Building on Windows

[Massimo Callegari]

By the way, have you set the environment variables like PATH, QTDIR and so on?
I remember I got a hell of time on that

[Joep Admiraal]

Yes environment vars are in place.I noticed that the package gcc-v3-g++ was also installed. So I removed the normal g++ package and tried to compile with the v3 version. That did not work. Then I compiled with only the normal g++ package in place and that did work.It then complained about openssl but once that was installed make completed without errors.I will do some more tests and then update the wiki.

[Massimo Callegari]

Just a tiny note on openssl. I guess you found that issue building the webaccess module. It is not needed and yesterday I pushed a little fix on the mongoose flags.

Honestly I've never heard about v3 and non v3 g++ package. Before updating the wiki, please let me double check the procedure.

Thanks

[Joep Admiraal]

I did make install and renamed the .a files to .dll files.
Now when I try to strart qlcplus.exe I get an appcrash:

Cannot start the application (0xc0000005).

Signature:
P1: qlcplus.exe
P2: 0.0.0.0
P3: 52663c2b
P4: QtCored4.dll
P5: 4.8.5.0
P6: 51cc9cc0
P7: c0000005
P8: 001e1b7c
P9:
P10:

It generates a crashdump file, but before I start analysing that, do you have any idea what this could be?

[Massimo Callegari]

Windows is terrible when it comes to debug something. I see what you see: a crash somewhere into QtCore

Did you launch it from a terminal or double clicked from windows explorer ?
Have you copied the additional DLLs needed for audio and OSC ?
Obviously it all depends if you built them in or not

[Massimo Callegari]

A quick summary. I've spent 2 hours on Windows and I got...nowhere !
I saved my previous mingw installation and I tried to rebuild it from scratch with the new installer.
First, they changed it all. Now it's fully graphic. Might be better or not.
After downloading all the base system, I opened a powershell and the command "make" does absolutely nothing. (gcc and g++ work ok)

So I opened a MSYS shell and got a little bit further. Although I got stuck again, cause for some reason qlcconfig.h doesn't exist.
It is supposed to be created by qmake.

I can spend some more time, maybe tomorrow, but this is indeed a problem.

[Joep Admiraal]

I am able to compile QLC (without the plugins, except for midi).
If you have other (more important) things to work on, please do so.
For me this is not a high priority issue, and eventually I will find the cause of this problem. When I got it running I will update the wiki.

[Massimo Callegari]

I've been able to understand the issue of compiling with MSYS shell. It's more UNIX style.
After building the whole QLC+ I got your same result: error 0xc0000005.
Gonna investigate this later.

[Massimo Callegari]

I fear this is it: https://qt-project.org/forums/viewthread/21853/
Means latest MinGW is not binary compatible with Qt 4.8.5.

[Joep Admiraal]

Ah great you found the problem.
I tried MinGW 4.4 and it works.

Thanks for looking into this.

[Robert Scheffler]

Hello gentlemen,

Hate to drag this back up, but for us "newbies" it is a stumbling block:

The Wiki for building QLC+ on windows has a MinGW link to the new graphical installer, getting me a very new MinGW, not 4.4.

Question: was the Qt 4.8.5 vs 5.2.0 resolved? Or is 4.8.5 the answer.
Question: if using Qt Libs 4.8.5, is QtCreator 3.0.0 ok?
Question: was MinGW 4.4 vs newer version resolved?
Question: gcc 4.8.1 vs 4.6.x resolved?

Massimo,
Seems the last comment here from you was you would check the Wiki and verify the updated process for us windows guys.
I gather that you are not a windows fan (to put it mildly)... Any chance you could help update the "how-to for dummies" so guys like me can get started?

If there is another thread with the new procedure, happy to receive a link to it!

Any help is most appreciated,

Bob

[Robert Scheffler]

A footnote:
My desire is to develop/debug using the QtCreator IDE.

Bob

[Massimo Callegari]

Hello Bob. Building on Windows is definitely not for newbies. Sorry.
Not actually my fault, but a thousand issues arise when trying to compile open source softwares with an open source compiler (mingw) in a non-open source platform.
To put it mildly, I think Microsoft does its best to keep open source away from windows. You might succeed, but they make your life very hard.

The answers of your questions are above except for one: you can use Qt Creator with any Qt version.
Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about binaries incompatibility. Qt 4.8.x was built with GCC 4.4, so it's already a miracle it works with GCC 4.6.
You can use GCC 4.8.x with Qt 5.x.

Unless.....you want to build Qt 4.8.5 from sources with GCC 4.8 yourself. Good luck with that !
I haven't updated the wiki cause Qt 4.8.5 is good enough for windows at the moment. Building on Qt 5 is even more difficult and I don't recommend it to anyone.

By the way, may I ask why you want to build QLC+ on Windows ? If you're not happy please report what you found.
If you want to contribute, I strongly recommend to work on Linux.

[Massimo Callegari]

Now my footnote
I'm quite sure that if you use Visual Studio your life will be much easier.
There are prebuilt version of Qt to be used with VS.

I didn't support the idea since the beginning, as I didn't want to fall into the Microsoft trap of using their development suite.
I knew I had to spit blood to use MinGW, but in the end I made it

[Robert Scheffler]

Massimo,

I am hoping that like most development environments, this is just a matter of getting it setup. Once past that, I could get to working on code, and not spending too much time working the 'environment'. Fortunately, I don't need to work on other projects, so I don't really care about what MinGW version, or Qt version is used.

I use QLC+ is a theater environment, not really DJ use. My brain works like a theater lighting guy, so there are several things I would like to contribute in that regard.

I have played with every DMX software package I can find, well about 8 of them, including Venue Magic. QLC+ is 99%+ of what I have always wanted. Just want a few things to be more the way my brain thinks. I would like to contribute all of that back to the group.

There are several 'querky' things in operation that could be a Windows thing. Since I operate in a Windows environment, my belief is that I should develop in a Windows environment.

I have ample supply of Windows machines due to my day jobs, so to have a 'one off' machine just for this would be a pain.

As for bugs and issues besides the 'querky' ones above, I will let you smarter guys fix those as I run into them. I do have a list, but building the active repository before I complain about bugs is my intention.

Now in a twist of fate, one church where I installed 48 dimmers plus 18 RGB pars, and 4 moving heads, is running QLC+ on a iMAC. They use ArtNet output to one of my boards.

I am a QLC+ and GitHub newbie, but not a software development newbie...
(btw, no interest in building Qt from sources! I will beg for mercy before I try that!)

Just wanted to ask about the versions before I take the plunge. Didn't want you to come back later and say "why didn't you ask?" I'll go ahead and muddle through it.

Thanks for the advice.

Bob

[Robert Scheffler]

So Visual Studio is an interesting point...

My embedded ARM development environment sits on Visual Studio 10.
Visual C++ uses Visual Studio (of course, supporting your 'boxed in' feelings).

I just didn't want to go off the reservation and it seemed like the MinGW was the way.

as a fun aside, my ARM dev environment uses gcc under Visual Studio as the cross-compiler.

Bob

[boxy]

As it's nearly the anniversary of the last post on this thread I'd like to add a bit :

Been trying to build QLC on Qt5 and spent a day on it on Windoze. Lack of a qlcconfig.h lead me here...

Then I read this: "Building on Qt 5 is even more difficult and I don't recommend it to anyone."

I am therefore giving up completely since this machine is also riddled with Visual Studio (getting into C++ and QT) and they interfere. Sticking with Linux then...

I never will figure out what

error: D8021 : invalid numeric argument '/Werror'

meant.

[plugz]

I had no trouble at all following this guide: https://github.com/mcallegari/qlcplus/w ... -Build-Qt5

This "hides" all you need to compile QLC+ in an msys2 environment, so having Qt5 and VS installed should not cause issues.