[SOLVED] Lazarus.exe does nothing (does not start)

[alpine]

I've tried to open lazarus\components\paradox\demo\testparadox.lpr. The IDE said that the form can not be loaded because of missing component, then offered to install the package (AFAIR it was lazparadox) and I agreed. After the compilation the error message appeared again, the dialog for package installation showed up and then went irresponsible.

Then I killed the Lazarus process.

After that, all attempts to start lazarus.exe failed, i.e. nothing happens after clicking the shortcut, writing the corresponding command in cmd prompt, etc.

Renamed lazarus.old.exe to lazarus.exe - nothing again.

Rebuilt 'Lazarus only' with fpcupdeluxe (that is how it was installed) - nothing.

Perhaps there is something on the way blocking the execution, temporary file, lock file? Any ideas?

 Windows 10, Lazarus 2.2.2

[rvk]

You probably installed lazparadox package.

Paradox uses the BDE (Borland Database Engine) that is unmaintained and unsupported since around 2000.

Did you install the BDE (probably not).

You might also need pxlib.dll and iconv.dll.

See https://wiki.freepascal.org/TParadox

Renaming lazarus.old.exe should have brought you back to the state before installing it.

Lazarus doesn't start because it needs a dll and the exe quits silently when it doesn't find it.

(I'm not sure why the developers didn't build in more robust exception handling for when a dll fails to load)

[Bart]

Rename your config directory (or use the --pcp swith to start with an empty config) and see if at least Lazarus will start then.
Otherwise do a make distclean, followed by a make all (this builds a minimal IDE) and start that with an empty config (so you basically start from scratch here).
If that doesn't work, and you're on Windows: follow the standard MS solution for any problem: completely wipe your harddisk, re-install Windows (only to conclude that this won't fix the issue either, so you buy a new computer with a new Windows version that won't let you install at least 50% of the software you need, and now you feel the urge to throw the computer out of the window, and cause rampage on the streets by killing some random people...).

Bart

[rvk]

Or install BDE because you'll need it if you want to access that paradox db 

[alpine]

Or install BDE because you'll need it if you want to access that paradox db 

I don't think I want to play with that any more

Excerpt from lazparadox README.txt :

TParadox (Data Access Tab) is a TDataset descendent that enables you to open
and see Paradox tables. It has support for Blobs and Graphics. There is no
need to have the BDE from Borland (Codegear) installed.The TParadox
component itself is located in the FCL, and is an implementation
based on an open source C library called pxlib.

I have put pxlib.dll and iconv.dll along with the lazarus.exe - no change.

Is there some hack to remove a package from CLI? And then to rebuild with fpcupdeluxe?

[rvk]

Or install BDE because you'll need it if you want to access that paradox db 

I don't think I want to play with that any more

Woops. I didn't understand that page (I didn't read careful enough).
TParadox indeed doesn't need BDE.

I have put pxlib.dll and iconv.dll along with the lazarus.exe - no change.

Did you install 32 bit or 64 bit Lazarus?

If you installed 64 bit you also need the 64 bit versions of those dll's.
(and I think the link is only to the 32 bit versions, which won't work with 64 bit Lazarus)

For the pxlib 64 bit you could try this one, the pxlib_x64.dll (although I'm not sure if you need to rename it back to pxlib.dll)
https://github.com/mherrmann/pypxlib/tree/master/pypxlib/pxlib_ctypes

Not sure where you could find a 64bit version of iconv.dll.
But maybe iconv.dll isn't needed for loading lazarus.exe.

[wp]

Do you have to write to the paradox files? If not I'd recommend to use the other TParadoxDataset from CCR which does not depend on an external dll, however, it provides only read-only access and does not support indexes and sorting. Sufficient to convert old paradox files to something more modern like sqlite3. The package is available from OPM (or just download the single unit from https://sourceforge.net/p/lazarus-ccr/svn/HEAD/tree/components/tparadoxdataset/paradoxds.pas and create the component at runtime - why waste the precious palette space for a rarely used component?).

[alpine]

Since I didn't found dependencies in lazarus.exe to the beforementioned dlls, I suppose they're dynamically loaded and the lack of proper error handling is the actual problem.
Adding lazparadox was out of curiosity for me, not a serious intention to actually do a serious work with it. Now I'll go for a clean laz/fpc install in separate folder.
 
Thanks all for the replies.