Very strange problems installing on win10

General Usage
1

sigh
never had a problem before.
i’m trying to install on my work PC and getting very erratic behavior.

i have tried several times with both 1.6.5 and 1.7.2 and either
1 the executable is not present. that’s right everything else appears to be there but no executable
2 OR it installs, there is an executable, and the first time i try to install a package, the REPL quits and then the executable can no longer be found

i strongly suspect “windows security” is doing something. However, i have installed both python and librecad without issue, so this doesn’t seem to be a a virus detector deciding the program should be deleted or some other craziness.

any ideas ?

Thank you !

2

I am finding GitHub - JuliaLang/juliaup: Julia installer and version multiplexer to be very stable now. Give it a shot, but uninstall all existing julia first. Maybe the windows store integration treats security differently?

3

thx, i didn’t know about that.

i’m not using the windows store, i’m downloading the windows installer.

windows is so annoying. this is the first time i’ve had any trouble at all across multiple PCs running win10. i’m very suspicious that it’s company security software of some sort causing the problem. the weirdness is that it only appears to be causing a problem for julia.

4

Try juliaup, which will likely become the “official” installation method at some point. Couldn’t be easier to use. After uninstalling other julia stuff, run

winget install julia -s msstore

See https://github.com/JuliaLang/juliaup#windows for more.

5

Thanks for the links, I tried it and see the same behavior.

6

This sounds like an antivirus in action - check your quarantined files. Cisco AMP Endpoint Connector has been brought up as a source of this a few times (and I’ve experienced this myself), but I’m sure there’s other similar products as well.

1 Like
7

grrrr.

That’s the problem.

apparently “AMP endpoint connector” has been renamed to “cisco secure endpoint”.

cisco software causing problems. shocking.

opened up the quarantine and there was the julia executable.

guess i’ll go contact IT and see if there’s anything that can be done.

Thank you !

edit: i guess i should ask if there’s any chance this is a real problem ? lol

8

Yeah, it is a real problem with your antivirus :slight_smile:

2 Likes
9

:rofl:

10

Yes the solution is to whitelist julia.exe which will have to be done by your company IT admin. Annoyingly in my experience this will have to happen for each new release, i.e. 1.8 will have to be whitelisted separately from 1.7.2 etc.

11

WSL: A possible Windows “solution”/workaround

I recently tried installing Julia-for-Linux-on-Windows (using the Windows Subsystem for Linux).

It worked! (Windows 11 / WSL:Debian / Julia 1.9.0 )
— and quite well, I must add: WSL integration is seamless within Windows (though the WSL installation itself is not)

As an added benefit: WSL installations create a “.vhdx” virtual disk with an EXT4 partition (at least mine did at the time of writing).

  • I would bet file operations have a real likelihood of being faster with this Windows/Linux-hybrid solution.
  • If I understand correctly: The Windows filesystem is quite inefficient when accessing many small file (which apparently Julia does all the time).
  • I’ve encountered many slowdowns with systems running Julia on Windows in the past. The slowdown seems particularly bad when code is accessed over network mounted drives.

The downside

  • You probably need admin rights to enable WSL / install your preferred Linux distribution.
  • Some users might not be comfortable running Linux over WSL as the package installation process appears mostly limited to the command line (ex: manually un-tar-ing the julia “package” from Download Julia)

Having said that: I have had zero issues running GUI-based packages once installed.

  • ex: gvim confirmed to run perfectly after installation with apt-get.

The challenge

Could someone potentially come up with an simple installation script that will simplify the WSL+Julia installation experience?

  • Maybe through some sleek “windows store” app installation?

If that happens: I’m sure other users will want to try the Linux version of Julia (not just those struggling with sensitive malware protection software).

1 Like
12

The described setup has a slight disadvantage: if one uses a Windows editor or any other Windows program to access a Linux file, an opened file may become corrupted. More information at https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/do-not-change-linux-files-using-windows-apps-and-tools/#comment-85115

13

Could someone potentially come up with a simple installation script that will simplify the WSL+Julia installation experience?

You can install WSL in PowerShell (with admin rights)

wsl --install

After installation is complete, open the WSL bash terminal (e.g., in the drop menu if you have Windows terminal installed) and install Julia via juliaup

curl -fsSL https://install.julialang.org | sh
14

Sure. juliaup works perfectly on WSL.

2 Likes
15

I wonder if anyone can confirm this with actual measurements? This would be a real boon for users of Windows.

16

Good to know. Wonder if this problem is still present Today.

17

Right. When I tried this, it didn’t “just work”. I had to try a couple of times (rebooting in between).

And if I remember correctly: I had to specify a distribution for it to actually work (despite the instructions on the MS website).

Something like: wsl --install --distribution Debian
…3rd time’s the charm.

Not the greatest for attracting newcomers.

Yes. I’m liking juliaup more as I become more comfortable with it. But like anything else that adds a level of indirection and has extra state: It can increase the barrier to entry.

That said: I really like it. If other tools had similar/effective version switching, it wouldn’t feel like a barrier anymore (because we’d all be used to it already).