Positron fails to start R
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- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 337
- Forks
- 32
- Avg merge
- 8d 17h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 11
Description
Hi,
When launching Positron 2025.11.0 build 234 on a Mac BookPro (MacOS 26.1 (25B78)), I get the following error message:
R 4.5.2 failed to start up (exit code -1)
The process exited abnormally (signal: 6 (SIGABRT))
The issue is not with R, which works perfectly with RStudio.
I filed the issue on Positron https://forum.posit.co/t/positron-fails-at-startup/209308 and was redirected here.
Also, following advice there, I tried to upgrade to the latest daily build, but got the same error message.
Thanks for your help!
Bernard
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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Research direction
The report concerns R 4.5.2 failing to start in Positron on macOS 26.1, while R works in RStudio and the latest daily build shows the same error. No source file, test, or entry point is identified; begin by reproducing the SIGABRT startup failure and use the existing issue discussion to determine the failing startup path. Done means R starts successfully in Positron on the reported environment.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- r, rust
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100