Page 1 of 1

MARK on Mac M1

PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2022 11:07 pm
by adigby
Has anyone had any joy installing MARK on a Mac with an M1 (ARM) chip?

I've previously successfully used the instructions at http://www.phidot.org/software/mark/rmark/linux/ to install on a Mac, but get the error below when trying to install on a Mac with an M1 chip. Does anyone know if there exists a MARK executable compiled for ARM64/M1?

Thank you!

Code: Select all
% /usr/local/bin/mark
dyld[42711]: Library not loaded: '/usr/local/opt/gcc/lib/gcc/10/libquadmath.0.dylib'
  Referenced from: '/usr/local/bin/mark'
  Reason: tried: '/usr/local/opt/gcc/lib/gcc/10/libquadmath.0.dylib' (no such file), '/usr/local/lib/libquadmath.0.dylib' (mach-o file, but is an incompatible architecture (have (arm64), need (x86_64))), '/usr/lib/libquadmath.0.dylib' (no such file)
zsh: abort      /usr/local/bin/mark

Re: MARK on Mac M1

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 9:39 am
by cooch
The only way MARK will be available for an M1 chip is if (i) gfortran ultimately gets ported to M1 chips (not likely in foreseeable future), then (ii) I get access to an M1-based Mac to handle the compilation, which (iii) give Apple's anal-retentive desire to control everything, is likely to be a royal PITA. So, the error messages you show are simply because the executables won't work on M1-based chips.

Since the cumulative probability of {i,ii} is probably asymptotically zero, then no MARK for M1 Macs for now.

Feel free to send your complaints to the turtle-neck-wearing types in Cupertino who thought that having their own chip made sense (i.e., more $$$$ for Apple, the company that charges you $50-100 for a dongle just to use a USB drive...). There are any number of open-source projects that the M1 has effectively broken. But then, Apple doesn't even want you downloading and installing a number of open-source applications, unless you're a 'preferred vendor', which means you've (wait for it...) given Apple $$$$.

Re: MARK on Mac M1

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 10:04 am
by sbonner
Does Rosetta offer a solution?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software)#Rosetta_2
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211861

I don't have access to Apple Silicon, so I can't try it. But, I've heard good things. The performance is supposed to be almost the same as running programs natively. Alternatively, you can run a VM with Windows or Linux. There will be some performance loss, but probably less fiddling.

Re: MARK on Mac M1

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 10:10 am
by cooch
Indeed -- some colleagues have Rosetta working for other applications. Its not a trivial handshake (in some cases). And yes, running Windows or GNU/Linux in a VM is always an option (I have multiple VM's running inside VirtualBox). I've toyed with constructing a docker container for MARK that (in theory) would run on a Mac, but without access to said Mac on my end, not something I can try.

Of course, there is always a simple 'plan B'. Stop buying Apple laptops, and get a machine that runs 95% of the software out there.

Re: MARK on Mac M1

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 4:05 pm
by adigby
Thanks @cooch and @sbonner for your help and suggestions. Hopefully this thread will be of some help to others.

I'll go with either the VM approach, or may even resort to my work Windows machine, which is newer and more expensive, but is slower, has already been replaced once in 6 months, and feels decades older. Or I'll just stop using MARK. I certainly won't stop using Macs: my laptop with M1 Pro is by far the best I've ever owned, and OS X is in my view a far better platform for science than Windows (and Linux).

Re: MARK on Mac M1

PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 8:29 pm
by sbonner
Image