octave 8.2.0 on macOS 12.6.4: "GUI features missing or disabled in this build"

[niemand0]

Solution to issue cannot be found in the documentation.

• I checked the documentation.

Issue

I updated octave from 8.1.0 to 8.2.0:

$ conda activate octave
$ conda update -c conda-forge octave
Retrieving notices: ...working... done
Collecting package metadata (current_repodata.json): done
Solving environment: done
.
.
.
Proceed ([y]/n)? y


Downloading and Extracting Packages

Preparing transaction: done                                                                                  
Verifying transaction: done                                                                                  
Executing transaction: done

I followed the steps given in the Octave for macOS wiki page for Anaconda:

$ conda create --name octave
$ conda activate octave
$ conda install -c conda-forge octave

$ octave --gui

But the output is always:

octave: GUI features missing or disabled in this build

Same issue exists in octave 8.1.0.

Installed packages

# packages in environment at /Users/<username>/opt/anaconda3/envs/octave:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
arpack                    3.7.0                hefb7bc6_2    conda-forge
bzip2                     1.0.8                h0d85af4_4    conda-forge
c-ares                    1.19.1               h0dc2134_0    conda-forge
ca-certificates           2023.5.7             h8857fd0_0    conda-forge
cairo                     1.16.0            h904041c_1014    conda-forge
curl                      8.1.2                hbee3ae8_0    conda-forge
expat                     2.5.0                hf0c8a7f_1    conda-forge
fftw                      3.3.10          nompi_h4fa670e_107    conda-forge
fltk                      1.3.8                h7ffa276_0    conda-forge
font-ttf-dejavu-sans-mono 2.37                 hab24e00_0    conda-forge
font-ttf-inconsolata      3.000                h77eed37_0    conda-forge
font-ttf-source-code-pro  2.038                h77eed37_0    conda-forge
font-ttf-ubuntu           0.83                 hab24e00_0    conda-forge
fontconfig                2.14.2               h5bb23bf_0    conda-forge
fonts-conda-ecosystem     1                             0    conda-forge
fonts-conda-forge         1                             0    conda-forge
freetype                  2.12.1               h3f81eb7_1    conda-forge
fribidi                   1.0.10               hbcb3906_0    conda-forge
gettext                   0.21.1               h8a4c099_0    conda-forge
ghostscript               9.54.0               h96cf925_2    conda-forge
giflib                    5.2.1                hb7f2c08_3    conda-forge
gl2ps                     1.4.2                h4cff582_0    conda-forge
glib                      2.76.3               h7d26f99_0    conda-forge
glib-tools                2.76.3               h7d26f99_0    conda-forge
glpk                      5.0                  h3cb5acd_0    conda-forge
gmp                       6.2.1                h2e338ed_0    conda-forge
gnuplot                   5.4.5                h62d52a3_1    conda-forge
graphite2                 1.3.13            h2e338ed_1001    conda-forge
gst-plugins-base          1.22.3               hb5d3a86_1    conda-forge
gstreamer                 1.22.3               h53e17e3_1    conda-forge
harfbuzz                  6.0.0                h08f8713_0    conda-forge
hdf5                      1.14.0          nompi_hbf0aa07_103    conda-forge
icu                       70.1                 h96cf925_0    conda-forge
jpeg                      9e                   hb7f2c08_3    conda-forge
krb5                      1.20.1               h049b76e_0    conda-forge
lame                      3.100             hb7f2c08_1003    conda-forge
lerc                      4.0.0                hb486fe8_0    conda-forge
libaec                    1.0.6                hf0c8a7f_1    conda-forge
libblas                   3.9.0           17_osx64_openblas    conda-forge
libcblas                  3.9.0           17_osx64_openblas    conda-forge
libclang                  13.0.1          default_h255f2f3_1    conda-forge
libcurl                   8.1.2                hbee3ae8_0    conda-forge
libcxx                    16.0.5               hd57cbcb_0    conda-forge
libdeflate                1.17                 hac1461d_0    conda-forge
libedit                   3.1.20191231         h0678c8f_2    conda-forge
libev                     4.33                 haf1e3a3_1    conda-forge
libexpat                  2.5.0                hf0c8a7f_1    conda-forge
libffi                    3.4.2                h0d85af4_5    conda-forge
libflac                   1.4.2                hf0c8a7f_0    conda-forge
libgd                     2.3.3                h4685329_4    conda-forge
libgfortran               5.0.0           11_3_0_h97931a8_31    conda-forge
libgfortran5              12.2.0              he409387_31    conda-forge
libglib                   2.76.3               hc62aa5d_0    conda-forge
libiconv                  1.17                 hac89ed1_0    conda-forge
liblapack                 3.9.0           17_osx64_openblas    conda-forge
liblapacke                3.9.0           17_osx64_openblas    conda-forge
libllvm13                 13.0.1               h64f94b2_2    conda-forge
libnghttp2                1.52.0               he2ab024_0    conda-forge
libogg                    1.3.4                h35c211d_1    conda-forge
libopenblas               0.3.23          openmp_h429af6e_0    conda-forge
libopus                   1.3.1                hc929b4f_1    conda-forge
libpng                    1.6.39               ha978bb4_0    conda-forge
libpq                     15.3                 h9dc22bb_1    conda-forge
libsndfile                1.2.0                h591af1c_0    conda-forge
libsqlite                 3.42.0               h58db7d2_0    conda-forge
libssh2                   1.11.0               hd019ec5_0    conda-forge
libtiff                   4.5.0                hee9004a_2    conda-forge
libvorbis                 1.3.7                h046ec9c_0    conda-forge
libwebp                   1.2.4                h70a068d_1    conda-forge
libwebp-base              1.2.4                h775f41a_0    conda-forge
libxcb                    1.13              h0d85af4_1004    conda-forge
libxml2                   2.10.3               h201ad9d_4    conda-forge
libzlib                   1.2.13               hfd90126_4    conda-forge
llvm-openmp               16.0.5               hff08bdf_0    conda-forge
metis                     5.1.0             h2e338ed_1006    conda-forge
mpfr                      4.2.0                h4f9bd69_0    conda-forge
mpg123                    1.31.3               hf0c8a7f_0    conda-forge
mysql-common              8.0.32               hc6116ba_2    conda-forge
mysql-libs                8.0.32               haa61052_2    conda-forge
ncurses                   6.3                  h96cf925_1    conda-forge
nspr                      4.35                 hea0b92c_0    conda-forge
nss                       3.89                 h78b00b3_0    conda-forge
octave                    8.2.0                hc53a06c_0    conda-forge
openssl                   3.1.1                h8a1eda9_1    conda-forge
packaging                 23.1               pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
pango                     1.50.14              hbd9bf65_0    conda-forge
pcre                      8.45                 he49afe7_0    conda-forge
pcre2                     10.40                h1c4e4bc_0    conda-forge
perl                      5.32.1          2_h0d85af4_perl5    conda-forge
pip                       23.1.2             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
pixman                    0.40.0               hbcb3906_0    conda-forge
ply                       3.11                       py_1    conda-forge
portaudio                 19.6.0               he965462_8    conda-forge
pthread-stubs             0.4               hc929b4f_1001    conda-forge
pyqt                      5.15.7          py311h8771221_3    conda-forge
pyqt5-sip                 12.11.0         py311h78fa98d_3    conda-forge
python                    3.11.3          h99528f9_0_cpython    conda-forge
python_abi                3.11                    3_cp311    conda-forge
qhull                     2020.2               h940c156_2    conda-forge
qscintilla2               2.13.4          py311h6f08df8_0    conda-forge
qt-main                   5.15.8               h1d3b3f8_6    conda-forge
readline                  8.2                  h9e318b2_1    conda-forge
setuptools                67.7.2             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
sip                       6.7.9           py311hdf8f085_0    conda-forge
suitesparse               5.10.1               h7aff33d_1    conda-forge
sundials                  6.5.1                h4d39bc9_0    conda-forge
tbb                       2021.9.0             hb8565cd_0    conda-forge
texinfo                   7.0             pl5321hc47821c_0    conda-forge
tk                        8.6.12               h5dbffcc_0    conda-forge
toml                      0.10.2             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
tomli                     2.0.1              pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
tzdata                    2023c                h71feb2d_0    conda-forge
wheel                     0.40.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
xorg-fixesproto           5.0               h0d85af4_1002    conda-forge
xorg-kbproto              1.0.7             h35c211d_1002    conda-forge
xorg-libice               1.1.1                h0dc2134_0    conda-forge
xorg-libsm                1.2.4                h0dc2134_0    conda-forge
xorg-libx11               1.8.4                hb7f2c08_0    conda-forge
xorg-libxau               1.0.11               h0dc2134_0    conda-forge
xorg-libxdmcp             1.1.3                h35c211d_0    conda-forge
xorg-libxext              1.3.4                hb7f2c08_2    conda-forge
xorg-libxfixes            5.0.3             h0d85af4_1004    conda-forge
xorg-libxrender           0.9.10            h0d85af4_1003    conda-forge
xorg-renderproto          0.11.1            h0d85af4_1002    conda-forge
xorg-xextproto            7.3.0             hb7f2c08_1003    conda-forge
xorg-xproto               7.0.31            h35c211d_1007    conda-forge
xz                        5.2.6                h775f41a_0    conda-forge
zlib                      1.2.13               hfd90126_4    conda-forge
zstd                      1.5.2                hbc0c0cd_6    conda-forge

Environment info

active environment : octave                                                                             
    active env location : /Users/<username>/opt/anaconda3/envs/octave                                          
            shell level : 2                                                                                  
       user config file : /Users/<username>/.condarc                                                           
 populated config files : /Users/<username>/.condarc                                                           
          conda version : 23.3.1                                                                             
    conda-build version : 3.24.0                                                                             
         python version : 3.8.13.final.0                                                                     
       virtual packages : __archspec=1=x86_64                                                                
                          __osx=10.16=0                                                                      
                          __unix=0=0                                                                         
       base environment : /Users/<username>/opt/anaconda3  (writable)                                          
      conda av data dir : /Users/<username>/opt/anaconda3/etc/conda                                            
  conda av metadata url : None                                                                               
           channel URLs : https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/osx-64                                      
                          https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/osx-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/osx-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/noarch
          package cache : /Users/<username>/opt/anaconda3/pkgs
                          /Users/<username>/.conda/pkgs
       envs directories : /Users/<username>/opt/anaconda3/envs
                          /Users/<username>/.conda/envs
               platform : osx-64
             user-agent : conda/23.3.1 requests/2.28.1 CPython/3.8.13 Darwin/21.6.0 OSX/10.16
                UID:GID : 501:20
             netrc file : None
           offline mode : False

[iandol]

I can confirm this frustrating error also on macOS Ventura 13.4 + Micromamba V1.4.4 — so far only homebrew can successfully install octave for macOS users...

[ngam]

We are not related to these docs https://wiki.octave.org/Octave_for_macOS...

We don't support gui on osx and I am not sure what it will take to get it supported. If interested, you'd likely want to initiate an effort to get it added in this feedstock.

[iandol]

Thanks @ngam, is there some way to inform a user when installing a package that some functionality is not working, i.e. how are we supposed to know conda-forge doesn't support the GUI when using macOS?

edit: I assume the GUI did work at some point in the past which is why the Octave wiki suggests the GUI option works?

[ngam]

I don’t think we ever had the GUI working on macOS. It’s likely because we would need to link things better to the system library. I am afraid someone will have to fix it when they have time. I will try to have a look in the coming weeks. Maybe @matthiasdiener can offer a better answer?