Hello All,
I am new here. My student tried to install KiCAD 5.1.5 on his MAC running Catalina. He copied both the folders into the appropriate Application and Application Support folders. But when he clicked on KiCAD, it came up with a “Cannot open KiCAD application error”. Can anybody shed some light on this please?
Thank you.
Regards,
Sri
What do you mean with copied? Software is never installed by copying stuff around. It is done by running the installer (windows and possibly Mac) or by use of the package manager (Linux).
The operating system will not let you use the program and dependencies are not installed if you go any other route.
Hi Rene_Poschl,
Yes, it was installed using the installer for Mac, where you are supposed to copy the KiCAD folders into the relevant Application folders on Mac. So, it was done correctly. But still the application will not open.
Thank you.
Sri
You may have to force Kicad to run as administrator to avoid the “account protection”. Try to run it manually using Finder as described here:
I have not yet moved to Catalina but usually on macOS you ctrl click on the application to bring up the contextual menu and select open and then continue to hold down the control key as the app launches. You then get a warning about security but have the choice to open the app. Doesn’t seem to work so reliably if you double click the app icon whilst holding control.
Could you detail which folders you mean here. I am still not convinced that this should be at all necessary. Especially as the installation instruction does not mention anything like that https://kicad.org/download/osx/.
@fred4u and @John_Pateman Thank you for your responses. I have requested my student to try this out and let me know. I hope that will resolve it, as it will affect their assessments in this time of crisis otherwise.
Rene_Poschl - followed these steps. [https://kicad.txplore.com/index-p=56.html] - not the downloading part.
Thanks again for all your help.
Kind regards,
Sri
On the mac, what you download is a disk image with the app “pre-installed”. Normal “installation” involves copying the whole App folder stored on this mounted disk to a specific place in the filesystem where the apps do reside (this is “copy to Applications” task). This also can triggers some in-app scripts that do complete installation stuff.
Is this the normal way to install any app or just a hack for KiCad?
@Rene_Poschl - Many software can be installed in this fashion on Mac. Some software will come with an installer that might be similar to the one for windows, but not all.
Best,
Sri
I’d even say that this way of installing applies to most software not distributed via Mac app store. Firefox might be a prominent example.
@nanosri Just checked (don’t use Mac for Kicad normally), installs and starts fine on Catalina when use the method from my 1st post here.
Thank you @fred4u. I have suggested this to my student. He has not come back to me yet. If he does get it to work, then I’ll update here.
Thanks.
@fred4u My student came back to me and said that it still did not work.
So, any other possibilities?
Thank you.
Ask him for screenshot, to see what’s really happening there.
File systems permissions are probably screwed. Need to use chmod in terminal to fix it
sudo chmod +x <path_to_kicad_app>
Oh OK. Could you please let me know how you can copy the path to KiCAD app?
Will send it later on, now I’m away from the Mac.
