Revision as of 18:41, 18 October 2013

Problems, issues, comments

This page keeps track of issues users have experienced with older versions of GnuCash on Windows. In most cases the first advice is 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 here may be useful.

Gnucash version 2.2 and older

Windows XP Media Edition Problems

Gnucash does not appear to work on windows XP media edition. Gconfd takes a long time to start (5+ minutes) and everything else takes longer and then it just appears to do nothing (even though it is still in the list of processes).

Does GnuCash 2.2.2 work for you? andi5

In my machine it works well, except for the reports, that doesn't work and cause the application to crash. I have installed the last build (15667) on my windows xp home with SP2. -- jeanobrega

Please file a bug report at Bugzilla. andi5

I installed 2.2.3 as well as 2.2.4 and in both cases the same problem appeared. After starting a window like "tip of the day" appears. I tried different treatment (close, ignore, waiting,...) during starting of the programm, but the result was the same in all cases. The Programm was terminated during start up. Does anyone know that problem and how to fix it. I used gnucash for several years under LINUX without one single problem, but due to several reasons I now have to switch to windows.

Please give me some help!!! voradl

GnuCash failing to start in Windows

This seems to be a duplicate of the above problem, but I have a workaround that worked for me.

I'm running GnuCash 2.2.9 on Windows XP Professional, SP2, Firewall (ZoneAlarm) turned off at the moment, and I have put Orbit2 2.13.3 in the bin directory (don't think this makes much difference, fwiw; link to that file is somewhere on this page).

My workaround takes several steps:

1. I delete .gconfd (in C:\Documents and Settings\Mom).
   1. Then I start GnuCash.
   2. I see that only gnucash-bin.exe is running.
2. I kill gnucash-bin.exe.
   1. Then I restart GnuCash.
   2. I see that gnucash-bin.exe is running, as well as two copies of gconfd-2.exe. No windows open.
3. I kill gnucash-bin.exe (I get weird errors reminiscent of https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=363648 if I kill gconfd-2.exe first).
   1. Then I kill the 2nd gconfd-2.exe.
   2. I start gnucash again.

Viola! GnuCash opens. YMMV Peterkay 05:25, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Application Error on Exit in XP Pro

I just installed 2.1.1 from SourceForge (not sure the rev number). Install goes okay and program runs fine, but when I exit (using File->Quit) I get a dialog titled

*<no file>: gnucash-bin.exe - Application Error

The text reads:

The instruction at "0x0138a214" referenced memory at "0x014d3aa8".
The memory could not be "read".

Any ideas? I'm a little confused because I was editing my existing GnuCash files (originally 1.8.11, saved using 2.0.1 in Linux), so it shouldn't be <no file>. Here are the contents of the trace file:

*   WARN <qof.engine> [guid_init()] only got 1731 bytes.
The identifiers might not be very random.
*   WARN <gnc.engine> failed to load gnc-backend-postgres from 
C:\Program Files\gnucash\lib\gnucash
*   WARN <gnc.app-util> Could not spawn perl: Failed to execute child 
process (No such file or directory)
*   WARN <qof.session> [qof_session_load_backend()]  failed to load 
gncqof-backend-qsf from c:/soft/gnucash/repos/inst/lib/gnucash
*   WARN <Gdk> gdkselection-win32.c:1068: OpenClipboard failed: Invalid 
window handle.
*   WARN <Gdk> gdkselection-win32.c:1068: OpenClipboard failed: Invalid 
window handle.

--Scbash 13:22, 12 May 2007 (EDT)

Does this still happen with GnuCash 2.2.2? If it does, please file a bug at Bugzilla. andi5

Windows Vista Problems

A number of people have reported problems running on Windows Vista. Gnucash takes a long time to start and reports an error, then may lock up. The error is

 An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for gnucash. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly.

and, under the Details button,

 Adding client to server's list failed, CORBA error: IDL:omg.org/CORBA/COMM_FAILURE:1.0
 Adding client to server's list failed, CORBA error: IDL:omg.org/CORBA/COMM_FAILURE:1.0
 Adding client to server's list failed, CORBA error: IDL:omg.org/CORBA/COMM_FAILURE:1.0
 Adding client to server's list failed, CORBA error: IDL:omg.org/CORBA/COMM_FAILURE:1.0
 Adding client to server's list failed, CORBA error: IDL:omg.org/CORBA/COMM_FAILURE:1.0

Disabling all network interfaces allows Gnucash to work normally for some people. Apparantly there is a shortage of Vista machines in developers' hands, so don't hold your breath for a fix.

I had the above problem in Vista-32 bit. Downloaded ORBit2-2.13.3.zip from ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/ORBit2/2.13/ and extracted files into GnuCash\bin (backup existing files first) to resolved it. I am using GNUCash 2.2.1, r16462 2007-08-20.

I can confirm that this fix works for me on Vista-32.--Jadlakha 14:54, 8 December 2007 (EST)

I can confirm that this fix works for GnuCash 2.2.2 on Vista x64. Pettijohn 15:09, 18 December 2007 (EST)

The 2.2.2 installer has been updated and should no longer require this fix. I have tested this per the discussion on this bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=504319 Pettijohn 16:33, 19 December 2007 (EST)

I can also confirm this problem in 2000 SP4 with version 2.2.1. No problems with the install. The above error describes it exactly just without locking up.

This problem is known on all Windows versions. You may also want to go revert to the old ORBit2-2.13.3 version as explained in section Windows#GConf/ORBit COMM_FAILURE (above) for the same problem but on non-Vista OSs.

Had all of the above on Vista... Just tried the GNUcash portable beta and it works like a dream on my Vista build.

"GnuCash portable beta" is this: http://portableapps.com/node/10633 and http://gnucashportable.sourceforge.net/ --Cstim 09:27, 3 January 2008 (EST)

GNUcash PortableApp worked for me, great way to run it on Vista! I got it here: http://portableapps.com/apps/office/gnucash_portable --Andy Prough 23:11, 29 October 2008 (CST)

Finance::Quote Problems with Windows (VISTA 32-Bit SP1)

After installing Finance::Quote (installing ActivePerl and then running "C:\Program Files\gnucash\bin\install-fq-mods.bat") when trying to get actual prices a new black window pops up with "C:\Perl\bin\Perl.exe" on top. But that´s it. Any ideas?

Contribution from Ivan 16.05.2008: I can confirm that 'Finance::Quote' works successfully for me on my Vista SP1 machine ... despite some serious user-errors around the setup (see below). All the work described below happened from 05 May 2008 - 11 May 2008, using GnuCash version 2.2.5.

Initially I installed ActivePerl 5.10, then read the part that said 'use only 5.8', and decided to install 5.8 parallel to 5.10 (seemed like a good idea at the time!). The point being: my configuration deviated seriously from 'normal'.

Clearly that did not work, so I uninstalled 5.10 and 5.8 in that order ... and then re-installed 5.8 only.

This has been successful and I have no issues with the fundamental 'Finance::Quote' functionality currently.

True enough, I can not find a price for 1 DWS fund (but I can for 3 other DWS funds) nor for prices at 'Yahoo! Europe' (does that even exist?), but I would not ascribe these errors to a fundamental failure of the 'Finance::Quote' functionality on my Vista SP1 machine.

There was a format change at yahoo_europe, so it was/is? broken, but that is not restricted to windows. --Fell 19:49, 15 January 2009 (EST)