[TxMt] Possible crisis with $TM_variables

I was trying to install the footnote plugin from syncPeople on Rails, and nothing happened. Then I fiddled around a bit and detected that Show Scope didn't work either. So I thought maybe there was a problem with the path $TM_xxx variables (those are paths, mainly, right?). So using appZapper I did a complete reinstall and I think I've put everything in the standard place but still no luck, neither plugin install nor showing of scope works. Any help? I have all bundles activated and I've also activated the macros using the automation menu so as to avoid any keyboard mistypings.

Andreas