Switchboard is not launching with my ue5

[Renegade_Viz (Julian Haysom)]

#UE5.0.3 #Switchboard #ndisplay

I am just starting an ndisplay project and I want to start testing it but I can’t get switchboard to start. I have followed tutorials and quick start guides to setup ndisplay and I am now stuck with the deploying and running of the project as switchboard never properly launches.

The first time I used it I started the listener and then I clicked on launch switchboard in the toolbar.
This prompted me to install the dependencies - which I did.
Those series of install prompts ended in as prompt to launch switchboard which I did… At this point the mouse throbber rotates and is cleary computing the switchboard application but the switchboard window never opens.

When I try to look for the switchboard launch button on my toolbar to relaunch it cannot be found. It’s disappeared.

If I try launch from the desktop the same thing happens.
Nothing about switchboard is showing in my output log.

If I go to the switchboard plugin section in editor preferences and I try reinstalling the dependencies but I cannot because I get a permission denied prompt.

I investigate this and discover the switchboard python processes are running as a background process in my task manager labelled as Python and that I can’t reinstall as they are running. So I end this task and I am now able to reinstall the dependencies to the default virtual environment location through the editor.

None of this works, however sometimes I have found that removing the plugin restarting reenabling and reinstalling the plugin will bring switchboard button back to my ue5 toolbar. I can then attempt to launch switchboard from the editor. it still does not create a switchboard window, However the output log indicates switchboard has launched successfully.

I am stumped, because I have reinstalled the engine 5.0.2 and installed 5.0.3
and reenabled the plugin and dependencies and it still will not work.

I tried another solution (4.27) that I found in these threads that modifies the Bat file and that did work either.

I’m wondering if it has something to do with Python tools?

Has anyone had this problem and can the help me solve it?

[Derpdacow1]

@Renegade_Viz

anyone had this problem and can the help me solve it?

I’m having the exact same issue, although I haven’t found a way to edit the .bat file, when I go to use Switchboard over my server’s network, the icon will disappear and ultimately stop working, resulting in me having to reinstall everything. Im not sure at all whats causing this issue but it is very frustrating!

[Damien_Conroy]

@Derpdacow1

@Renegade_Viz

anyone had this problem and can the help me solve it?

I’m having the exact same issue

Me too!

[Renegade_Viz (Julian Haysom)]

@Damien_Conroy @Derpdacow1 I never managed to solve it. I ended up testing with my laptop also windows 11 and same engine version it works fine from my laptop. If you find out a solution please post.

It’s also worth noting that I can see a python process running in background processes wich i believe is the switchboard application. however it is not in main processes like it is in my laptop. perhaps this is helpful insight to someone with a bit more technical under the hood knowledge

[Damien_Conroy]

It works on my laptop too, but I can’t use my laptop in our system with how it’s connected. I tried ending the python processes in the backgroud, no change.

I edited the batch file to catch the stderr:

REM start "Switchboard" /D "%_switchboardDir%" "%_venvDir%\Scripts\pythonw.exe" -m switchboard ^1^>stdout.txt ^2^>stderr.txt
start "Switchboard" /D "%_switchboardDir%" cmd /c "%_venvDir%\Scripts\pythonw.exe" -m switchboard ^1^>stdout.txt ^2^>stderr.txt

and got this result:

[DEBUG]: Loading Settings F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard\configs\user_settings.json
[SUCCESS]: OSC Server: Receiving on ('10.235.5.1', 6000)
ERROR:
 
Description = Invalid namespace
 
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Binaries\ThirdParty\Python3\Win64\lib\runpy.py", line 197, in _run_module_as_main
   return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Binaries\ThirdParty\Python3\Win64\lib\runpy.py", line 87, in _run_code
   exec(code, run_globals)
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard\switchboard\__main__.py", line 64, in <module>
   launch()
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard\switchboard\__main__.py", line 32, in launch
   main_window = SwitchboardDialog()
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard\switchboard\switchboard_dialog.py", line 396, in __init__
   self.menu_new_config()
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard\switchboard\switchboard_dialog.py", line 809, in menu_new_config
   dialog = AddConfigDialog(
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard\switchboard\add_config_dialog.py", line 171, in __init__
   self.populate_best_project_guess(overrideIfFound=False)
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard\switchboard\add_config_dialog.py", line 402, in populate_best_project_guess
   editors,projects = self.detect_running_projects()
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard\switchboard\add_config_dialog.py", line 458, in detect_running_projects
   for line in subprocess.check_output(cmd, startupinfo=sb_utils.get_hidden_sp_startupinfo()).decode().splitlines():
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Binaries\ThirdParty\Python3\Win64\lib\subprocess.py", line 424, in check_output
   return run(*popenargs, stdout=PIPE, timeout=timeout, check=True,
 File "F:\UE\UE_5.0\Engine\Binaries\ThirdParty\Python3\Win64\lib\subprocess.py", line 528, in run
   raise CalledProcessError(retcode, process.args,
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command 'wmic process where caption="UE4Editor.exe" get commandline' returned non-zero exit status 2147749902.

[SIRTJames]

I’ve installed on a large number of machines for VP training, and it seems to be about 50/50 if the icon will persist or disappear, and we haven’t seen a reliable solution for this in Engine BUT if you create a shortcut for switchboard on your desktop during the initial install, you can open it there without issue. Same with listener, just in case.

[Damien_Conroy]

The shortcut doesn’t work either.
This seems to be something wrong in my win 10 installation. The Python error happens when this is called:
wmic process where caption="UnrealEditor.exe" get commandline

if run in an administrator cmd window this gives an error:

ERROR:
Description = Invalid namespace

It gives the same error when looking for Notepad.exe, so this is not a switchboard error. Would be nice to be able to work around this though, I only use switchboard with packaged projects, so I don’t need any process id to an editor window.

Best to fix the error though! could be causing other issues.

[Damien_Conroy]

I commented out lines 450-486 in add_config_dialog.py

This works for me because I will only run packaged projects, not sure if the info can be added after launch to make it work with the editor as well. If there is any insight on how to fix the WMI problem I’m all ears, I tried the common solutions that google throws up but no luck there.

[DreamerW]

Just open engine->plugins->runtimes->switchboard->switchboard.bat in unreal engine path as administrator.

I don’t know if the path is correct, but anyway, finding switchboard.bat and opening it with administrator privileges solved it.
If switchboard.bat is installed on the desktop, go to properties and open the path file. Be sure to go to the installation file path, not the copy.

[Johnyth21]

Hi, did you had any luck in finding a solution ? I have exact same problem.

[koyaanisqatsi]

Did you try it on the 5.1!

[ProsiKout]

It works! Thanks a lot.

In the 5.1 the path is:
“Epic Games\UE_5.1\Engine\Plugins\VirtualProduction\Switchboard\Source\Switchboard.bat”

Open as Administrator et voilá.

[DreamerW]

Glad to be of help. I also tried to look at the Unreal official documentation, but I kept experiencing the same problem as you and found it after various attempts. I would like to help you with your project. good luck!!

[DoowonKang]

Remove Engine\Extras\ThirdPartyNotUE\SwitchboardThirdParty\Python\Scripts\pythonw.exe and run again switchboard.bat. this will reinstall dependencies of builtin python in UE and retarget relative paths.

[querzoli]

great! this helped and worked, Switchboard reinstalled without errors!
thanks a lot