cannot activate LuxCoreRender v2.8alpha1 on Blender 4.0 on Linux

[luisseyfer]

Hello, I try to get LuxCore 2.8 running on Blender-4.0.2 without success. I downloaded luxcorerender-v2.8alpha1-linux64.tar.bz2 from https://github.com/LuxCoreRender/LuxCore/releases. First, it is confusing not to get a *.zip archive, since this is what Blender expects for the common addon install process. Funny enough, 9 months back it obviously was still released as a zip archive. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u50EKV1Wi6U go to 1:10) So, I copied the extracted LuxCore folder into .../home/kubuntu/APPS/BlenderLauncher/stable/blender-4.0.2-stable.9be62e85b727/4.0/scripts/addons Blender finds it in Preferences > Addons, but I cannot activate:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/kubuntu/APPS/BlenderLauncher/stable/blender-4.0.2-stable.9be62e85b727/4.0/scripts/modules/addon_utils.py", line 364, in enable
    mod = importlib.import_module(module_name)
  File "/home/kubuntu/APPS/BlenderLauncher/stable/blender-4.0.2-stable.9be62e85b727/4.0/python/lib/python3.10/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1050, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1027, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 688, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 883, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 241, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/home/kubuntu/.config/blender/4.0/scripts/addons/BlendLuxCore_280/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    raise Exception(msg + "\n\nImportError: %s" % error) from None
Exception: 

Could not import pyluxcore.

ImportError: cannot import name 'pyluxcore' from 'BlendLuxCore_280.bin' (/home/kubuntu/.config/blender/4.0/scripts/addons/BlendLuxCore_280/bin/__init__.py)

/home/kubuntu/.config/blender/4.0/scripts/addons/BlendLuxCore_280/bin/init.py exists, but is empty!

The version number seems weird, but ... who cares?

Any hints, how to get this working are very much appreciated.

I would also highly suggest providing zip archives for Blender!

Operating System: Kubuntu 22.04 KDE Plasma Version: 5.24.7 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.92.0 Qt Version: 5.15.3 Kernel Version: 5.15.0-107-generic (64-bit) Graphics Platform: X11 Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM CPU @ 2.40GHz Memory: 15.6 GiB of RAM Graphics Processor: Quadro 3000M/PCIe/SSE2 (eGPU) Graphics Processor: mGTX 1070 (internal)

[neo2068]

Hi! As far as I know, the linux release always was a bz2 archive. Only windows release is a zip archive (as shown in the video). Can you check if the issue remains with renamed addon folder name, i.e. keep the name BlendLuxCore?

[luisseyfer]

Thanks for your answer.

If you look through releases you will find that only the last alpha and beta versions for Linux are tarballs. Where do you see a *.tar.bz2 in the video?

I tried renaming both folders. Unfortunately it does not change anything.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/kubuntu/APPS/BlenderLauncher/stable/blender-4.0.2-stable.9be62e85b727/4.0/scripts/modules/addon_utils.py", line 364, in enable
    mod = importlib.import_module(module_name)
  File "/home/kubuntu/APPS/BlenderLauncher/stable/blender-4.0.2-stable.9be62e85b727/4.0/python/lib/python3.10/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1050, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1027, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 688, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 883, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 241, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/home/kubuntu/.config/blender/4.0/scripts/addons/BlendLuxCore/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    raise Exception(msg + "\n\nImportError: %s" % error) from None
Exception: 

Could not import pyluxcore.

ImportError: cannot import name 'pyluxcore' from 'BlendLuxCore.bin' (/home/kubuntu/.config/blender/4.0/scripts/addons/BlendLuxCore/bin/__init__.py)

[neo2068]

Ok, I got it now. You downloaded the wrong release files. For the Blender addon, you have to go to BlendLuxCore. There are zip files for linux. The LuxCore project only has the binaries for standalone use of LuxCoreRender.

[luisseyfer]

Ahhh, I see. That solves it. Thanks a lot!