Problems installing 3.20.1 on M4 Macbook Pro

Programming Help
1

Hi

I’m trying to install Psychtoolbox on a Macbook Pro (Nov 2024, Apple M4 Pro, Sequoia 15.1), to be used with Matlab R2024a. I installed first GStreamer 1.24.10 without any apparent issues. I downloaded the Psychtoolbox 3.20.1 .zip file from Github. When I try to run the SetupPsychtoolbox command I get the following output:

>> cd ../Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/
>> cd Psychtoolbox/
>> SetupPsychtoolbox
Will setup working copy of the Psychtoolbox folder inside: /Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox

Now adding the new Psychtoolbox folder (and all its subfolders) to your MATLAB/OCTAVE path.
Success.

Trying to fixup Apple macOS broken security workflow by removing the quarantine flag from our mex files...



Running post-install routine...



*** Matlab's Static Java classpath definition file modified. You will have to restart Matlab to enable use of the new Java components. ***

Press RETURN or ENTER to confirm you read and understood the above message.
Warning: Software licensing setup failed for some reason. This may end badly soon... 
> In PsychtoolboxPostInstallRoutine (line 647)
In SetupPsychtoolbox (line 249) 



A very simple test call to the Screen() MEX file failed in AssertOpenGL.
Either Screen is totally dysfunctional, or you are trying to run your script on
a system without Psychtoolbox-3 properly installed - or not installed at all.

Screen() does not work. Read all preceeding and following output as well as "help AssertOpenGL" for more info.
A first diagnostic test would be to simply type 'Screen' in your Matlab/Octave console and check what its output is.


The returned error message by Matlab/Octave was:
Last Error: Invalid MEX-file '/Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox/PsychBasic/Screen.mexmaca64': dlopen(/Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox/PsychBasic/Screen.mexmaca64, 0x0006): Library not loaded: @rpath/libLexActivator.dylib
  Referenced from: <FC3FD20F-B39D-3708-B81F-C2CA69017697> /Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox/PsychBasic/Screen.mexmaca64
  Reason: tried: '/Library/Frameworks/GStreamer.framework/Versions/Current/lib/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Library/Frameworks/GStreamer.framework/Versions/Current/lib/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox/PsychBasic/PsychPlugins/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Library/Frameworks/GStreamer.framework/Versions/Current/lib/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Library/Frameworks/GStreamer.framework/Versions/Current/lib/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox/PsychBasic/PsychPlugins/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/MATLAB_R2024a.app/bin/maca64/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/MATLAB_R2024a.app/bin/maca64/./libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/MATLAB_R2024a.app/bin/maca64/../../sys/os/maca64/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/MATLAB_R2024a.app/Contents/MacOS/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/MATLAB_R2024a.app/Contents/MacOS/./libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/MATLAB_R2024a.app/Contents/MacOS/../../standalone/bin/maca64/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/MATLAB_R2024a.app/Contents/MacOS/../../sys/os/maca64/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file), '/Applications/MATLAB_R2024a.app/bin/maca64/libLexActivator.dylib' (no such file) (MATLAB:mex:ErrInvalidMEXFile)
    /Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox/PsychOneliners/AssertOpenGL.m,107
    /Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox/PsychtoolboxPostInstallRoutine.m,702
    /Users/arenart/Documents/Psychtoolbox-3-3.0.20.1/Psychtoolbox/SetupPsychtoolbox.m,249


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Screen() failed to work for some reason:

Check the troubleshooting instructions on our Wiki (Download section 
and FAQ section, maybe also the Bugs section).

Once you manage to fix the problem (simply type 'AssertOpenGL' to verify
that stuff works now), you do not need to run the installation routine again,
but can start working immediately.

So there seems to be a licensing issue. I understand that Psychtoolbox on Mac will require licensing but I understood that there was a free trial period (not even sure if the licensing is set up already).

Thanks for any advice :slight_smile:

2

You are somehow downloading the wrong ZIP. It needs to be the named zip (the first one in the list) from Releases · Psychtoolbox-3/Psychtoolbox-3 · GitHub

Screenshot_2025-01-17-19-25-57
Screenshot_2025-01-17-19-25-571814×186 5.7 KB

It works really well on my M2 macbook air (though I imagine the free licence period is almost finished). I just checked my gstreamer and it is a bit outdated at 1.22.2, not sure if that makes a difference. Also make sure you are using the native version of MATLAB.

1 Like
3

Yes. It was indeed the wrong .zip file. The one you suggested worked fine. Thank you

4

As it is clear we won’t be ready to launch the new licensing model by Monday 20th, I will bump the trial durations of all active trials soon by a bunch of days. The plan is that the existing free trials end once one can actually buy the thing. Or more like, once one can buy the thing, new free trials for new machines will be limited to something like a week.

Wrt. GStreamer, I think anything since v1.20 should work on Apple Silicon for some definition of “working” - ‘help GStreamer’ has some advice on the pros and cons of different versions. Seems some limitations/bugs have been fixed 1.22 → 1.24, but then some other bugs have been introduced. Mostly only affecting live video + audio recording from cameras though.

The next PTB update will contain some attempted workaround for people downloading the wrong zip file, or cloning from GitHub directly.

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