Boot Issue in Mac OS

Support, Help & Resources
1

Just installed Sonic Pi - it will not open even after restarting my computer (no other programs open).

Running on a Mac Intel Sequoia OS here’s the error message:

Apologies, unable to start…

Sorry, Sonic Pi is having issues booting:

GUI was unable to connect to the Ruby server.

Please consider reporting a bug at

http://github.com/samaaron/sonic-pi/issues

System Information

Sonic Pi version: 4.6.0

OS: macOS Sequoia (15.6)

CPU: x86_64

gui.log

[API] [INFO ] : Args: /Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/native/ruby/bin/ruby /Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/ruby/bin/clear-logs.rb 

[API] [INFO ] : Started...

[API] [INFO ] : Starting...

[API] [INFO ] : Log Path: /Users/melissadaneke/.sonic-pi/log

[API] [INFO ] : Launching Sonic Pi Boot Daemon:

[API] [INFO ] : Args: /Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/native/ruby/bin/ruby /Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/ruby/bin/daemon.rb --no-scsynth-inputs 

[API] [INFO ] : Started...

[API] [INFO ] : Reading Boot Daemon output...

[API] [ERROR] : Error reading ports via Boot Daemon STDOUT. Bytes read: -32 Error code: generic:32

[API] [INFO ] : Attempting to start Boot Daemon failed....

[GUI] - API Boot failed

[GUI] [i18n] - Looping through preferred ui languages

[GUI] - Language setting: system_language

[GUI] - System language: en_US

[GUI] [i18n] - Looping through preferred ui languages

[GUI] - Using language: en_US

[GUI] [i18n] - Loading translations for en_US

[GUI] [i18n] - Error: Failed to load language translation for en_US

[GUI] - translations available 

[GUI] - hiding main window

[GUI] - initialising toolbar icons

[GUI] - setting up window structure

[Debug] Adding language combo box entries...

54

[Debug] Adding language system_language to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ar to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language bg to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language bn to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language bs to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ca to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ca@valencia to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language cs to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language da to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language de to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language el to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language en_AU to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language en_GB to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language en_US to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language eo to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language es to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language et to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language eu to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language fa to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language fi to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language fr to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ga to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language gl to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language he to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language hi to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language hu to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language hy to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language id to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language is to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language it to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ja to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ka to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ko to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language nb to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language nl to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language pl to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language pt to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language pt_BR to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ro to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ru to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language si to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language sk to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language sl to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language sv to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language sw to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language th to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language tr to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language ug to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language uk to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language vi to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language zh to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language zh-Hans to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language zh_HK to the combo box

[Debug] Adding language zh_TW to the combo box

[GUI] - restoring scope states 

[GUI] - creating status bar

[GUI] - creating info panel

[GUI] - creating tool bar

[GUI] - initialising documentation window

[API] [INFO ] : Waiting Until Ready... 59

[API] [INFO ] : Waiting Until Ready... 58

[API] [INFO ] : Waiting Until Ready... 57

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[API] [INFO ] : Waiting Until Ready... 0

[GUI] - Critical Error. Unable to connect to server..
2

Hi

If you post this issue via that github link you’ll get a much faster response. I had a similar issue several months ago.

PD-Pi

3

Would you mind linking where your thread was? I haven’t received a response there yet.

4

I could post a link, but it was for a Windows machine, so probably best to wait for a more specific response - Sam and his dev team are pretty quick to resolve such issues. Also, search here for “Mac OS boot error/issue”.

HTH

5

Hello !
Sonic Pi 4.6.0 Won’t Start on macOS Intel: Ruby / GMP Fix, thank you chatgtp

This guide is for Intel-based Macs running macOS Sonoma or another recent macOS version with Sonic Pi 4.6.0 x64.

Symptoms

When launching Sonic Pi, you may see:

Apologies, unable to start...

GUI was unable to connect to the Ruby server.

The gui.log file may also contain messages such as:

Error reading ports via Boot Daemon STDOUT
GUI - API Boot failed
Critical Error. Unable to connect to server.

In this case, the real cause was a missing GMP library required by Sonic Pi’s bundled Ruby runtime:

Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/gmp/lib/libgmp.10.dylib

1. Make sure you installed the correct version

For an Intel Mac, download:

Sonic-Pi-for-Mac-x64-v4-6-0.dmg

Do not install the ARM64 or Apple Silicon version, which is intended for M1, M2, M3, M4 and newer Apple chips.

Install Sonic Pi in:

/Applications/Sonic Pi.app

2. Quit Sonic Pi completely

Close Sonic Pi before running the following commands.

3. Remove Sonic Pi’s local configuration and logs

Open Terminal and run:

rm -rf ~/.sonic-pi

This removes Sonic Pi’s local configuration and log files.

Note: this may also reset some Sonic Pi preferences.

4. Remove the macOS quarantine attribute

Run:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Sonic Pi.app"

This prevents macOS from blocking some of the executables bundled inside the application.

5. Start the Ruby daemon manually

This command reveals the actual error hidden behind Sonic Pi’s generic startup message:

"/Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/native/ruby/bin/ruby" \
"/Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/ruby/bin/daemon.rb" \
--no-scsynth-inputs

In this case, Terminal displayed:

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/gmp/lib/libgmp.10.dylib
Reason: no such file

This means the GMP library is missing.

6. Check whether Homebrew is installed

Run:

brew --version

If Terminal displays:

command not found: brew

install Homebrew with:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

On Intel Macs, Homebrew normally installs packages under:

/usr/local

7. Install GMP

Run:

brew install gmp

If GMP is already installed but Sonic Pi still fails, run:

brew reinstall gmp
brew link gmp

8. Verify that the required library exists

Run:

ls -l /usr/local/opt/gmp/lib/libgmp.10.dylib

The command should display the file or a valid symbolic link.

9. Test the Ruby daemon again

Run the manual startup command again:

"/Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/native/ruby/bin/ruby" \
"/Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/ruby/bin/daemon.rb" \
--no-scsynth-inputs

If the libgmp.10.dylib error is gone, stop the process with:

Ctrl + C

10. Launch Sonic Pi normally

Open Sonic Pi again from the Applications folder.

After installing GMP, Sonic Pi 4.6.0 should be able to start normally.

Command summary

rm -rf ~/.sonic-pi

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Sonic Pi.app"

brew install gmp

ls -l /usr/local/opt/gmp/lib/libgmp.10.dylib

Manual diagnostic command:

"/Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/native/ruby/bin/ruby" \
"/Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/Resources/app/server/ruby/bin/daemon.rb" \
--no-scsynth-inputs

Tested configuration

Sonic Pi: 4.6.0
macOS: Sonoma 14.8
Architecture: x86_64
CPU: Intel
Startup error: GUI unable to connect to Ruby server
Root cause: missing libgmp.10.dylib
Fix: install GMP using Homebrew

This fix applies specifically when the manual Ruby daemon command reports:

/usr/local/opt/gmp/lib/libgmp.10.dylib

If the daemon reports a different missing library or another error, the required fix may be different.