On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 2:18 PM Dale <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 1/15/26 10:42 AM, John Blinka wrote: > > Hello, Gentooers, > > > > I just tried opening gramps after a very long period of disuse. It > > fails to open and gives this error message: > > > > 13254: ERROR: dbloader.py: line 107: can't load database backend: 'bsddb' > > Traceback (most recent call last): > > File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/gramps/gui/dbloader.py", > > line 188, in read_file > > db = make_database(dbid) > > File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/gramps/gen/db/utils.py", > > line 88, in make_database > > raise Exception(f"can't load database backend: '{plugin_id}'") > > Exception: can't load database backend: 'bsddb' > > > > I am up to date with portage, and running gramps-6.0.4, which was > > updated Nov 10, 2025 from gramps-5.2.3. Gramps was built with these > > use flags: > > > > * Found these USE flags for app-misc/gramps-6.0.4: > > U I > > + + exif : Add support for reading EXIF > > headers from JPEG and TIFF images > > + + geo : Enable rendering of > > geographical data using sci-geosciences/osm-gps-map > > + + postscript : Enable support for the > > PostScript language (often with ghostscript-gpl or libspectre) > > - - python_single_target_python3_11 : Build for Python 3.11 only > > - - python_single_target_python3_12 : Build for Python 3.12 only > > + + python_single_target_python3_13 : Build for Python 3.13 only > > + + rcs : Adds support for family tree > > archives via dev-vcs/rcs > > + + reports : All external software that is > > needed for graphical reports will be installed > > + + spell : Add dictionary support > > - - test : Enable dependencies and/or > > preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by > > FEATURES=test but can be > > toggled independently) > > > > https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Install_latest_BSDDB/tr > > suggests that the latest versions of gramps have encountered database > > problems and that upgrading sys-libs/db and python interfaces to db > > have helped. Their suggested db version is not supported by gentoo. > > And their suggested python interface, dev-python/berkeleydb, is not > > brought in by gramps-6.0.4. > > > > Before I dive deeply down a rabbit hole to fix this, has anybody > > encountered such a problem with gramps? Any suggestions on next steps? > > > > Thanks! > > > > John Blinka > > > It appears you picked a random email to reply to and just changed the > email address to post to this list. By doing that, you just attached > that email to the Gentoo mailing list email and sent it to every singe > person on a large mailing list in various countries which will also be > publicly archived for years to come. > > I've seen this said before and said it myself, ALWAYS start with a new > message when starting a new conversation. Do not hit reply and change > the email address. > > I'm not sure if that email contains links to anything confidential or > not but if I were you, I'd be looking into it. If it contains links that > may automatically log you into a account, I'd be changing that websites > credentials fast. > > I might add, because of that attachment, some people may not see it. It > may mark the message as spam and off to /dev/null it goes. > > Dale > > :-) :-) >
Woops! No idea how that happened. Dale, you may well be right! Apologies to all! Since then, I've discovered the problem. Gramps switched databases from Berkeley db to sqlite in the past few years. I had a couple family trees still in Berkeley db, which is no longer supported. Discarding those cured the problem. John
