bad wine invocation from QGIS on macos

[Chris Ghormley]

I am trying to use the LAStools QGIS plugin on a 2020 mac M1 running macOS 15.5. The plugin is not building the path to wine correctly. Running las2dem on the command line works OK. I don't know what's going on - hopefully an easy workaround is available.

More details and logs below.

The plugin is installed and activated. The configured LAStools folder is /opt/LAStools and the wine folder is /opt/homebrew/bin.

The command line run by the plugin doesn't match my wine installation. It starts with

/opt/homebrew/bin/wine/wine

But it should be

/opt/homebrew/bin/wine

The full command line as altered runs without errors:

/opt/homebrew/bin/wine /opt/LAStools/bin/las2dem64.exe -demo -i /Users/csg/Downloads/USGS_LPC_OR_OLCMetro_2019_A19_w2058n2793.laz -keep_first -step 1.0 -v

Here is the complete log:

----

QGIS version: 3.40.5-Bratislava

QGIS code revision: 8d6d1b54486

Qt version: 5.15.2

Python version: 3.9.5

GDAL version: 3.3.2

GEOS version: 3.9.1-CAPI-1.14.2

PROJ version: Rel. 8.1.1, September 1st, 2021

PDAL version: 2.3.0 (git-version: Release)

Algorithm started at: 2025-05-28T10:26:21

Algorithm 'las2dem (file)' starting…

Input parameters:

{ 'ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS' : '', 'ATTRIBUTE' : 0, 'FILTER_RETURN_CLASS_FLAGS1' : 2, 'INPUT_LASLAZ' : '/Users/csg/Downloads/USGS_LPC_OR_OLCMetro_2019_A19_w2058n2793.laz', 'PRODUCT' : 0, 'STEP' : 1, 'USE_TILE_BB' : False, 'VERBOSE' : True }

No license file found. Run in demo mode.

LAStools command line

/opt/homebrew/bin/wine/wine /opt/LAStools/bin/las2dem64.exe -demo -i /Users/csg/Downloads/USGS_LPC_OR_OLCMetro_2019_A19_w2058n2793.laz -keep_first -step 1.0 -v

LAStools console output

/bin/sh: /opt/homebrew/bin/wine/wine: Not a directory

Execution completed in 0.77 seconds

Results:

Loading resulting layers

Algorithm 'las2dem (file)' finished

----

Thanks for any suggestions.

Chris

[LAStools - efficient tools for LiDAR processing]

Hi Chris,

thanks for the hint. On which version of the LAStools plugin does this happen? 

(Current version of the plugin is 2.3.2)

Did wine work with an older version and the same setting?

Thanks,

Jochen @rapidlasso

[Chris Ghormley]

This was my first time trying to use LAStools at all, and my first time
using the LAStools plugin in QGIS. I had been using plugin version
2.3.0, just upgraded to 2.3.2. Nothing has changed in my parameters - my
Wine folder is still /opt/homebrew/bin.

With 2.3.2, the command line generated by the plugin does not include "wine", so
the command does not execute.

I was able to get the tool to run by setting "Wine folder" to
"/opt/homebrew/bin/wine". This is a symlink to "/Applications/Wine
Stable.app/Contents/Resources/wine/bin/wine", which also works. But I
have to type the path in because (at least on Mac) the QGIS folder
picking dialog prevents me from selecting a regular file for this
option.

Here's a log with Wine folder set to /opt/homebrew/bin:

----
QGIS version: 3.40.5-Bratislava
QGIS code revision: 8d6d1b54486
Qt version: 5.15.2
Python version: 3.9.5
GDAL version: 3.3.2
GEOS version: 3.9.1-CAPI-1.14.2
PROJ version: Rel. 8.1.1, September 1st, 2021
PDAL version: 2.3.0 (git-version: Release)

Algorithm started at: 2025-05-30T10:24:56
Algorithm 'las2dem (file)' starting=E2=80=A6

Input parameters:
{ 'ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS' : '', 'ATTRIBUTE' : 0,
'FILTER_RETURN_CLASS_FLAGS1' : 2, 'INPUT_LASLAZ' :
'/Users/csg/Downloads/USGS_LPC_OR_OLCMetro_2019_A19_w2058n2793.laz',
'PRODUCT' : 0, 'STEP' : 1, 'USE_TILE_BB' : False, 'VERBOSE' : True }

No license file found. Run in demo mode.
LAStools command line

/opt/homebrew/bin /opt/LAStools/bin/las2dem64.exe -demo -i
/Users/csg/Downloads/USGS_LPC_OR_OLCMetro_2019_A19_w2058n2793.laz -

keep_first -step 1.0 -v
LAStools console output

/bin/sh: /opt/homebrew/bin: is a directory

Execution completed in 0.09 seconds

Results:

Loading resulting layers
Algorithm 'las2dem (file)' finished
----

And here's one where I manually specified the binary:

----
QGIS version: 3.40.5-Bratislava
QGIS code revision: 8d6d1b54486
Qt version: 5.15.2
Python version: 3.9.5
GDAL version: 3.3.2
GEOS version: 3.9.1-CAPI-1.14.2
PROJ version: Rel. 8.1.1, September 1st, 2021
PDAL version: 2.3.0 (git-version: Release)

Algorithm started at: 2025-05-30T10:59:11
Algorithm 'las2dem (file)' starting=E2=80=A6

Input parameters:
{ 'ADDITIONAL_OPTIONS' : '', 'ATTRIBUTE' : 0,
'FILTER_RETURN_CLASS_FLAGS1' : 2, 'INPUT_LASLAZ' :
'/Users/csg/Downloads/USGS_LPC_OR_OLCMetro_2019_A19_w2058n2793.laz',

'PRODUCT' : 0, 'STEP' : 1, 'USE_TILE_BB' : False, 'VERBOSE' : False }

No license file found. Run in demo mode.
LAStools command line

"/Applications/Wine Stable.app/Contents/Resources/wine/bin/wine"
/opt/LAStools/bin/las2dem64.exe -demo -i
/Users/csg/Downloads/USGS_LPC_OR_OLCMetro_2019_A19_w2058n2793.laz -
keep_first -step 1.0
LAStools console output
[....]
Execution completed in 32.57 seconds

Results:

Loading resulting layers
Algorithm 'las2dem (file)' finished
----

So I was able to make it work with 2.3.2.

But it was an easy fix. I submitted a patch that resolves the issue on my installation. Hopefully this is useful.

Chris

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Chris Ghormley

[LAStools - efficient tools for LiDAR processing]

Hi Chris,

we are glad you could solve this issue. Actually this was more a documentation issue. We fixed the wine behavior with the large redesign of version 2.3.2: It is now intended, that the full wine executable file is given in the wine setting. This gives more flexibility in the type of windows emulator users can and will use. Therefore you have to give the full executable name, like you finally did.

We will update the documentation in this point. Also we change the input selector of the QGIS LAStools plugin wine setting so it will be able to select files and not only directories. 

Thanks for pointing out this problem to us,

Cheers,

Jochen @rapidlasso