rhyolite-MELTS Hangs or Returns a Fatal Error (Sierra or El Capitan)

Issue

On MacOS 10.12 (Sierra) or MacOS 10.11 (El Capitan), rhyolite-MELTS appears to hang at startup or returns the following error:

Warning: Fatal Error:
XmGetDefaultDisplay cannot be used prior to VendorS.Initialize, returns NULL

Detail

You upgraded XQuartz to version 2.7.9 or later.

Solution

Additional information

XQuartz 2.7.9 or later is incompatible with the MELTS executable released May 21, 2015. A newer exectable (released November 13, 2016) was built under MacOS 10.12.1 (Sierra) and linked against XQuartz 2.7.11 and resolves this issue.

The issue may occur also with certain other combinations of MacOS and XQuartz versions. Not every possible configuration has been tested.