The underlying problem appears to be a bug in kdiff3, which is already known about: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdiff3/+bug/231117

That said, kst should not be crashing, which I'll investigate further.

After installing ubuntu 8.04 and kst, I'm unable to repdroduce the problem.

Installing kdiff3 does produce the warning messages given in the bug report, when I subsequently run kst, but kst does not crash.

It might be worth doing a clean rebuild, including removing all kst binaries from previous builds.

Could you send me the binary you built on 8.04 so I could try running it?

I'm trying to use kst as a real-time data monitor and 1.5.0 works reasonably
well, but the -F option doesn't work to override the input file specified in
the *.kst file so I can use stdin with a *.kst file to get an improved
layout and meaningful trace labels.  This is supposedly fixed in later
versions so using 1.9.1 would seem the way to go.

I've done the make clean and rebuild step several times and even let it
build to the default location which overwrote the kst 1.5.0 in the repos but
it still crashed.  Can I uninstall kdiff3?

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 3:22 PM, Andrew Walker <arwalker@sumusltd.com>wrote:

> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=247527
>
>
>
>
>
> --- Comment #2 from Andrew Walker <arwalker sumusltd com>  2010-08-12
> 22:22:07 ---
> After installing ubuntu 8.04 and kst, I'm unable to repdroduce the problem.
>
> Installing kdiff3 does produce the warning messages given in the bug
> report,
> when I subsequently run kst, but kst does not crash.
>
> It might be worth doing a clean rebuild, including removing all kst
> binaries
> from previous builds.
>
> --
> Configure bugmail: https://bugs.kde.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
> ------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
> You reported the bug.
>

I un-installed the Ubuntu 8.04  kst 1.5.0 and kdiff3 packages with synaptic
using "mark for complete removal".

Did:
 make clean; ./configure --prefix /home/kst; make; make install
and rebuilt kst-1.9.1

This time the binary doesn't crash, but it also doesn't seem to work at all.

It fails to accept data from stdin when launched with the same command that
worked for 1.5.0 just putting up the four graphs as I specify and never
drawing anything.

Starting it by itself, the "Data Wizard" doesn't open (I had turned this off
in the 1.5.0 version).  When I run the "Data Wizard" from the menu it lets
me choose my ASCII data file but the "configure" and "next" buttons never
come active.


The build seems to have completed without any errors that I could see, and
when I launch my binary in a terminal window all I get is:

kbuildsycoca running...
Reusing existing ksycoca

I'm stumped as to why the build fails to run.

Almost certainly the problems you are encountering are due to having various components of kst, from various versions, scattered around in various locations.

One approach to clean this up would be to look at the directories and files created when you built kst 1.9.1 using the --prefix option. If there any corresponding files under the default build location (/usr) then remove those files (from the default location). 

In particular check for files in the following places and delete if found:

/usr/share/services/kst/*
/usr/lib/kde3/kstplugins/*
/usr/lib/kde3/kstdata*
/usr/lib/libkst*
/usr/bin/kst

Thanks for your help, I've removed the kst-1.5.0 files left behind by Ubuntu's "mark for complete removal"

But if I start the kst-1.9.1 I built I still can't get the configure button to activate when I choose my data file which is just a whitespace delimited list of numbers with five columns:

0 3.9 -89.6 -3.9 89.3
1 3.2 -87.8 -3.8 89.9
2 3.4 -88.1 -3.9 90.0
....


If from the quickstart I choose the *.kst file I'd set up, I get the plots and labels like I had setup but then the error dialog about not finding data objects

Unable to find required vector [DS-kst.input/1] for data object 2
Unable to find required vector [DS-kst.input/2] for data object 2
Unable to find required vector [DS-kst.input/1] for data object 3
Unable to find required vector [DS-kst.input/3] for data object 3
....


Also one of the bugs in 1.5.0 was not honoring the geometry option to get a different size and placement on startup

kst --geometry 1000x500+0+0 doesn't change the size which seems to default to 1600x1000 on my 1920x1200 monitor.


I still can't get it to take data from stdin (which did work with 1.5.0) launching with:

./myApp | /home/kst/bin/kst --caption "myApp Stripchart" -x 1 -y2 -y 3 -y 4 -y 5 -m 1 -n 600 stdin &

My application is configured to output the data to be monitored in real-time either to a file or stdout, either would be OK if I could control the labels displayed and window size/placement.


From the Kst documentation I was trying to create a *.kst file with the labels and plot layout I wanted (with read/count from end for the data vectors) and have it be the template when reading from stdin by launching it:

/home/kst/bin/kst --caption "myApp Stripchart" -x 1 -y2 -y 3 -y 4 -y 5 -m 1 -n 600 -F stdin /home/kst/myApp.kst &

It sounds as if the ascii data source (and possibly others) didn't get build or is not being found. To confirm this start Kst and select 

Help... Debug Kst...

In the "Kst Debug Dialog" click on "Data Sources"

If its blank then ensure that you've done the:

export KDEDIRS=/home/wally/kst:$KDEDIRS

That should fix all the problems you're describing - as they would all result from not having an ASCII data source available.

You may want to add the export KDEDIRS=/home/wally/kst:$KDEDIRS line to your .bashrc (or whatever you're using) file.

Hope that fixes everything for you.

Thanks for your help, sorry it took so long for me to get back to this.

There is a d2asc in the /home/wally/kst/bin directory along with the kst
binary so it seems it got built, assuming this is the module you are talking
about.

There is also an "ASCII File Reader" in /home/wally/kst/share/services/kst

In a terminal, if I give the env command I find:
KDEDIRS=/home/wally/kst:

so it seems the export KDEDIRS line I added to the .bashrc is working,
perhaps the fact that $KDEDIRS was/is empty initially is a problem?

But yes indeed in the Kst->Debug->DataSources tab ASCII File Reader line is
blank.
How can I make it point to the correct place?

Also any insight as to why it doesn't seem to honor the
--geometry=800x600+0+0 command line option, which is supposed to be one of
the fixed issues?

--wally.


On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 12:19 AM, Andrew Walker <arwalker@sumusltd.com>wrote:

> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=247527
>
>
>
>
>
> --- Comment #7 from Andrew Walker <arwalker sumusltd com>  2010-08-14
> 07:19:40 ---
> It sounds as if the ascii data source (and possibly others) didn't get
> build or
> is not being found. To confirm this start Kst and select
>
> Help... Debug Kst...
>
> In the "Kst Debug Dialog" click on "Data Sources"
>
> If its blank then ensure that you've done the:
>
> export KDEDIRS=/home/wally/kst:$KDEDIRS
>
> That should fix all the problems you're describing - as they would all
> result
> from not having an ASCII data source available.
>
> You may want to add the export KDEDIRS=/home/wally/kst:$KDEDIRS line to
> your
> .bashrc (or whatever you're using) file.
>
> Hope that fixes everything for you.
>
> --
> Configure bugmail: https://bugs.kde.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
> ------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
> You are on the CC list for the bug.
> You reported the bug.
>

The d2asc is a separate executable and not of interest for what you are doing.

It is the "ASCII File Reader" in /home/wally/kst/share/services/kst that is the datasource.

If you see "ASCII File Reader" in the Kst->Debug->DataSources tab then the datasource is getting loaded. There will be something in the "Load Instance" column only once some data has been read in.

It seems that the datasource is present, so there might be a problem with the data file itself. You could either try creating a very simple ascii data file, or attach the file you're using to this bug reportand I'll test it on my system.

I would think that $KDEDIRS being initially empty is a problem and should probably be fixed.

Could you give a bug report number, fixed or otherwise, for the --geometry problem you are having.

Here is the command line I'd like to work:  (it should based on the
documentation as I understand it)

kst --geometry=1000x600+800+500 --caption "Stripchart" -x 1 -y2 -y 3 -y 4 -y
5 -m 1 -n 600 -F stdin voms.kst

Problem is this doesn't work in version 1.5 from Ubuntu 8.04 so I've tried
building 1.9.1 from source which seems to compile correctly but doesn't work
at all, presumably for lack of the ASCII data source.

Attached is the kst.input data file that I created the voms.kst template
file from.

This gives the errors about missing data sources when I try to reload it
with kst and choose the voms.kst file in the Quick start Dialog, although I
do get the plot layout and labels I'd like to use with the standard input.

 What should the KDEDIRS directory point to?  Help->About KDE in reports K
Kesktop Environment Release 3.5.10 Other KDE apps I use all seem to work OK.

I can't seem to find a kst specific bug report for the --geometry issue but
both 1.7.0 on Ubuntu 10.04 and the 1.91 I've built on 8.04  seem to honor
the window position offset, but ignore the window size.

--wally.


On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Andrew Walker <arwalker@sumusltd.com>wrote:

> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=247527
>
> --- Comment #9 from Andrew Walker <arwalker sumusltd com>  2010-08-20
> 19:19:22 ---
> The d2asc is a separate executable and not of interest for what you are
> doing.
>
> It is the "ASCII File Reader" in /home/wally/kst/share/services/kst that is
> the
> datasource.
>
> If you see "ASCII File Reader" in the Kst->Debug->DataSources tab then the
> datasource is getting loaded. There will be something in the "Load
> Instance"
> column only once some data has been read in.
>
> It seems that the datasource is present, so there might be a problem with
> the
> data file itself. You could either try creating a very simple ascii data
> file,
> or attach the file you're using to this bug reportand I'll test it on my
> system.
>
> I would think that $KDEDIRS being initially empty is a problem and should
> probably be fixed.
>
> Could you give a bug report number, fixed or otherwise, for the --geometry
> problem you are having.
>
> --
> Configure bugmail: https://bugs.kde.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
> ------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
> You are on the CC list for the bug.
> You reported the bug.
>

I didn't see the attachments. If you sent them by email then try adding them from the website instead. This generally works better.

I suspect that the only problem you're having is feeding in the data.

I don't believe that kst supports something like:

kst -x1 -y2 -y3 -y4 -y5 -m1 -n600 -F stdin /home/kst/myApp.kst

i.e. you can't change a datafile in a .kst file to use stdin.

However, both of the following, for example, should work fine:

cat newData.dat | kst -x1 -y2 -y3 -y4 -y5 -m1 -n600 stdin
kst -F newData.dat /home/kst/myApp.kst

Created attachment 50933 [details]
A sample of the data I'm trying to plot

I've a switch in the data acquisition program to output to stdout or this file as the data is bing captured.

Created attachment 50934 [details]
The *.kst file to get the data formatting I'd like

From "man kst":

              The following flags can be
              used  to override the options set in the .kst file: -F datafile,
              -n NS, -s NS, -f F0, -a. The rest can not be overridden.  If  an
              override  flag  is  given,  it  is applied to all vectors in the
              plot.

              ASCII data from stdin can be plotted by including "stdin" in the
              list [file...].

I've tried with and without the -x  -y & -m options in version 1.5 and Googling suggested the -F override was fixed it a newer version which is why I'm trying to compile 1.9.1.

Did the ASCII data file and kst files I attached work in your version of kst?

I apologize for not having much time to devote to this but I would like to use kst to monitor this data in real time as its acquired, if kst is up to doing it.

I see if I can figure out how to add the files to via the website, I though these replies were working.

--wally.

Created attachment 50956 [details]
functional version of voms.kst

The basic problem appears to be that there was no datafile or vector information in the voms.kst file. I've modified the file to add back this information and have attached it to this bug report.

This should then allow you to something like:

kst -F kst.input voms.kst

I am unable to use stdin with -F, and suspect that it was never designed to work. If you think this should work, and I can't think of a good reason why it shouldn't, feel free to submit another bug report, or indicate where you think it has already been fixed.

Based on the comments and subsequent lack of traffic, this bugs appears to be closed.