Kaleido process in package initialisation hangs

[jd-foster]

Described: https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plotlyjs-0-18-11-hangs-when-trying-using-but-only-the-first-time/105636

I am experiencing a strange behavior with PlotlyJS 0.18.11.
The first time I try “using” the package, Julia hangs. If I interrupt the process (CTRL-C, I am on Windows 10) I get error different error messages in VSCode or in the REPL launched from a command prompt (see below). But in both cases, after interrupting the process, a second attempt to “using” works, and I haven’t noticed any problems with plots. I am on Julia 1.9.3, Windows 10, and just downgrading to PlotlyJS 0.18.10 fixes the issue in the environments I tried.

Version info
Julia 1.9.3, Windows 10, and happens on upgrading PlotlyJS 0.18.10 to PlotlyJS 0.18.11.

Appears to be related to the recent change in #469 (possibly evident more often on Windows?).

[empet]

I have Julia 1.9.0, Windows 10, and PlotlyJS 0.18.11 works fine. I suspect that there is an incompatibility with Julia 1.9.3.

[jd-foster]

Thanks for the information. I can't reproduce this myself under the same versions, but the original poster of the issue can reproduce the hanging behaviour reliably inside VS Code & julia extension, but not so reliably from command-line REPL use.

[BeastyBlacksmith]

that might be fixed by replacing the kaleido setup here with https://github.com/JuliaPlots/PlotlyKaleido.jl

[cserteGT3]

I also have similar issue. Sometimes I can load PlotlyJS, but what never works is Dash.jl+PlotlyJS (the extension precompilation always hangs). I'm on Windows 11, Julia v1.9.3, Dash v1.4.0 and PlotlyJS v0.18.11.
I am happy to test any code that helps debugging. (I can use the 0.18.10 version until the julia PR mentioned in the discourse thread is merged and released.)

[jd-foster]

@cserteGT3 Thanks for reporting this. Do you have any steps you can share that reproduces this, even "sometimes"? If you observe those times that PlotlyJS loads, what does PlotlyJS._kaleido_running() give you?

[cserteGT3]

I have the following environment:

(dashtemp) pkg> st
Status `C:\Users\username\dashtemp\Project.toml`
  [1b08a953] Dash v1.4.0
  [f0f68f2c] PlotlyJS v0.18.11

If I start a new julia session, the following happens (just updated to julia v1.9.4, therefore the recompiling and also possibly this was todays first call of PlotlyJS):

julia> using PlotlyJS
[ Info: Precompiling PlotlyJS [f0f68f2c-4968-5e81-91da-67840de0976a]

julia> PlotlyJS._kaleido_running()
true

julia> using Dash
[ Info: Precompiling Dash [1b08a953-4be3-4667-9a23-3db579824955]
[ Info: Precompiling DashBasePlotlyJSExt [1bcbdc22-5094-5a35-94fb-8d851f9434fe]

And the last line hangs.
If I exit and start a new session, then using PlotlyJS in itself hangs. Sending ctrl+c will cause the following:

julia> using PlotlyJS
# pressing ctrl+c after a few minutes
┌ Warning: Kaleido is not available on this system. Julia will be unable to save images of any plots.
└ @ PlotlyJS C:\Users\username\.julia\packages\PlotlyJS\qhYQ5\src\kaleido.jl:65
┌ Warning: InterruptException()
└ @ PlotlyJS C:\Users\username\.julia\packages\PlotlyJS\qhYQ5\src\kaleido.jl:66

julia> PlotlyJS._kaleido_running()
true

If I remove the C:\Users\username\.julia\compiled\v1.9\PlotlyJS folder (thus forcing PlotlyJS to recompile next time) and start a fresh session using PlotlyJS hangs:

julia> using PlotlyJS
[ Info: Precompiling PlotlyJS [f0f68f2c-4968-5e81-91da-67840de0976a]
# pressing ctrl+c after a few minutes
┌ Warning: Kaleido is not available on this system. Julia will be unable to save images of any plots.
└ @ PlotlyJS C:\Users\csert\.julia\packages\PlotlyJS\qhYQ5\src\kaleido.jl:65
┌ Warning: InterruptException()
└ @ PlotlyJS C:\Users\csert\.julia\packages\PlotlyJS\qhYQ5\src\kaleido.jl:66

julia> PlotlyJS._kaleido_running()
true

The same happens if:

• removing PlotlyJS, PlotlyBase and Kaleido_jll from the compiled folder.
• removing the whole C:\Users\username\.julia\compiled\v1.9 folder.

Then I removed the whole compiled folder again and killed the command line I was using, and started a new command line and a new julia session. using PlotlyJS still hangs as above.

I guess I should restart Windows, but can't do that now. Later I will try, if the first use of PlotlyJS works after restarting consistently.

I hope that this is useful in some way.

[jd-foster]

Thanks for all the extra detail.

[disberd]

that might be fixed by replacing the kaleido setup here with JuliaPlots/PlotlyKaleido.jl

I have to say that I experienced this issue (on Windows only) also when using PlotlyKaleido by itself, so it might not be fully solved by switching to PlotlyKaleido (which I believe is a worthy change in any case as it now has more features than the baked-in kaleido we have here)

[make296]

Downgrading Julia to 1.5.4 solves the problem. Now can save plot to static image.

[jd-foster]

Downgrading Julia to 1.5.4 solves the problem.

@make296 I don't think that is a good idea to change your Julia version, especially anything less that the LTS version 1.6 . You're better off downgrading the package itself in most cases to the last version that worked for you.

[make296]

Downgrading Julia to 1.5.4 solves the problem.

@make296 I don't think that is a good idea to change your Julia version, especially anything less that the LTS version 1.6 . You're better off downgrading the package itself in most cases to the last version that worked for you.

I reverted back to Julia 1.9.4 and followed step 2 in sglyon/PlotlyBase.jl#40 (comment). It worked for me.