Windows: Default *_DIR variables use msys64 instead of Program Files

[Himura]

Expected behavior:

Default KICAD_SYMBOL_DIR value uses the installation folder directory, in my case "C:\Program Files\KiCad-nightly\share\kicad\library"

Actual behavior:

Default KICAD_SYMBOL_DIR value is "C:\msys64\mingw64\share\kicad\library" for some reason. I don't even have the "kicad" folder in "mingw64\share".

The mingw64 path appears when no corresponding environment variable us set in the system. It also affects other KiCAD variables with paths in the "share" folder

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

No version info.

[Himura (glagol)]

It's r10472.6d77e594b from 07-Jun-2018.

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

Did you check the envrionment variable option, or did you install kicad earler from nightly?

[Himura (glagol)]

Which option should I check?
I removed the environment variables from Windows to switch between KiCAD 4 and KiCAD 5 by switching the %AppData%\kicad folder.

But when the %AppData%\kicad folder is empty, KiCAD 5 incorrectly determines its installation directory.

[Himura (glagol)]

As for the previous nightly builds, this is my first one. I have the stable version in
"C:\Program Files\KiCad" and the nightly one in "C:\Program Files\KiCad-nightly". And I have a .bat script to switch the %AppData%\kicad folder between nightly and stable.

[Bob Cousins (bobcousins42)]

If KICAD_SYMBOL_DIR does not exist it is set to baseSharePath + "/library". baseSharePath comes from DEFAULT_INSTALL_PATH. DEFAULT_INSTALL_PATH is set to a path used on the original build server during the build.

Obviously, it doesn't make sense to refer to paths used on a build server when installed on a users machine. A more sensible default would be an empty string.

Meanwhile FindKicadFile() has an entirely different way of finding KiCad data which uses hardcoded paths the user might be using (which is buggy).

[eelik (eelik)]

@Himura: there's a better way to switch between 4 and 5, see https://forum.kicad.info/t/any-ultimate-guide-on-how-to-use-kicad-4-and-5-on-one-system/10413/6

[Himura (glagol)]

@eelik: Thanks, I used the KICAD_CONFIG_HOME to point to the %AppData%\kicad-nightly dir and it works.

[Himura (glagol)]

@bobcousins42: Thanks for your investigation, I felt that this path comes somewhere from the outside of my system. By the way, KiCAD 4 does not have such issue, it correctly determines its installation path.
I think just for a temporary solution, It's OK to set baseSharePath to the `executablePath + "../share/kicad"`. It will work in much more cases than it does now

[eelik (eelik)]

This is still in "incomplete" state but bobc gave the explanation how this happens. It happened to me, too, with the latest nightly build. Nowadays the Windows installer doesn't have the Environment variables checkbox ticked by default and after I had installed it and opened path configuration dialog, it showed "C:\msys64\mingw32\share\kicad\library" with old 32bit WinXP.

Is there a reason to keep this as "incomplete" and importance "undecided"? I think this is pretty serious for the first time users.

And BTW, the Environment variables checkbox should be unticked in any case.

[eelik (eelik)]

I just bought a new laptop, 64bit Windows 10. I installed KiCad 5 with the latest nightly build installer. If the environment variables aren't set with the installer, KiCad sets this wrong path for all three library paths: symbols, footprints and 3D.

[Chris Elliott (sembazuru)]

I hadn't found this bug so I submitted a similar one here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1777346

I found it by pretending to be a new user w/o any preexisting knowledge of the KiCad environment and installing on a Win7 machine that had never seen KiCad before.

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

Fixed in revision f10aa6c8577a80e6e61b99a48b6c7c0986335edb
https://git.launchpad.net/kicad/patch/?id=f10aa6c8577a80e6e61b99a48b6c7c0986335edb

[Chris Elliott (sembazuru)]

I juat verified on a system that has never had KiCad installed that this issue seems to be resolved. I downloaded kicad-r10578.f10aa6c85-x86_64.exe from http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/windows/nightly/ using the installer defaults. None of the paths start with "C:\msys64\", rather start with "c:\Program Files\" as expected. See the attached image as evidence.

[Maciej Suminski (orsonmmz)]

Excellent, thank you for the confirmation!

[Himura (glagol)]

Thank you, guys!
KiCAD 5 Rocks! Looking forward to the release, because it's already much more stable and smooth than KiCAD 4 in simple tasks.

[eelik (eelik)]

The fix seems to work, also under non-default circumstances: when KiCad is installed into other than default directory, and when the environment variable was set when KiCad was run for the first time but unset before running again.