Jens, The process that is left running is called pdftex (not pdflatex), and its parent process is called Python, whose parent process is Lyx. That is the sequence of parent to child processes.
In relation to what I inserted into the koma-let2.lyx template file it was simply a → inserted in MATH mode, not text mode. It does not matter what symbol you insert in Maths mode. To reproduce it you simply load up the koma-let2.lyx template, compile it as an initial test. It will compile, and if you look at the processes the pdftex process will have started with the compile, and then would have closed. So it no longer appears on the list of processes. Now add in in a symbol in Maths mode. Compile the same file but with only this symbol added. The pdftex process will continue to run once the compilation is complete. Quit lyx, and you will see the pdftex is still running and consuming 100% of the core that it is running on. You have to do a "Qui"t from the Activity Monitor to stop pdftex. The Python process )the parent of pdftex) stops when Lyx is exited. It would be a good idea in the future to make sure that Lyx closes all the process that it is responsible for, even if a process has gone rogue. Of course an error message is handy if this is occurring. Thanks for your comments on this issue. Regards Bob Betz --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Robert Betz Ampcontrol Professor of Power Engineering, Head, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia, email: robert.b...@newcastle.edu.au FAX: +61-2-4921-6993 TEL: +61-2-4921-6091 Mobile: (+61)-(0)419249948 Web: http://eecsbobb.newcastle.edu.au/rebetz --------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 1:23 PM, in message <98c5da25-698c-4e06-80a1-60c520337...@uoregon.edu>, Jens Nöckel <noec...@uoregon.edu> wrote: Bob, I'm not sure I understand the problem, but I'm guessing you inserted a character like → into the text, while not in math mode. If so, you could try to circumvent the problem by going to Document > Settings > Fonts and changing the template's Roman font from "Palatino" to "Default". I don't see the same pdflatex crash as you, but LyX displays a latex error message if I try to use Palatino font with that "\textrightarrow" character. So I can't be sure if this helps you. Could it be that your TeX installation is out of date? It may be worth thinking about how LyX can keep track of pdflatex processes it has spawned, so that it can "kill -9" crashed processes when the user exits LyX (after warning about it). I don't think that anything like that has been implemented at this point. And of course that wouldn't help fix the root cause of your problem. Jens On May 15, 2011, at 4:03 PM, Robert Betz wrote: Jens, It is not happening all the time with the system, but only under a very specific class file. Having thought about it a bit more after the initial posting it may be an issue with pdftex itself, or with the Python script the invokes it (from Lyx). If you create new file using the koma-letter2.lyx template file (which uses the scrlttr2 latex class. The template is a default one in 1.6 series Lyx) and go it not math mode and insert a symbol in the text somewhere (I inserted a \rightarrow a symbol). Save the file, and exit and reload. Simply reloading the file will start pdftex and it will continue to run, even if you exit Lyx again. This appears to do this on all machines that I run this on. Also happens under 1.6.10. It may be an issue with pdftex and this use of it with this class, but nevertheless the Python script that starts pdftex should stop it on Lyx stopping. Incidentally the file compiles and displays OK. Regards Bob Betz Ampcontrol Professor of Power Engineering, Head, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia, email: robert.b...@newcastle.edu.au FAX: +61-2-4921-6993 TEL: +61-2-4921-6091 Mobile: (+61)-(0)419249948 Web: http://eecsbobb.newcastle.edu.au/rebetz --------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 3:44 AM, in message <8ca2dbec-1d05-48e1-b7e4-4bb8157d1...@uoregon.edu>, Jens Nöckel <noec...@uoregon.edu> wrote: On May 14, 2011, at 7:52 PM, Robert Betz wrote: Tried uninstalling Lyx 2.0.0 and reinstalled Lyx 1.6.10 and also 1.6.9. All doing the same thing (pdftex not closing and using 100% CPU), so it may be my system. Doing on two though. The parent process for pdftex is Python, whose parent in turn is Lyx. When Lyx closes down, Python closes but pdftex is not closing. Maybe there is some problem with my installation of Python. It appears to be using Python 2.6 Bob, is this happening all the time or just for a specific file? If the latter, could you post a small example file? If it happens for any file, then go back to LyX, create a new file (e.g, "newfile.tex") with just one line of text, and export it as a LaTeX (pdflatex) file. Then try to pdflatex that exported file from the _terminal_ with "pdflatex newfile". If that doesn't work, it's a problem with your TeX installation. You could then send the tex file and the latex log. You could also try paring the file down by deleting any "\usepackage" commands in it, until the error goes away. Maybe you have some package or font installed that causes this crash. This could be hard to find if you have local installations that differ from the standard distribution. Jens