Protobuf incompatibility errors in Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Kinetic, Gazebo 7

[AkshayHinduja]

I am trying to compile the package on my computer but running into errors similar to:-

/usr/include/gazebo-7/gazebo/msgs/world_control.pb.h:18:2: error: #error incompatible with your Protocol Buffer headers. Please
 #error incompatible with your Protocol Buffer headers.  Please
  ^
/usr/include/gazebo-7/gazebo/msgs/world_control.pb.h:19:2: error: #error regenerate this file with a newer version of protoc.
 #error regenerate this file with a newer version of protoc.

I was initially using Protobuf 2.6.1 but seeing the errors migrated to 3.3.0 by manually upgrading the version. It didn't make any difference to the errors. I have also reinstalled gazebo but to no avail. The compilation worked on a different system with the same configuration, with protobuf 2.6.1 Any suggestions on how to resolve this?

[musamarcusso]

Hi @AkshayHinduja, just to clarify, does this happen when running catkin build in your workspace? I never run into this issues when using Gazebo's installation instructions

[AkshayHinduja]

Hi @musamarcusso. Yes it happens while running catkin build in the workspace. To clarify, this issue is not during Gazebo's installation, it is when building the uuv_simulator. I removed gazebo-7 (pre-installed with ros-kinetic) to freshly install gazebo 9, but the same problem persists.

Another example of the error messages:-

In file included from /usr/include/ignition/msgs1/ignition/msgs/MessageTypes.hh:163:0, from /usr/include/ignition/msgs1/ignition/msgs/Utility.hh:29, from /usr/include/ignition/msgs1/ignition/msgs.hh:25, from /usr/include/ignition/transport4/ignition/transport/Node.hh:32, from /usr/include/gazebo-9/gazebo/physics/Entity.hh:25, from /usr/include/gazebo-9/gazebo/physics/Link.hh:37, from /home/akshay/hauv_sim_ws/src/uuv_simulator/uuv_world_plugins/uuv_world_plugins/src/UnderwaterCurrentPlugin.cc:24: /usr/include/ignition/msgs1/ignition/msgs/joint_cmd.pb.h:17:2: error: #error This file was generated by an older version of protoc which is #error This file was generated by an older version of protoc which is ^ /usr/include/ignition/msgs1/ignition/msgs/joint_cmd.pb.h:18:2: error: #error incompatible with your Protocol Buffer headers. Please #error incompatible with your Protocol Buffer headers. Please ^ /usr/include/ignition/msgs1/ignition/msgs/joint_cmd.pb.h:19:2: error: #error regenerate this file with a newer version of protoc. #error regenerate this file with a newer version of protoc.

[musamarcusso]

Have you tried reinstalling only the ignition libraries? The problems seems to be around ignition.

[musamarcusso]

Or maybe you have to install

sudo apt-get install protobuf-compiler protobuf-c-compiler

[AkshayHinduja]

the protobuf binaries didn't work for me. It seems the issue arises from gazebo picking up a different version of ignition(from earlier binary installs) which was dependent on an older version of protoc. (see here: http://answers.gazebosim.org/question/17820/compilation-fails-as-gazebo-and-ignition-msgs-require-different-protobuf-versions/) I am trying to build it from source and will see if it works. If not, then I think a fresh install is the only option. Thanks!

[musamarcusso]

What version of Gazebo are you using?

[AkshayHinduja]

Initially had Gazebo7 from the ros-kinetic install. That didnt work, tried Gazebo-9 from binaries. Now trying gazebo-9 from source

[musamarcusso]

That is very strange. I don't know many other tips that I could give in that case. One of the things you could maybe check (I don't know how it would help) is to check the configuration for the Travis build since one of the cases installs Gazebo 9 for tests. But it is not much different from what the official Gazebo installation instructions might provide.

[AkshayHinduja]

I finally got it compiled. Gazebo, ignition, and protobuf have a lot of compatibility issues between versions. I'll list down what I did so it might be useful to others.

What worked for me was to first erase all gazebo, ignition and protobuf related files and binaries (sudo apt-get remove, and delete /usr/ and /usr/local include files.

Then install from source protobuf 2.6.1. Install protobuf-compiler and protobuf-c-compiler from binaries (both are version 2.6.1 in ubunutu 16.04)

Next is to install gazebo9 from source. (http://gazebosim.org/tutorials?tut=install_from_source&cat=install) The dependencies mentioned in their page were strangely incompatible. Best is to install the binaries which the cmake ../ output tells for gazebo.

After that install the ros dependencies for gazebo9. sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-gazebo9-ros-pkgs ros-kinetic-gazebo9-ros-control.

Once that is done everything should work out fine. The issue probably arises from newer versions of protobuf being used earlier.

[JKTesla]

I finally got it compiled. Gazebo, ignition, and protobuf have a lot of compatibility issues between versions. I'll list down what I did so it might be useful to others.

What worked for me was to first erase all gazebo, ignition and protobuf related files and binaries (sudo apt-get remove, and delete /usr/ and /usr/local include files.

Then install from source protobuf 2.6.1. Install protobuf-compiler and protobuf-c-compiler from binaries (both are version 2.6.1 in ubunutu 16.04)

Next is to install gazebo9 from source. (http://gazebosim.org/tutorials?tut=install_from_source&cat=install) The dependencies mentioned in their page were strangely incompatible. Best is to install the binaries which the cmake ../ output tells for gazebo.

After that install the ros dependencies for gazebo9. sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-gazebo9-ros-pkgs ros-kinetic-gazebo9-ros-control.

Once that is done everything should work out fine. The issue probably arises from newer versions of protobuf being used earlier.

Hi @AkshayHinduja , thanks for your advice. I also do not know when my ubuntu 16.04's protobuf version changed from 2.6.1 to 3.3.0.

I accepted your advice to install gazebo9 from source, but I wanted to maintain protobuf version in 3.3.0 .

I find the core of problem is ignition (the gazebo required dependencies) binaries. So I try to install ignition from source and compile them (SDFormat… 、Ignition Transport、DART) using the default protobuf 3.3.0. The uuv_simulator is able to compile and work well using gazebo-9 in protobuf 3.3.0.

Note: The default branch your cloned repository about ignition and gazebo are the development branch, you should use hg up or git check to switch to the branch of the corresponding version (e.g. sdf6 for Gazebo 9) .