# Gramps not loading after initial installation **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [December 27, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579 "2023-12-27T20:47:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![prooney22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@prooney22](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/prooney22)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/1 "2023-12-27T20:47:09Z")
Am using Ubuntu 22.04.3 on a Lenovo T430 laptop. 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! ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 8:53pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/2 "2023-12-27T20:53:55Z")
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. How much RAM do you have in that T430? ---
**Author:** ![prooney22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@prooney22](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/prooney22)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 8:59pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/3 "2023-12-27T20:59:27Z")
## gramps -v yields: 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 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 ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 9:05pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/4 "2023-12-27T21:05:31Z")
H’m, this is weird. Gramps can’t work without GTK, but I would expect that synaptic would recognize that it’s needed. Can you remove gramps, and install it with the standard software manager, the one that comes with the Gnome desktop? ---
**Author:** ![prooney22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@prooney22](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/prooney22)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 9:10pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/5 "2023-12-27T21:10:48Z")
~ $ grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo MemTotal: 7797432 kB would that be 7.97 GB? ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 9:13pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/6 "2023-12-27T21:13:48Z")
Yes, and Gramps runs fine on my laptop, which also has an i5, and 8 GB. ---
**Author:** ![prooney22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@prooney22](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/prooney22)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 9:32pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/7 "2023-12-27T21:32:35Z")
Issued: sudo apt-get remove -y gramps # messages from removing looked fine Issued: sudo apt-get install gramps that yielded messages that looked OK: ```python 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: ```python 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? ---
**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 9:46pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/8 "2023-12-27T21:46:34Z")
Have you looked at the wiki’s [Ubuntu (Debian-based) section in the download page](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Download#Debian-based)? It offers a slightly newer version (5.1.6) as a .deb download and gives the [command line](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Gramps_5.2_Wiki_Manual_-_Command_Line) to install. There are also mentions of what to do when some dependencies do not install auto-magically. ---
**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 9:49pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/9 "2023-12-27T21:49:26Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 10:10pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/10 "2023-12-27T22:10:21Z")
> [@prooney22](#): > > Should all those objects (gtk++, ) that are “Not Found” be populated with values? Yes. Here’s what I get, in Linux Mint 21.2: ```python 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: > **[Ubuntu – Details of package gramps in jammy](https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/gramps)** > > Genealogical research program 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. ---
**Author:** ![prooney22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@prooney22](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/prooney22)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/11 "2023-12-27T22:56:44Z")
The Software Center (Ubuntu Software) shows that gramps is installed. Invoking gramps results in: ```python ~ $ 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 ```python E: Unable to locate package PyICU ``` same thing happens when I try to install ‘gi’ or ‘gnome-introspection’ ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 11:46pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/12 "2023-12-27T23:46:20Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![ennoborg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/ennoborg/32/4659_2.png) [@ennoborg](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/ennoborg)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/13 "2023-12-28T11:39:20Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![codefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@codefarmer](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/codefarmer)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 4:49pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/14 "2023-12-28T16:49:17Z")
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? Have you see [notes on the Gramps install wiki](https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Download#Debian-based)? They may be helpful. ---
**Author:** ![prooney22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@prooney22](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/prooney22)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/15 "2023-12-31T22:02:44Z")
I upgraded manually to 22.04, with lots of errors in the process! ---
**Author:** ![prooney22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@prooney22](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/prooney22)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/16 "2023-12-31T22:07:50Z")
echo $XDGCURRENTDESKTOP yields Unity So it’s the Unity desktop, not KDE 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. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/1X/2ac1e712b7adf612e31ca08a55419f4cf37c0158.png) [@system](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 10:07pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/gramps-not-loading-after-initial-installation/4579/17 "2024-01-30T22:07:59Z")
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