Where are my plugins gone?

External Plugins
1

Hi all,

I’m running KiCAD V 9.0.6 released on an OpenSuse Linux system. All my plugins are gone. I’m sure that all plugins were there in V 9.0.4. Since that version I did not look at the plugin symbols because I did not need to use them.

Since yesterday I realized that KiCAD was updated to version 9.0.6. If I look at the “Plugin and Content Manager” all plugins are there and the installed ones are marked as “installed”.

To try a quick solution for that problem, I unsinstalled e.g. the “Active ibom” and reinstalled it. No effect. It’s still missing.

If I look into the preferences and there in “PCB Editor/Plugins” the window is empty.

What is my mistake? Is there a a function in preferences or somewhere else to activate?

Regards

Norbert

My KiCAD Version info:

Application: KiCad x86_64 on x86_64

Version: 9.0.6, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.8
FreeType 2.14.1
HarfBuzz 11.4.5
FontConfig 2.17.1
libcurl/8.15.0 OpenSSL/3.5.4 zlib/1.3.1 zstd/1.5.7 libidn2/2.3.8 libpsl/0.21.5 nghttp2/1.66.0

Platform: Freedesktop SDK 25.08 (Flatpak runtime), 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, X11, KDE, x11
OpenGL: Intel, Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2), 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.2.6 (git-3f12436d80)

Build Info:
Date: Nov 11 2011 11:11:11
wxWidgets: 3.2.8 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
Boost: 1.89.0
OCC: 7.9.2
Curl: 8.15.0
ngspice: 45.2
Compiler: GCC 15.2.0 with C++ ABI 1020
KICAD_IPC_API=ON

Locale:
Lang: en_GB
Enc: UTF-8
Num: 1,234.5
Encoded кΩ丈: D0BACEA9E4B888 (sys), D0BACEA9E4B888 (utf8)

2

Have you checked the following two places?

  1. Preferences dialog → Action plugins
  2. PCM(Plugin content manager)

“Open Package Directory” The folder name that can be opened with this operation and The exact location where your plugins are stored may vary.

In the case of Windows,
it may point to 9.0\3rdparty, but
the actual location may be 9.0\3rdparty\plugins.

In a Windows environment, the solution I found was to reduce the toolbar icon size in “Common preferences” and then change it back to a different size, which would sometimes restore the icon. :slight_smile: (Small → OK,Normal→ OK)←- rebuild icon’s

image
image966×568 46.4 KB

Can you post 3 screenshot?

3

Hi tama,

here I have screenshots from different screens.

File-Browser-Open preferences Directory_20251118_115250
File-Browser-Open preferences Directory_20251118_1152501525×1184 246 KB

Preferences Plugin after refresh_20251118_115617
Preferences Plugin after refresh_20251118_1156171134×831 52.1 KB

Plugin-Content-Manager installed_20251118_115103
Plugin-Content-Manager installed_20251118_1151031207×1048 184 KB

4

@tama: I also tried to install another plugin. Same result. It doesn’t show anything at the toolbar.

Regards

Norbert

5

Flatpack installations currently have problems with plugins

6

@Mineotopia : Thank you for that info. Hopefully they have realized that and find a solution.

Regards

Norbert

7

You realise that native packages for 9.0.6 are available for openSUSE? See here:

However if you are running Leap 15.6 or older you may have to install a lot of dependencies. Personally I’m waiting until I have upgraded my workhorse to Leap 16.0 during the holiday lull before upgrading to KiCad 9.0.

I dislike container installs because of the issues they have around the edges.