Error trying to run SITL in cygwin on windows 10

[Hugues]

Hi,
I followed the documentation directions to install cygwin, mavproxy on a windows 10 desktop.
In a Cygwin terminal, when I try to un the instruction to launch SITIL+MavProxy : “…/Tools/autotest/sim_vehicle.py --map --console”, it returns the following error:

Hugues@DESKTOP-E4MV4JE /home/ardupilot
$ ./Tools/autotest/sim_vehicle.py --map --console
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “./Tools/autotest/sim_vehicle.py”, line 31, in
from pysim import util
File “/home/ardupilot/Tools/autotest/pysim/util.py”, line 16, in
import pexpect
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘pexpect’

It is a fresh new install of SITIL/MavProxy , so I do not know what’s wrong. Are the instructions in the wiki outdated maybe ?

thanks for any help

[khancyr]

probably cygwin that broke something again.
try install pexpect as mentionned in the error log.

I would advise to use WSL on windows10, it is much better than cygwin and we will stop cygwin support in near future

[Hugues]

I uninstalled Mavproxy and cygwin. I’m going to try the other method via WSL and see if it works any better

[Hugues]

Well that was short lived too. The WSL instructions do not work a the step to download ubuntu from Microsoft store. See picture

[Hugues]

I installed SITIL a couple of years ago and I do not remember it to be so difficult and more than anything not working.
Why isn’t there a prebuild windows binary that you can just download and execute to install SITIL with all required dependencies on Windows ?

[Yuri_Rage]

You can use Mission Planner to run a basic instance of SITL with the latest stable or dev versions.

If you want to do anything more complex than Mission Planner offers, you must install a build environment.

EDIT: I should caveat that the MP instance will allow MAVProxy to connect on port 5761, so you can do quite a bit with it.

As for WSL, once you’ve enabled the WSL component per the instructions, reboot and type wsl --install at a command prompt.

[Hugues]

Thanks for trying to solve my issue here.

@Yuri_Rage

As for WSL, once you’ve enabled the WSL component per the instructions, reboot and type wsl --install at a command prompt.

Ok, I’m trying the Ubuntu installation via command line instead of going though Microsoft store.
The correct command is the following apparently : wsl --install -d Ubuntu

Can this command be added in the Ardupilot/SITIL/Installation instructions for Windows ? and remove the installation instruction advising to go through the Microsoft store

I’ll continue to post here my SITIL/Mavproxy installation progress…to be continued

[Hugues]

So before launching the Ubuntu installation in WSL (in a windows cmd window: wsl --install -d Ubuntu),
you need the following pre-requisites (they should be added in the Ardupilot wiki explaining how to install SITIL/MavProxy in Windows 10):

1-In the BIOS of your computer, you must first activate virtualization technology. It is usually found in your BIOS “advanced CPU” menu.

2-Then you reboot the machine and you must now activate the virtualization feature in Windows 10. To do this, the simplest is to right-click on the windows powershell icon/menu to start it with “run as administrator” rights. This will open a powershell with elevated admin rights.
Then copy this command to enabel virtualization in windows 10:

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

Then reboot your machine.

3-Open a cmd window

4-Launch the installation of Ubuntu , by choosing one of the two following commands, depending if you want a WSL1 or WSL2 underlaying linux virtualization. WSL2 is faster than WSL1.

wsl --set-version Ubuntu 1
wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2

5-Install Ubuntu in WSL:

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

[Hugues]

You also have in windows 10 to install a LInux package upgrade whic is required for virtualization. Download the MSI installer here :

https://wslstorestorage.blob.core.windows.net/wslblob/wsl_update_x64.msi

[Hoehenarbeit (David)]

Very useful information. You could edit it yourself and send a pull request: https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot_wiki/blob/master/dev/source/docs/building-setup-windows10.rst

[Hugues]

@Hugues

So before launching the Ubuntu installation in WSL (in a windows cmd window: wsl --install -d Ubuntu),
you need the following pre-requisites (they should be added in the Ardupilot wiki explaining how to install SITIL/MavProxy in Windows 10):

1-In the BIOS of your computer, you must first activate virtualization technology. It is usually found in your BIOS “advanced CPU” menu.

2-Then you reboot the machine and you must now activate the virtualization feature in Windows 10. To do this, the simplest is to right-click on the windows powershell icon/menu to start it with “run as administrator” rights. This will open a powershell with elevated admin rights.
Then copy this command to enabel virtualization in windows 10:

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

Then reboot your machine.

3-Open a cmd window

4-Launch the installation of Ubuntu , by choosing one of the two following commands, depending if you want a WSL1 or WSL2 underlaying linux virtualization. WSL2 is faster than WSL1.

wsl --set-version Ubuntu 1
wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2

5-Install Ubuntu in WSL:

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

I have edited the page in github and submitted the change.

[Hugues]

Now I try to run FlightGear in the Ubuntu WSL (after installing it as described on page Setting up SITL on Linux — Dev documentation), with the command :
/ardupilot/Tools/autotest/ : fg_plane_view.sh (Plane) and fg_quad_view.sh (Copter).

FlightGear splash screen is displayed for a while and then I get a segmentation fault. The last lines of the log during FlightGear startup are these lines:
1.43 [INFO]:view Splash screen progress creating-subsystems
1.44 [INFO]:general Creating Subsystems
1.44 [INFO]:general ======== ==========
1.44 [INFO]:input Reading materials from /usr/share/games/flightgear/Materials/regions/materials.xml
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘terrainsampler’, but name() returns ‘TerrainSampler’
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘environment’, but name() returns ‘FGEnvironmentMgr’
1.83 [INFO]:systems Reading systems from Path “/usr/share/games/flightgear/Aircraft/Generic/generic-systems.xml”
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘systems’, but name() returns ‘FGSystemMgr’
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘instrumentation’, but name() returns ‘FGInstrumentMgr’
1.83 [INFO]:cockpit Initializing HUD Instrument
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘cockpit-displays’, but name() returns ‘CockpitDisplayManager’
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘xml-autopilot’, but name() returns ‘FGXMLAutopilotGroup’
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘xml-proprules’, but name() returns ‘FGXMLAutopilotGroup’
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘input’, but name() returns ‘FGInput’
1.83 [WARN]:general adding subsystem to group with name ‘events’, but name() returns ‘EventMgr’
1.83 [INFO]:sound Reading sound sound from Path “/usr/share/games/flightgear/Aircraft/Generic/generic-sound.xml”
1.83 [INFO]:general Creating subsystems took:404
1.83 [INFO]:view Splash screen progress binding-subsystems
2.12 [ALRT]:nasal Volcanic activity off.
4.42 [ALRT]:nasal setWeight() - not supported for external
Segmentation fault

Any idea if FlightGear works on Ubuntu in WSL ? Or does it only work on a native Ubuntu machine ?

[Hugues]

Running MavProxy+SITIL, I get once in a while this error in the command window:
HugSITIL:STABILIZE>
(mavproxy.py:1678): dbind-WARNING **: 15:51:52.721: Couldn’t connect to accessibility bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-87EUTEIiat: Connection refused

Any idea what that this error mean in MAvProxy/Sitil?

[Peloton (Peter Kim)]

I have added a solution to

No molule named pexpect

[Screenshot 2022-11-10 154740] I followed all the steps to set up the site but I am getting the error shown above. I used Cygwin as a console here. The steps I followed were from the official ardupilot website have the link Setting up SITL on Windows — Dev documentation (ardupilot.org)