rkward: 'No (valid) plugins found', therefore no menu items

Same problem here with Intrepid Beta. Application unusable without plugs.

I believe there is a workaround:
Install R (most important packages: r-base, r-devel, r-html)
Install rkward (in synaptic)
Enable pre-released and unsupported updates (you can disable them again afterwards)

Install (in synaptic): kdelibs5-dev,cmake,subversion

Now, prepare to reinstall rkward from source:
1) Get the latest source. Open a console find a suitable folder and run:

svn co https://rkward.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/trunk rkward

2) Make sure the compile process can find the kde libraries: run this command (important):
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/kde4/bin

3) move into the folder that has the source code
(yes, that's two times 'cd rkward' if you didn't name the folder differently):
cd rkward
cd rkward

4) run the normal compile/installation commands (note: the space and 'full stop' after 'cmake' means 'current folder'):
cmake .
make
sudo make install

4) after you start rkward you may still get the error but this time you should be able to get to the 'settings' menu, choose 'configure rkward' add a new path to pluginmap field:
/usr/local/share/apps/rkward/all.pluginmap

5) caveat:
If for some reason this folder '/usr/local/share/apps/rkward/' is empty/does not exist it should be possible to copy it (including content) from a working hardy installation.

Problem still exists in Intrepid RC 1 AMD64.

I have posted it to rkward-devel to see what happens (should have done that in the first place)

I experience the same problem on intrepid ibex beta

Got this reply on rkward-devel:

Hi,

The plugin error is not a real problem, just run a "locate all.pluginmap" that will give you the answer where this file is.
The change from KDE3 to KDE4 moved some files (in Fedora this file is now in " /usr/share/kde4/apps/rkward/all.pluginmap" and so the error pops up also at start (just change it once on the settings and you are done).

I though to change it into rkward to avoid that problem (the path is hardcoded at only one place in the code), but I decided to keep my package (in Fedora) as close as upstream as possible.

About the icon, could you paste the .desktop file ? I would suspect an error there...

I'm running R 2.8 on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid. rkward installs, but it doesn't run for a variety of reasons described in this and other threads.

I noticed the subversion address given in note 3 above is incorrect. It has this:

svn co https://rkward.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/trunk rkward

but instead it should be:

svn co https://rkward.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/rkward/trunk rkward

I'm building that on Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) to see if it fixes the problem. I am very reluctant to run "make install" as root because it will copy crap all over my file system. So I tried the temporary install approach

make install DESTDIR=/tmp/rktest

and then that drops the rkward install directory in a safe place. Running the executable seems to go a lot better than the version in the Ubuntu system. I still get a cautionary warning about the plugin path, but at least rkward does start and show working menus for many elements. Before, I couldn't even get a settings menu open.

It looks to me as though there is still something wrong with the plugin system, though. Note the error message at the end of the terminal output. It may be I only see the problem because I installed off the beaten path, but I will and wait to hear what you think before I go further.

pauljohn@pols124:bin$ ./rkward

R version 2.8.0 (2008-10-20)
Copyright (C) 2008 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
ISBN 3-900051-07-0

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.

  Natural language support but running in an English locale

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.

Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

error in initialization call 'options (device=rk.screen.device)
'
XML-parsing '/tmp/rktest/usr/local/bin/rkward/all.pluginmap' : Could not open file for reading
XML-parsing '/tmp/rktest/usr/local/bin/rkward/all.pluginmap' : Error parsing XML-file. Error-message was: 'unexpected end of file' in line '1', column '1'. Expect further errors to be reported below

It seems to me that, if this really does work, the Debian/Ubuntu packager should put something that works into the system.

fsando: I tried your solution and I can now start rkward from the terminal, which is great. I can't open it using the icon in the k menu though - it just opens the old version with the error message as above i,e, the incomplete install. I've tried removing it in the menu editor and then adding it again. I think I'm using the wrong path. Can anyone help me install the proper rkward icon and get it functioning?

Thanks all.

> I can now start rkward from the terminal, which is great. I can't open it using the icon in the k menu though - it just opens the old version

If that is the case you should be able to copy-paste the command you use in the terminal into the menu. To edit menu (ubuntu) right-click on the 'applications' menu and choose 'Edit Menus' (it may take a while to open) browse to the icon right-click and choose 'Properties' and change the 'command' field.

thanks but I can't access 'Edit Menus' by right-clicking in the K-menu. Any other suggestions would be gratefully received

I don't use kde myself so I'm not familiar with its interface but I would suggest a google search for 'kde menu customization' or similar ;-)

fsando wrote:
> I don't use kde myself so I'm not familiar with its interface but I
> would suggest a google search for 'kde menu customization' or similar
> ;-)
>
>
Thanks

This symptom ('No (valid) plugins found', therefore no menu items) still occur in Jaunty. However I am not 100% sure if it has the same cause.

On startup rkward seems to search for all.pluginmap in $HOME/rkward/

XML-parsing '/home/dirk/rkward/all.pluginmap' : Datei konnte zum Lesen nicht ge�ffnet werden
XML-parsing '/home/dirk/rkward/all.pluginmap' : Fehler beim parsen der XML-Datei. Fehlermeldung war: 'unexpectedend of file' in Zeile '1', Spalte '1'. Weitere Fehler sind weiter unten angegeben

locate all.pluginmap gives /usr/share/apps/rkward/all.pluginmap

The suggested option to adjust the path through "Settings->Configure->RKWard" is not available. A workaround is to link to the directory
ln -s /usr/share/apps/rkward ~/rkward

This works with rkward in intrepid (also with the version from CRAN) and jaunty.

I can confirm this on Intrepid. Rkward is unusable as packaged in the repos. The solution proposed by fsando works, but it's an ugly hack to circumvent a problem that should be a breeze to solve (it's just a path issue!).

it's been almost six months since this bug was notified, and there has been no comment from anyone with the power to fix the packaged version. this is very disappointing.

@Gorgonzola, the fix was fixed upstream. Take a look at the download section and mailing list of http://rkward.sourceforge.net/ you will find packages of the new version there, as well as instructions to build your own package from source.

A request for packaging and inclusion into official Ubuntu repos already exists here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rkward/+bug/354037

This worked for me:
go to http://rkward.sourceforge.net/ and download 0.5.0c deb file / rkward_0.5.0c-1_i386_debian_sid.deb
after install type this in console: ln -s /usr/share/kde4/apps/rkward ~/rkward

I've had this problem also. I've installed this: http://rkward.sourceforge.net/debian/rkward_0.5.0c-1_i386_sid.deb. I've got the "settings/configure", and I could set the plugins. (I've choose: usr/share/kde4/apps/rkward/all.pluginmap). And it's working.

(ubuntu 9.04, gnome)

This bug was fixed in the package rkward - 0.5.0d-3ubuntu1

---------------
rkward (0.5.0d-3ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian (LP: #381765)
   - Fix plugin problem at startup (LP: #272527)
   - Re-enable editor for R-Scripts. (LP: #340217)
   - Fix starting page (LP: #294610)
   - Fix installation of the icons (LP: #186451)
  * Ubuntu remaining changes
   - Drop depends on cmake and libphonon-dev.
   - Disable information from upstream, modified rkward/rkward.cpp
     (LP: #318278)

rkward (0.5.0d-3) unstable; urgency=low

  * build-depend on libx11-dev
    closes: #529024
  * use dh_prep instead of deprecated dh_clean -k

rkward (0.5.0d-2) unstable; urgency=low

  * bumped standards version to 3.8.1
  * increased debhelper compat-level to 7
  * upload to unstable (repeat closes because 0.5.0d-1 was not uploaded)
    closes: #520969
    closes: #491110
    closes: #501649
    closes: #527649 (included missing Rdevices.h; actually fixed in 0.5.0c)

rkward (0.5.0d-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * new upstream release
  * upload to unstable (repeat closes because 0.5.0c-1 was not uploaded)
    closes: #520969
    closes: #491110
    closes: #501649

 -- Julien Lavergne <email address hidden> Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:32:06 +0200