Could not find CMAKE_ROOT

Usage
1

When I envoke cmake I get this error:

CMake Error: Could not find CMAKE_ROOT !!!
CMake has most likely not been installed correctly.

I use cmake version 3.10.2 on Xubuntu 18.04 64bit.

What can I do?

Greetings
Peter

2 Likes
2

It sounds like you’ve moved the cmake executable out of its installation tree. It needs to be kept in the same directory structure as ctest, cpack, ccmake, cmake-gui, and its Modules and Templates directory.

Is this the case?

3

No. But I have cmake both in /bin and in /usr/bin. This is probably a wrong thing.
I had just installed cmake 3.16.something and cmake --version tells me it is still cmake 3.10.something. I think I messed up the installation somehow.
Any chance to correct this?

Greetings
Peter

4

Please type the output of the following:

which cmake
5

The output is:
/usr/local/bin/cmake

6

What installation method did you use to install 3.10 and 3.16?

7

3.10 was already installed on OS installation or unnotieced as a dependency (via APT).
3.16 was downloaded form https://cmake.org/download/ and I followed the instructons there (If I remember correctly: ./bootstrap && make && sudo make install)

8

Please post the output of the following:

ls /usr/local/share/cmake-3.16/Modules/CMake.cmake
9

The output is:
/usr/local/share/cmake-3.16/Modules/CMake.cmake

10 
ls /usr/share/cmake-3.10/Modules/CMake.cmake
11

The output is:
/usr/share/cmake-3.10/Modules/CMake.cmake

12

Hmmm. So both installations appear to be valid.

How did you get CMake into /bin? Did you manually copy it in there? /bin/cmake may be the one that’s causing issues.

13

Yes I copied it there by hand. :frowning:

14

Please delete /bin/cmake. There’s no reason for it to live in /bin, and it’s failing because it can’t find its module files (it’s looking in /share/cmake-3.10/Modules, which obviously doesn’t exist.)

15

Also, we have our own APT repository which always hosts the latest CMake builds for Ubuntu. We even publish the release candidates as an optional add-on. This would probably be easier than managing the installation yourself :slight_smile:

16

Yes that would certainly be easier. I will go there.
I deleted /bin/cmake. Any other program to delete? maybe /bin/ctest and whatelse?

Greetings
Peter

17
  • /bin/cmake
  • /bin/ctest
  • /bin/cpack
  • /bin/ccmake
  • /bin/cmake-gui
18

Ander deleting those files I took the APT package and now it works fine with 3.16 without error.
Is it possible to mark this thread as “Solved”?

19

Yes, I will do so.

20

Also, you may want to remove the CMake installation from /usr/local - it may be shadowing the “correct” one in /usr.