Kicad unable to use OpenGL after recent update

Support Software & Applications
1

Hello after updating my 2 systems that was released recently on the stable, Kicad is unable to use OpenGL for rendering. I do not have any other graphics issues on my system, all games and other graphics apps are working fine. I have this issue on both my desktop (Nvidia GPU) and my laptop (Intel GPU).

I suspect something went wrong in WXwidgets (also updated in the update) as this is the library Kicad uses to render graphics.

2

Kicad does not seem to have a error log just a simple error pop-up:

Screenshot_20251214_143116
Screenshot_20251214_143116705×244 26.1 KB

I have also tried to build Kicad myself using the system’s WXwidgets libary and get the same issue. I will try to build WXwidgets to see if that changes anything.

3

Edit: as Stable branch has just had a new update (2025-12-15) announced, the change to another branch suggested below may not be necessary, as all 3 Manjaro branches are now on version 9.0.6-5 of kicad. Stable & Testing are now on version 3.2.9-3 of wxwidgets-comman, with Unstable on version 3.2.9-4.

Instead of doing all of that, could you possibly try switching to Testing or Unstable branch to see if version 9.0.6-5 of kicad (built just 5 days ago) fixes the issue?

Output of: mbn info kicad -q | grep -Ev 'Name|Repository|Packager' 
mbn info kicad -q | grep -Ev 'Name|Repository|Packager'
Branch         : archlinux
Version        : 9.0.6-5
Build Date     : Wed 10 Dec 2025 03:07:51 
Branch         : unstable
Version        : 9.0.6-5
Build Date     : Wed 10 Dec 2025 03:07:51 
Branch         : testing
Version        : 9.0.6-5
Build Date     : Wed 10 Dec 2025 03:07:51 
Branch         : stable
Version        : 9.0.6-2
Build Date     : Thu 27 Nov 2025 02:36:40

The version of wxwidgets also differs between branches:

Output of: mbn info wxwidgets-common -q | grep -Ev 'Name|Repository|Packager' 
mbn info wxwidgets-common -q | grep -Ev 'Name|Repository|Packager'
Branch         : archlinux
Version        : 3.2.9-4
Build Date     : Sat 13 Dec 2025 07:25:56 
Branch         : unstable
Version        : 3.2.9-4
Build Date     : Sat 13 Dec 2025 07:25:56 
Branch         : testing
Version        : 3.2.9-3
Build Date     : Mon 08 Dec 2025 23:48:14 
Branch         : stable
Version        : 3.2.9-2
Build Date     : Mon 08 Dec 2025 05:31:19

mbn can be found in the manjaro-check-repos package

Maybe the issue has been fixed with a newer build?

To switch to Testing branch:

sudo pacman-mirrors -a -B testing && sudo pacman-mirrors -f && sudo pacman -Syyu

or, to switch to Unstable branch:

sudo pacman-mirrors -a -B unstable && sudo pacman-mirrors -f && sudo pacman -Syyu

To return to Stable branch:

sudo pacman-mirrors -a -B stable && sudo pacman-mirrors -f && sudo pacman -Syyuu

Note: the extra u is required to enable package downgrades when moving from Unstable to Testing or Stable, or from Testing to Stable

4

Todays update (2025-12-15) including Kicad and WXwidgets solved the problem for me.

4 Likes
5

Commits · main · Arch Linux / Packaging / Packages / kicad · GitLab

upgpkg: 9.0.6-5: Release swig fixes
Christian Heusel authored 5 days ago (9 December 2025 at 16:19:07 GMT)

upgpkg: 9.0.6-4 (backport swig 4.4 fix)
Filipe Laíns authored 6 days ago (9 December 2025 at 13:54:45 GMT)

upgpkg: 9.0.6-3; wxwidgets rebuild
George Rawlinson authored 6 days ago (9 December 2025 at 03:39:36 GMT)

6

Thanks for the new update. It fixed the issue but for some reason Kicad will not automatically switch back to the OpenGL renderer. It needs to be done manually by going into preferences > Schematic/Footprint Editor > Rendering Engine.

7

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