Octave-Gnuplot-AquaTerm error: set terminal aqua enhanced title "Figure 1"...unknown terminal type"

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I've installed Octave and gnuplot via Homebrew, and downloaded AquaTerm.dmg. When I try to plot, I get the following message:

octave:4> plot(x,y)

gnuplot> set terminal aqua enhanced title "Figure 1" font "*,6"

                  ^
     `line 0: unknown or ambiguous terminal type; type just 'set terminal' for a list`

In a bash terminal set terminal, set Terminal, set term, (and the same, followed by "aqua" too) etc gives nothing. I've tried plotting again from octave having the "AquaTerm" already open, but nothing. I've tried plotting directly from gnuplot but same problem.. How can I do this "set terminal aqua"?

Gnuplot starting message says "Terminal type set to 'x11'" but no idea how to change it, the previous commands didn't work neither.

Since AquaTerm wasn't installed from Homebrew maybe octave/gnupot can't find it... but no idea. Any guess? Thanks!

Manikin answered 9/12, 2012 at 10:48 Comment(4)

What on earth does this have to do with bash? You are asked to type set terminal in gnuplot, not in bash. – Overreact 9/12, 2012 at 19:18

@n.m I tried in bash because typing "set terminal" rigt after the message (and therefore, inside octave) gave error. Now I tried opening gnuplot and type "set terminal" and it worked, it shows a list in which aqua isn't there. Thanks for the link! Since I have installed gnuplot from brew I didn't compile it directly. if I download and compile gnuplot outside brew don't know if will be any conflict or problem with octave... – Manikin 9/12, 2012 at 20:3

For Linux users: Try installing gnuplot-x11 and add setenv("GNUTERM","X11") to your ~/.octaverc. – Convoy 28/6, 2014 at 19:52

setenv("GNUTERM","qt") worked for me. – Charcoal 10/6, 2019 at 8:21

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I found a way to generate the plots with octave, although is not using AquaTerm but x11. The problem was that Octave was "forcing" gnuplot to use aquaterm to plot. Instead of installing and integrating aquaterm into gnuplot, in octave typed: setenv GNUTERM x11. With this, plots are generated with x11 which is already in the terminal list of gnuplot (set terminal). I know it's a patch, but finally I don't mind aquaterm or x11, I just want plots to be generated

Manikin answered 10/12, 2012 at 12:13 Comment(2)

Thank you, your answer helped me after I tried at least half a dozen separate solutions – Siliculose 10/11, 2013 at 6:11

If running linux Mint 16 you might need to install gnuplot-x11. sudo apt-get install gnuplot-x11 Then do as PGreen said, I found that my conf file was at /etc/octave.conf. Hope that helps. – Meghannmegiddo 3/3, 2014 at 19:42

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I had to add setenv("GNUTERM","X11") to OCTAVE_HOME/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc (OCTAVE_HOME usually is /usr/local) to make it work permanently.

Solution found and more details on: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-apps-games/242997-plots-octave-dont-work.html

Mayoralty answered 17/12, 2012 at 19:27 Comment(8)

If you ever want to revert it, the original value is aqua. octave:1> getenv GNUTERM ans = aqua – Inculcate 25/4, 2013 at 0:27

If you don't want to update the global octaverc, simply create a file ~/.octaverc and enter the setenv command in there. – Sop 11/3, 2014 at 6:8

I just installed Octave 3.8.0 on OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), and the Octave bundle seems to be set up to use Qt for windowing (rather than aqua or x11) using gnuplot_qt. Creating a ~/.octaverc file containing setenv("GNUTERM","qt") worked for me (thanks @Sop and @nightlyop). – Audreyaudri 29/3, 2014 at 22:38

if you used Homebrew to install Octave, you will find the octaverc file in the following path: usr/local/Cellar/octave/4.0.0_5/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc – Alain 30/3, 2016 at 20:7

This works why it didn't submitted as the correct answer? – Anterior 19/5, 2016 at 16:39

I'm using OSX 10.11 (El Capitan) with Octave 3.8.0 and this worked perfectly! – Philia 22/8, 2016 at 1:36

setenv("GNUTERM","qt") worked for me on Sierra 10.12.6. "x11" did not. – Shepperd 30/8, 2017 at 18:12

@TrevisThomas thanks!, the same works in macOS Mojave 10.14.6 – Tali 27/12, 2019 at 15:15

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I've ran into a similar issue with Octave-cli, version 3.8.0, on OS X 10.9.1. Observing how Octave-gui could still plot charts, and reading up the answer with octaverc, I've got plotting to work from Octave-cli by adding a line with setenv("GNUTERM","qt") to /usr/local/octave/3.8.0/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc

I didn't have to re-install gnuplot or other dependencies.

Indisputable answered 10/1, 2014 at 23:31 Comment(3)

Setting GNUTERM to qt worked for me (not X11) but I put it in my home directory (~/.octaverc) not the directory mentioned above. I don't know what the difference is but home directory seems to be more installation neutral. – Interatomic 29/3, 2014 at 15:17

I've also added setenv("GNUTERM","qt") to the my home directory ~/.octaverc and ploting with octave is now working like a charm. Thanks – Blakeblakelee 25/6, 2014 at 23:49

Thanks. Works for El Capitan! – Rowlett 1/5, 2016 at 4:30

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Setting the terminal type to x11 would solve the problem, but if you want to get AquaTerm working with gnuplot here's how:

First we need to uninstall the existing installation of gnuplot, open up a terminal and run this command.

brew uninstall gnuplot

Download AquaTerm from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/aquaterm/ and install as you would any OSX application.

From here on, there are two ways to get gnuplot happy with aquaterm, Method 1 is easier, but didn't work for me because my AquaTerm installation didn't create the correct symlinks in /usr/local/lib, Method 2 is the one that worked for me, and I am sharing the steps I took to get it working.

Method 1: Simply reinstall gnuplot after installing AquaTerm seems to fix this issue for people.

brew install gnuplot

Go to the verify step to see if everything worked, if not, follow method 2

Method 2: This method is more advanced, but guaranteed to work if you are patient.

Essentially gnuplot cannot locate the AquaTerm library files, that's why aqua doesn't show up as a terminal type option after we installed gnuplot. We need to modify the homebrew recipe for gnuplot to enable aquaterm support, open up the brew recipe for gnuplot by typing:

brew edit gnuplot

And add these lines as shown in this github commit message, this will enable the brew option for gnuplot to include aquaterm https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/issues/14647#issuecomment-21132477

Check to see if the proper AquaTerm library symlinks exist by doing these checks:

ls /usr/local/lib/libaquaterm*
ls /usr/local/include/aquaterm/*

The first line above should return some *.dylib files, the second line above should return some *.h files, if they do not exist run these commands from terminal:

sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/AquaTerm.framework/Versions/A/AquaTerm /usr/local/lib/libaquaterm.dylib
sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/AquaTerm.framework/Versions/A/AquaTerm /usr/local/lib/libaquaterm.1.0.0.dylib
sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/AquaTerm.framework/Versions/A/Headers/* /usr/local/include/aquaterm/.

This is necessary sometimes as the installer for AquaTerm can't create the symlinks in the correct places due to permission issues. Once the /usr/local/ symlinks are created, reinstall gnuplot like this:

brew install gnuplot --with-aquaterm # (formerly --aquaterm in old versions)

Verify that gnuplot can see aquaterm using the steps below and happy plotting!

Verify: that gnuplot was configured with AquaTerm correctly by launching gnuplot in terminal

gnuplot

Type this in the gnuplot terminal

gnuplot> set term

Look for the line

Available terminal types:
         aqua  Interface to graphics terminal server for Mac OS X
         ...

If you see the that line above, then you are done, gnuplot is configured correctly and everybody's happy.

Hammers answered 3/9, 2013 at 23:42 Comment(6)

Method 2 all the way! – Coparcener 9/11, 2013 at 17:17

FYI: I didn't need to update the recipe for gnuplot; simply adding the symlinks prior to installing gnuplot did the trick. Looks like any problems on the Homebrew side of this have been fixed. Cheers! – Duluth 1/12, 2013 at 6:45

brew reinstall gnuplot --aquaterm worked like a charm ... aquaterm must have already been installed at that point. – Uneducated 30/6, 2014 at 7:11

with my setup, I had to brew install gnuplot --with-aquaterm ; apparently the brew gnuplot recipe for 4.6.6 uses '--with-aquaterm' now: no need to edit the recipe or create those symlinks, but you do need to explicitly add the --with-aquaterm when installing gnuplot. – Hoist 15/2, 2015 at 14:0

Thanks for great help...It worked well for me using 2nd method – Dixie 18/3, 2016 at 6:0

Check rehumbus's answer below for a simpler solution that may avoid reinstalling. Simply add setenv("GNUTERM","qt") to ~/.octaverc – Rugen 29/12, 2017 at 3:8

M

47

I found a way to generate the plots with octave, although is not using AquaTerm but x11. The problem was that Octave was "forcing" gnuplot to use aquaterm to plot. Instead of installing and integrating aquaterm into gnuplot, in octave typed: setenv GNUTERM x11. With this, plots are generated with x11 which is already in the terminal list of gnuplot (set terminal). I know it's a patch, but finally I don't mind aquaterm or x11, I just want plots to be generated

Manikin answered 10/12, 2012 at 12:13 Comment(2)

Thank you, your answer helped me after I tried at least half a dozen separate solutions – Siliculose 10/11, 2013 at 6:11

If running linux Mint 16 you might need to install gnuplot-x11. sudo apt-get install gnuplot-x11 Then do as PGreen said, I found that my conf file was at /etc/octave.conf. Hope that helps. – Meghannmegiddo 3/3, 2014 at 19:42

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set terminal or set term is gnuplot command.

You just need to run gnuplot from command line to get access to the gnuplot shell.

However, this didn't work for me, neither did the setenv("GNUTERM","x11") in /usr/local/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc or ~/.octaverc (both do the same thing).

So I ran set term in gnuplot shell as saw no x11 in the list. I used homebrew to install gnuplot, so I first uninstalled it brew uninstall gnuplot, then installed with x11 using --with-x flag for that:

brew install gnuplot --with-x

This solved the issue for me. Use brew info gnuplot to see the list of flags for gnuplot installation.

P.S. And yes, I did download an X11 dmg and installed it using package installer, still gnuplot had no x11 in the list of supported terminals.

Bosporus answered 16/5, 2013 at 1:26 Comment(2)

Very helpful. Note that the graphics seem cleaner to me using the QT or WxWindows terminals, which can be installed (along side if desired) using the --qt and --wx brew install options respectively. – Bloodshed 21/6, 2013 at 22:26

Instead of brew install gnuplot --with-x, use brew reinstall gnuplot --with-x11 (if gnuplot is already installed; --with-x seems no longer supported) – Footie 15/8, 2017 at 16:49

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You can try this:

>> brew reinstall gnuplot --with-aquaterm

or

>> brew uninstall gnuplot
>> brew install gnuplot --with-aquaterm

Soulful answered 29/7, 2014 at 21:44 Comment(3)

Could use some more explaination. – Romaineromains 29/7, 2014 at 22:1

Be advised that you actually need to install aquaterm before reinstalling gnuplot. aquaterm.github.io – Pigmentation 24/11, 2014 at 1:51

the with-aquaterm is no longer a valid option for gnuplot: github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues/46923 – Beaming 10/2, 2020 at 13:47

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Create a file .octaverc in your home directory and set GNUTERM to X11

echo "setenv('GNUTERM','X11')" > ~/.octaverc

Open octave terminal and type sombrero to check whether plotting works

octave:1> sombrero

Unconcern answered 12/3, 2014 at 12:49 Comment(0)

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This worked for me:

Unistall gnuplot

brew uninstall gnuplot
Install AquaTerm. You can download it from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/aquaterm/
Reinstall gnuplot

brew install gnuplot

Albie answered 29/3, 2014 at 17:30 Comment(1)

If you're still getting "Segmentation Fault: 11" and "unable to load appropriate font", these commands worked for me: brew uninstall fontconfig && brew install fontconfig --universal – Rashidarashidi 19/4, 2016 at 3:37

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Anton is correct. You can now just reinstall gnuplot with the --with-aquaterm option. I'd upvote his answer if I had enough reputation points to do it.

$ brew uninstall gnuplot
$ brew install gnuplot --with-aquaterm

Mackuntu mentioned above that this issue has been discussed on github.

https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/issues/14647#issuecomment-21132477

But he advised using the option --aquaterm. If you take a close look at the github link you'll see that the option is --with-aquaterm. Reinstalling gnuplot with this option today allowed me to run some old octave code that uses gnuplot for plotting graphs on OS X.

Sicanian answered 18/9, 2014 at 22:3 Comment(0)

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In my case, on Mas OS Mojave, the solution that worked for my was slightly different (it could be a matter of syntax only). Following the discussion on this thread I came with the solution that worked for me - it might be important to note that it was possible for me to plot from the Octave-cli but not from Octave command line directly in terminal.

So I created a ˜/.octaverc file and added the following command to it:

setenv GNUTERM qt

Just quit the command line from octave and entered again and was able to plot.

Juju answered 17/2, 2019 at 16:11 Comment(0)

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Following thing worked for me:

setenv("GNUTERM","qt")

You can either run it on the octave cli, for local run or can set in the octave startup file for permanent.

/usr/local/octave/3.8.0/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc

Just remember in case you change octaverc file you have to have write permissions on it.

Typist answered 25/5, 2019 at 17:20 Comment(0)

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I have an answer that should resolve the issue you're encountering. Essentially, for me the problem was that the gnuplot build did not locate the proper AquaTerm libraries. Check out the post I made:

http://deveneezer.blogspot.com/2013/06/octave-gnuplot-and-aquaterm.html

Elwoodelwyn answered 19/6, 2013 at 3:56 Comment(0)

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What has worked for me is installing gnuplot-nox. Also see https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4866

Seems like the best way to install gnuplot-nox is to install fink. http://sourceforge.net/projects/fink/?source=dlp

fink install gnuplot-nox

seems to do a good job. However the installation was failing at one point. So I installed gnuplot-minimal then ran gnuplot-nox install again and everything worked just fine.

fink install gnuplot-minimal
fink install gnuplot-nox

gnuplot-nox install seemed to have set aqua as the default terminal for gnuplot. Verify that by going to gnuplot shell. To verify if plotting works, type plot(1) in the shell. It should show the plot in a window.

Hope that works for you.

Like suggested in other posts, setting GNUTERM to X11 didn't solve this issue for me. Also straight installing AquaTerm for Mac OSX didn't solve this issue.

Bambara answered 25/12, 2013 at 10:5 Comment(0)

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The answer is already contained in the above, but this is simpler I think:

nano ~/.octaverc

add this:

setenv("GNUTERM", "X11")

Thats it restart octave you're done.

Scotsman answered 23/3, 2014 at 20:17 Comment(0)

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Here is the solution that worked for me (based on different parts of the mackuntu comment)

Gnuplot is probably already installed for you by the brew install octave command, so we need to remove it first

brew uninstall gnuplot

Then aquaterm has to be installed (http://sourceforge.net/projects/aquaterm/)

After install is complete you need to install gnuplot again. This is because brew detects the presence of aquaterm during install and will not do any checks for it after.

brew install gnuplot --with-aquaterm

If you launch gnuplot after install it should show that aquaterm is supported. And all graphics in octave will work.

Bab answered 25/1, 2015 at 11:22 Comment(0)

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