I installed gramps using the Synaptic Package Manager.
Gramps appeared to install, but when invoking it from the Application icon in Gnome, I see a “spinner” that spins for about 30 seconds, then stops. The program does not appear to start.
Another problem I’m having on my laptop: the Terminal icon does not produce a terminal when clicked on, yet I can get a terminal window within the VS Code editor.
Any ideas on diagnosing? Do I need to uninstall Gramps before trying a re-install?
Thanks in advance for any help. Gramps looks like a great application and am eager to try it!
Can you start a terminal, and type ‘gramps’, without quotes, followed by Enter? It should say something.
‘gramps -v’ might also give a clue.
I’m running Gramps on Mint 21.2, which is based on Ubuntu 22.04.
Can you see anything in the system logs? I have no idea how you can access those in Ubuntu, but I bet that you will be able to find them by using the Windows key and type log, or system.
python : 3.9.18
gramps : 5.1.5
gtk++ : not found
pygobject : not found
pango : not found
cairo : not found
pycairo : not found
osmgpsmap : not found
GExiv2 : not found
ICU : not found
PyICU : not found
o.s. : linux
kernel : 5.15.0-91-generic
Environment settings:
LANG : en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE : en
GRAMPSI18N: not set
GRAMPSHOME: not set
GRAMPSDIR : not set
PYTHONPATH:
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gramps
/usr/bin
/usr/lib/python39.zip
/usr/lib/python3.9
/usr/lib/python3.9/lib-dynload
/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
bsddb :
version : not found
db version : not found
location : not found
sqlite3 :
version : 3.37.2
py version : 2.6.0
location : /usr/lib/python3.9/sqlite3/init.py
Invoking the command
gramps -v also yielded the message:
.gramps.gen.utils.grampslocale.WARNING: ICU not loaded because No module named ‘PyICU’. Localization will be impaired. Use your package manager to install PyICU
Issued:
sudo apt-get install gramps
that yielded messages that looked OK:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-5.15.0-84 linux-headers-5.15.0-84-generic linux-image-5.15.0-84-generic
linux-modules-5.15.0-84-generic linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-84-generic
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
Suggested packages:
gir1.2-goocanvas-2.0 gir1.2-gtkspell3-3.0 rcs python3-numpy
The following NEW packages will be installed:
gramps
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/7,108 kB of archives.
After this operation, 45.2 MB of additional disk space will be used.
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (Dialog frontend requires a screen at least 13 lines tall and 31 columns wide.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Selecting previously unselected package gramps.
(Reading database ... 393774 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../gramps_5.1.5-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking gramps (5.1.5-1) ...
Setting up gramps (5.1.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.26-1ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.10.2-1) ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (2.1-2) ...
Processing triggers for mailcap (3.70+nmu1ubuntu1) ...
But got same behavior: clicking on gramps resulted in the “spinner” spinning for about 30 seconds, then it stopped, program does not appear to load
gramps-v yielded:
Gramps Settings:
----------------
python : 3.9.18
gramps : 5.1.5
gtk++ : not found
pygobject : not found
pango : not found
cairo : not found
pycairo : not found
osmgpsmap : not found
GExiv2 : not found
ICU : not found
PyICU : not found
o.s. : linux
kernel : 5.15.0-91-generic
Environment settings:
---------------------
LANG : en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE : en
GRAMPSI18N: not set
GRAMPSHOME: not set
GRAMPSDIR : not set
PYTHONPATH:
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gramps
/usr/bin
/usr/lib/python39.zip
/usr/lib/python3.9
/usr/lib/python3.9/lib-dynload
/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
Non-python dependencies:
------------------------
Graphviz : 2.43
Ghostscr. : 9.55.0
System PATH env variable:
-------------------------
/home/patrick/.pyenv/plugins/pyenv-virtualenv/shims
/home/patrick/.pyenv/shims
/home/patrick/.pyenv/bin
/home/patrick/.local/bin
/home/patrick/.pyenv/plugins/pyenv-virtualenv/shims
/home/patrick/.pyenv/shims
/home/patrick/.pyenv/bin
/home/patrick/.local/bin
/home/patrick/.pyenv/bin
/usr/local/sbin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/sbin
/usr/bin
/sbin
/bin
/usr/games
/usr/local/games
/snap/bin
/snap/bin
Databases:
-------------------------
bsddb :
version : not found
db version : not found
location : not found
sqlite3 :
version : 3.37.2
py version : 2.6.0
location : /usr/lib/python3.9/sqlite3/__init__.py
Should all those objects (gtk++, ) that are “Not Found” be populated with values?
Note that after a successful install, the 1st launch has some time (without feedback) where it build cached compiles of all the modules. It usually less than a minute. But that seems interminable on the 1st use.
python : 3.10.12
gramps : 5.1.7
gtk++ : 3.24.33
pygobject : 3.42.1
pango : 1.50.6
cairo : 1.16.0
pycairo : 1.20.1
osmgpsmap : 1.0
GExiv2 : 0.10
ICU : not found
PyICU : not found
o.s. : linux
kernel : 5.15.0-91-generic
Gramps can run without osmgpsmap, GExiv2, ICU, and PyICU.
When I wrote about the normal software manager, I meant what’s called the Software Centre in Ubuntu, the graphical thing designed for ‘normal’ users, not synaptic or apt. And last time I used its brother on Mint, it did install more than just Gramps.
And in fact, when I look further, this page lists GTK and a handful of other packages, including BSDDB and cairo as dependencies:
And when I start synaptic here, search for gramps, select it in the results, right click and click properties, I can see these packages listed in the dependencies tab.
The Software Center (Ubuntu Software) shows that gramps is installed.
Invoking gramps results in:
~ $ gramps
.gramps.gen.utils.grampslocale.WARNING: ICU not loaded because No module named 'PyICU'. Localization will be impaired. Use your package manager to install PyICU
Your version of gi (gnome-introspection) seems to be too old. You need a version which has the function 'require_version' to start Gramps
sudo apt-get install PyICU
yields
E: Unable to locate package PyICU
same thing happens when I try to install ‘gi’ or ‘gnome-introspection’
Package names are often not exactly what you see, but you can find them with synaptic, and they often start with gi. They are also listen on the ubuntu page that I mentioned.
A couple of things look quite weird, like you having an older Python version, even though we run the same version of Ubuntu, although mine is wrapped in Mint. The absence of GTK, and the error message about the gi version also suggests that your Ubuntu is not the same as mine, even though it has the same kernel.
May I ask how you got this Ubuntu 22.04? Did you upgrade from an older version? Mine is quite fresh, because I installed it to replace a Debian based Mint.
This whole gi thing, and the missing gtk, keeps suprising me, especially because you also mention gnome, so I assume that you run a standard ubuntu, and not one with KDE.
Can you create another ubuntu install on another partition for testing? It does not need to be big, just big enough for the OS and some data. 50 GB is enough, and you can always remove it later.
Curious if you’ve installed Ubuntu Desktop or any other version/flavor? Maybe a silly question, but are you able to install and run other graphical applications?
I like your idea of creating another ubuntu partitioning for testing, given that so many packages required for Gramps seems to be missing and my attempts to install PyICU and the other packages are all failing.