Gazebo does not start

[ooeygui]

Describe the bug
With a default foxy chocolatey install, gazebo does not start from the command line using gzserver/gzclient.

Cause
During the build, gazebo sources try to capture the install location during a cmake pass. This install location is set in a variable which is injected directly into a source file. However, it is not escaped. Windows uses backslashes for path separation, which the C++ interpreter will try to escape. you end up with c:ptrosfoxy...

AB#509368

[ooeygui]

This can be worked around by setting the follow environment variables:
set HOME=%HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH%
set GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH=c:\opt\ros\foxy\x64\share\gazebo-10
set GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH=c:\opt\ros\foxy\x64\bin

[anion0278]

Attempting to start Gazebo 10.2.0 from other drives that C:/ causes it to freeze at spashscreen.

After setting up the env variables:

c:\opt\ros\foxy\x64\share\gazebo\setup.bat
set SDF_PATH=c:\opt\ros\foxy\x64\share\sdformat\1.6

The following errors appear after launching Gazebo via its gazebo_ros launch files:
ros2 launch gazebo_ros gazebo.launch.py
(gzserver is in verbose mode, even though, for some reason, the output shows gzclient in verbose mode):

[Err] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\gui\GuiIface.cc:526] Unable to save INI file["\Users\Admin\.gazebo\gui.ini"]

W:\colcon_ws>ros2 launch gazebo_ros gazebo.launch.py
[INFO] [launch]: All log files can be found below C:\Users\Admin\.ros\log\2023-02-16-08-28-09-595108-D122-KATEDRA-10428
[INFO] [launch]: Default logging verbosity is set to INFO
KILLING GAZEBO PROCESSES
[INFO] [gzserver-1]: process started with pid [876]
[INFO] [gzclient --verbose  -2]: process started with pid [11316]
[gzserver-1] Gazebo multi-robot simulator, version 10.2.0
[gzserver-1] Copyright (C) 2012 Open Source Robotics Foundation.
[gzserver-1] Released under the Apache 2 License.
[gzserver-1] http://gazebosim.org/
[gzserver-1]
[gzclient --verbose  -2] Gazebo multi-robot simulator, version 10.2.0
[gzclient --verbose  -2] Copyright (C) 2012 Open Source Robotics Foundation.
[gzclient --verbose  -2] Released under the Apache 2 License.
[gzclient --verbose  -2] http://gazebosim.org/
[gzclient --verbose  -2]
[gzclient --verbose  -2] [Msg] Waiting for master.
[gzclient --verbose  -2] [Msg] Connected to gazebo master @ http://127.0.0.1:11345/
[gzclient --verbose  -2] [Msg] Publicized address: 158.196.26.69
[gzclient --verbose  -2] [Err] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\gui\GuiIface.cc:526] Unable to save INI file["\Users\Admin\.gazebo\gui.ini"]
[gzclient --verbose  -2] [Wrn] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\gui\GuiIface.cc:297] Couldn't locate specified .ini. Creating file at "\Users\Admin\.gazebo\gui.ini"
[gzclient --verbose  -2] [Err] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\gui\GuiIface.cc:308] Unable to read configuration file "\Users\Admin\.gazebo\gui.ini"
[gzserver-1] [Msg] Waiting for master.
[gzserver-1] [Msg] Connected to gazebo master @ http://127.0.0.1:11345/
[gzserver-1] [Msg] Publicized address: 158.196.26.69
[gzserver-1] [Err] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\Server.cc:388] Unable to initialize sdf
[gzserver-1] [Wrn] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\Server.cc:338] Falling back on worlds/empty.world
[gzserver-1] [Err] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\Server.cc:388] Unable to initialize sdf
[gzserver-1] [foonathan::memory] Allocator foonathan::memory::new_allocator (at 0000000000000000) leaked 2432 bytes.
[gzserver-1] [foonathan::memory] Allocator foonathan::memory::heap_allocator (at 0000000000000000) leaked 16376 bytes.
[gzserver-1] [ERROR] [1676532492.544184000] [gazebo.rclcpp]: Error in destruction of rcl subscription handle: failed to remove subscriber, at C:\a\1\s\ws\src\rmw_fastrtps\rmw_fastrtps_shared_cpp\src\subscription.cpp:53, at C:\a\1\s\ws\src\rcl\rcl\src\rcl\subscription.c:243
[gzserver-1] [ERROR] [1676532492.544227700] [gazebo.rclcpp]: Error in destruction of rcl subscription handle: failed to remove subscriber, at C:\a\1\s\ws\src\rmw_fastrtps\rmw_fastrtps_shared_cpp\src\subscription.cpp:53, at C:\a\1\s\ws\src\rcl\rcl\src\rcl\subscription.c:243

After a little investigation, it seems that for Windows systems Gazebo 10 tries to retrieve the location of the settings from HOMEPATH env var https://github.com/gazebosim/gazebo-classic/blob/18b729b39dd6f3c0b8e0edfc0d8e00e25587f356/gazebo/gui/GuiIface.cc#L46

Thus next attempt was to change HOMEPATH to C:/Users/UserName.
However, now gazebo prints errors about initializing SDF 'Unable to initialize sdf':

[Err] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\Server.cc:388] Unable to initialize sdf

W:\colcon_ws>ros2 launch gazebo_ros gazebo.launch.py
[INFO] [launch]: All log files can be found below C:\Users\Admin\.ros\log\2023-02-16-08-29-03-595093-D122-KATEDRA-9964
[INFO] [launch]: Default logging verbosity is set to INFO
KILLING GAZEBO PROCESSES
[INFO] [gzserver-1]: process started with pid [2376]
[INFO] [gzclient --verbose  -2]: process started with pid [10004]
[gzclient --verbose  -2] Gazebo multi-robot simulator, version 10.2.0
[gzclient --verbose  -2] Copyright (C) 2012 Open Source Robotics Foundation.
[gzclient --verbose  -2] Released under the Apache 2 License.
[gzclient --verbose  -2] http://gazebosim.org/
[gzclient --verbose  -2]
[gzserver-1] Gazebo multi-robot simulator, version 10.2.0
[gzserver-1] Copyright (C) 2012 Open Source Robotics Foundation.
[gzserver-1] Released under the Apache 2 License.
[gzserver-1] http://gazebosim.org/
[gzserver-1]
[gzserver-1] [Msg] Waiting for master.
[gzserver-1] [Msg] Connected to gazebo master @ http://127.0.0.1:11345/
[gzserver-1] [Msg] Publicized address: 158.196.26.69
[gzserver-1] [Err] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\Server.cc:388] Unable to initialize sdf
[gzserver-1] [Wrn] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\Server.cc:338] Falling back on worlds/empty.world
[gzserver-1] [Err] [C:\a\1\s\ws\src\gazebo\gazebo10\gazebo\Server.cc:388] Unable to initialize sdf
[gzserver-1] [foonathan::memory] Allocator foonathan::memory::new_allocator (at 0000000000000000) leaked 2432 bytes.
[gzserver-1] [foonathan::memory] Allocator foonathan::memory::heap_allocator (at 0000000000000000) leaked 16376 bytes.
[gzserver-1] [ERROR] [1676532546.301026000] [gazebo.rclcpp]: Error in destruction of rcl subscription handle: failed to remove subscriber, at C:\a\1\s\ws\src\rmw_fastrtps\rmw_fastrtps_shared_cpp\src\subscription.cpp:53, at C:\a\1\s\ws\src\rcl\rcl\src\rcl\subscription.c:243
[ERROR] [gzserver-1]: process has died [pid 2376, exit code 3221225477, cmd 'gzserver       --verbose
                                             -s libgazebo_ros_init.so   -s libgazebo_ros_factory.so   -s libgazebo_ros_force_system.so       '].

The root cause of the problem is probably in the Gazebo itself: #386, #363, however, maybe someone knows a solution (besides creating an alias with the first command cd /d C:/) ?

ROS2 Foxy installed according to https://ms-iot.github.io/ROSOnWindows/GettingStarted/SetupRos2.html
Tested on three machines with Win10 - same behaviour.