Thanks, Hans. I've tried running the microcircuit with python and iPython, so I'll provide both error messages below. Per the instructions, N_scaling and K_scaling are set to 0.1 in network_params.py (running locally).

- the version of NEST you installed with conda

nest-simulator 2.20.0 mpi_openmpi_py38h4b37503_6 conda-forge

- the commands you used to run the microcircuit example

$ python example.py

- all the output generated, including the full error message

[INFO] [2020.10.8 9:53:9 /home/conda/feedstock_root/build_artifacts/nest-simulator_1600101873508/work/nestkernel/rng_manager.cpp:217 @ Network::create_rngs_] : Creating default RNGs
[INFO] [2020.10.8 9:53:9 /home/conda/feedstock_root/build_artifacts/nest-simulator_1600101873508/work/nestkernel/rng_manager.cpp:260 @ Network::create_grng_] : Creating new default global RNG

              -- N E S T --
Copyright (C) 2004 The NEST Initiative

Version: nest-2.20.0
Built: Sep 14 2020 16:48:48

This program is provided AS IS and comes with
NO WARRANTY. See the file LICENSE for details.

Problems or suggestions?
   Visit https://www.nest-simulator.org

Type 'nest.help()' to find out more about NEST.

data directory already exists
Data will be written to /home/dominic/Code/nest/microcircuit_example/data/
Time to initialize the network: 0.00 s

Oct 08 09:53:09 ModelManager::clear_models_ [Info]:
    Models will be cleared and parameters reset.

Oct 08 09:53:09 Network::create_rngs_ [Info]:
    Deleting existing random number generators

Oct 08 09:53:09 Network::create_rngs_ [Info]:
    Creating default RNGs

Oct 08 09:53:09 Network::create_grng_ [Info]:
    Creating new default global RNG
Master seed: 55

Oct 08 09:53:09 ModelManager::clear_models_ [Info]:
    Models will be cleared and parameters reset.

Oct 08 09:53:09 Network::create_rngs_ [Info]:
    Deleting existing random number generators

Oct 08 09:53:09 Network::create_rngs_ [Info]:
    Creating default RNGs

Oct 08 09:53:09 Network::create_grng_ [Info]:
    Creating new default global RNG
Number of total processes: 1
Seeds for random number generators of virtual processes: [57]
Global random number generator seed: 56

Oct 08 09:53:09 SimulationManager::set_status [Info]:
    Temporal resolution changed.
/home/dominic/Code/nest/microcircuit_example/helpers.py:133: FutureWarning:arrays to stack must be passed as a "sequence" type such as list or tuple. Support for non-sequence iterables such as generators is deprecated as of NumPy 1.16 and will raise an error in the future.
The number of neurons is scaled by a factor of: 0.10
The number of synapses is scaled by a factor of: 0.10
/home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/lib/hl_api_helper.py:127: UserWarning:
GetNodes is deprecated and will be removed in NEST 3.0. Use             GIDCollection instead.

Oct 08 09:53:09 SLIInterpreter [Deprecated]:
    SLI function GetNodes_i_D_b_b is deprecated in NEST 3.0.
Spike detectors created
Thalamic input not provided
Poisson background input created
Recurrent connections are established
Poisson background input is connected
Spike detector connected
Time to create the connections: 1.30 s

Oct 08 09:53:10 NodeManager::prepare_nodes [Info]:
    Preparing 7729 nodes for simulation.
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] *** Process received signal ***
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] Signal: Segmentation fault (11)
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] Signal code: Address not mapped (1)
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] Failing at address: 0xfffffffffffffff8
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 0] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0x128a0)[0x7fec5842d8a0]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 1] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libmodels.so(+0x4b5960)[0x7febf6cee960]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 2] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libmodels.so(+0x4b5f5e)[0x7febf6ceef5e]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 3] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libmodels.so(+0x4b5f5e)[0x7febf6ceef5e]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 4] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libmodels.so(+0x4b7936)[0x7febf6cf0936]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 5] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libmodels.so(+0x4b8882)[0x7febf6cf1882]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 6] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libmodels.so(+0x4b8ae4)[0x7febf6cf1ae4]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 7] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libmodels.so(_ZN4nest4sortINS_6SourceENS_16StaticConnectionINS_24TargetIdentifierPtrRportEEEEEvR11BlockVectorIT_ERS5_IT0_E+0x1d9)[0x7febf6cf1d19]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 8] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libnestkernel.so(_ZN4nest17ConnectionManager16sort_connectionsEi+0x99)[0x7febf66d3c19]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [ 9] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libnestkernel.so(_ZN4nest17SimulationManager32update_connection_infrastructureEi+0x1f2)[0x7febf66c6ae2]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [10] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libgomp.so.1(GOMP_parallel+0x42)[0x7febf6036e8c]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [11] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libnestkernel.so(_ZN4nest17SimulationManager7prepareEv+0x1be)[0x7febf66c5e4e]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [12] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libnestkernel.so(_ZN4nest17SimulationManager8simulateERKNS_4TimeE+0x12)[0x7febf66d1442]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [13] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libnestkernel.so(_ZN4nest8simulateERKd+0xc3)[0x7febf66b17d3]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [14] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libnestkernel.so(_ZNK4nest10NestModule16SimulateFunction7executeEP14SLIInterpreter+0x45)[0x7febf6684b05]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [15] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libsli.so(+0x743b3)[0x7febf63c93b3]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [16] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libsli.so(_ZN14SLIInterpreter8execute_Em+0x222)[0x7febf63cdc62]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [17] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/../../../libsli.so(_ZN14SLIInterpreter7executeERKNSt7__cxx1112basic_stringIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEEE+0x162)[0x7febf63ce202]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [18] /home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/pynestkernel.so(+0x29a5c)[0x7febf736aa5c]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [19] python(+0x18166a)[0x556ade2dd66a]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [20] python(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x4bf)[0x556ade33a42f]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [21] python(_PyFunction_Vectorcall+0x1b7)[0x556ade3266a7]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [22] python(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x71a)[0x556ade33a68a]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [23] python(_PyFunction_Vectorcall+0x1b7)[0x556ade3266a7]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [24] python(PyObject_Call+0x7d)[0x556ade29243d]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [25] python(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x1f12)[0x556ade33be82]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [26] python(_PyEval_EvalCodeWithName+0x929)[0x556ade325bc9]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [27] python(_PyFunction_Vectorcall+0x594)[0x556ade326a84]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [28] python(_PyEval_EvalFrameDefault+0x4fa1)[0x556ade33ef11]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] [29] python(_PyFunction_Vectorcall+0x1b7)[0x556ade3266a7]
[dominic-Precision-7530:11593] *** End of error message ***
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

With iPython -

- all the output generated, including the full error message

Python 3.8.5 | packaged by conda-forge | (default, Sep 24 2020, 16:55:52)
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

IPython 7.18.1 -- An enhanced Interactive Python.

runfile('/home/dominic/Code/nest/microcircuit_example/example.py', wdir='/home/dominic/Code/nest/microcircuit_example')
[INFO] [2020.10.8 10:10:23 /home/conda/feedstock_root/build_artifacts/nest-simulator_1600101873508/work/nestkernel/rng_manager.cpp:217 @ Network::create_rngs_] : Creating default RNGs
[INFO] [2020.10.8 10:10:23 /home/conda/feedstock_root/build_artifacts/nest-simulator_1600101873508/work/nestkernel/rng_manager.cpp:260 @ Network::create_grng_] : Creating new default global RNG

              -- N E S T --
Copyright (C) 2004 The NEST Initiative

Version: nest-2.20.0
Built: Sep 14 2020 16:48:48

This program is provided AS IS and comes with
NO WARRANTY. See the file LICENSE for details.

Problems or suggestions?
   Visit https://www.nest-simulator.org

Type 'nest.help()' to find out more about NEST.

data directory already exists
Data will be written to /home/dominic/Code/nest/microcircuit_example/data/
Time to initialize the network: 0.00 s
Master seed: 55
Number of total processes: 1
Seeds for random number generators of virtual processes: [57]
Global random number generator seed: 56

Oct 08 10:10:23 ModelManager::clear_models_ [Info]:
    Models will be cleared and parameters reset.

Oct 08 10:10:23 Network::create_rngs_ [Info]:
    Deleting existing random number generators

Oct 08 10:10:23 Network::create_rngs_ [Info]:
    Creating default RNGs

Oct 08 10:10:23 Network::create_grng_ [Info]:
    Creating new default global RNG

Oct 08 10:10:23 ModelManager::clear_models_ [Info]:
    Models will be cleared and parameters reset.

Oct 08 10:10:23 Network::create_rngs_ [Info]:
    Deleting existing random number generators

Oct 08 10:10:23 Network::create_rngs_ [Info]:
    Creating default RNGs

Oct 08 10:10:23 Network::create_grng_ [Info]:
    Creating new default global RNG

Oct 08 10:10:23 SimulationManager::set_status [Info]:
    Temporal resolution changed.
The number of neurons is scaled by a factor of: 0.10
The number of synapses is scaled by a factor of: 0.10
/home/dominic/Code/nest/microcircuit_example/helpers.py:133: FutureWarning:arrays to stack must be passed as a "sequence" type such as list or tuple. Support for non-sequence iterables such as generators is deprecated as of NumPy 1.16 and will raise an error in the future.
/home/dominic/miniconda3/envs/nest/lib/python3.8/site-packages/nest/lib/hl_api_helper.py:127: UserWarning:
GetNodes is deprecated and will be removed in NEST 3.0. Use             GIDCollection instead.

Oct 08 10:10:23 SLIInterpreter [Deprecated]:
    SLI function GetNodes_i_D_b_b is deprecated in NEST 3.0.
Spike detectors created
Thalamic input not provided
Poisson background input created
Recurrent connections are established

Restarting kernel...

[SpyderKernelApp] WARNING | No such comm: f2c6ea32096f11eba0c4fc77749073f1

Best

Dominic

Dominic Standage, PhD

Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow

School of Psychology /

Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics

University of Birmingham

Birmingham, B15 2TT

United Kingdom

Email - d.standage@bham.ac.uk

Web - www.standage.net

From: hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no <hans.ekkehard.plesser@nmbu.no>
Sent: 08 October 2020 01:29:31
To: NEST User Mailing List
Subject: [NEST Users] Re: Microcircuit example, segmentation fault