Trouble installing Erlang via asdf on new M2 mac

[ryanswapp]

I just got my new M2 macbook pro in the mail! Excited to get going with it but am having trouble installing Erlang…

I installed asdf through the official git method per their website. I then did the before erlang plugin install instructions on the readme and installed the plugin. Then I tried to install erlang and it just sits at the build step… it’s been there for hours without failing. I assume something has gone wrong but am unsure of how to check? Any help is appreciated.

[D4no0]

You could try to find if asdf has something like verbose flags, otherwise you can clone the git repository and try to compile it yourself. Note that compilation process is quite resource hungry and might take from 10 to 20 minutes on an idle machine.

[dimitarvp]

Check if you use the actual ARM version of the terminal, whether you are not using Rosetta by mistake etc.

The usual stuff.

[Eiji]

The log should be located somewhere in .asdf directory. Can’t say where exactly as for longer time I’m using prebuild releases for Ubuntu.

[maz]

That’s a pretty old version of Erlang. To make sure it’s not an issue with asdf, try:

asdf install erlang 25.2

which has probably been compiled with the apple silicon binary slice.

If installing erlang 25.2 is fine, then you will definitely have to compile 23.3.4.9.

[adamu]

You can also try taking out the asdf middleman and use kerl directly.

Asdf install erlang 25.2 failing, unsure of cause, on Mac OSX Monterey 12.5.1 M1 Pro

asdf-erlang is great until it breaks, then it’s a huge timesink to debug. You will probably have more success using kerl directly. For example: Set KERL_DEFAULT_INSTALL_DIR (I use ~/.kerl/installs/), then: kerl build 25.2 25.2 kerl install 25.2 Then put this in your profile: . $(kerl path 25.2)/activate

[brihas]

Hi,

You might be facing this issue https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-erlang/issues/141. I had the same issue couple of weeks before and this comment solved the problem for mehttps://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-erlang/issues/141#issuecomment-689084393, hope it helps

[ryanswapp]

This worked! Thank you!

Also, thanks to everyone else who responded. I did install later versions (25.2) with asdf and it worked perfectly. I was looking at compiling directly but then decided to try @adamu solution of copying from homebrew install and that now works.

[RudManusachi]

A few months ago I installed on M2 with the following flags

José Valim (@josevalim@genserver.social)

[adamu]

Just to clarify, my suggestion was to use kerl.

There are multiple levels of abstraction when installing Erlang from source.

1. Compile it directly
2. Use kerl, which is a utility script that helps you compile and manage multiple versions.
3. Use asdf, which is a wrapper around kerl that makes things simpler still, but harder to debug when they go wrong.

[Eiji]

@adamu

Use asdf, which is a wrapper around kerl that makes things simpler still, but harder to debug when they go wrong.

Isn’t build log enough? In asdf-erlang repository there are few issues with it used, for example:

Erlang installation hangs

The path to build log in this case would be: $HOME/.asdf/plugins/erlang/kerl-home/builds/asdf_23.3.4.9/otp_build_23.3.4.9.log

[adamu]

@Eiji

Isn’t build log enough?

No, the build log sometimes does not contain all the information, or the information is not useful. I made the switch after I was experiencing failures that failed with asdf-erlang using the same kerl version with the same build options, but worked using kerl directly.

If you add another dependency in the pipeline, there are more things that can go wrong Rather than spend time trying to figure out what went wrong and if it’s related to asdf-erlang or the wiring between asdf-erlang and kerl, now I just use kerl and want to point out that’s an option to others.