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== [[GnuCash]] on Microsoft Windows ==
+
= [[GnuCash]] on Microsoft Windows =
  
−
This page collects various notes about compiling [[GnuCash]] on Microsoft Windows. See [[Windows/Old_Notes]] for old, solved issues.
+
This page collects various notes about running [[GnuCash]] on Microsoft Windows.
 +
 
 +
=== Q: Which Windows versions are supported? ===
 +
;Answer: The [{{URL:www}}/download.phtml download page] shows, which Windows version is officially supported by which GnuCash version.
 +
:;Note: ''Windows 3/95/98/Me'' and ''Windows NT3.5/4.0'' have never been supported.
 +
 
 +
=== Q: Where is the binary installer? ===
 +
'''A:''' The latest versions can be downloaded from the [{{{{URL:www}}}}/download.phtml download] page on the GnuCash website. Anyone who cares about their data should use the '''released version''' found there.
 +
:People looking to test new features - at the risk of running into extra bugs - could try a '''test version''':
 +
:* As it is not so easy to build GnuCash under Windows, a daily build of the [{{URL:Build:Win}} stable branch] is made available as well to '''test''' bugfixes.
 +
:* To closely follow development on the ''future branch'', which contains new features - and bugs - there are the [[#Q:_Are_there_nightly_builds.3F|nightly builds]]. Expect data loss if you try these though!
  
 
=== Q: Is it possible to compile GnuCash on Windows? ===
 
=== Q: Is it possible to compile GnuCash on Windows? ===
−
:'''A:''' Well, compiling is possible, and running as well, but so far not everything runs.
+
'''A:''' Yes. It's cumbersome, but possible. See the instructions in [[Building_on_Windows| Building on Windows]].
 +
 
 +
=== Q: Are there nightly builds? ===
 +
'''A:''' We run nightly builds for the '''stable''' (former <q>maint</q>) and after implmenting its first feature the '''future''' (former <q>master</q>) branch, but it's configured so that it runs only if changes have been pushed since the last build and only if the build is successful; they do fail from time to time. You can find the last 6-12 month's worth of builds at
 +
{{BuildURL}}/builds/win32/
 +
or, more specifically, for [{{URL:Build:Win}}?C=M;O=D stable], on demand for [{{URL:Build:Win|future}}?C=M;O=D future], and [{{URL:Build:Win|build-logs}}?C=M;O=D logs for all builds].
 +
 
 +
The product of the nightly builds is a Windows installer that will ''replace your existing GnuCash installation''. The future branch ''really is unstable'': Be sure to have suitable backups and don't use it for your "production" books.
  
−
=== Q: So, where is the binary? ===
+
=== Q: Anything else? ===
−
We do not (yet) provide a binary for Windows. The simple reason is already stated above: We know compiling is possible, but the runtime testing has just started, and we expect a lot of issues still need to be resolved. This means the source code will change quite quickly and those early testers are expected to follow those source code changes by getting the code from [[SVN]].  On the other hand, providing a binary would mean people wouldn't follow the source code changes quickly enough, making the testing almost useless. (That would change if someone volunteers to provide e.g. a nightly binary build. Volunteers, anyone?) That's why we still do not provide a binary, until we've received enough positive feedback to know the program can actually be distributed.
+
To avoid making the installer file even bigger, some functionality is not available without further downloads and installations of software.
  
−
=== Instructions for an (almost) automated build ===
+
==== Preferences in GnuCash 2.6 and more recent ====
−
Copied from http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2006-September/018588.html
+
gconf has been replaced with another preferences system. On Windows you
 +
will find the preferences directly in the Windows Registry under the
 +
registry key
 +
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/GSettings/org/gnucash/
  
−
Several people have now compiled and run GnuCash on MS Windows by the
+
==== Pdf name for invoices ====
−
mingw32/gcc compiler environment. These instructions explain how everyone else can give it
 
−
a try as well. We would be happy to hear any further feedback about
 
−
problems or (hopefully) success in this matter.
 
  
−
We've created a shell script that will download, compile, and install
+
This name is controlled by two hidden preferences:
−
all requirements of GnuCash on Windows and eventually GnuCash itself. It
+
* pdf-export/filename-format
−
will even make sure to retrieve the most up-to-date gnucash source code
+
* pdf-export/filename-date-format
−
directly from SVN. Running this script will probably download ~200MB of
 
−
data (but all downloaded data will be cached) and will take anything
 
−
between 0.5 through 5 hours of time. That shell script is located in
 
−
packaging/win32/install.sh of the gnucash [[SVN]] sources.
 
  
−
Before you can execute this shell script (which will do everything else
+
Both of them will reside in the registry under
−
automatically), you have to complete these steps manually:
+
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/GSettings/org/gnucash/dialogs/general/report
  
−
* Get the contents of the packaging/win32/ directory of gnucash [[SVN]], most up-to-date [http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk/packaging/win32/ from SVN], and copy it to some directory on your Windows machine. Do not use a directory that is one of the parent directories of the path you intend to use for the repository in the next step (c:\soft\repos by default). Possible locations are c:\soft\packaging or c:\soft\downloads.
+
These won't be there by default (only values that deviate from the default
 +
value will be effectively in the registry). To change it you will first
 +
have to create a sub key named '''pdf-export''.
  
−
* Adapt the directory name variables in the custom.sh file according to your preferences; the defaults would install everything in subdirectories below c:\soft. (Note that due to shell syntax, every windows-style backslash has to be specified as two backslashes.)
+
Under this key you can create two string type keys named '''filename-format'''
 +
and '''filename-date-format'''.
  
−
* Download the "MSYS" package from http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml -> Section "Current" -> Subsection "MSYS" -> MSYS-1.0.10.exe [http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/MSYS-1.0.10.exe?download Download link]
+
This is the definition of these two string keys:
 +
;filename-format
 +
:This setting chooses the file name for PDF export. This is a sprintf(3) string with three arguments: "%1$s" is the report name such as "Invoice". "%2$s" is the number of the report, which for an invoice report is the invoice number. "%3$s" is the date of the report, formatted according to the filename-date-format setting. (Note: Any characters that are not allowed in filenames, such as '/', will be replaced with underscores '_' in the resulting file name.)<br/>The default value is %1$s-%2$s-%3$s
  
−
* Execute this downloaded package to install it into the chosen directory, say, C:\soft\msys (which is the $MSYS_DIR variable in custom.sh)
+
;filename-date-format
 +
:This setting chooses the way dates are used in the filename of PDF export. Possible values for this setting are "locale" to use the system locale setting, "ce" for Continental Europe style dates, "iso" for ISO 8601 standard dates , "uk" for United Kingdom style dates, and "us" for United States style dates.
  
−
* Download the "wget" package from http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml -> Current -> mingwPORT -> wget-1.9.1-mingwPORT.tar.bz2 [http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/wget-1.9.1-mingwPORT.tar.bz2?download Download link] and place the downloaded file in the $DOWNLOAD_DIR you have set in custom.sh
+
==== Finance::Quote ====
 +
For the retrieval of [[Online Quotes]], you will need to install [{{URL:wp}}Perl Perl] and Finance::Quote (F::Q). See [[Online_Quotes#Installing_Perl_on_Windows|Installing Perl on Windows]].
  
−
* Start the MSYS commandline shell by double-clicking the "MSYS" icon on the desktop which should have been created when you installed the MSYS package.
+
= Notes =
 +
== Error messages, Trace file ==
 +
In the GnuCash application, all error messages are redirected to a ''trace file''. There will be one trace file for each time GnuCash is run. For a user named "myname" these files are located in the folder
 +
* <tt>c:\Documents and Settings\myname\Local Settings\Temp</tt> (Windows XP) or
 +
* <tt>C:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Temp</tt> (Windows Vista/7).
 +
They are named
 +
* <tt>gnucash.trace.ABCDEF</tt> (GnuCash 2.2.9 and older) or
 +
* <tt>gnucash.trace.ABCDEF.log</tt> (GnuCash 2.4.0 and newer)
 +
where the ABCDEF part is changed randomly on each start of gnucash. See also [[Tracefile]].
  
−
* Let the automated build begin by typing:
+
If you experience crashes or unexpected behavior, check the latest of these files (or the one created when the problem started) and add all interesting-looking lines of that file to your error reports, at least the lines with the keywords <tt>WARN</tt>ing and <tt>CRIT</tt>ical warning.
  
−
  $INSTALLER_DIR/install.sh  (the complete path to the install.sh)
+
See also [[Windows Debugging]].
  
−
* Some of the downloaded packages are installed through graphical installer dialogs where you can choose an installation directory. In those cases, the install.sh script will tell you in the MSYS window the installation directory that you should choose, according to your settings in custom.sh. Please enter only those installation directory in the installer dialog because otherwise the install.sh script cannot find the newly installed software.
+
== Determining the locale ==
 +
When asked for the locale, take a look at the Regional Settings in your Control Panel and report the values found for "Standard and Formats", "Location" and "Language for non-Unicode programs".
  
−
* If there haven't been any errors, you should be able (after several hours of compiling and installing) to start gnucash from the MSYS command line by typing
+
Also, use [{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=450353 this  bug's] [{{BugURL}}/attachment.cgi?id=90557 attachment] to determine the locale as used internally by gettext.
  
−
  c:/soft/gnucash/bin/gnucash
+
= Problems, issues, comments =
 +
For any problem that occurs now, you should add a new section below.
  
−
or even without MSYS directly by "Start"-> "Run"-> "c:\soft\gnucash\bin\gnucash.bat"
+
== Issues with older versions of GnuCash ==
  
−
* If there HAVE been errors, then please report them in the Section [[#Problems, issues, comments|Problems, issues, comments]].
+
In an effort to keep the information somewhat manageable this page will only gather issues with the current stable version of GnuCash. For historical reference, the older issues will be moved to [[Windows/Old Issues|a separate page]].
  
−
Please spread the word and report back any problems you encounter. It is
+
If you experience issues with an older version of GnuCash, the first advice is normally to try again with the current stable version. There may however be situations where you need to revive an older version and in that case the information kept on the [[Windows/Old Issues|older issues page]] may be useful.
−
probably not too difficult anymore to create a full self-contained
 
−
package of GnuCash on Windows as well! Some more information is also
 
−
collected here on this wiki page.
 
  
−
=== A bit of history ===
+
In addition, if you experience any of the older issues in the current stable release of GnuCash, please [[Bugzilla|file a bug report]] or ask about it on the [[Mailing Lists|user mailing list]].
−
This page used to collect random notes from the time when we manually tried to install each and every part of the requirements. They have been moved to [[Windows/Old Notes]].
 
  
−
== Notes ==
+
== Known issues ==
 +
Here is a list of the most often mentioned Windows issues. If you experience this problem, please check the respective bugzilla reports for potential workarounds.
 +
* {{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=466512 Win32: Wrong permissions for .gnucash directory (was: Win32 GnuCash 2.2.1 Fails to Start/Install)
 +
* {{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=645273#c40 Reports features do not work
  
−
=== gdb ===
+
== Windows 7 64-bit - GnuCash fails to run ==
−
In addition to [[Stack Trace]], here are a few instructions on how to run gnucash under gdb on Windows:
 
−
* Install "gdb" from mingw.org
 
−
* Modify the installed "gnucash" script to call "exec gdb gnucash-bin.exe" instead of "exec gnucash-bin.exe" at the end
 
−
* Then start gnucash, which will give you the gdb prompt
 
−
* Type "run" at the gdb prompt.
 
−
* Then provoke the crash and type "backtrace" or shorthand "bt" at the gdb prompt to obtain the backtrace, as explained on [[Stack Trace]] as well.
 
  
−
You can provide even better stack traces if you tell gdb where in memory dynamically loaded modules got mapped to, because otherwise function calls into those are only written as '??'. See [http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2006-November/019042.html here] and [http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2006-November/019048.html here] for a way to do this.
+
This is with GnuCash 2.4.3:
  
−
=== install.sh ===
+
Starting GnuCash shows the splash screen and the tip of the day for a brief instant and then it disappears. To fix the problem, I did:
−
* To debug install.sh, change <tt>set -e</tt> to <tt>set -ex</tt> at the top of it.
 
−
* Once you have installed Subversion, you might want to checkout and update packaging/win32 as described in [[SVN]].
 
−
svn checkout <nowiki>http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk/packaging/win32</nowiki> packaging
 
  
−
== Problems, issues, comments ==
+
# Right-click on the GnuCash icon and select 'Run as Administrator'
−
For any problem that occurs now, you should add a new section below.
+
# GnuCash starts up as expected
 +
# Close GnuCash
 +
 
 +
After doing the above once, I can start GnuCash normally and it starts up properly.
 +
 
 +
Hopefully this helps someone. --[[User:Sketch|Sketch]] 05:05, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
 +
 
 +
== Font problems ==
 +
 
 +
After upgrading to 2.2.1, people have reported font-related issues:
 +
 
 +
* The tick/check mark in the Reconcile window may look like a "nondescript squiggle"
 +
* Register windows may open with all transactions scrolled out of sight (upwards)
 +
* Languages other than English show characters as a box of four zeros "0 0 0 0".
  
−
=== pkg-config ===
+
The reason appears to be that GnuCash is now referring to Windows to determine what fonts to use,
−
Error : winxpsp2 - endless loop with "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142)."
+
and in both these cases is using the one specified for "Message Box", which defaults to Tahoma 8.
−
only solution was to hard-power-down when encountered.
 
−
problem is in install.sh (rev.15222 lines 541,546) the pkg_config here-file should not use the $(PKG_CONFIG) variable since it creates a self-referential-script.  chgd to pkg-config command as listed in [http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-changes/2005-December/001749.html rev.12155]
 
−
:You should never need to hard-power-down. First try to interrupt the running process by typing <tt>Ctrl-C</tt>. If that does not help, use the task manager to kill it or <tt>sh</tt>.
 
−
:Indeed, r15215 (r12155 is irrelevant here) introduced a regression, because the pkg-config-msys.sh script must not use $PKG_CONFIG as we export that. Cstim, may you take look at this issue? I suppose we want something like "popd `dirname $0` &>/dev/null; ./pkg-config...". -- [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
 
−
:sorry about the wiki confusion - this section (obviously?) applies to the one below that i started-over.  in fact, it has a nice html-page self-referential feel to it all now... ;)
 
  
−
===What is needed for providing a binary...===
+
Changing to Tahoma 10 fixed both of these for me.
−
Hi all,
 
  
−
Since that gnucash works more or less nicely on windows, assuming that it might come even better in the future (big thanks to all developers and 'voluntaires') I said to my MS-friend he shall use gnucash. (sql-ledger would have been the other possibility).
+
The procedure on WinXP is:
 +
# Start -> Control panel or My Computer -> Control panel
 +
# Appearance and Themes -> Display (or, if using the "Classic View", Display)
 +
# Appearance
 +
# Advanced
 +
# Select "Message Box" from the drop-down
 +
# Change as required (e.g. set to Tacoma 10 point)
 +
# OK
 +
# Apply
  
−
Now I have the problem, what do I need to copy onto his machine now? The whole soft folder is 909M. It would be nice when it's possible to delete all not needed (just needs to run on his machine) stuff. I guess that will be about 85% maybe even?
+
[[User:Fred|Fred]] 10:30, 22 August 2007 (EDT)
 +
:Is this still necessary when using GnuCash 2.2.2? [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
  
−
Anyway, before doing quite some 'try and error' work to reduce that, I thought I would ask people (you :) with inside knowledge, maybe providing some hints to me.
+
I ([[User:piyo|piyo]]) confirmed that the above procedure is necessary for viewing Japanese on Windows XP with GnuCash 2.2.3 (2008-01-08):
 +
* Confirmed that working fonts are '''Arial UI Unicode''', '''FixSys''', '''System''', '''Tahoma''' (including 8!), '''Terminal'''. Also for Japanese, '''MS P Gothic''', '''MS P Mincho''', '''MS UI Gothic''', '''MS Gothic''', '''MS Mincho fonts''' are working.
 +
* Confirmed that non-working fonts are '''Lucida Sans Unicode''' and '''Microsoft Sans Serif'''.
 +
--[[User:Piyo|Piyo]] 23:23, 5 February 2008 (EST)
  
−
Thanks a lot!
+
== Program hangs constantly ==
−
[[User:Calmar|Calmar]]
 
  
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:Assuming that you installed to different prefixes within soft, I will name a few directories that contain only build dependencies: active-perl (as long as finance::quote in non-functional), autotools, downloads, (expat?), indent, mingw, msys, pexports, repos, svn, swig, tmp, unzip and wget. There may be more we do not need to run GnuCash, but I think we do not have a better list right now. Maybe we should indeed start discussion some day :) -- [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
+
(GnuCash 2.4)
−
:Some stats of mine: c:\soft -> 4.15 GB, dirs above sum up to 2.64 GB. Did not expect that a high percentage, because I have a lot of stuff lying around :) Your mileage will vary.
 
  
−
::Hi Andi. I had to include the autotools folder.I have now: gnome, gnucash, goffice, guile, readline, autotools, libgsf and regex. 193MB. Only 50MB zipped (just in case it's here: http://www.calmar.ws/toni.zip ). Can send to the friend now. thanks again! [[User:Calmar|Calmar]] 16:04, 8 December 2006 (EST)
+
According to [{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=677829 this bug report] GnuCash can become unstable with some themes. The original reporter didn't remember which themes caused issues, but had no problems when using the "Unity" theme.
−
:::Yes, I guess you need libltdl-3.dll only. In case you can wait a few days, I will try to make a script that extracts the necessary files. That may at least be an intermediate solution. -- [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
 
−
::::Hi Andi, it seems there is also the need for libssl32.dll libeay32.dll or so. Probably from the openssl package. Maybe the need to install the openssl package additionally , or maybe just the dll's in such a 'binary package'. I will check out somebit. Cheers [[User:Calmar|Calmar]]
 
−
:::::Additionally (still trying to install that on a friends computer without the long install.sh) I get that error:
 
−
::::::procedure: primitive-load-path:
 
−
::::::unable to find: ice-9/boot-9.scm
 
−
:::::Gnucash actually quits suddenly after that. (That is with the folders (mentioned above) zipped on my computer, extracted on his, and additionally installed Win32OpenSSL-0_9_8d.exe. Cheers [[User:Calmar|Calmar]]
 
−
::::::Easy fix: Move these files to exactly the same position they have been on your computer, i.e. most likely guile@c:\soft\guile. Meanwhile, I am setting up a dist.sh that should produce a GnuCash installer package, including a fix for guile by setting GUILE_LOAD_PATH. -- [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
 
−
:::::::Hi Andi, it says it can't find unzip. I added /c/soft/unzip/bin/ to the path. then it says that it can't find: /c/soft/guile/bin/libguile.*dll' my dll's looks like: libguile-12.dll  maybe a typo and it could be: libguile*.dll? Cheers and thanks [[User:Calmar|Calmar]]
 
−
::::::::Please rebuild guile, i.e. remove c:\soft\guile, c:\soft\tmp\guile-1.6.8, comment out add_step svnup and add_step gnucash, run install.sh. Does that help? -- [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
 
−
:::::::::cp: cannot stat `/c/soft/guile/bin/libguile.*dll': No such file or directory I still get. I removed the directories you mentioned. (I did not really uncomment add_step svnup and gnucash in custom.sh, but that' shouldn't be the problem, should it?) Cheers [[User:Calmar|Calmar]]
 
−
:Restarting at the left. Calmar, what dll files does a run of an up-to-date install.sh create in c:\soft\guile\bin for you? -- [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
 
−
::Hi Andi,I did not update the dist.sh, that was maybe the problem. At least it processed further now. But I begun from scratch anyway, and now it hangs after the message: Extracting gtkhtml-dev-3.12.0.zip ... done (i.e. Nicht genuegend virtueller Speicher), while working on gnome it seems. It opens many many sh.exe instances, that's why. I need to figure out the problem first of all I think. Later and thanks [[User:Calmar|Calmar]]
 
  
−
===DLL install error===
+
--[[User:GJanssens|GJanssens]] 18 October 2013
−
I get an error like that:
 
  
−
'libgncmodule.la' 'c:/soft/gnucash/lib/libgncmodule.la'
+
== Gnucash fails to start with Failed to contact configuration server ==
−
/bin/install -c .libs/libgncmodule.dll.a
 
−
c:/soft/gnucash/lib/libgncmodule.dll.a
 
−
base_file=`basename ${file}`
 
−
  dlpath=`/bin/sh 2>&1 -c '. .libs/'${base_file}'i;echo $dlname'`
 
−
make[5]: *** [install-libLTLIBRARIES] Error 1
 
−
make[5]: Leaving directory `/c/soft/repos/src/gnc-module'
 
−
make[4]: *** [install-am] Error 2
 
  
−
This seems to be only an installation problem. Fine compiling it seems.
+
(GnuCash 2.4)
−
:I saw this at "make install" when I stopped and restarted the preceding compiling several times. So to me this looks like an artifact of DLLs that somehow "don't fit" to each other. The solution was always to run "make clean" in the source directory so that all DLLs are being deleted, and then starting the compiling again. --[[User:Cstim|Cstim]] 05:55, 4 December 2006 (EST)
 
  
−
::'make clean' in the repos/ and afterwards a rerun of install.sh really worked! thanks a lot [[User:Calmar|Calmar]] 08:47, 4 December 2006 (EST)
+
Copied from [{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=708989 this bug report]:
−
:::actually it seems to be necessary here: to make 'make clean' in the repos/src/ dir *and* afterwards 'make clean' in the repos/ directory. Cheer [[User:Calmar|Calmar]] 08:14, 12 December 2006 (EST)
 
−
::::I don't think so. "make clean" in the repos/ directory calls the same thing in repos/src, but not vice versa. "make clean" in repos/ should clearly be enough. Anyway, this only concerns people who re-use an existing repos/ directory. --[[User:Cstim|Cstim]] 04:53, 13 December 2006 (EST)
 
−
:::::Yeah, that's the logical thing in my mind too. It just regurarly fails with a  'make clean' in repos only. Maybe it's only here anyway for some reason. I'm happy enough I can get it compiled/installed. (I get that error also after removing the repos directory completely and then an install.sh btw (win2000)) Cheers and thx [[User:Calmar|Calmar]] 07:31, 13 December 2006 (EST)
 
  
−
=== cannot move on swigwin ===
+
I installed GnuCash on Windows 7 and at one point I received the following error message
−
Extracting swigwin-1.3.29.zip ... done
 
−
mv: cannot move `mydir/Examples' to `./Examples'. I copied them manually then [[User:Calmar|Calmar]] 08:48, 4 December 2006 (EST)
 
−
:I guess the swig installation is not perfect with regard to updates. I will try to improve that. Meanwhile, removing the c:\soft\swig directory completely should solve the issue. -- [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
 
  
−
=== Text reports crash ===
+
  Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need
−
Some text report crashed instantly, but on some other machines they worked fine. Same for graphical reports. Debugging is ongoing. When you run gnucash in gdb, the crash does reliably ''not'' occur the text reports.
+
  to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a
−
:What we currently know: GnuCash spits a warning ([http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=378158]), but does not crash because of it. It crashes because of something different (in WinAPI?) we cannot detect in gdb. isDebuggerPresent() might be true, but a breakpoint will only be set for fatal errors, so we cannot set a breakpoint. We also cannot start gnucash with --g-fatal-warnings though, as a standard win32 glib build aborts the application after a critical error [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=376645].
+
  system crash. See https://projects-old.gnome.org/gconf/ for information.
−
::The issue is described in this [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=382852 bug] and a solution is committed in SVN's install.sh in r15213. Hopefully, these crashers are fixed now :) I think removal of c:\soft\regex, \guile, \tmp\guile-1.6.8 and \gnucash (the previous installation) is necessary. -- [[User:Andi5|andi5]]
+
  (Details -  1: IOR file
−
:::Thanks for the fix in r15213! Indeed I don't see any crash anymore, and even the graphical reports (wohoo!) work correctly. (The warning of [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=378158] is still there, though.) --[[User:Cstim|Cstim]] 10:50, 15 December 2006 (EST)
+
  'C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/lock/ior' not opened
 +
  successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory 2: IOR file
 +
  'C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/lock/ior' not opened
 +
  successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory)
  
−
=== GConf/ORBit COMM_FAILURE ===
+
I do not know what caused this error message.
−
On some computers (Windows 2000/SP4), the following error has been observed, but on other computers GConf runs fine. GConf shows plenty of error messages like these: "Failed to save key /apps/gnucash/window/pages/account_tree/name_visible: Adding client to server's list failed, CORBA error: IDL:omg.org/CORBA/COMM_FAILURE:1.0" and also the "Cannot find default values" dialog is shown on each startup, regardless whether the "setup" is done or not. Also, the startup of GnuCash might open dozens of shell windows one after the other, and the startup of GnuCash is incredibly slow.
 
  
−
This is being reported to the ORBit crew as [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=363648 bug#363648]. As a quick workaround, you have to install ORBit2-2.13.3 from [ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/ORBit2/2.13/ here] instead of 2.14.2, as this seems to fix that problem.
+
Uninstalling GnuCash, removing an empty gnucash folder in C:\Program Files
 +
(x86)\, and reinstalling Gnucash does not restore GnuCash. I.e., same error
 +
message was produced.  
  
−
=== Failed to fork ===
+
Cleaning up the windows registry did not help either.
−
When starting GNUCash I receive the following message:
 
−
gnucash: [E] "Failed to fork child process."
 
−
It is not a fatal error (program continues to load).  Is this something I can safely ignore?  --[[User:Scbash|Scbash]] 17:10, 3 December 2006 (EST)
 
−
:This is from the file process.scm and it concerned with the Finance::Quote script for stock price retrieval. Chris wrote: "That's process.scm which is run during price-quote retrieval.  Perhaps guile's (primitive-fork) doesn't work on win32." You can ignore this for now. On the other hand, this means Finance::Quote and price retrieval currently doesn't work yet. --[[User:Cstim|Cstim]] 16:07, 4 December 2006 (EST)
 
  
−
=== Reading/writing compressed files===
+
What did work was to remove the folder
−
The current win32 SVN code doesn't read or write compressed (gzip'd) files. On Linux, gnucash forks gzip as a child process and pipes the file through it. On windows, there isn't an easy replacement for fork() and pipe(). See src/backend/file/io-gncxml-v2.c:1246 ff.
+
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/  
 +
which did not contain the subdirectory + file lock/ior that is mentioned in the
 +
error message.
  
−
As a consequence, a linux-stored data file which, by default, is stored in compressed form cannot be read by the Windows version at the moment. If you want to use the linux datafile, you need to switch off file compression beforehand.
+
The folder AppData is hidden (for Windows 7) and needs to be explicitly typed
−
Or 'mv datafile datafile.gz && gunzip datafile.gz #providing a .gz suffix, and finally enzipping it'
+
in the folder browser.
  
−
=== install issues on winxpsp2 rev.15222 ===
+
And also note that 'Username' should be replaced with your real username in the path (it's in there two times).
−
* The install.sh script causes an infinite loop while installing gnome.
 
−
** lines 541 and 546 needed to be changed from ${PKG_CONFIG} to pkg-config
 
−
** this changes the here-file from a self-referential-loop to executing a command.
 
−
:See [[#pkg-config|pkg-config]].
 
−
* I had to hack at the c:\soft\repos\configure script to get it to work.
 
−
** not sure whether it was my installation troubles or swig-install itself
 
−
** basically, the swig --swiglib command returned two lines of output which caused all the Makefiles to be created incorrectly.  in particular, the command returned the correct c:\soft\swig\Lib dir first and then a weird default-nonexistent dir on the next line.
 
−
** my hack was to change line 24178 and add a '|grep Lib' section to the command.
 
−
:I am sorry, I forgot to commit my change to fix this. Please update to r15223.
 
−
* Thank you for the prompt responses!  i am continuing my reruns of the install.sh script and so i should get fresh copies of things in the repos directory and use them instead.  i will have to check whether install.sh line 205 has the rxspencer directory removed from regex_lib variable also.  the problem with using the same computer for multiple-tasks is that these compiles basically chew up 95+% cpu.
 
−
** im guessing that there must be some fix in the rxspencer regex directory that is required.  the compile finally finished and i saw the dos-screens come up and even (briefly) some tip-of-the-day type of box with the gnucash-splash-screen in the background.
 
−
** then, the bin failed with a back-trace in qif-parse.scm:9:3: unbound variable: make-regexp
 
−
** i pulled r15223 but am not sure whether it would fix these issues. help?
 
  
−
== Todo ==
+
--[[User:GJanssens|GJanssens]] 18 October 2013
−
This section is intended mainly for developers to concisely specfiy what issues are open, assigned or closed (and can be removed then).
+
== Windows 11: GnuCash installer quits without doing anything ==
−
[ ] [[Windows#Text reports crash|R]] Text report crashers ([http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=382852 Bug], [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=378158 Bug])
+
When launching <code>gnucash-setup.exe</code> Windows 10 and Windows 11 usually complain that GnuCash is from an unknown developer and will put up a scary dialog but if you accept the risk it will run the installer after the usual User Authorization Escalation dialog. We've had a [https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=799299 report] that Windows 11 might silently fail to do anything. If that happens to you right-click on <code>gnucash-setup.exe</code> and select Properties from the context menu, then click Unblock and Save. You should be able to launch the installer normally.
−
[ ] [[Windows#GConf/ORBit COMM_FAILURE|R]]  GConf/ORBit2
 
−
[ ] [[Windows#cannot move on swigwin|R]]  SWIG installation (minor)
 
−
[ ]    Finance::Quote
 
−
[ ]    AqBanking
 
−
[ ]    Packaging
 
−
[ ]    Randomness ([http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2006-December/019289.html Mail])
 
−
[ ]    Terminal encoding != Locale encoding
 
−
[ ] [[Windows#Reading/writing compressed files|R]]  Compressed files
 
−
A lot more, fill me
 

Latest revision as of 21:51, 3 May 2024

GnuCash on Microsoft Windows

This page collects various notes about running GnuCash on Microsoft Windows.

Q: Which Windows versions are supported?

Answer
The download page shows, which Windows version is officially supported by which GnuCash version.
Note
Windows 3/95/98/Me and Windows NT3.5/4.0 have never been supported.

Q: Where is the binary installer?

A: The latest versions can be downloaded from the [{{{{URL:www}}}}/download.phtml download] page on the GnuCash website. Anyone who cares about their data should use the released version found there.

People looking to test new features - at the risk of running into extra bugs - could try a test version:
  • As it is not so easy to build GnuCash under Windows, a daily build of the stable branch is made available as well to test bugfixes.
  • To closely follow development on the future branch, which contains new features - and bugs - there are the nightly builds. Expect data loss if you try these though!

Q: Is it possible to compile GnuCash on Windows?

A: Yes. It's cumbersome, but possible. See the instructions in Building on Windows.

Q: Are there nightly builds?

A: We run nightly builds for the stable (former maint) and after implmenting its first feature the future (former master) branch, but it's configured so that it runs only if changes have been pushed since the last build and only if the build is successful; they do fail from time to time. You can find the last 6-12 month's worth of builds at 

https://code.gnucash.org/builds/win32/

or, more specifically, for stable, on demand for future, and logs for all builds.

The product of the nightly builds is a Windows installer that will replace your existing GnuCash installation. The future branch really is unstable: Be sure to have suitable backups and don't use it for your "production" books.

Q: Anything else?

To avoid making the installer file even bigger, some functionality is not available without further downloads and installations of software.

Preferences in GnuCash 2.6 and more recent

gconf has been replaced with another preferences system. On Windows you will find the preferences directly in the Windows Registry under the registry key 

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/GSettings/org/gnucash/

Pdf name for invoices

This name is controlled by two hidden preferences:

  • pdf-export/filename-format
  • pdf-export/filename-date-format

Both of them will reside in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/GSettings/org/gnucash/dialogs/general/report

These won't be there by default (only values that deviate from the default value will be effectively in the registry). To change it you will first have to create a sub key named 'pdf-export.

Under this key you can create two string type keys named filename-format and filename-date-format.

This is the definition of these two string keys:

filename-format
This setting chooses the file name for PDF export. This is a sprintf(3) string with three arguments: "%1$s" is the report name such as "Invoice". "%2$s" is the number of the report, which for an invoice report is the invoice number. "%3$s" is the date of the report, formatted according to the filename-date-format setting. (Note: Any characters that are not allowed in filenames, such as '/', will be replaced with underscores '_' in the resulting file name.)
The default value is %1$s-%2$s-%3$s
filename-date-format
This setting chooses the way dates are used in the filename of PDF export. Possible values for this setting are "locale" to use the system locale setting, "ce" for Continental Europe style dates, "iso" for ISO 8601 standard dates , "uk" for United Kingdom style dates, and "us" for United States style dates.

Finance::Quote

For the retrieval of Online Quotes, you will need to install Perl and Finance::Quote (F::Q). See Installing Perl on Windows.

Notes

Error messages, Trace file

In the GnuCash application, all error messages are redirected to a trace file. There will be one trace file for each time GnuCash is run. For a user named "myname" these files are located in the folder

  • c:\Documents and Settings\myname\Local Settings\Temp (Windows XP) or
  • C:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Temp (Windows Vista/7).

They are named

  • gnucash.trace.ABCDEF (GnuCash 2.2.9 and older) or
  • gnucash.trace.ABCDEF.log (GnuCash 2.4.0 and newer)

where the ABCDEF part is changed randomly on each start of gnucash. See also Tracefile.

If you experience crashes or unexpected behavior, check the latest of these files (or the one created when the problem started) and add all interesting-looking lines of that file to your error reports, at least the lines with the keywords WARNing and CRITical warning.

See also Windows Debugging.

Determining the locale

When asked for the locale, take a look at the Regional Settings in your Control Panel and report the values found for "Standard and Formats", "Location" and "Language for non-Unicode programs".

Also, use this bug's attachment to determine the locale as used internally by gettext.

Problems, issues, comments

For any problem that occurs now, you should add a new section below.

Issues with older versions of GnuCash

In an effort to keep the information somewhat manageable this page will only gather issues with the current stable version of GnuCash. For historical reference, the older issues will be moved to a separate page.

If you experience issues with an older version of GnuCash, the first advice is normally to try again with the current stable version. There may however be situations where you need to revive an older version and in that case the information kept on the older issues page may be useful.

In addition, if you experience any of the older issues in the current stable release of GnuCash, please file a bug report or ask about it on the user mailing list.

Known issues

Here is a list of the most often mentioned Windows issues. If you experience this problem, please check the respective bugzilla reports for potential workarounds.

Windows 7 64-bit - GnuCash fails to run

This is with GnuCash 2.4.3:

Starting GnuCash shows the splash screen and the tip of the day for a brief instant and then it disappears. To fix the problem, I did:

  1. Right-click on the GnuCash icon and select 'Run as Administrator'
  2. GnuCash starts up as expected
  3. Close GnuCash

After doing the above once, I can start GnuCash normally and it starts up properly.

Hopefully this helps someone. --Sketch 05:05, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Font problems

After upgrading to 2.2.1, people have reported font-related issues:

  • The tick/check mark in the Reconcile window may look like a "nondescript squiggle"
  • Register windows may open with all transactions scrolled out of sight (upwards)
  • Languages other than English show characters as a box of four zeros "0 0 0 0".

The reason appears to be that GnuCash is now referring to Windows to determine what fonts to use, and in both these cases is using the one specified for "Message Box", which defaults to Tahoma 8.

Changing to Tahoma 10 fixed both of these for me.

The procedure on WinXP is:

  1. Start -> Control panel or My Computer -> Control panel
  2. Appearance and Themes -> Display (or, if using the "Classic View", Display)
  3. Appearance
  4. Advanced
  5. Select "Message Box" from the drop-down
  6. Change as required (e.g. set to Tacoma 10 point)
  7. OK
  8. Apply

Fred 10:30, 22 August 2007 (EDT)

Is this still necessary when using GnuCash 2.2.2? andi5

I (piyo) confirmed that the above procedure is necessary for viewing Japanese on Windows XP with GnuCash 2.2.3 (2008-01-08):

  • Confirmed that working fonts are Arial UI Unicode, FixSys, System, Tahoma (including 8!), Terminal. Also for Japanese, MS P Gothic, MS P Mincho, MS UI Gothic, MS Gothic, MS Mincho fonts are working.
  • Confirmed that non-working fonts are Lucida Sans Unicode and Microsoft Sans Serif.

--Piyo 23:23, 5 February 2008 (EST)

Program hangs constantly

(GnuCash 2.4)

According to this bug report GnuCash can become unstable with some themes. The original reporter didn't remember which themes caused issues, but had no problems when using the "Unity" theme.

--GJanssens 18 October 2013

Gnucash fails to start with Failed to contact configuration server

(GnuCash 2.4)

Copied from this bug report:

I installed GnuCash on Windows 7 and at one point I received the following error message 

 Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need
 to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a
 system crash. See https://projects-old.gnome.org/gconf/ for information.
 (Details -  1: IOR file
 'C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/lock/ior' not opened
 successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory 2: IOR file
 'C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/lock/ior' not opened
 successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory)

I do not know what caused this error message.

Uninstalling GnuCash, removing an empty gnucash folder in C:\Program Files (x86)\, and reinstalling Gnucash does not restore GnuCash. I.e., same error message was produced.

Cleaning up the windows registry did not help either.

What did work was to remove the folder C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\gconfd-Username/ which did not contain the subdirectory + file lock/ior that is mentioned in the error message.

The folder AppData is hidden (for Windows 7) and needs to be explicitly typed in the folder browser.

And also note that 'Username' should be replaced with your real username in the path (it's in there two times).

--GJanssens 18 October 2013

Windows 11: GnuCash installer quits without doing anything

When launching gnucash-setup.exe Windows 10 and Windows 11 usually complain that GnuCash is from an unknown developer and will put up a scary dialog but if you accept the risk it will run the installer after the usual User Authorization Escalation dialog. We've had a report that Windows 11 might silently fail to do anything. If that happens to you right-click on gnucash-setup.exe and select Properties from the context menu, then click Unblock and Save. You should be able to launch the installer normally.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/index.php?title=Windows&oldid=22115"