v5.1.5 Eeschema crashes on first opening after installation

[der.ule]

I installed v5.1.5 today, unfortunately when I tried to open Eeschema it crashes every time, this is similar to my previous reported bug:

1828071 - https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1828071

However this time, it crashes when trying to open a previous project *and* when trying to create a new project, EEschema opens, there is the windows sound for a dialog and then the software freezes.

I realized that if I copied my previous settings from the user folder of v5.1.4 EEschema started without a hitch, I could narrowed it down to the following line:

canvas_type=2

Having a "eeschema" file in the user folder with *only* that line allows EEschema to start and be used, otherwise it hangs everytime.

Application: Eeschema
Version: (5.1.5)-2, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.66.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d (Schannel) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.1.1) nghttp2/1.39.2
Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.71.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.66.0
    Compiler: GCC 9.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

This sounds like it is caused by the graphics detection. Can you tell us more about your graphics card and drivers?

[der.ule (u-estrada)]

Well according to the device manager of windows, i have:

AMD 760G
Drivers:
ATI Technologies Inc.
Date: 17.08.2009
Version: 8.632.1.2000

Nothing fancy and I believe they are integrated graphics.

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

Can you update your driver and see if it fixes the issue?

https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-7-series-chipsets/760g

We should be able to detect this issue without crashing but we are somewhat at the mercy of the graphics card OpenGL driver not crashing our function calls.

[der.ule (u-estrada)]

Well, I tried, I download the installer, it checked my components, update my USB (??) and something else, I restarted the computer but everything remained the same. Eeschema crashes and the drivers are still at the same version.

[der.ule (u-estrada)]

"We should be able to detect this issue without crashing but we are somewhat at the mercy of the graphics card OpenGL driver not crashing our function calls."

I have to add that only Eeschema is crashing, PCBnew is behaving quite well, the file in the user folder with the right content was generated, maybe something is missing in the Eeschema call/side of things ?

[Mitja Nemec (mitjan)]

This might be related.

For a while, I've been working on my machine directly or over Windows Remote Desktop. And while working directly I usually switched the canvas to accelerated. As accelerated canvas doesn't work over remote desktop pcbnew, handled this gracefully reporting: "Could not use OpenGL, falling back to software rendering". Eeschema on the other hand always crashed.

Using:
Application: Pcbnew
Version: (5.1.5)-1, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.66.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d (Schannel) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.1.1) nghttp2/1.39.2
Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.71.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.66.0
    Compiler: GCC 9.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[der.ule (u-estrada)]

I can reproduce what Mitja mentioned, if I use the workaround to start Eeschema (canvas_type=2) changing to accelerated mode (F11) freezes the application.

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

Hmm... That's interesting. I also use KiCad over a remote desktop connection (x2 in my case) and get the fallback message quite a bit. But not the crash.

I use linux for the server end. I wonder if it is MSW specific. Could one of our Windows devs start remote desktop and point the client to their local machine to test this?

Application: Eeschema
Version: (5.1.5-17-g5c056c2a3-dirty), debug build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.64.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) libssh2/1.8.0 nghttp2/1.36.0 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
    Boost: 1.67.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.64.0
    Compiler: GCC 8.3.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Uzix (uzix)]

Same issue - eeschema freezes and pcbnew crashes when I'm trying to switch to accelerated toolset on RDP. 5.1.4 correctly falling back with error message.

Application: KiCad
Version: (5.1.5)-3, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.66.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d (Schannel) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.1.1) nghttp2/1.39.2
Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.71.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.66.0
    Compiler: GCC 9.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013
Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Uzix (uzix)]

IMHO it's will be nice to implement autochoice for toolset - use accelerated when it's available and fallback otherwise. It's a little tiring to restore acceleration when I'm getting back to my workplace and to get all these error messages when I'm switching to RDP.

[der.ule (u-estrada)]

I am not sure if you are aware, but KiCAD moved over to launchpad for bug tracking and source code, the bug report is here:

https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/issues/2620

not sure how active is Launchpad at the moment. (I have to update the bug report in the forum ...)

[Uzix (uzix)]

Thank you, launchpad was first link in google for this bug.

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/2620