Positron on Mac in corporate environment - R & Python fail to launch

Positron
1

Neither R nor python launch in Positron on my Mac at work

[btw -- This is a repost from an issue on GitHub. I've followed at suggestions there, with no success.]

I get connection errors such as:

Error
Connection file was not created after 10077ms; output:

/bin/bash -l -c /Applications/Positron.app/Contents/Resources/app/extensions/positron-supervisor/resources/kallichore/kcserver --log-level debug --log-file /var/folders/fz/q_vz_48n73jbjmn7dvv78fsjvyxbgx/T/kallichore-526d8287-85264.log --connection-file /var/folders/fz/q_vz_48n73jbjmn7dvv78fsjvyxbgx/T/kallichore-526d8287-85264.json --idle-shutdown-hours 1
=

My Positron version is:

Positron Version: 2025.07.0 build 204
Code - OSS Version: 1.100.3
Commit: 03ae7a5393c776bb24c23d2aa6a6bfbba90cbc5e
Date: 2025-06-30T16:29:03.492Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.5.0

"rig" is controlling my R installations and I've run rig system make-orthogonal . Two versions of R are discovered by positron:

2025-07-24 10:52:04.528 [info] R installation discovered: {
  "usable": true,
  "supported": true,
  "reasonDiscovered": [
    "Found in PATH, via the `which` command",
    "Found in the primary location for R versions on this operating system",
    "Found in a conventional location for symlinked R binaries"
  ],
  "reasonRejected": null,
  "binpath": "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.5-arm64/Resources/bin/R",
  "homepath": "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.5-arm64/Resources",
  "semVersion": {
    "options": {},
    "loose": false,
    "includePrerelease": false,
    "raw": "4.5.1",
    "major": 4,
    "minor": 5,
    "patch": 1,
    "prerelease": [],
    "build": [],
    "version": "4.5.1"
  },
  "version": "4.5.1",
  "arch": "arm64",
  "current": true,
  "orthogonal": true,
  "default": false
}
2025-07-24 10:52:04.528 [info] Candidate R binary at /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.4-arm64/Resources/bin/R
2025-07-24 10:52:04.528 [debug] No installation paths specified to exclusively include via positron.r.interpreters.override
2025-07-24 10:52:04.528 [debug] No installation paths specified to exclude via positron.r.interpreters.exclude
2025-07-24 10:52:04.528 [info] R installation discovered: {
  "usable": true,
  "supported": true,
  "reasonDiscovered": [
    "Found in the primary location for R versions on this operating system"
  ],
  "reasonRejected": null,
  "binpath": "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.4-arm64/Resources/bin/R",
  "homepath": "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.4-arm64/Resources",
  "semVersion": {
    "options": {},
    "loose": false,
    "includePrerelease": false,
    "raw": "4.4.2",
    "major": 4,
    "minor": 4,
    "patch": 2,
    "prerelease": [],
    "build": [],
    "version": "4.4.2"
  },
  "version": "4.4.2",
  "arch": "arm64",
  "current": false,
  "orthogonal": true,
  "default": false
}

My best guess is that some sort of firewall/virus protection (we use Sophos) interference, but haven't been able to surface any logs/messages to give further clues. I'm hoping there are others in corporate environments that have ideas.

2

We have had reports of Windows security software causing problems for Positron (for example, Positron kernel supervisor error with Windows security software · Issue #5905 · posit-dev/positron · GitHub) but you get the award :1st_place_medal: for being our first report on a Mac. Apologies for your experience here!

What we typically are recommending is that folks report this as a false positive and/or add an exception for kcserver in the security software that you use.

We also are looking into what might be possible on our end to not trigger the security software, but it's a tough situation since by definition Positron is meant to be able to execute arbitrary code. When you see kcserver, that is the kernel supervisor that runs all the R and Python kernels.

3

Thanks for the response. I'll continue to search log files as I haven't found positive evidence of "kcserver" being flagged. I'll pass the additional information you provided on to my IT team. I'll report back with any findings.