Spotfire Service for Python: Service will not start (Debian 11 / OpenSUSE 15)

The following article applies to running Spotfire Service for Python on either Debian 11 or OpenSUSE 15.

Upon a new installation of Spotfire Service for Python, it maybe found that the service will not start from the Nodes and Services view in web console.

Upon inspecting the python service logs, a fatal error as below will be seen.

#
# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
#  SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007f4f80bfd685, pid=1301, tid=1322
#
# JRE version: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (17.0.10+11) (build 17.0.10+11-LTS-240)
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (17.0.10+11-LTS-240, mixed mode, sharing, tiered, compressed oops, compressed class ptrs, g1 gc, linux-amd64)
# Problematic frame:
# C  [libpythonJava.so+0x2685]  Java_com_service_python_api_PythonJava_nativeGetEvalOutput+0x79
#
# CreateCoredumpOnCrash turned off, no core file dumped
#
# An error report file with more information is saved as:
# /tmp/work/pythonsrv-62001/hs_err_pid1301.log

The reason for this is that these operating systems ship with version 7 of the libffi package. To resolve the issue the correct version must be installed.

Debian 11

1. Download version 6 of libffi from here and save this to the node manager machine.

2. Install the package:

dpkg -i libffi6_3.2.1-9_amd64.deb

3. Restart the node manager service. You should then find the Python service running normally.

OpenSUSE 15

1. Download https://github.com/libffi/libffi/archive/refs/tags/v3.2.1.tar.gz and unpack it. (3.2.1 is the latest version that produces the proper library name)

2. Change the directory to libffi-3.2.1.

3. Run ./configure.

4. Run make.

5. Run sudo make install

6. Restart the node manager service.

Please refer here for the system requirements of Spotfire Service for Python.