Sonic-pi: Mac OS 11.0.1 Big Sur (not loading)

[datramt]

One of my student's laptop automatically updated to MacOS 11.0.1 Big Sur. It was working great before the update, but unfortunately, she is no longer able to open Sonic Pi. She tried re-installing Sonic Pi to no avail.

Of course, this is not surprising. MacOS updates have a habit of breaking audio apps. I just wonder if you were all working on a fix for this.

I don't have my student's laptop details on hand, but I (or she) can provide them if needed.

Thanks for all you do!

[ethancrawford]

Hi @datramt,

This appears to be due to an issue with the version of Qt that is used in v3.2.2.
You can apparently work around this issue by ensuring that the following environment variable is set:

QT_MAC_WANTS_LAYER=1

The latest beta for v3.3 now has a more recent Qt version and apparently no longer exhibits this issue.

[ubuntudroid]

Is there a rough ETA for the Big Sur compatible stable release? Sorry in advance if asking for an ETA is considered bad style here - I'm new to the project. 🙏

[ethancrawford]

Hi @ubuntudroid - it's fine 🙂
As far as I understand it, the best we could probably suggest at the moment is sometime in the next few months - we're just ironing out some issues with a recent rewrite of the MIDI sub-system and then testing/fixing any last minute bugs. It is likely also to depend on availability of core team members.
On the other hand, as mentioned above the most recent beta appears to run ok on Big Sur (barring any bugs that may still be undiscovered).

[ubuntudroid]

Sounds good, thanks! From what I understand though the beta is just available to Patrons, isn't it?

[ethancrawford]

Correct 👍

[duncangeere]

You can apparently work around this issue by ensuring that the following environment variable is set:

QT_MAC_WANTS_LAYER=1

@ethancrawford Would you mind giving a quick explanation of how to do this on MacOS? Thanks!

[lilyinstarlight]

Hi @duncangeere!

I traced back the behaviour the week before last in my Big Sur test VM to a specific Qt bug that can be worked around with the QT_MAC_WANTS_LAYER=1 environment variable. It seems this isn't the only issue with Big Sur, though, so even with the workaround you will likely still encounter the issues discussed in this thread.

I managed to get it to run (and work for a few test programs) via the terminal with the following:

1. Open the "Terminal" application
2. Paste the following:
   QT_MAC_WANTS_LAYER=1 '/Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/MacOS/Sonic Pi'
3. Hit enter (and you can close the terminal after you close Sonic Pi)

In my VM, I don't experience the issue described in the thread but the bug may only be triggered after the computer sleeps for a bit (as I always shutdown and startup my VM which I'm using to test stuff in Big Sur before I upgrade my Macbook).

If you don't regularly use the terminal, there may be a better way to set this variable, e.g. via a temporary wrapper script, that someone could possibly make.

[duncangeere]

Thanks for the tip! I'm comfortable in the terminal so I'll give that a try. I appreciate you typing out the instructions for me.

[duncangeere]

I've managed to get Sonic Pi to open fine with that method (thanks!), but it doesn't play sound as per the comments in the Discourse thread. I'll sit tight and wait for a fix. Thanks all.

[ajtran303]

~Thanks, this worked.~

I got the server to run but there's no sound at all. It looks like I just can't use this at all until it gets updated. Sad :(

[marospekarik]

Can replicate this issue on:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
macOS Big Sur v11.0.1

got the server running with the QT_MAC_WANTS_LAYER flag, but without sound

[dschu-lab]

Just wanted to let you know that after upgrading my machine to macOS 11.1 on my intel based mac, SonicPI v3.2.2 is running without any issues!

[samaaron]

@dschu-lab - that's great to hear. I'm updating to it right now.

However, for completeness we are currently aware of two separate bugs on macOS Big Sur:

1. The app doesn't start up (this appears to be fixed with the latest v3.3 beta) - this is a GUI bug which is related to the interaction between Qt (the GUI toolkit we use) and macOS.
2. After some time (possibly also related to whether the machine goes to sleep) the sound stops. The GUI works just fine, but you don't hear anything. This is a bug related to the interaction between scsynth - the SuperCollider audio server and macOS. It appears that the OSC message timestamps are not being handled correctly, so the computer is attempting to wait for years to play the sound because that's what it thinks you asked it to do.

It's possible that the Big Sur 11.1 just fixed the first bug above and not the second. Could you report back later to let us know that things are working just fine (or not) after a few hours/days of continued use of your machine without a reboot?

[samaaron]

Just to confirm, macOS Big Sur 11.1 did let me boot v3.2.2 (and v3.3-beta) unmodified. However, I'm still not getting any sound due to the OSC timestamp issue.

I had hoped that the SuperCollider development team would be able to triage and fix this and that we could incorporate a new updated audio server in our next release. However, it appears that their development has unfortunately stalled and they currently have no immediate plans for a new release and the timestamp issue is still unresolved.

If anybody has C++ skills and would like to help out - here's their general issue that you can use to get the conversation going about understanding and fixing this issue: https://github.com/supercollider/supercollider/issues/5168

(Hahaha, as I wrote this last sentence, the Sonic Pi sounds I attempted to run earlier just started - so it's not necessarily years of delay, more like minutes - although it's still completely unusable in this state)

[dschu-lab]

@samaaron This is odd, because when I was running macOS 11.0.1, I ran into the same issues (no sound & no gui).
However on macOS 11.1 I can start the host application, write/execute code and get proper sound output.

Only some shortcuts, like CMD+SHIFT+7, which I assumed was commenting out a line, would cause a crash.

I just did a session for 2 1/2 hours, sound is still there.

[dyfer]

In case this helps anyone - SuperCollider's _legacy build_ seems to start in Big Sur 11.1. Server boots and plays a simple synth. I'm guessing that the OSC issue is still there, but thought I'd share what I've discovered so far.

[tamg]

I can also confirm after upgrading to macOS 11.1, Sonic 3.2.2 starts up with no problem and I have sound with no delay!

[samaaron]

@tamg - do you use a laptop? If so, could you try playing with Sonic Pi after it has been asleep for a while?

[tamg]

@samaaron yes i have a macbook pro 2017. I just let it sleep for an hour and i was able to resume a project with no issues.

[agarmu]

I am having the 2nd problem on macOS Big Sur 11.1 - didn't encounter the first one, however.

Update: I built the 3.3 beta locally, and it seems to be working well.

[lhuaizhong]

Sonic 3.2.2 starts up with no problem on my Macbook Air 2015, OS is macOS 11.1 (Big Sur), no sound when Macbook has been asleep for a while. I have to reboot to have sonic pi works correctly, util goes asleep again.

[crgimenes]

I'm out of luck, the interface looks ok but no sound.
Big Sur, 11.1, Intel
Sonic 3.2.2
no errors in the logs or the terminal

[ajtran303]

I'm out of luck, the interface looks ok but no sound.
Big Sur, 11.1, Intel
Sonic 3.2.2
no errors in the logs or the terminal

Thanks for your update, I came to see if there was an update from anybody yet.

[samaaron]

@ajtakrajta

we believe we've fixed the issues on Big Sur which are now part of the Beta builds available over on Patreon - https://patreon.com/samaaron

Once everything is fully finished, polished and tested (hopefully in the next few weeks) v3.3 will be released publicly with support for Big Sur.

[1hko]

It launches just fine for me but I cannot get it to produce any sound :(

SonicPi Version 3.2.2
MacOS Big Sur Version 11.1 (20C69)
MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

[samaaron]

@1hko

we believe we've fixed the issues on Big Sur which are now part of the Beta builds available over on Patreon - https://patreon.com/samaaron

Once everything is fully finished, polished and tested (hopefully in the next few weeks) v3.3 will be released publicly with support for Big Sur.

[samaaron]

Hi, could you try our latest BETA to see if that helps your issues?

https://www.patreon.com/posts/46422815

[lhuaizhong]

@samaaron Hi Sam, I tested the latest BETA just now on Big Sur, no sound issue is fixed, it works perfectly right now, thank you for the update.

[1hko]

@samaaron, 3.3-beta5 working great on Big Sur 11.1 on M1 Macbook Air! So excited to start playing around with this :D

[danielhoherd]

3.3.0 is working great on macOS 11.1 20C69 intel

[samaaron]

@danielhoherd great to hear but there was a nasty bug that managed to sneak its way in undetected which has been fixed in v3.3.1 which is a highly recommended upgrade for macOS users :-)

[danielhoherd]

3.3.1 is working great on macOS 11.1 20C69 intel too!