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Re: Mathematica 8 + OS X + McAfee = trouble; help?

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg124577] Re: Mathematica 8 + OS X + McAfee = trouble; help?
  • From: "Oleksandr Rasputinov" <oleksandr_rasputinov at hmamail.com>
  • Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:05:58 -0500 (EST)
  • Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
  • References: <jfm05k$jt3$1@smc.vnet.net>

On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:12:04 -0000, Murray Eisenberg  
<murray at math.umass.edu> wrote:

> Under Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) I've been having persistent
> troubles getting the Mathematica 8.0.4 front end to connect with the
> kernel when I start the program, and to start the PacletManager, too.
> Evidently, the problem is caused by JLink not starting or running  
> properly.
>
> After substantial direct help from Wolfram tech support, we've traced
> the problem to McAfee Security, specifically, Version 1.1.0 (1309), with
> its anti-malware version 9.1.0 (4478), engine version 5400.1158.
>
> Has anybody else encountered this?
>
> What happens is that with normal on-access scan enabled, the JLink
> problem occurs; with on-access scan disabled, the problem disappears.
>
> I'd like to be able to keep McAfee Security and simply specify the
> needed file exclusions from on-access scan. We've tried to exclude the
> entire Mathematica.app package (i.e., $InstallationDirectory) as well as
> /Library/Mathematica (i.e., $BaseDirectory), and even the entire
> $UserBaseDirectory. But that doesn't do the trick.
>
> Perhaps the exclusions need to include specific files in those
> directories, or even some Java files/directories. The Mac in question
> has the usual Apple 64- and 32-bit Javas, version 1.6.0_29-b11-402.
>
> Any suggestions?
>

A while ago I encountered a similar problem (probably the same, in fact).  
McAfee's software seems to have a problem with scanning the large .jar  
files needed by the Java runtime, which of course is needed for the  
Mathematica front end. Specifically, McAfee takes a very long time (with  
certain definition versions) to scan rt.jar (of certain versions of Java)  
and eventually gives up, but in the mean time J/Link times out. I'm not  
very familiar with Macs or how the Mathematica installation is laid out on  
that platform, but I would think you can use an exclusion for rt.jar,  
wherever that may reside. Actually, to be frank, I always found McAfee to  
be extremely slow in general and to use an unjustifiably large amount of  
memory, which caused me some difficulty in using Mathematica even without  
the added annoyance of this particular problem. As there are many other  
anti-virus programs available and pretty much every one of them (except  
Norton/Symantec) is better in every respect than McAfee, I'd certainly  
encourage you not to rule out that solution.



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