kenneth.braun@charter.net
Hi Folks

I have just built and successfully installed KiCad-7.0.2 from slackbuilds.org.

Pryor to trying to build KiCad-7.2.0, I was running an almost virgin Slackware64-15.0

I believe that I had all of the dependencies and the sub-dependencies
installed prior to building KiCad-7.0.2.

When I try to run the schematic editor, either directly or via the project manager I get the following error message:

"Could not determine wxPython version. Python plugins will not be available.”

Does anyone have any idea about what the problem might be?

Thanks.

-- Ken --

From https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...lopment/kicad/ :

There are tools like slpkg which help you to install stuff from slackbuilds.org with all their dependencies. Using such a tool might be a good idea, as some of the dependencies above have even more dependencies, for instance, from
https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...ies/wxPython4/ :

Anything built upon python or perl usually end up with big dependency tree. It is possible to trace down and install all dependencies manually, but using a tool like slpkg will save you some time.

regards Henrik

Hello, I faced same issue here. This problem happens because conflict between wxPython4 and wxWidgets. wxPyhton4 ships wxWidgets itself and it causes the conflict. As workaround I followed this procedure:

I rebuilt wxWidgets with nanosvg builtin enabled. Nanosvg must be download separatedly and packed in 3rdparty folder of wxWidgets. Then replace the following line in wxWidgets.SlackBuild:

With:
Then I rebuilt the wxPython4 passing the flag to use system wxWidgets instead of the wxWidgets version shipped with it. That was made replacing the following command in wxPython4.SlackBuild:

With:

I described it in this issue in Kicad GitLab's page: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/...ote_1450474388

2 members found this post helpful.

If you don't need the python stuff you can "fix" it by changing this line in the slackbuild to OFF. That's what I did.
You then don't need to install wxPython4 or it's dependencies.

I doubt this will help much but I have an incredible amount of extra software installed on my Main 15.0 system, so much so that I keep a parallel fully bootable and usable virgin stock system on it's own partition as well as nearly a dozen other systems (yes, I'm a nerd). Anyway I installed Kicad about 2 months ago following the Readme and Install info with all the dependencies and no alteration to the build script. It works perfectly. I've published several schematics.

The only help I can possibly offer is to ask did you install each and every dependency without error?

EDIT: OOOPS! Hmmm I installed version 5.1.9! How or why did you get to 7.2.0? Was it from the link on Slackbuilds.org or from git? Perhaps installing the linked version and then upgradepkg to later will work?

Hi Luan

Thanks for the info.
I have 2 more questions:
1) what is nanosvg and where can I get it?
2) What do you mean by "and packed in 3rdparty folder of wxWidgets"?

Thanks again

Hello!

Basically I just put the contents of this folder https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidge...aster/3rdparty in the 3rdparty folder in .tar.gz of wxWidgets source code.

I used this new .tar.gz as source to build wxWidgets slackbuild.

Maybe the slackbuild of WxWidgets can be changed to have a new flag that enable or not the use of 3rdparty components, then it could automatically pull from git during build process.

Dunno... KiCAD 7 built/runs fine for me. (current)

Would you like my package?

Hi Again folks

thank you Luan!

I tried your suggestions as I understood them.
NO HAPINESS!

I started with a virgin wxWidgets-3.2.2.1 from slackbuilds.org

I then made a TEMP directory and copied wxWidgets-3.2.2.1.tar.gz into that TEMP directory and unpacked it.

I then removed the original wxWidgets-3.2.2.1.tar.gz

I then fetched nanosvg-ccdb1995134d340a93fb20e3a3d323ccb3838dd0.zip and put it into
TEMP/wxWidgets-3.2.2.1/3rdparty/nanosvg

I then repackaged wxWidgets-3.2.2.1 into a new version of wxWidgets-3.2.2.1.tar.gz and
put it into the the build directory of the package that I fetched form slackbuilds .org.

then I edited wxWidgets.SlackBuild to change "-DwxUSE_NANOSVG=off " to "-DwxUSE_NANOSVG=builtin "
in both the functions cmake -B build-gtk3 \ " and "cmake -B build-qt5 "

When I tried to build wxWidgets-3.2.2.1 I get the following error message:

/tmp/SBo/wxWidgets-3.2.2.1/src/generic/bmpsvg.cpp:30:10: error: #error You need to run "git submodule update --init 3rdparty/nanosvg".
30 | #error You need to run "git submodule update --init 3rdparty/nanosvg".
| ^~~~~
gmake[2]: *** [libs/core/CMakeFiles/wxcore.dir/build.make:3357: libs/core/CMakeFiles/wxcore.dir/__/__/__/__/src/generic/bmpsvg.cpp.o] Error 1
gmake[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:464: libs/core/CMakeFiles/wxcore.dir/all] Error 2
gmake: *** [Makefile:136: all] Error 2


SO:

I repeated the above after unziping nanosvg-ccdb1995134d340a93fb20e3a3d323ccb3838dd0.zip and then removing the zip file.

Still no good -- same error message

SO:

Fetched the master sources for wxWidgets-4.2.1.tar.gz (wxWidgets-master.zip) from
https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidget
Unpacked it
fetched wxWidgets.SlackBuild and edited it so that it would build version 4.2.1 AND made the above mentioned changes to the cmake functions

Still no good -- same error message

At this pont I hve a couple more questions:
1) why does KiCad-7 not use the wxWidgets built into wxPyhton 4 (Phoenix)?
2) Will KiCad-5.x.y or KiCad-6.x.y build and run on slackware64-15.0?

In any case, THANK YOU for your help !!!!

-- Ken --

Hello Ken,

I didn't get this error when build the wxWidgets.
Anyway I am sending the links to the wxWidgets source and the Slackbuild that I changed:
wxWidgets-3.2.2.1.tar.gz
wxWidgets.SlackBuild

I think the issue is in the Python Scripting module only. Maybe if uninstall system wxWidgets and only keep the one shipped with wxPython 4 can solve it, I think would be needed set the path of wxPython which kicad looks for.

And yes, is possible to build and run Kicad 5.x.y in slackware 15, the previous slackbuild version was 5.x.y

Hi Luan

I Fetched the 2 files that you posted the URLs to.
When I rebuilt wxWidgets-3.2.2.1 from Slackbuilds using the new files EVERYTHING WORKED perfectly!!!!!!

When I was in the process of removing/rebuilding/reinstalling the KiCad-7.02 dependencies
I noticed that the version of wxPython4 on Slackbuilds has been upgraded from 4.2.0 to 4.2.1

Which one would you recommend that I use?

Thanks again for all of your help

-- Ken --

Hi Ken,

I used the wxPython 4.2.1. But I think wouldn't be a problem to use 4.2.0.

Edit. After you rebuild and install wxPython without the builtin wxWidgets you don't need to rebuild Kicad.

Regards,
Luan

Hi Luan

When I tried AGAIN to fetch the 2 files that you suggested that I try (wxWidgets-3.2.2.1.tar.gz
and wxWidgets.SlackBuild) the URLs no longer point to the actual files.

Would it be OK with you if I created diffs of your working versions and the versions from slackbuilds and then posted the diffs to this thread?

Thanks again for your help!

-- Ken --

Hi Ken,

I tested the links and they are working here. Anyway I uploaded them in my website:

https://luan.eng.br/files/wxWidgets-3.2.2.1.tar.gz
https://luan.eng.br/files/wxWidgets.SlackBuild
https://luan.eng.br/files/wxPython4.SlackBuild

It is ok if you post the diffs. There is no problem.

Hi Luan
Sorry for the long delay in this reply.I was on the road for the last few weeks -- Family emergencies.
Your suggestions resulted in a Kicad-7.0.2 installation binary that INSTALLED AND RAN JUST FINE!!!
THANK YOU

My next problem is how to get the kicad-6 libs from slackbuilds to work properly.
So far I have gotten the symbol libs to work by doing the following:

start kicad
Add the following line in “Preferences“ ==> “Configure Paths”:
KICAD_SYMBOL_DIR /usr/share/kicad/library/
Then in “Preferences“ ==> “Manage Symbol Libraries” select all [right click ==> Select all]
then run ”Migrate Libraries” [should be in a box at lower right]
”Migrate Libraries” will convert the “legacy” symbol libraries to the kicad-7 format eg “kicad”
NOTE the following 2 attempded solutions DID NOT WORK:
ln -sf library symbols
cp -af library symbols

trying similar approaches for the footprints and 3dpackages did not work.
Do you have any idea how I can get footprints to work?

Thanks again for ALL of the magic incantations that you suggested!

-- Ken --