Plover 4.0.0.dev12 AppImage xcb error does not resolve on Debian OS derivative

[opensourcefiction]

Hi there,

I'm trying to get the latest release of Plover to work on PureOS 3.30.2, a Debian derivative. The last working version of Plover I used on this OS was plover-4.0.0.dev8.66.g685bd33-x86_64 (it is also no longer working. Both Georgi and TinyMod will output QUERTY but not steno).

When I attempt to run the AppImage, I get the error:

2022-09-11 11:23:40,485 [MainThread] ERROR: connection to existing instance failed, force cleaning before restart
2022-09-11 11:23:41,223 [MainThread] ERROR: Qt: This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Available platform plugins are: xcb.

fish: “./plover-4.0.0.dev12-x86_64.App…” terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)

I have very basic command line skills so I scrambled around making sure that QT5 was installed, then saw the instructions for the xcb error. As far as I (and my much-more-command-line-literate partner) can tell, the Debian equivalents of libxcb, xcb-util and qt5-qtstyleplugins are all installed, but are somehow not being recognized when the AppImage runs.

Finally we tried:

./plover.AppImage -s plover_plugins install -v 'PyQt5==5.14.2' 'PyQt5-sip==12.7.2'

...and got the following output:

Using pip 21.3.1 from /tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)
Collecting PyQt5==5.14.2
  Using cached PyQt5-5.14.2-5.14.2-cp35.cp36.cp37.cp38-abi3-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (63.6 MB)
Collecting PyQt5-sip==12.7.2
  Using cached PyQt5_sip-12.7.2.tar.gz (101 kB)
  Running command /tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/bin/python /tmp/pip-standalone-pip-y00cbd0y/__env_pip__.zip/pip install --ignore-installed --no-user --prefix /tmp/pip-build-env-ok7ntyjx/overlay --no-warn-script-location --no-binary :none: --only-binary :none: -i https://pypi.org/simple -- 'setuptools >=30.3' wheel
  Collecting setuptools>=30.3
    Using cached setuptools-65.3.0-py3-none-any.whl (1.2 MB)
  Collecting wheel
    Using cached wheel-0.37.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (35 kB)
  Installing collected packages: wheel, setuptools
  Successfully installed setuptools-65.3.0 wheel-0.37.1
  WARNING: You are using pip version 21.3.1; however, version 22.2.2 is available.
  You should consider upgrading via the '/tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Running command /tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/bin/python /tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pep517/in_process/_in_process.py get_requires_for_build_wheel /tmp/tmpsp8vsyqo
  running egg_info
  writing PyQt5_sip.egg-info/PKG-INFO
  writing dependency_links to PyQt5_sip.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
  writing top-level names to PyQt5_sip.egg-info/top_level.txt
  reading manifest file 'PyQt5_sip.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
  reading manifest template 'MANIFEST.in'
  writing manifest file 'PyQt5_sip.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Running command /tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/bin/python /tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pep517/in_process/_in_process.py prepare_metadata_for_build_wheel /tmp/tmp0cmji377
  running dist_info
  creating /tmp/pip-modern-metadata-df60c0o0/PyQt5_sip.egg-info
  writing /tmp/pip-modern-metadata-df60c0o0/PyQt5_sip.egg-info/PKG-INFO
  writing dependency_links to /tmp/pip-modern-metadata-df60c0o0/PyQt5_sip.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
  writing top-level names to /tmp/pip-modern-metadata-df60c0o0/PyQt5_sip.egg-info/top_level.txt
  writing manifest file '/tmp/pip-modern-metadata-df60c0o0/PyQt5_sip.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
  reading manifest file '/tmp/pip-modern-metadata-df60c0o0/PyQt5_sip.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
  reading manifest template 'MANIFEST.in'
  writing manifest file '/tmp/pip-modern-metadata-df60c0o0/PyQt5_sip.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
  creating '/tmp/pip-modern-metadata-df60c0o0/PyQt5_sip-12.7.2.dist-info'
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Building wheels for collected packages: PyQt5-sip
  Running command /tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/bin/python /tmp/.mount_ploveracdAIg/usr/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pep517/in_process/_in_process.py build_wheel /tmp/tmpfnza8e3c
  running bdist_wheel
  running build
  running build_ext
  building 'PyQt5.sip' extension
  creating build
  creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-cpython-39
  gcc -pthread -Wno-unused-result -Wsign-compare -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -fPIC -I/opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.9.13/x64/include/python3.9 -c apiversions.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-cpython-39/apiversions.o
  apiversions.c:20:10: fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory
   #include <Python.h>
            ^~~~~~~~~~
  compilation terminated.
  error: command '/usr/bin/gcc' failed with exit code 1
  Building wheel for PyQt5-sip (pyproject.toml) ... error
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for PyQt5-sip
Failed to build PyQt5-sip
ERROR: Could not build wheels for PyQt5-sip, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[benoit-pierre]

Please try running with env QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS=1 ./plover.AppImage -l debug.

[opensourcefiction]

When I do apt search libxcb-util1, I get nothing, but when I do apt search libxcb util I get a list that include some libxcb-util0 packages.

I'm going to run some system updates that showed up and restart, then look for libxcb-util1 again. If that doesn't work I'll try apt-file.

[opensourcefiction]

Okay, no luck with doing system updates and running sudo apt update. libxcb-util1 is still not available. I did an internet search for where I might find what libraries are available on PureOS to see if I need to tweak my software sources somehow, but other than a page on GUI software, I didn't find anything. Could you point me to where you see that both are available?

Running sudo apt-file update tells me all packages are up to date, and then the following:

N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'https://repo.pureos.net/pureos amber InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'https://repo.pureos.net/pureos amber-security InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'https://repo.pureos.net/pureos amber-updates InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'

When following up with apt-file search libxcb-util.so.1 . There's no output unfortunately, not even

Full Text Search... Done

like when using apt search.

[benoit-pierre]

I was looking at the pool of packages directly: https://repo.pureos.net/pureos/pool/main/x/xcb-util/

What the codename for PureOS 3.30.2? This is clearly not the latest version, or we're talking about 2 different "PureOs", as according to DistroWatch, version 3.0 was release in 2011!?

[opensourcefiction]

Okay. I also see libxcb-util1 available here, but only for 'Byzantium' and 'Landing.' I have 'Amber,' which is what PureOS installed on the computer when I bought it in 2019. It still gets almost daily updates, so it's certainly still supported.

It could be they're ready to migrate completely to Byzantium and that's why Amber doesn't support libxcb-util1. I haven't gotten any kind of alert that they're cutting support to Amber and to gird my loins for the transition, but it looks like they made it relatively simple. I'll give that a shot.

[opensourcefiction]

Welp, that turned out hairier than advertised. I'm going to have to put installing Plover on hold while I get my system working again. Hopefully once the OS is upgraded and I disable Wayland, Plover will work again. Thank you so much for your help and for walking me through as far as you did!

[lblum-steno]

Hello there,

Any update on this issue?
I just installed ubuntu 24.04 LTS and get the same kind of answer

Any idea what I could do?

(note: I am rather a newbie to Linux..)

Many thanks!

[lblum-steno]

Hey again,

While the AppImage did not work, I installed the package throught the synaptic manager and, after running it under sudo/root, it seems to work by accessing the serial port with the keyboard. So please ignore my previous message.

However...is it normal i have to run as root? ;)

[aerickt]

Generally, you should not be running applications as root (this includes Plover). To access the serial port, you should instead add yourself to the dialout group with this command:

sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

Restart your computer afterwards, and run Plover normally.

This is covered in the installation guide (under Allow Access to Serial Ports).