Recent

Author Topic: Problems installing Win CE  (Read 2067 times)

Racing Dog

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 5
Problems installing Win CE
« on: April 14, 2023, 07:01:29 pm »
Before retirement I rose to the dizzying heights of Senior Software Consultant which meant I had to be pretty good at most things, but IT was always somebody else's job, so please treat me like a no nothing end user as far as installations go!

Having done a lot of Delphi at work I naturally started there at home. Also, when I found I could program my then new WM phone I did that with Basic4PPC. I was mainly only amusing myself but released my programs on my website as freeware just in case anybody else might want to use them.

Then I found Lazarus and started using it. I reached a stage of temporarily not having any new ideas so decided to simplify things by translating the older Delphi stuff to Lazarus which was mainly straight forward, but in some cases anything but!  That process now being complete, and noting that my download counters for my WM programs are still regularly ticking up I decided to see if they could also be translated. So I read the Lazarus documentation and found https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/arm-wince Naturally I decided to go with the Easy way.

I didn't get the Win32 version of fpc because I'm already using it being on a 32 bit Win 7 system. I got the arm-wince cross installer. So I ran a default install, then tried tp rebuild an existing trivial project. The Config and Target dialog said the configuration was not supported.

Out to Windows Explorer. Hmm. Both C:\ Lazarus and C:\FPC. So I have my first look inside C:\Lazarus (after all these years!). I spot the fpc folder so figure I should copy my new files to there. Then Restart Lazarus. That makes no difference, still not supported. So look inside C:\Lazarus\fpc. Ah! Two folders, 3.2.0 and 3.2.2.  Check back in C:\FPC and yup I see 3.2.0.

So I figure I need to merge the two versions into the 3.2.2 folder. Yay! Now the configuration is accepted. So much for the simplistic instruction "install".

So were my troubles over? Nope! I tried to build my trivial project and got the error "fcllaz.pas(11,3) Fatal: Cannot find db used by fcllaz of package FCL." I checked the fcp file structure again and found db files for both versions in C:\lazarus\fpc\3.2.2\units\arm-wince\fcl-db and C:\lazarus\fpc\3.2.2\units\i386-win32\fcl-db. So that looks correct for wince.

I tried forcing the issue by adding the wince path above in the  Paths dialog of Project Options. That made no difference.

So I searched the problem on the web. Loads of results, too many to look at. I looked at the first several. They were all dated 2018 and for linux. Worringly, the one on here was marked as Closed! But, at least as far as Windows is concrend the bug is clearly not fixed.

A suggested workround of using an ealier version of fpc may have made sense in 2018, but is surely far too obsolete now, that puts off using it.

So, have I done something wrong or is there a bug that needs fixing? Please reread my first paragraph to avoid giving me an answer I won't understand.

Thank you.

TRon

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2540
Re: Problems installing Win CE
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2023, 08:24:06 pm »
Perhaps I have missed/overlooked the Lazarus version that you used ?

However, and this is important, if you literally followed that wiki article (I just verified) then you have probably downloaded the wrong version of the arm-ce cross compiler as the links that you follow are literally linking to the 3.2.0 version of the arm-ce cross compiler.

You can not mix different versions of Free Pascal and a cross compiler icw Lazarus (for the purist, technically you could but that is besides the scope).

If the case then please de-install/remove the cross compiler, and remove everything that is related to that cross compiler. Every remnant is able to mess with your setup in case you retry to install the proper cross compiler.

Once removed the wrong version of the cross compiler, download the winCE cross compiler from this link (assuming that by default your Lazarus comes supplied with FPC 3.2.2, the cross compiler version has to match that version) and try to install the downloaded cross-compiler and try again. Please report back if you still run into issues after having installed the correct cross-compiler.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2023, 08:27:04 pm by TRon »

tetrastes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 483
Re: Problems installing Win CE
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2023, 08:47:53 pm »
Why not https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus/files/Lazarus%20Windows%2032%20bits/Lazarus%202.2.6/:
Quote
Add-On for WinCE development:
lazarus-2.2.6-fpc-3.2.2-cross-arm-wince-win32.exe
This file can be installed as add-on to the 32 bit Lazarus IDE, if you wish to develop for WinCE.

And you will have LCL for WinCE also.

Racing Dog

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 5
Re: Problems installing Win CE
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2023, 08:56:17 pm »
TRon, yes I'm on the latest stable combination. Ill get on to it.

tetrastes, nice try, but as I explained, but not accurately enough, sorry, I'm already using Lazarus 2..2.6 32bit.

TRon

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2540
Re: Problems installing Win CE
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2023, 09:01:19 pm »
Why not https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus/files/Lazarus%20Windows%2032%20bits/Lazarus%202.2.6/:
because I was not aware that addon even existed  :-[

@Racing Dog:
The link that tetrastes linked to is only an addon for Lazarus 2.2.6 (so not Lazarus itself, only the cross compilation bits). It would be the better option (but you can use either download: my method (or actually wiki method) requires more manual setup/verification).

Racing Dog

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 5
Re: Problems installing Win CE
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2023, 12:47:37 am »
Well, it seems to work now! Thanks.

I used the Setup/Cab builder from Basic4PPC to get the program onto my old phone.

All I need to do now is rescale my display in my Windows program to phone size!


TRon

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2540
Re: Problems installing Win CE
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2023, 12:52:30 am »
Good to read. Thank you for reporting back  Racing Dog.

Out of curiosity: did you use the FPC or Lazarus Addon download for the cross compiler ?

Racing Dog

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 5
Re: Problems installing Win CE
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2023, 01:25:26 am »
I stuck to the way I knew! Still, I now know to look more carefully at file names because experts don't necessarily say that a download is an add on  :)

This time round it was obvious to override the default installation path beause I am using it from Lazarus.

I had to twiddle a couple more Project Options, which I should have done in the first place!

Anyway, thanks again

TRon

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2540
Re: Problems installing Win CE
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2023, 01:44:47 am »
It is perfectly ok either way  Racing Dog.

Glad you got it working now. Thank you for your answer,

With a bit of luck you also have enough post count now so that the forum software does not bother you with pesky verification stuff anymore either (if that is still in place).

 

TinyPortal © 2005-2018