Kicad instalation is via Ubuntu package manager (snap).
After installation of kikit, by using pip3 install kikit (in a normal bash shell… the docu is a bit unclear here if this is supposed to happen in a Kicad command window or a normal system shell), kikit help gives me a ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pcbnew' error.
And indeed, there is no pcbnew.py file anywhere on my filesystem, as a quick check with find shows. Am I lacking some packages? Where does pcbnew.py come from, anyway?
Also, in Kicad, when installing the kikit via Kicad PCM, kicad does not find the backend.
~/.local/bin/ is in my PATH, so Kicad should be able to see kikit (it’s a bit unclear to me how the kikit plugin searches for that backend. Does it look for a binary? Where? At a specific location? In the PATH env variable?
(Side note: Would be very helpful to add some background info here to the kikit docu, maybe as a separate subpage. It seems to work nicely when it does work, but when it doesn’t, it’s hard to get detailed info on how things are actually meant to work)
Why are you installing a snap when native packages are available for Ubuntu?
Snaps and flatpaks are problematic because they run the app in a sandbox and some extensions encounter issues. They are for people who have no choice because they are running an old distro or want to have two versions available on Linux.
I’m a Windows user so can’t help much other than to suggest a link that may help . . . otherwise try the author of KiKit
It was unclear to me that there is a difference (wrt KiKit) on snaps vs. native ubuntu packages (by the latter, do you mean Kicad provided ubuntu packages, or Kicad apt packages that are hosted by the Ubuntu servers?)
The kikit docu does not mention snaps, only flatpaks. So I was assuming snaps are not a problem.
OK works. For others who run into this:
don’t use the ubuntu snaps or apt packages, follow the instructions at https://www.kicad.org/download/details/ubuntu/. Then everything works as described in the kikit docu.