has had success getting eyelink working with the apple silicon chip, either with or without Rosetta 2?
Rosa
Hi Rosa,
Do you know if anyone else has had success getting eyelink working with the apple silicon chip, either with or without Rosetta 2?
Yes, Yoon Bai in the DiCarlo Lab is using it successfully with MWorks 0.11.
As I noted in that discussion, any EyeLink error is likely to crash MWServer. The issue in MWorks 0.12 guarantees an error opening the EyeLink data file, but an unrelated error will do it, too. If you send me your latest crash log, I can see exactly where things are failing and suggest possible fixes.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Drew & Rosa,
The EyeLink issues should be fixed in the current nightly build. Can you please try it out and see if it resolves the crashes you were seeing?
Thanks,
Chris
Sure thing, we will give it a try today. Thanks Chris!
That worked! Thanks again Chris!
Hi Rosa,
Great! Yoon from the DiCarlo Lab reports success with the nightly build, too, so I will push these fixes out in MWorks 0.12.2 soon.
Cheers,
Chris
Hi Drew & Rosa,
MWorks 0.12.2 is now available and includes the fixes for the EyeLink issues you were having. Also, as of 0.12.2, MWorks’ EyeLink interface supports both Apple silicon and Intel processors. Apple silicon support requires the latest version of the EyeLink Developers Kit.
Cheers,
Chris