Starting a new session using native backend app crashes on macos silicon

[HealthyPear]

I installed CARTA v6.0 as a stand-alone app on my macos silicon and by itself it works (I also linked it to /usr/local/bin so I am sure it is also in my $PATH), then installed the python scrpting interface and followed the instruction at

https://carta-python.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html#creating-a-new-interactive-session

obtaining the following result. Did I miss something? Is it a bug or not yet supported with this combination?

python
Python 3.14.6 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Jul 24 2026, 16:05:26) [Clang 20.1.8 ] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from carta.session import Session
...
... # New session, start local backend
... session = Session.start_and_interact()
...
[0805/215118.439373:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.439413:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.520565:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
[82542:0805/215118.521141:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:613] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[0805/215118.561546:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.561604:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.562715:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:613] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[82542:0805/215118.562928:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
[0805/215118.601212:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.601346:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.602211:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:613] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[82542:0805/215118.602502:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
[0805/215118.640024:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.640150:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.641066:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
Error: Error: net::ERR_FAILED
    at SimpleURLLoaderWrapper.<anonymous> (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:130147)
    at SimpleURLLoaderWrapper.emit (node:events:519:28)
Update error: Error: net::ERR_FAILED
    at SimpleURLLoaderWrapper.<anonymous> (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:130147)
    at SimpleURLLoaderWrapper.emit (node:events:519:28)
Auto update check failed: net::ERR_FAILED
[82542:0805/215118.643481:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:613] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[0805/215118.678965:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.678983:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.680122:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
[82542:0805/215118.680749:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:613] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[0805/215118.717930:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.718106:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.718950:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
[82542:0805/215118.719561:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:613] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[0805/215118.756125:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.756267:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.757204:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
[82542:0805/215118.757878:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:613] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[0805/215118.794535:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.794750:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.795940:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:613] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[82542:0805/215118.796129:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
[0805/215118.832662:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0805/215118.832804:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[82542:0805/215118.833600:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:999] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=5
[82542:0805/215118.833616:FATAL:content/browser/gpu/gpu_data_manager_impl_private.cc:415] GPU process isn't usable. Goodbye.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<python-input-0>", line 4, in <module>
    session = Session.start_and_interact()
  File "/Users/michele/Software/miniforge3/envs/carta-python/lib/python3.14/site-packages/carta/session.py", line 151, in start_and_interact
    raise CartaBadSession(f"CARTA backend exited unexpectedly:\n{''.join(backend.errors)}")
carta.util.CartaBadSession: CARTA backend exited unexpectedly:

[HealthyPear]

I think CARTA does not like my simlink - btw I had to do it otherwise with just the shell alias to /Applications/CARTA.app/Contents/MacOS/CARTA you get

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'carta'

To test if the culprit was the symlink/Electron relationship I tried

from carta.session import Session
Session.start_and_interact( executable_path="/Applications/CARTA.app/Contents/MacOS/CARTA" )

and this works

[HealthyPear]

Another solution is to add

export CARTA_EXECUTABLE=/Applications/CARTA.app/Contents/MacOS/CARTA

to your shell profile

and then a slightly different version of what you have in your docs

import os
from carta.session import Session

session = Session.start_and_interact(
    executable_path=os.environ["CARTA_EXECUTABLE"]
)

[HealthyPear]

Though, after this, launching a simple script with the code above results in this and the session closes by itself instead of allowing me to continue doing what I want (if I understood correctly!)

python src/scripts/radio/test_carta.py
[1840:0805/224759.872214:ERROR:net/cert/internal/trust_store_mac.cc:380] Error parsing certificate:
ERROR: Failed normalizing string
  tag: 19
ERROR: Failed normalizing subject

[1840:0805/224759.878617:ERROR:net/cert/internal/trust_store_mac.cc:807] Error parsing certificate:
ERROR: Failed normalizing string
  tag: 19
ERROR: Failed normalizing subject

[HealthyPear]

OK like this it is finally doing what I am expecting from an interactive session starting from a script!

If you want I can update the docs for this use-case (plus the fix relevant for the macos/Electron part, because I think that one is not working at all as it is reported in the docs right now)

import os
import time

from carta.session import Session

def main():
    session = Session.start_and_interact(
        executable_path=os.environ["CARTA_EXECUTABLE"]
    )

    print("CARTA is running running. Close the window to exit.")

    # Do any prelims here if necessary

    # if closing the window does not terminate session.backend.proc, 
    # then the frontend is only disconnecting and the backend is still alive
    try:
        while session._backend.proc.poll() is None:
            time.sleep(1)
    finally:
        if session._backend.proc.poll() is None:
            session._backend.stop()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

[HealthyPear]

If you end the main function with

return locals()

and then

if __name__ == "__main__":
    ns = main()

    from IPython import embed
    embed(user_ns=ns)

you can make ipython drop into an interactive terminal session and continue from there by calling it with the -i option

[izkgao]

Thank you for reporting this issue and for the detailed investigation. We’ll address it in the next beta release, tentatively planned for November.