Kicad-nightly won't start (run) after fresh install on arch linux

sumarian · March 7, 2025, 5:50pm

Recently I installed Kicad-nightly from AUR, after that, when I click on the app icon from the menu it won’t start. the same issue occurs in kicad 9.0.0 .

The command that I used to install KiCad nightly: { $ yay -S kicad-nightly && yay -S --asdeps kicad-library-nightly kicad-library-3d-nighly }

the terminal output:- {

– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D7mm_W5.4mm_P5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D21.5mm_W5mm_P10mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D12mm_W6.2mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D12mm_W5mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D15.5mm_W4mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D21.5mm_W5.8mm_P10mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D21.5mm_W6.5mm_P10mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D15.5mm_W4.7mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D12mm_W4.7mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D15.5mm_W3.9mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D15.5mm_W5.9mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D7mm_W4.3mm_P5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D9mm_W5.4mm_P5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D15.5mm_W4.8mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D21.5mm_W8.4mm_P10mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D9mm_W3.7mm_P5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D9mm_W5.5mm_P5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D7mm_W5.5mm_P5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D12mm_W5.1mm_P7.5mm.step
– Installing: /home/Sam/.cache/yay/kicad-library-nightly/pkg/kicad-library-3d-nightly/usr/share/kicad-nightly/3dmodels/Varistor.3dshapes/RV_Disc_D21.5mm_W7.5mm_P10mm.step
==> Tidying install…
→ Removing libtool files…
→ Purging unwanted files…
→ Removing static library files…
→ Copying source files needed for debug symbols…
→ Compressing man and info pages…
==> Checking for packaging issues…
==> Creating package “kicad-library-3d-nightly”…
→ Generating .PKGINFO file…
→ Generating .BUILDINFO file…
→ Generating .MTREE file…
bsdtar: Failed to set default locale
→ Compressing package…
bsdtar: Failed to set default locale
==> Leaving fakeroot environment.
==> Finished making: kicad-library-nightly 9.99.0_376_g7558b49afd-1 (Fri Mar 7 19:15:02 2025)
==> Cleaning up…
==> Making package: kicad-library-nightly 9.99.0_376_g7558b49afd-1 (Fri Mar 7 19:15:05 2025)
==> Checking runtime dependencies…
==> Checking buildtime dependencies…
==> Retrieving sources…
→ Updating kicad-symbols git repo…
→ Updating kicad-footprints git repo…
→ Updating kicad-packages3D git repo…
==> Validating source files with sha256sums…
kicad-symbols … Skipped
kicad-footprints … Skipped
kicad-packages3D … Skipped
==> Removing existing $srcdir/ directory…
==> Extracting sources…
→ Creating working copy of kicad-symbols git repo…
Cloning into ‘kicad-symbols’…
done.
Switched to a new branch ‘makepkg’
→ Creating working copy of kicad-footprints git repo…
Cloning into ‘kicad-footprints’…
done.
Updating files: 100% (14292/14292), done.
Switched to a new branch ‘makepkg’
→ Creating working copy of kicad-packages3D git repo…
Cloning into ‘kicad-packages3D’…
done.
Updating files: 100% (13728/13728), done.
Switched to a new branch ‘makepkg’
==> Sources are ready.
→ kicad-library-nightly-9.99.0_376_g7558b49afd-1 already made – skipping build
==> Making package: kicad-library-nightly 9.99.0_376_g7558b49afd-1 (Fri Mar 7 19:15:38 2025)
==> Checking runtime dependencies…
==> Checking buildtime dependencies…
==> WARNING: Using existing $srcdir/ tree
==> Sources are ready.
[sudo] password for Sam:
loading packages…
resolving dependencies…
looking for conflicting packages…

Packages (2) kicad-library-3d-nightly-9.99.0_376_g7558b49afd-1 kicad-library-nightly-9.99.0_376_g7558b49afd-1

Total Installed Size: 5165.69 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(2/2) checking keys in keyring [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) checking package integrity [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) loading package files [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) checking for file conflicts [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) checking available disk space [########################################################################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes…
(1/2) installing kicad-library-3d-nightly [########################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) installing kicad-library-nightly [########################################################################################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks…
(1/1) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate…
[Sam@Lenovo-Sam ~]$ }

eelik · March 7, 2025, 6:56pm

Arch is meant for those who want to know their system deeply and already know how to use Linux. I don’t understand why you quote the messages from the installation of the component library packages, while you say your problem is in trying to run KiCad binaries, and even then from the “app icon menu”. Do you know what you are doing?

At least try to run KiCad from the command line.

sumarian · March 7, 2025, 9:49pm

OK, here is how I made my way to get around this.
1> I uninstalled Kicad-nightly completely from the system and all of it’s remaining .config files
2> I installed the newest version of kicad 9.0 from the official repository. (note) when I click on the app icon from the menu; it still won’t run, this issue firstly occured when I upgraded the system with “pacman -Syu” and it upgraded kicad 8.0 to kicad 9.0, that’s how I started dealing with this issue.
3> I suspected the issue to be related with dependencies and libraries, specifically with nng library (Nanomsg Next Generation), which Kicad uses for networking functionality. Kicad 9.0 requires specific symbols from this library, including nng_close, which are used for various networking operation. So I installed the newest version of nng (nng-1.10.1-1) and removed the old one as follows.
[ $ sudo pacman -S nng
resolving dependencies…
looking for conflicting packages…
:: nng-1.10.1-1 and nng-git-1.9.0.r557.gc366471-1 are in conflict. Remove nng-git? [y/N] y

Packages (2) nng-git-1.9.0.r557.gc366471-1 [removal] nng-1.10.1-1

Total Installed Size: 0.71 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 0.08 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(1/1) checking keys in keyring [######################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity [######################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files [######################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts [######################################################################################] 100%
(2/2) checking available disk space [######################################################################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes…
(1/1) removing nng-git [######################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) installing nng [######################################################################################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks…
(1/1) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate…

4> after, I checked if the nng_close symbol is available in this new version:
] $ nm -D /usr/lib/libnng.so | grep nng_close
00000000000141d0 T nng_close
000000000000e8e0 T nng_closeall
5> reinstalling kicad since it will now be linked against this newer version of nng :
] $ sudo pacman -Syy kicad
:: Synchronizing package databases…
core 115.6 KiB 68.4 KiB/s 00:02 [######################################################################################] 100%
extra 7.7 MiB 402 KiB/s 00:20 [######################################################################################] 100%
multilib 131.1 KiB 257 KiB/s 00:01 [######################################################################################] 100%
warpdotdev 664.0 B 972 B/s 00:01 [######################################################################################] 100%
kicad-nightly 665.0 B 519 B/s 00:01 [######################################################################################] 100%
DEB_Arch_Extra 10.1 KiB 22.7 KiB/s 00:00 [######################################################################################] 100%
warning: kicad-9.0.0-2 is up to date – reinstalling
resolving dependencies…
looking for conflicting packages…

Packages (1) kicad-9.0.0-2

Total Installed Size: 185.59 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(1/1) checking keys in keyring [######################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity [######################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files [######################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts [######################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space [######################################################################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes…
(1/1) reinstalling kicad [######################################################################################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks…
(1/4) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate…
(2/4) Updating the MIME type database…
(3/4) Updating icon theme caches…
(4/4) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache…

6> launch kicad:
] $ kicad

// and it worked for me //

the reasons I believe why this issue ocures is:
1> Package dependencies not being properly specified in arch package
2> Version mismatches between repositories
3> The upgrade process being interrupted or only partially completed
4> The dependancies package from the official Arcjh repository or the AUR being installed that conflicted with the required app version.

by the way I could not solve the problem with kicad-nightly, I just UNinstalled kicad-nightly and installed kicad 9.0 instead from the official Arch repository.

Please correct me if I’m wrong with anything.

Last edited by sumar (Today 00:42:47)

sumarian · March 7, 2025, 9:59pm

I have tried typing kicad-nightly on terminal and this is the output:
] $ kicad-nightly
/usr/lib/kicad-nightly/bin/kicad: error while loading shared libraries: libgit2.so.1.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

thebigg · March 7, 2025, 10:41pm

The reason for that error is that the current version of libgit2 on arch is 1.9 since Dec 30, 2024. I haven’t looked at the PKGBUILD for kicad-nightly but you just need to rebuild it. Perhaps you are using a AUR helper that missed a step?

eelik · March 8, 2025, 7:12am

Now it looks like you know what you are doing, your first post just didn’t give good information about the problem and starting point.

retiredfeline · March 8, 2025, 8:14am

In many Linux distros there usually are two parts to a shared library:

The files need by other software to compile against the library. These generally consist of header files and other source files.
The runtime object file needed to dynamically link against the executable.

Frequently when building software the former package is missing and has to be installed by for example, install libjpeg6-dev. The runtime package is already there because other software uses it.

Your case is the less common reverse, you have the header files because your build pulled them in, but you don’t have the runtime dynamically loaded library installed.