Problem using Google Protocol Buffers Version 3

The Mir version in any Ubuntu archive is built with the protobuf version in the archive. The version of protobuf in the Ubuntu 16.04 archive is 2.6.1.

The simplest option is to use libprotobuf-dev as supplied in the archive. If you need to use a more recent version, then you'll need to rebuild any packages that use it, including Mir.

Using a different archive won't help: Even the current 17.04 release only has 3.0.0 of protobuf.

Alan thank you for your response. A couple of follow up questions.

1. Where would I get the 17.04 version of mir?

2. Where would I go to get the source code and instructions to re-compile it myself?

Thanks,
Anne Bruner

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of Alan Griffiths
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2017 4:54 AM
To: Anne Bruner <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #627463]: Problem using Google Protocol Buffers Version 3

Your question #627463 on Mir changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/mir/+question/627463

    Status: Open => Answered

Alan Griffiths proposed the following answer:
The Mir version in any Ubuntu archive is built with the protobuf version in the archive. The version of protobuf in the Ubuntu 16.04 archive is 2.6.1.

The simplest option is to use libprotobuf-dev as supplied in the archive. If you need to use a more recent version, then you'll need to rebuild any packages that use it, including Mir.

Using a different archive won't help: Even the current 17.04 release only has 3.0.0 of protobuf.

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Thanks for your response. I decided to try building the mir code to see if that will work. I downloaded the source from the 'lp:mir' branch and following the build instructions. Part of the projects were built but then I received undefined reference errors trying to compile/link libmirclient and libmirclient-debug-extension.

Is there a different branch I should try building?

17.04 is an Ubuntu release, not a Mir release.

The lp:mir branch is current development and probably not ideal for your purposes, but I'm not aware of any reason it wouldn't link on Xenial. The branch lp:mir/0.21 corresponds to the Xenial release. I know that lp:mir/0.26 also builds correctly on Xenial.

I just checked and lp:mir does build perfectly on pure xenial (protobuf 2). So this question is indeed just about using Protobuf 3 on xenial. I'm not sure I have any good answer to that. We have some existing bugs in the same area that may never get fixed...

Using libprotobuf and libprotobuf-lite (same version even) in the same process causes crashes:
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/mir/+bug/1535297

and mixing protobuf v2/v3 causes build failures:
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/mir/+bug/1652261

They're not exactly the same as the problem here though.

Where did you get libprotobuf.so.11 for xenial?
As far as I know the Ubuntu repositories only provide libprotobuf.so.9 for Ubuntu 16.04.

I built it from source.

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of Manfred Hampl
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2017 2:54 AM
To: Anne Bruner <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #627463]: Problem using Google Protocol Buffers Version 3

Your question #627463 on Mir changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/mir/+question/627463

Manfred Hampl requested more information:
Where did you get libprotobuf.so.11 for xenial?
As far as I know the Ubuntu repositories only provide libprotobuf.so.9 for Ubuntu 16.04.

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In that case you probably hit the problems listed by Daniel van Vugt.

I'm not sure. When I downloaded the lp:mir branch and tried to build, some of the libraries built successfully using the protobuf 3.1.0 versions but then I get linker errors listed below. However the library that was causing my app to abort during startup - namely 'libmirprotobuf.so.3' - was built. So I tried copying over that version to my app directory. The program does run and loads that version of libmirprotobuf.so.3 but I am getting linker map errors Not sure if these errors would disappear if I could get all the mir projects to build. At this point - I am sadly planning on reverting my app back to using protobuf 2.6.1

Here are the build errors I am getting. They seem to be related to the source files generated from the proto files using protoc. It does look like the build is using my 3.1.0 version of protoc and I am not getting an error when protoc runs.

Scanning dependencies of target mirclient-debug-extension
[ 56%] Building CXX object src/client/CMakeFiles/mirclient-debug-extension.dir/mir_debug_api.cpp.o
[ 56%] Linking CXX shared library ../../lib/libmirclient-debug-extension.so
libmirclient-static.a(mir_surface.cpp.o): In function `mir::protobuf::SurfaceId::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:9966: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::SurfaceId_default_instance_'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
src/client/CMakeFiles/mirclient-debug-extension.dir/build.make:110: recipe for target 'lib/libmirclient-debug-extension.so.1' failed
make[2]: *** [lib/libmirclient-debug-extension.so.1] Error 1
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:4895: recipe for target 'src/client/CMakeFiles/mirclient-debug-extension.dir/all' failed
make[1]: *** [src/client/CMakeFiles/mirclient-debug-extension.dir/all] Error 2
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_connection.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::StructuredError::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:7574: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::StructuredError_default_instance_'
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_connection.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::SurfaceId::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:9966: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::SurfaceId_default_instance_'
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_connection.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::BufferStreamId::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:10157: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::BufferStreamId_default_instance_'
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_connection.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::Buffer::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:10904: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::Buffer_default_instance_'
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_connection.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::ModuleProperties::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:11091: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::ModuleProperties_default_instance_'
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_connection.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::Platform::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:11326: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::Platform_default_instance_'
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_connection.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::BufferStream::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:12852: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::BufferStream_default_instance_'
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_connection.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::DisplayConfiguration::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:13805: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::DisplayConfiguration_default_instance_'
CMakeFiles/mirclientobjects.dir/mir_screencast.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::ScreencastId::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:14763: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::ScreencastId_default_instance_'
rpc/CMakeFiles/mirclientrpc.dir/mir_protobuf_rpc_channel.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::BufferRequest::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:10594: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::BufferRequest_default_instance_'
rpc/CMakeFiles/mirclientrpc.dir/mir_protobuf_rpc_channel.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::LifecycleEvent::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:14011: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::LifecycleEvent_default_instance_'
rpc/CMakeFiles/mirclientrpc.dir/mir_protobuf_rpc_channel.cpp.o: In function `mir::protobuf::PingEvent::internal_default_instance()':
/home/mitydsp/mir/mir26/0.26/build/src/protobuf/mir_protobuf.pb.h:14042: undefined reference to `mir::protobuf::PingEvent_default_instance_'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
src/client/CMakeFiles/mirclient.dir/build.make:216: recipe for target 'lib/libmirclient.so.9' failed
make[2]: *** [lib/libmirclient.so.9] Error 1
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:4940: recipe for target 'src/client/CMakeFiles/mirclient.dir/all' failed
make[1]: *** [src/client/CMakeFiles/mirclient.dir/all] Error 2
Makefile:138: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

This now may be bug 1631597 (I have no idea how to tackle that)

Yes that looks like my problem. Thanks for the info. When I get bored I might try compiling the mir souce using protobuf 3.0.0 instead of 3.1.0. At least that would give us the capability of generating C# source from .proto files - which is a feature we are using.

If protobuf 3.0.0 is all you need, would upgrading Ubuntu to 17.04 be an option? protobuf 3.0.0 in the 17.04 archive and Mir is already built with it.

I had thought about that option but our company has a VM for development that is shared among many programmers that is based on 16.04. It is my understanding that 16.04 is a Long Term Support release while 17.04 is not.

Hi, I am in the same situation, it's very hard to find any good solution.

I believe that the correct solution is to downgrade from proto file 3 to 2 but I don't really like the idea.

It is unacceptable to force people who use 16.04 to upgrade to 17.04 only to use the software.

I found that solution but it does not work for me: https://github.com/google/protobuf/issues/2979

@Mathieu Benoit:
Maybe your libprotbuf library archive is not in /usr/local/lib/libprotobuf.a but somewhere else. In that case you would have to adapt the related project.pro settings.