gr-fosphor @20160522_4 crashes when running

[roythompson (Roy Thompson)]

After installing gr-fosphor on OSX Sierra 10.12.6, it always crashes with this message whenever I try to run any GNU Radio flowgraph with a gr-fosphor sink. I have tried completely wiping and re-installing ports from scratch several times, and always get this error.

2017-08-15 10:10:41.119 Python[51516:919968] *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'nextEventMatchingMask should only be called from the Main Thread!'
*** First throw call stack:
(
    0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff9ae9f2cb __exceptionPreprocess + 171
    1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fffafcaf48d objc_exception_throw + 48
    2   AppKit                              0x00007fff9908ae82 -[NSApplication(NSEvent) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 4480
    3   libglfw.3.dylib                     0x000000010d8c6c78 _glfwPlatformPollEvents + 140
    4   libgnuradio-fosphor.3.7.0git.dylib  0x000000010d7be055 _ZN2gr7fosphor16base_sink_c_impl6workerEv + 119
    5   libboost_thread-mt.dylib            0x0000000108c03ab5 _ZN5boost12_GLOBAL__N_112thread_proxyEPv + 53
    6   libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fffb07ae93b _pthread_body + 180
    7   libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fffb07ae887 _pthread_body + 0
    8   libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fffb07ae08d thread_start + 13
)
libc++abi.dylib: terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

[michaelld (Michael Dickens)]

What is your Mac hardware? You can find the info in "About This Mac" on the main (Apple logo) menu.

[roythompson (Roy Thompson)]

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB
         Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

[michaelld (Michael Dickens)]

I see the same error when using Fosphor GLFW sink (complex input). I don't get the issue when using the QT Fosphor sink.

Does the QT Fosphor sink work for you? Should be a drop-in replacement for the Fosphor GLFW sink.

[roythompson (Roy Thompson)]

Yes, I can confirm that the QT Fosphor sink works.

[michaelld (Michael Dickens)]

OK; great. Also, what does the following return for you:

port installed "glfw*"

[michaelld (Michael Dickens)]

I've sent a query to the lead developers of GLFW and gr-fosphor asking them for help. Given how GNU Radio does threading, I don't see a way to make any specific block's thread the "main" one; that's just not how GR threading works! Hopefully you can use the Qt Fosphor Sink.

[roythompson (Roy Thompson)]

Thanks, the QT sink should work for me. Here is the output of the installed command:

The following ports are currently installed:
  glfw @3.2.1_0+docs (active)

[michaelld (Michael Dickens)]

OK thanks. That means the issue goes back at least to the current release. I use "glfw-devel", which has the most recent fixes in it & it still has this issue.

I'm glad you can use the Qt Fosphor sink, so at least this isn't a bottleneck for you.

[michaelld (Michael Dickens)]

I forgot to followup from my discussion with the GLFW & gr-forphor lead devs. The consensus is to just not use GLFW fosphor on OSX because of this (artificial) constraint added by Apple. I will look into disabling this part of the gr-fosphor interface.

[michaelld (Michael Dickens)]

In dfb4a9b2a0b0b9f16677adeb268dbd16d36e80d2/macports-ports:

gr-fosphor: disable the GLFW interface and rearrange dependencies

addresses #54614