AI Workbench updated on Mac, now cannot access Spark?

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Something updated on my MacBook (or on my Spark?) and now the AI Workbench on my Mac cannot connect to my Spark.

AI Workbench Server Incompatible

The version of the AI Workbench server that is running in the location `spark-1921680240` is incompatible with the client installed on this host. Update or re-install AI Workbench in this location to continue. Error Detail: service version (0.76.21) does not match expected version (0.80.4)

However, the Spark is fully updated and I’ve rebooted it a couple of times.

sthornington@spark-d29e:~$ apt list --installed |grep workbench

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

ai-workbench-desktop-repo/unknown,now 25.10-2 arm64 [installed]
nvidia-ai-workbench/default,now 0.145.5-6734 arm64 [installed]

I see some instructions from a year ago about having to reinstall the remote service when this happens, but surely that cannot be necessary now, in 2025?

On my macbook:

NVIDIA AI Workbench

Version 0.145.5Copyright © 2025 NVIDIA Corporation

I’m not sure where these versions are coming from, what is the next step? I am getting really frustrated with AI Workbench, I like the idea, but I seem to spend half my time diagnosing problems it has caused, rather than the problems I am having with my actual torch code.

Simon.

So, it turns out, you DO still have to do this manual curl/sudo stuff at the bottom of this page here: Update AI Workbench — NVIDIA AI Workbench User Guide - none of the sudo apt update nor DGX Dashboard updates would do this, nor could the remote client do this remotely it seems like.

I don’t really know why something in my home directory needs sudo to run, or what it’s doing, but after I did this, things are working again. What a weird combination of “here’s a nice UI to work with your remote resource” and “oh here’s a curl and chmod and sudo command to run to upgrade the remote service”.