`_curses.error: must call initscr() first`

[blackroom-0]

Using HackRF One with firmware 2021.03.1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/root/gr-adsb/examples/adsb_rx.py", line 255, in
main()
File "/root/gr-adsb/examples/adsb_rx.py", line 233, in main
tb = top_block_cls()
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/root/gr-adsb/examples/adsb_rx.py", line 172, in init
self.adsb_decoder_0 = adsb.decoder("Extended Squitter Only", "None", "Brief")
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/dist-packages/adsb/decoder.py", line 292, in init
self.screen = curses.initscr()
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.11/curses/init.py", line 29, in initscr
setupterm(term=_os.environ.get("TERM", "unknown"),
_curses.error: setupterm: could not find terminal
Exception ignored in atexit callback:
_curses.error: must call initscr() first

Done (return code 1)

[mhostetter]

What branch are you building? What version of GNU Radio? What is your OS?

It seems your OS is headless / doesn't have a terminal? Is that correct?

[bmurray]

This appears to be when GnuRadio is run from a shortcut instead of from a terminal. Running GRC from the terminal seems to solve this. But that begs the question, why is it a hard dependency to need curses if people may want to run it headless? Is there a way to run it without curses?

[peternmuller]

Fixed it by installing libncurses-dev.

[Yoyoma22]

There are instances where we want to run headless and do not want any terminal output. The decoder generates PDUs which can be handled by a service.

So there is a use-case to ignore curses completely, I suggest adding a configuration variable to say "Headless" or a new output type called "None" which does not call curses at all. This would allow headless operation if desired.