posit-dev / posit-dev/positron

R failed to start up: R or ark is calling `abort()` during startup

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area: kernels bug lang: r support
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

System details:

Positron and OS details:

Positron Version: 2025.07.0 (user setup) build 204
Code - OSS Version: 1.100.3
Commit: 03ae7a5393c776bb24c23d2aa6a6bfbba90cbc5e
Date: 2025-06-30T16:48:57.049Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045

Interpreter details:

R 4.2.0

Describe the issue:

R 4.2.0 failed to start up

Steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. Start New Interpreter Session (with shortcut Ctrl+Shift+/)
  2. Click "R 4.2.0"

Expected or desired behavior:

Positron starts a new R 4.2.0 session

Were there any error messages in the UI, Output panel, or Developer Tools console?

In the Console, I get this message:

R 4.2.0 failed to start up (exit code -1073740791)

The process exited abnormally (exit code: 0xc0000409)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Reproduce the failure on Windows using the listed Positron and R versions by starting a new interpreter session and selecting R 4.2.0. Inspect the Console and relevant troubleshooting output for the abort and exit code; done means Positron starts the R session successfully.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
r
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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