Mint KDE 'Get new widgets' has Plasmoid that fails to load

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RonC

Mint KDE 'Get new widgets' has Plasmoid that fails to load

Post by RonC »

I find this topice has not been discussed on the KDE subforum:
  • No posts were found because the word webget is not contained in any post.
So, here goes, a 'KDE question' ...

I am running KDE 4.13 in Linux Mint Qiana (17.0) and have found a Plasmoid in its 'Get new widgets' section that not only fails to run, but also crashes the Desktop. If possible, I'd very much like to get a solution to this, so I could use the Plasmoid.

Because I've been running Linux Mint Qiana (version 17.0) for several months, I thought I may have deleted a dependency that it needs, so I thought it best to go back to the 'stock' OS by loading the original, live DVD -- the same one used for the installation.

This Plasmoid fails to run under the live DVD, as well.


Running the Plasmoid (so it shows a green check-mark) produces an icon on the System Tray area: a red box with a white 'X' in it.

What I've done to trouble-shoot the problem:
Double-clicking the Plasmoid's System Tray icon crashes the desktop, and displays the Crash Reporting Assistant, 'Fetching the Backtrace (Automatic Crash Information).

But, the Assistant says, 'The generated crash information is not useful' and when Show backtrace content is checked, it says:
Application: Plasma Desktop Shall (plasma-desktop) , signal: Segmentation fault
There is a button to 'Install Debug Symbols' -- but I had already done that on the previous crash. So, pressing 'Reload' has no effect on the Backtrace box. I looked under 'How to create a useful crash report' but only found that Linux Mint should come with everything needed to do this. Still, it seems not to be happening.

The link to 'install the needed packages (list of files)' shows only one file: /usr/bin/plasma-desktop -- but Dolphin shows that file not to be missing -- it's present. So this is confusing to me.

The 'Next' button produces an Information box:
This crash information is not useful enough, do you want to try to improve it? You will need to install some debugging packages.
When I say 'Yes' it takes me back to the previous screen (Crash Reporting Assistant) where, as mentioned above, it offers the option to Install the Debugging Symbols -- but this was already done on the previous crash, and it's not making any difference in the crash information -- it continues to show this, as 'not useful'.

And, trying to recover the debugging information with gdb produces this:

Code: Select all

gdb 124768-webget.plasmoid
GNU gdb (Ubuntu 7.7.1-0ubuntu5~14.04.2) 7.7.1
... <snip> ...
"/home/ron/Downloads/124768-webget.plasmoid": not in executable format: File format not recognized
It also fails if the plasmoid extension is omitted from the file name. I've never before used gdb, so if this will give the reason for the crash, any advice will be welcome.

:?: Can anyone duplicate this failure? Any suggestions?
Does this Plasmoid need some special Ruby package, that may have been left-out, of Linux Mint Qiana?
Please let me know if more information is needed!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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xenopeek
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Re: Mint KDE 'Get new widgets' has Plasmoid that fails to lo

Post by xenopeek »

RonC wrote:Does this Plasmoid need some special Ruby package, that may have been left-out, of Linux Mint Qiana?
"has been left-out", or which you didn't install? It seems to be a poorly supported widget; no installation instructions.

Trying to run the scripts in ~/.kde/share/apps/plasma/plasmoids/webget/contents/code (found with "find ~ -iname webget") gives a list of errors of missing Ruby libraries.

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> cd  ~/.kde/share/apps/plasma/plasmoids/webget/contents/code
> for f in *.rb; do echo ">>> ruby $f"; ruby "$f"; done
>>> ruby config_dialog.rb
/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require': cannot load such file -- Qt4 (LoadError)
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
        from config_dialog.rb:1:in `<main>'
>>> ruby config_dialog_ui.rb
/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require': cannot load such file -- Qt (LoadError)
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
        from config_dialog_ui.rb:10:in `<main>'
>>> ruby config.rb
config.rb:2: Use RbConfig instead of obsolete and deprecated Config.
config.rb:2:in `<main>': Config is not a class (TypeError)
>>> ruby main.rb
/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require': cannot load such file -- plasma_applet (LoadError)
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
        from main.rb:1:in `<main>'
>>> ruby web_view.rb
web_view.rb:1:in `<main>': uninitialized constant Plasma (NameError)
Based on that running a couple of searches:

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> apt-cache search ruby | grep qt
... <cut for brevity>
ruby-qt4 - Qt 4 bindings for the Ruby language
ruby-qt4-dbg - Qt 4 bindings for the Ruby language -- debug symbols
ruby-qt4-declarative - QtDeclarative bindings for the Ruby language
ruby-qt4-script - QtScript bindings for the Ruby language
ruby-qt4-test - QtTest bindings for the Ruby language
ruby-qt4-uitools - QtUiTools bindings for the Ruby language
ruby-qt4-webkit - QtWebKit bindings for the Ruby language
> apt-cache search ruby | grep plamsa
> apt-cache search ruby | grep -i kde
... <cut for brevity>
ruby-kde4 - KDE bindings for the Ruby language
ruby-kde4-dbg - Debug symbols for the KDE ruby bindings
I think installing ruby-qt4 and ruby-kde4 will fix it.

Tested it and it wasn't enough. Googling some on the error, appears korundum4 should also be installed. I also installed ruby-qt4-script as it looked related. Still doesn't fix it.

I have some choice words about Ruby...

Some more Googling turns up https://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tu ... asteApplet. So I install plasma-scriptengine-ruby. Still doesn't fix it.

Get another widget I say... Perhaps the developer can be reached, or you can try posting in the KDE user forums (they have their own forums, or is this you https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=126503). All you need to ask is what packages should you install to be able to run KDE4 Plasma Widgets written in Ruby script. ruby-qt4, ruby-kde4, ruby-qt4-script, and plasma-scriptengine-ruby aren't enough.

Edit: installed also plasma-scriptengines (which pulls in plasma-scriptengine-webkit) and even that doesn't help. It does now show a different error though.

You can't use gdb on a script :) You'll have to use whatever debugger Ruby has. After installing all the packages I noted you could try my "for" loop command again to run all the ruby scripts, and see what errors pop up. And try adding the webget widget to the desktop again. Take the error messages from those and do another spin through Google. Perhaps you can find something more :|
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RonC

Re: Mint KDE 'Get new widgets' has Plasmoid that fails to lo

Post by RonC »

xenopeek wrote:... Get another widget I say... Perhaps the developer can be reached, or you can try posting in the KDE user forums ...
Many thanks, you took it a lot farther, to find a solution, that i could have.

wolfi323 on the KDE forums suggested the Plasmoid named Web Browser -- one that I must have skipped over -- missed entirely -- on my search for ways of displaying Internet content on the KDE Desktop. It turns out, Web Browser works better to display my live forex chart, than did Web Slice. And of course, much, much, much better that Webget -- which didn't work at all. :wink:

The Webget developer hasn't been active for several years. After all that you went through (thanks again) to see if Webget might be useful for my purpose -- and it still won't work -- I think I'd be doing other users a favor by telling the folks at KDE that 1) Webget is hopeless, and 2) it should be removed from their repo.
RonC

Re: Mint KDE 'Get new widgets' has Plasmoid that fails to lo

Post by RonC »

I'm giving :D xenopeek, of the Mint community, credit over on the KDE forums for resolving the problem -- even though it was unsolvable, in the absence of the Plasmoid's developer. The question had been lingering over there for quite some time -- :roll: with no reply.
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