Issues running OpenPlotter on Debian 12 Bookworm

[nsinbc]

Hi all,

I recently installed openplotter-settings 3.6.6 (the latest version at the time of writing) on an amd64 machine (NOTE: NOT an rpi) that is running Q4OS, a lightweight Debian-based distribution.

When I installed openplotter-settings on the previous version of Q4OS, which was based on Debian 11, I had no issues at all. But today I upgraded to the newest version, which is based on Debian 12.

I followed the manual's instructions for Desktop and Laptop precisely, but when I run openplotter-settings for the first time, I get this nasty error and the program fails to start:

Code:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/openplotter-settings", line 11, in <module>
    load_entry_point('openplotterSettings==3.6.6', 'console_scripts', 'openplotter-settings')()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/openplotterSettings/openplotterSettings.py", line 1146, in main
    MyFrame().Show()
    ^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/openplotterSettings/openplotterSettings.py", line 37, in __init__
    self.language = Language(self.currentdir,'openplotter-settings',currentLanguage)
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/openplotterSettings/language.py", line 24, in __init__
    gettext.install(module, locale_folder, False)
TypeError: install() takes from 1 to 2 positional arguments but 3 were given

I get the sense that this has something to do with the version of python Debian 12 uses. It uses Python 3.11 whereas Debian 11 (where I successfully got OpenPlotter working in the past) uses Python 3.9.

I tried using pyenv to install python 3.9 on a per-user basis for my current user, but no dice, I still get the same error.

As a desperate hack to get openplotter-settings to start at all, I edited language.py (the last file mentioned in the stack trace) as follows:

gettext.install(module, locale_folder, False)   ----->
gettext.install(module, locale_folder)

This is because it was complaining about too many arguments (I'm betting the behaviour of gettext has changed in Python 3.11?).

This inelegant hack allows the program to open, but it's very buggy. For example, when I try to install SDR VHF, I get this error:

Code:

Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
openplotter-sdr-vhf is already the newest version (3.0.9-stable).
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  isc-dhcp-common
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
    python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
    install.
   
    If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
    create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
    Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
    sure you have python3-full installed.
   
    If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
    it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
    virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.
   
    See /usr/share/doc/python3.11/README.venv for more information.

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.

And SDR VHF fails to start (when I press 'Open', nothing happens).

So it seems that the original python error that prevents openplotter-settings from loading is not the only python-related issue that I'm experiencing on Debian 12, since fixing that issue with a kludge allows me to open the program, but when I try to do anything else, I get yet more python-related errors.

Does anyone else have openplotter-settings running successfully on Debain 12 x86-64? What might I be doing wrong here?

And apologies if any of my assumptions or diagnoses are incorrect. I have a bit of Linux knowledge but not a ton, which is a bit dangerous

Thanks!

D

[wimsl]

hej, have you got any replies? got same error

[DroZDi]

Hi
Yes it works on orangepi 5 / orange pi5 + as described couple of topics below.
But
First of all you always have to provide some details about your installation like:
- hardware info
- full debian OS info
- kernel version
- pyton version
- failing openplotter modul version.
This is just to be the same and eventually ppl to work on the same.

From my end just 2 hints:
1. try to install openplotter-settings manually as an example:
sudo dpkg -i openplotter-settings_4.0.10-beta_all.deb
2. or before installation:
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/python3.11/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED
sudo apt install python3-wxgtk4.0 python3-ujson python3-pyudev vlc matchbox-keyboard dh-python python3-all -y
sudo apt-get install debhelper dh-virtualenv -y

[wimsl]

working now, thank you!