Some Plasma widgets fail to load after last week update

[spock]

Some Plasma widgets fail to load after last week update, I mean, python plasma widgets.

For instance, the facebook widget.

The error is:
"This object could not be created for the following reason: Could not create a python ScriptEngine for the Facebook widget."

It happens also with Simple-Cpu-Sensor.

All I did was update last weeks upgraded packages as usual. Then after reboot, all python plasma widgets stopped working.

EDIT: MORE INFO:
I'm running Kubuntu 13.04 64 bits.
In a different machine, which I have with the same OS but 32bits, it works fine.
The errors only happen in Kubuntu 13.04 64bits.

I've tried reinstalling plasma-scriptengine-python with no luck.

[richb]

Make sure plasma-sciptengine-python is installed.

[spock]

Make sure plasma-sciptengine-python is installed.

plasma-scriptengine-python is installed.

I'll try to get to the exact error behind what the UI tells, because it is installed.

[spock]

Ok, this is what I found out. Still no luck:

When I try to run a plasma widget from the console, I get the following errors in the konsole, and then the UI dialog telling me that the python scriptengine is missing (which is not):



$ plasma-windowed facebook

QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
plasma-windowed(5241)/libplasma Plasma::PackagePrivate::isValid: Could not find required file mainscript
plasma-windowed(5241)/python (plugin): Failed to import module
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma_scriptengine_python/pyappletscript.py", line 20, in <module>
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PyQt4/QtCore.so: undefined symbol: PyBool_Type
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 64, in apport_excepthook
from apport.fileutils import likely_packaged, get_recent_crashes
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
from apport.report import Report
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/report.py", line 16, in <module>
from xml.parsers.expat import ExpatError
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/parsers/expat.py", line 4, in <module>
from pyexpat import *
ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/pyexpat.x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: _Py_ZeroStruct

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma_scriptengine_python/pyappletscript.py", line 20, in <module>
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PyQt4/QtCore.so: undefined symbol: PyBool_Type



I really need some of these widgets. I'm desperate for a solution, though I think the problem is not as simple as I thought.

[richb]

I found this:

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=312618

[spock]

I found this:

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=312618

Thanks for the link, though I'm not sure what to do.
That link is about an error reported in january 2013.

Plasma widgets worked fine up until this week's "apt-get upgrade"

I'm considering upgrading to Kubuntu 13.10 though I don't have time now.
I just can't believe how quickly 13.04 became unsupported/untested.

Does this happen to somebody else besides me?
Steps to try to reproduce:
1) Install "plasma-widget-facebook" package.
2) Add widget 'facebook' to the desktop.
3) An error shows up.
The same with any other python plasmoid.

[Snowhog]

Plasma widgets worked fine up until this week's "apt-get upgrade"

Open a console and type:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get distupgrade

[spock]

Open a console and type:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get distupgrade

$ sudo apt-get update
.....
.....

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.


I'm already up to date.... Nothing changed.

[Snowhog]

Okay. In the console type:

sudo apt-get install -f

-f is the "fix broken" switch. If there are broken packages that apt is able to fix, this should do so.

Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. If packages are specified, these have to completely correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow broken package dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention (which usually means using dselect(1) or dpkg --remove to eliminate some of the offending packages). Use of this option together with -m may produce an error in some situations.

[spock]

$ sudo apt-get update
.....
.....

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.


I'm already up to date.... Nothing changed.

MORE INFO:
I tried a Kubuntu 13.04 64bit VM that I had around. I upgraded the packages in the VM and it doesn't exhibit the problem.

I guess something is screwed up in my machine, because it works elsewhere.

[spock]

Okay. In the console type:

sudo apt-get install -f

-f is the "fix broken" switch. If there are broken packages that apt is able to fix, this should do so.

$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

[spock]

Ok, I Solved it!!!!

After many hours, and almost loosing the system.

It turns out that in this week's apt-get upgrade, the package 'libc6-amd64:i386' got installed as new package (I saw it in /var/log/dpkg.log).

This looked suspicious to me, since the plasma error had to do with symbols not being resolved in a shared library.

So I tried to uninstall it. It isn't a necessary package. My other systems don't have it (they have libc6:amd64 instead of libc6-amd64:i386).

I did:

apt-get purge lib6-amd64:i386


... And here is where I got in a world of PAIN! Nothing worked after that.
Even running 'ls' produced a File not found error.
It turns out that removing this package left the /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 symlink pointing nowhere.
At this point, I couldn't run ANY new process (not even 'ls'). If I had closed the terminal the system would be GONE (unless I mounted the hard-drive with a live USB) .
To restore the symlink, I had to ask 'ld-2.17.so' to run '/bin/ln' like this:


/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ld-2.17.so /bin/ln -f -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ld-2.17.so /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2


After that, the system came back to normal.
Feeling lucky, I retried 'plasma-windowed facebok' and it worked perfectly.

My plea to maintainers: Please review libc6-amd64:i386 uninstall process.


Thanks everyone!!!
--
Mr Spock

[Snowhog]

Well, of course, glad you solved your own issue. Always feels good.

When you are thinking of purging or uninstalling anything, in the console, use the simulate option to see what would happen.

sudo apt-get remove|purge --simulate package_name