I notice the KSYS3DMOD is no longer defined in the path. Does KICAD6_3DMODEL_DIR replaces it? But again this one points to a folder that does not exists.
Making some progress. I installed v6 on another machine that is virgin from any kicad install. Using same OS xubuntu. All fine this time I can see all libraries in here. Including symbols and 3d models.
The problem seems to be on the machine that had v5 before.
How can I remove anything from v5 and not have it interfering with the v6 installation?
How do I completely wipe out V5 to have V6 running normally on ubuntu?
Same OS with no prior existence of kicad had installed v6 fine and did not present the problem above. Do I really have to re-install my OS to be able to run v6?
âKIKAD_SYMBOL_DIRâ is called an âenvironment variableâ on windows, it can be removed by opening properties of âthis pcâ very easy. How do jou edit that on linux?
You should delete that (a leftover from kicad v5) and install full (not lite), 1.5Gb size kicad installer which will cleanly install new libraries. Google on how to edit (remove) environment variable on linux.
It was a problem with v4 Windows installer that it installed the environment variables to the Windows user environment. The same hasnât happened on Linux, so that should have nothing to do with this. The messages tell that the problem is an old library table, I donât know how if the old configuration was deleted. Unless thereâs a project local library table in an old project which points to global libraries.@bitswap, please check if thatâs the case.
Some left over indeed. Rebooted the machine. Then did it again.
env | grep -i kicad
Nothing back this time. (had some hope here).
Installed v6
sudo apt install --install-recommends kicad
Create a fresh new project. Same problem.
On the machine where I installed kicad from a virgin setup the content of the /usr/share/kicad folder is different.
On the previously v5 installed machine:
ls /usr/share/kicad/
demos library modules plugins resources schemas scripting template
Thatâs correct. The behaviour of the package system is that dependencies are pulled in on install, but are not removed when depending packages are removed. To do that you need the autoremove command of apt. Actually IIRC the library packages are recommended, not dependencies so definitely not affected by removal of the main package.
It sounds like you need to delete the sym-lib-table and fp-lib-table files from your accountâs config directory again and rerun kicad. It was probably created wrong when the older library packages were still in place.
Edit: just as a double check that you have the correct versions of the packages, do
sudo dpkg -l âkicad*â | grep â^iiâ
This will list all installed packages matching kicad*.
Because thereâs no project specific table, this is the probable explanation. The official KiCad libraries ship with their own prebuilt library tables which KiCad tries to find from some default expected location and copy to the user config when KiCad (sch. editor and pcb editor) is run for the first time and the table files arenât yet found in the user config. KiCad doesnât check what version those default libraries and their table files are. If they are from v5, they use the old ${KICAD_SYMBOL_DIR} etc. variables. KiCad doesnât check if they are defined in KiCadâs paths and if they point to the same place than where the tables were copied from.
The ubuntu packages donât version the installation directories (unlike on Windows where the official installer installs to kicad\<version_number>\. Therefore itâs possible that a new version of KiCad finds old versions of libraries if the libraries werenât updated at the same time.
You run into problems because your âworkflowâ seems to have been this:
You had v5 and libraries installed, and user config for that.
You updated KiCad but not libraries.
You removed old config but still didnât update libraries.
The old library tables were copied to the new config.
You updated the libraries, too, but didnât start with fresh config.
Your first problem, the 3D models, was answered in my first post. Further problems are probably due to installing back and forth without never doing all the needed steps at the same time (installing all new packages at once and deleting old config).
I confirm this entire thread focuses on only one same issue. It is presented showing different aspect of the problem but the underling problem is always the same. The uninstallation of v5 is not complete.
One might punctually solve some library problems but thatâs only solving part of the problem and I donât think this is the right approach.
Others on this forum have also complained about unclean uninstall. Someone seems to have solved it using some tools on windows to detect left over files. Not sure if we have the same sort of thing on ubuntu but I have spent too much time on this now. (plus I managed to get a âyou must have broke it yourselfâ type of answer in the end.)
It is then apparent that uninstall is not a top priority. Fine by me. I hoped I knew this earlier though.
Iâll stick with v5 until I re-install a new ubuntu OS on which Iâll then do the v6 switch.
Clearly that was me, but it doesnât mean I blame you for the unclearness of the library system and possible difficulties with Ubuntu package system or KiCad packages. I tried to find out why this did happen, and what I said is (not necessarily exactly but as an idea) the most probable explanation. Itâs pretty common with modern technology that if something needs two changes to make it work, you are destined to try one at a time, and it doesnât work; or it needs one and you try two. It happens every one of us. I also tried to explain what needs to be done:
Clear the user configuration (or only the library tables).
Update all KiCad related packages.
Start KiCad and choose to start with new configuration; choose the default option for the library tables when KiCad asks.
Doing step 2 only partially and trying things in an order which caused using the old library tables was probably the reason why the update process didnât work for you.
Personally I think KiCad could do more to help the user with library setups. And itâs my honest opinion that the library setup â when the default doesnât work for one reason or another â is the most difficult part of KiCad to understand.
