Bitcoin Forum

I've been busy packaging a very compact and stable Cameyo-based build of the Electrum thin client!  Then I went a step further and removed ALL non-required Python modules and repackaged the rest using high compression.

Also, the following features cannot be found in other existing Electrum builds for Windows:

- full command-line support
- no installation needed: just download and run!
- highly optimized size and reduced attack surface: a huge number of unneeded executable files are excluded to achieve a lean and robust build
- includes the latest Python runtime security updates
- no need to pre-install Python, PyQt, ecdsa, or anything else: It's all in there,
- each build is pre-scanned by VirusTotal  
- hi-res icons
- no flickering at startup
- no admin privileges needed
- can work as a fully portable app (support for -w switch!)
- I also do a quick manual audit of the code changes that go into each new build

Get the latest Windows stand-alone build (built straight from the Electrum source tree on GitHub) from my website:

EXE and SHA1: http://dre.natverk.org/elecwin.htm (http://dre.natverk.org/elecwin.htm)

The resulting standalone executable is just 5.9MB.
Compare with the default Cameyo 40-45MB bloated packages!!  


Please let me know if any packaging-related quirks.

https://i.imgur.com/CTqg2oZ.png

If there's enough interest, I can provide Win32 builds on a regular basis. Just a way of contributing to the community.

PS:
Why should you trust me? Well you don't have to. The full Python source code for each release can be examined in the %AppData%\Electrum_SysFiles directory and compared (using diff) with the official Electrum source tree for verification. The only changes I make are GUI-related, to give the app a more polished feel on Windows.

nvm I completely misread your OP, I apologize.

[removed]

Thank flatfly! :)

I'll try it at home.

Hey, thanks!

Is there a way to change wallet path with "-w" parameter?
I'd like to have a portable solution with electrum.dat and electrum.exe in the same folder.

Works great with default wallet path!

Thanks for your feedback!

There's no support for -w at this time due to the way I am packaging it,
but I might be able to fix that (perhaps later today!)   

OK, here's my latest Windows build (with today's updates in!), compatible with XP, and with -w support:

http://dre.tx0.org/electrum042.exe (http://dre.tx0.org/electrum042.exe)

Wow, that was quick!

It works great with -w parameter! And no need for console window, thank you.

Hope you'll continue to create binaries for future official electrum releases.

Nice

Is it a kind of 'portable apps' thing? I can't install stuff on the desktop here but can execute pretty much everything else that does not need admin privileges. also proxy uname/pwd I have to provide for apps that try to go online.
Could you confirm/deny usability or is testing needed?
thanks

p.s. In 10 or so hrs I'll probably give it a try at home anyway. just curious : )

i dont think it escalates to admin but it doesnt support proxies

ok, I'm also tunnelling part of my traffic through local socks proxy. can I specify a local port to use?
(or no support for proxies means that neither a local port can be specified?)

u have tunnel the entire system like a vpn, or a socks tunnelizer

seems exactly what I'm running (open local port and it what uses it shows up on the other side of the ssh connection in the server)
I'll post a test review. thanks for the replies

you dont make sense to me, but ok. a socks port isnt tunneling. let me know.

Few quirks:

I found out that i can't restore from seed (words or code) with 0.42 binary

and

Few icons still don't work for me - it behaves the same as with 0.40 binary:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=52003.msg797218#msg797218

I also found out, that icon for unconfirmed transaction (unconfirmed.png) is not showing either. Again, it's the same with 0.40 previous binary builds.

I am on XP 32bit SP3

youre right, missing on my 7 x64 too

https://i.imgur.com/Rek6h.png

Strange, recovery from seed works fine for me, I've just tested it again.

One caveat though (which is actually not a new issue):
 I do get the message "No transactions found for this seed" once the recovery is done.
 Ignore it, and close and reopen Electrum. It should then sync fine. (Once, I had to close
 and reopen it 2 or 3 times before everything was fully synchronized - but still, it didn't take
 more than 30 seconds total)

 Regarding the icons, I'll try rebuilding the RC file. Thanks for the tip, Thomas!

Yes I'm still encountering this with the latest version...
Let me know it you need more detail from me.

This build should help with the little icon issues :)
Initial decompression should be a bit snappier as well.
Try it out and let me know.

EXE: http://dre.tx0.org/electrum-042c.exe (http://dre.tx0.org/electrum-042c.exe)
MD5: 8224A24909280BEBC7719369841ED6CE


EDIT: reflected in top post.

@mila: no admin rights are required to use this build.

 there is no actual "installation" involved - just some decompression of the source files
  to the "Application data\ElectrumP" profile folder. I guess we can call it portable
  (if used with the -w option).

there is a wallet.update() call in the recovery procedure.
it waits for an event (threading.Event)
perhaps the threading module is not completely supported by Windows?

Hello.

Icons work great now, thanks! I had to try pending icon also, so you should have received a little donation from me : )

Regarding wallet restore: If I ignore "No transactions found for this seed" and open and close program for about 5 times, "History" and "Receive" tabs get all the data, but "Contacts" tab stays empty.

And a little request: is it possible to make content of "Details" window copy / paste-able? For example if you double click on transaction, you can see status, ID, input, output - but user is not able to select that data and copy / paste it.

Thanks.

Glad to know that the icons are fine now, and thanks for the donation!

Regarding wallet restore, I've been getting the same results... Hopefully, we'll get a fix for this soon.

The contact list cannot restored using the seed only, if I'm not mistaken, so I guess
it has to be backed up separately, if necessary. Perhaps thomasV can confirm.  

And regarding copy/pasting Transaction Details, it's already possible! Ctrl-C works, even if the contents
are not selectable. Try it and paste in Notepad to test!

Hey,

Ctrl+C is a neat trick! Thanks!

0.40 binary (from BTCurious) also restores "contacts" tab, so i guess this is a default behaviour.

Cheers!

I'm not sure, but I'd be surprised if this was the case.
I made further tests and can confirm the issue is still there.
The balance shown is then incorrect, as well as the details of the most recent
transactions - actually, I've just noticed that even some of the addresses shown in the description
column are not the correct ones (until I manage to fully sync everything)!  Really strange...

(the current workaround is simply to restart/resync the client a couple of times).  

New build is up! Version 042f with a couple of nice little improvements (see top post for change list and download link)

hi, nice screenshot!
would you mind sharing how you got the fixed font working with windows?

Sure, 'monospace' is not a valid font name under Windows - so, when making my package, I replaced the references to it with 'Lucida Console' (which is one of the built-in monospace fonts for Windows) 

I tried version 0.42f and it works great. It seems faster to me

Restore from mnemonic code works fine now (imports also contacts properly). Seed sequence is not working (same as before).

I personally liked previous fonts more.

Thanks for your efforts, flatfly!

Thanks for the nice feedback!

I've got some new information regarding the recovery issue:
it seems that which server you connect to plays a major role...
If I connect to ecdsa.org, recovery from seed is 100% correct from the first go!

Can anyone try and confirm?
I seem to remember that ecdsa.org uses different protocols than the other servers,
but am not too savvy on the details...

yes, I confirm.
I just discovered the issue this morning.
it affects only version 0.42; it does not work well with the old servers.

Great, I'm glad you could reproduce the problem too.  I hope it won't be too hard to fix.

New build! 043a - this is a pre-release but appears to be extremely stable!  


EXE: http://dre.tx0.org/e043a-cam.exe  [EDIT: link down for now at ThomasV's request]
MD5: 1DBDBF17DE08F9A914669620BCE4AB70

                                                            
Note: if upgrading from a previous version: delete or rename
 the APPLICATION DATA\ELECTRUM-P folder first.

hey,

I have not yet released 0.43.
it would be nice if you could wait until it's officially released

Thomas

Sorry, I did mention it was a prelease but I didn't realize you wouldn't like it.
I have taken the link offline until the next official release.

thank you.
it's not that I want to hold it for myself, but it's not ready for launch :-)

update: version 0.43 is now available. :-)

Fantastic! Great job... Everything feels nice and robust, and wallet recovery now works flawlessly!
I honestly believe I'll never return to the default client!

The corresponding stand-alone Windows build is now available too:

https://i.imgur.com/sJctb.png

EXE: http://dre.tx0.org/electrum043-standalone.exe  (6.5MB)
MD5: 5BAD6249F3B8DA268082BE8B1BE28FCB

Any comments welcome.

Hey,

0.43 binary does not work for me.

I have deleted Electrum-P folder and then run new exe, but i don't get past "Unpacking support files to profile directory..." screen.

If i terminate the task and try again... i get electrum.exe process in task manager but then nothing happens.

Any idea? I am on XP32sp3.

I should try this someday.

MinimalB, I believe that the wallet file might need to be re-created.
Can you try to rename it and let me know if it solves the startup problem?

I didn't even think that the wallet file might be a problem.
Thanks, it works!

why does it need to be re-created? did you change/add something to the wallet file in the windows version?

Nope, it's just that I encountered the same issue as minimalB a few hours earlier
and could solve it that way. I didn't investigate much further.
 

this is strange...

Another issue I'm having with 0.43 is that I seem to be unable to send any payments. The client freezes the moment I press Send and I have to kill the process. I am doing more testing.

oh I see the problem. sorry about that, I should have tested more. I will try to fix this right now.

Great, thanks. I will be back online a few hours from now.

ok, this is a critical bug, so I released a correction immediately, see version 0.43a
thanks for the report, and sorry for the bug.

Thanks, posted 0.43a stand-alone build for Windows.

Hey,

0.43a is still not working for me with my existing wallet.dat file.

did you try 0.43b? (see the main thread)

I've also just updated my build to 0.43b. See top post. Hope it solves your issue.

0.43b works with existing wallet, thanks. Restore also works great now.

@ThomasV: I'd like to ask if this is normal behaviour or a bug: If i restore, i get full contact list. BUT in case i have older wallet.dat file (with several missing transactions, because i have created them with another instance of electrum on another computer), transactions are synchronized, but contacts stay unchanged.

normally the "restore from seed" procedure adds to your contacts all the addresses to which you sent coins.
I think that this was not properly working with version 0.42, this is why you might be missing some.

Yes, restore works fine.

What i am asking is this: Should I also automatically get all the new send addresses inside "contacts" field when synchronizing with "less-than-up-to-date" wallet.dat file (for example... my portable electrum on usb stick)?

Thanks

yes I you should get them during 'restore'.
but if your wallet was synchronized by an older version that did not restore all the contacts, I think that the missing contacts will not be restored by the current version.

Hi minimalB, would you like the below font better?

Personally, I find it easy to read and better looking than Lucida Console...

https://i.imgur.com/2dR9P.png

Bring it on! I like it... easy to read and I like the fact that small and CAPITAL letters are really easy to distinguish.

If there is a vote... I would vote for this one!

Cheers!

thanks for your feedback! I really like that font too, so will add it in when making my next package.
Most probably before the end of this week.  Need to find an hour or two in my schedule...

That would be great.

Another thing: lately i have problems with connecting to server with 0.43b.

Status bar just says "Connecting..." and if I click on Network icon, I get "No nodes available" for tcp, http and native option.
Also... when I click on "Find nodes", program gets unstable... sometimes it also breaks and I have to terminate it.

Hi,

I haven't had any such issues, but I will try to help:

are you sure the problem is specific to Electrum?
Are you able to ping those servers when the problem occurs?
 (electrum.novit.ro does not respond to Ping requests but the other 2 servers do)

Have you made any firewall or other network-related changes in the last few days?

Hey,

Yes, it's Electrum specific, I can connect to satoshi client or multibit without a problem.

Here is the pic:
http://www.minimal.si/dl/web/electrumoffline.jpg

Can you please tell me the name of other 2 servers? They are not listed inside my client anymore.

I tried to ping ecdsa.org web page... and i get 0% loss, so i guess i have no problem with connection.

Cheers!

electrum.bitcoins.sk & ecdsa.org

i'm curious what the problem could be. you could also try renaming your wallet file and trigger the recovery procedure to see if that helps.

Thanks, electrum.bitcoins.sk worked fine for me.

BTW: you'll have to change your signature soon... : )

Cheers!

Wow, geeky dream come true! VERY appreciated, thanks!  Ok, gotta go to bed now...

New Windows build is out!
Version 0.43d, with the new Dina monospace font.

(If upgrading from a previous version, you will need to manually delete or rename the Electrum-P folder
  in your profile/Application Data directory)

EXE: http://dre.tx0.org/elec043d.exe  (I haven't updated the web page yet)
MD5: E87685A2DFF2F99704F91B1E6924CD1C


If you're paranoid: please feel free (and I even encourage you) to diff the
files in your Electrum-P folder against the official source code.

thanks.
sorry that I forgot to explain this, but the only difference between the 0.43c and 0.43d packages is the presence of an Android client.
no update is necessary if you're using Electrum on your desktop.

No worries... Anyway, so this means the only change in my latest package is the new (public domain) font.

oh, there is still a small change to in the gui:
the seed can be displayed as a QR code, so that the wallet can be imported on your telephone.

oh yes, indeed... I can confirm it works fine on Windows as well.

By the way, just a pointless but fun little idea: store the seed as music!
 Check this little QR-to-Midi demo:  http://www.jeremywentworth.com/2011/09/15/qr-code-image-to-midi-sequences/  :)
 

I released version 0.44. can you make a windows build?
servers will not remain fully compatible with the older clients

I should be able to release the Windows package within a few hours (hopefully - got some other stressful issues to deal with as well...)

version 0.44 1-click executable for Windows is ready! See link in top post.

great, thanks

By the way: all the standard Electrum command-line parameters should work
in my builds, but only on unencrypted wallets at this time. So if a command-line argument (such as importing a private key) appears to do nothing, please ensure the wallet is unencrypted and try again. Once successful, the wallet can be encrypted again.

EDIT: the -w option doesn't have that limitation.

Executable release 0.47a is now available for Windows.

New "frozen addresses" feature!
See the main Electrum thread for details.
 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50936.440

Coming soon, another drastic size optimization. Expect about a 50% smaller download and faster startup times!

nice!
how did you achieve that?

Errr.. Sorry, nevermind...  Looks like that huge DLL was actually needed (for QT), after all :)

Anyway, my next build should be approximately 5.7MB, which compares quite favorably with MultiBit (22MB+Java), Armory (18MB, only available for Win x64 at the moment) and the Bitcoin.org client (9MB).

By the way, I don't understand why they say that there are no "easy-to-install to packages" for Electrum on this page: http://bitcoin.org/clients.html -
Looks like they haven't even tried?  I think every other client listed there is actually harder to install than Electrum on Windows...

I wrote that text. I mentioned this because there's no ubuntu package and no android apk at this point.

btw, I released a new version (0.48) today.
There are no new features in this version, but it should be much easier to install for Linux users, because it can be installed with easy_install
This version might give you some extra work, because some paths have changed.

Oh, no problem, bring it on :)

Build 0.48a is now available for Windows. As usual, let me know if any comments or problems.

Build 0.48b for Windows is now out.

A connectivity issue has been fixed by ThomasV. See this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50936.msg896028#msg896028).

0.49b stand-alone build is now available. (download link in my signature)
SHA-1: 11ade02b8022efcefd2f908381a3e8edfa4faccb

main changes:
* several bugfixes related to imported keys and encryption
* copy seed now copies both hex and mnemonic strings

Wow! Well done   :)
When I open the exe with shift key, I get: "python )electrum= -o addresses"
So i have to correct the parentheses manually. After that it works!

I also tested the import command, but I just get the message "error". Does it work for you?

PS: I hope you could find some sleep now  ;)

Not sleeping yet :)

So the addresses command works for you too? Please could you also try some other commands (balance, history)  and let me know if they work?

For me, yes, the import command works fine, both in online and offline mode.

Please post screenshots of any error messages if you can, they will help me fix the issues.

Just to clarify, the post of bitcats is about a new experimental build I made last night that includes a full console mode for Windows. See details in  this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=17240.msg907197#msg907197) if you feel adventurous!

Import works now! It had some swapped digits in my private keys.
The other commands work fine. Can you adjust the parentheses mismatch?

One more request: I dont like that Lucida font. I would appreciate an option to switch the font (sth like Arial).


Im leaving now for 2 days. Donation will follow  ;)

Great news, glad I could help!
I will fix the parentheses in the next build.
Regarding the font, are you talking about the GUI font or the console font?
It shouldn't be Lucida, so could you post a screenshot when you get a chance? Just so I know if this could be Vista related.

Screenshot:
http://666kb.com/i/c3w9pcb34r4gjlnea.jpg

Many thanks for the time you've put in this work.

-> afk

The parentheses problem should be fixed in 0.49d (just released).

[EDIT] Build 0.51 uses a new monospace font (Fixedsys)! I hope you like this one better.

Otherwise, if you're okay with editing Python source code, I can look up the exact file
and line to edit.

Stand-alone release 0.49d for Windows is out.

Includes all the latest and greatest fixes and features added by ThomasV.

Seems to be extremely stable.

This is also my first build that integrates a custom virtual console
with full command-line support - Just hold down the SHIFT key while starting
the application to access it.

Please note that this is an experimental feature, for advanced users only.

I tried new console window with few commands and it works great! And the fact that it's there only when you need it... is so HANDY! : )

Thanks!

Great, enjoy ;)
I also find it very convenient!

Build 0.52 has been released!
5.9MB standalone executable, with console support.

changes in this version:
 a couple of bugfixes by ThomasV

Hi. I just tested the new build, it works fine  :P

The new font is better than the previous one, but its a bit small. Could you make it 1pt larger?

I like the new electrum and I just send you 5 BTC. Some more will come  :)

Thanks a lot for your feedback and cool donation! Very motivating.

That font ('Fixedsys') only has one size I'm afraid (as you can verify in notepad for example).
However if you have another font on your system that you would prefer to use, I'll be happy to
make a custom build for you.

(Note that for the number alignments to look right, the font needs to be a monospace/fixed-width font)

Thats more than I deserve  ::)

Maybe "Consolas" would be fine, or "DejaVu"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samples_of_monospaced_typefaces (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samples_of_monospaced_typefaces)
I m not sure about the size.

No problem, I don't get such good donations every day... :) I don't have DejaVu here, but below is a preview of the GUI with Consolas, size 12. Let me know if you would you like that and I can make the release tomorrow morning.

https://i.imgur.com/tQm7o.png

I like it. Size 12 is perfect for me.
Maybe there are other users who prefer that font.

The problem is that some versions of XP don't have that font and I'm not sure if
distributing it with my build is allowed.

Here's a temporary link (http://dre.tx0.org/gui_qt.py) to a quick patch to use Consolas size 12 with your current version of Electrum.

Download that gui_pt.qy file (original code by ThomasV of course), and copy it to this directory:
 %AppData%\Electrum-P\R052\C_\ElectrumPY\electrum

Filesize and MD5 for this patch must be 43,218 bytes and E536A6B53CBD732C5EB570874F2DD01C if you want to verify integrity.

Don't hesitate to let me know if any issues.

Many thanks for the "special edition"  ;)
Consolas looks nice, its perfect! It would be great if you could include it (or a similar one) in the Build (size 11 and/or 12 pt). http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/09/21/free-alternative-to-consolas-font/ (http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/09/21/free-alternative-to-consolas-font/)
A proposal: Could you make the gui a bit larger?

A donation is on the way.

Great, thanks for your feedback and looking forward to receiving the donation :)

I'm not sure how to please everybody regarding font and window size preferences, will
think about what would be the best way to proceed...
 

maybe we could add it to the list of options?

Yes I think that would be great. It would certainly help keep the same source code
for Linux and Windows (currently I have to manually fine-tune gui_qt.py with each build,
to make the GUI look nice on Windows)

Ideally, font type and size would be user options, and window size, position
and column widths could be also saved, if that is feasible for you?

Surely Linux users will appreciate this too, I guess.

sure, I just did not have time to do it myself

unfortunately me neither, and I am not yet experienced enough with Python file IO :(

I'll try to make the GUI a bit larger in the next release already.

Thanks for the donation, it made my day!

Donating at least 1 BTC for downloading the Client should be self-evident.
(E.g. you could place a YouTipit button on your page - http://www.youtipit.org (http://www.youtipit.org))

Thanks for the suggestion, I do have a donate link on my page already, but I'll check it out :)

Build 0.52-1 has been released, with a couple minor improvements:

- streamlined command-line: syntax now identical to Linux (no more parentheses)
- fixed occasional wallet restore stalling
- 30% larger main window

[EDIT] Available now!

can you tell us more about that? is it windows specific? how did you fix it?

Yes, it was windows specific. I could fix it without having to touch the electrum code.
There was something wrong with pythonw.exe that was causing it. I managed to remove any
dependencies on pythonw.exe (GUI-only interpreter) from my package and replace
it with the standard python.exe runtime (version 2.7.3.1) with no side-effects.

• ***** gui_qt.py
          self.create_status_bar()
          self.setGeometry(100,100,840,582)
          title = 'Electrum ' + self.wallet.electrum_version # + '  -  ' + self.wallet.path

• ***** GUI_QT.PY
          self.create_status_bar()
          self.setGeometry(100,100,860,482)
          title = 'Electrum ' + self.wallet.electrum_version # + '  -  ' + self.wallet.path

You didnt change the width that much. I changed it to (100,100,960,582) just to see, and for me it looks better.

The address column is still a bit too small to see the complete row. I also can't see the freeze [F] mark (with font size 12).

Yes, it's quite hard for me to choose the values you would like most, especially as my computer screen is very small, so feel free to experiment :)


The column widths of the receive tab are defined in lines 580-583. You can play around with them till you're happy :)  Hopefully the client will soon be able to remember all these preferences automatically.

def create_receive_tab(self):
        l = QTreeWidget(self)
        l.setColumnCount(4)
        l.setColumnWidth(0, 380)
        l.setColumnWidth(1, 250)
        l.setColumnWidth(2, 180)
        l.setColumnWidth(3, 20)

Perfect!  :)

Do you know if there is a way to avoid the sending to a random change address? As the change addr is not listed in the gui, you can't see the correct balance after a transaction, you always have to check it with the commands (console).
It would be great if the user could determine his own change address (in the gui), eg. the source addr.

Hi,
to my knowledge, there is currently no way of specifying a preferred change address.
I don't even know if this is possible within the bitcoin protocol, perhaps ThomasV can comment on that?

But regardless, you should always see the correct global balance in the GUI. Otherwise, it could be
a display bug. Can you post a screenshot of a specific example where the balance is not correct?

yes you can do it with the command line. see the docs.
it's just not possible with the gui at the moment.

oh yes indeed, i wasn't aware of that.

Yes, I can see the total balance but not in detail, i.e. the amounts of the change addr are not displayed in the gui.
Say a user imports some vanity addresses: 1customer1xxxxxxxxx, 1customer2xxxxxxxxx, 1customer3xxxxxxxxx, etc and for some reason he has to send a partial amount back to a customer, than he needs to see the remaining (partial) balance in the client (gui). For this purpose, it would be useful to get the change amount back to the source address.

I also think that it would be very useful to see the balance of the change addr in the gui (it could be marked in some way for a better distinction).

Agree, that would be a nice option to have!

Release 0.53-1 is out.

Just a minor release, with better error messages and further stability improvements.
As always, feel free to let me know if any issues or comments.

Are there any limitations in the portable version?

No, the portable and non-portable versions are perfectly identical (they share the same SHA-1 hash), except that the portable version doesn't write ANY data outside of the folder it is stored in - it automatically considers the location of electrum.dat is next to the executable (the command-line version still needs the -w parameter, though).

I hope this answers your question. Do not hesitate to let me know if any issues. :)

Version 0.55 is now available (http://dre.tx0.org/elecwin.htm), with some sexy new (advanced) features!
See this thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50936) for more info. Enjoy!

I tried the portable version but i cant install it (Vista). The normal version works.

Another bug: I cant see the privkey of imported addresses with the command: -o addresses -ak
With previous versions it worked. (the wallet is unencrypted)

Hi, do you get an error message with the portable version?


Indeed, same problem here. I guess this is a new bug.

  File "electrum", line 398, in <module>
    addr += ':' + str(wallet.get_private_key_base58(addr, password))
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\ffly\Application Data\Electrum-P\0.55\C_\ElectrumPY\lib\wallet.py", line 388, in get_private_key_base58
    pk = self.get_private_key(address, password)
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\ffly\Application Data\Electrum-P\0.55\C_\ElectrumPY\lib\wallet.py", line 409, in get_private_key
    raise BaseException("unknown address")
BaseException: unknown address

- Thats the bug I get.

- No error message. It locked up (in German: it hangs)

A few more questions: Did you run the portable version off a USB stick, or your hard drive? It's supposed to unpack all Python files into a subdirectory (the Electrum-P folder), next to the executable (elec055-portable.exe). Did it do that?

I will try to find a Vista machine so I can do some testing.

EDIT: Note that in portable mode, the executable doesn't need the -w parameter. It will automatically use the wallet file (electrum.dat) located in the same directory. Sorry, I should have mentioned this.

I just noticed this bug. it is not related to imported keys.
just fixed it, see version 0.55a

Thanks, I've just updated the windows builds to 0.55a too.

Indeed, I installed it on a USB Stick. (without -w)
During the unpacking process, it locked up. I had to shutdown.

Hi,

could you try this new portable version (elec055a-portable.exe (http://code.google.com/p/win-electrum/downloads/detail?name=elec055a-portable.exe&can=2&q=)) from your USB drive?
(SHA1: fef79d30fb663465af38211ab272dcafdf7dde93)

also keep in mind that USB throughput is usually much lower than a local hard disk,
so the unpacking process takes a bit longer (but shouldn't exceed 30-45 seconds).

Do you have the same issue with it?

Thanks, this update works. I could install it on the stick.

When I open the console (shift) it shows some strange letters: electrum -w ÄIÜÊlectrumêlectrum.datÄ -o addresses

OK that's good news!


Hmm, that codepage thing again... I'll investigate and fix it in the next release (perhaps later today, or tomorrow)

OK, do you still get the bad characters with this one (http://code.google.com/p/win-electrum/downloads/detail?name=elec056-portable.exe&can=2&q=#makechanges)?  (Yes, this is 0.56!)

SHA1 093637ca269b6024e35b5dc92a61b97262f845d0

Now i get this:  electrum -W Ä..#..#..#..#electrum.datÄ -o addresses
And no colors.

Ok, I'm still investigating this. But what do you mean by 'no colors'? No colors where?

* The 'receive' tab now has a 'new' button, that allows the user to create addresses beyond the wallet's gap limit. The user gets a warning, and addresses that are beyond the gap limit are displayed in red. The red color will remain until the gap has been filled. (in other words, to fill the gap you need to send coins to the last non-red address of your list).
* Frozen addresses are displayed with a blue background.
* Addresses have a 'priority' flag. Prioritized addresses will be used first when creating a transaction. Prioritized addresses are displayed with a green background.

hey, this info is now deprecated; sorry I should have mentioned that.
in 0.56 this button opens a dialog that allows the user to raise their gap limit. no more addresses displayed in red.
users can also decrease their gap limit, but only as much as is allowed by the current status of their wallet. (if the wallet has large gaps, the user must fill them before they can decrease the limit.)

But the other color backgrounds still exist?

yes:

Receive tab:
*green = prioritized
*blue = frozen
Contacts tab:
*gray = alias

This one should fix it once and for all... Let me know if not! (note: this is 0.57c, which I haven't released on the homepage yet!)
  

0.57c portable - Executable
   
  EDIT: sorry, I had to take it offline while i investigate another GUI bug

SHA1: aed8e2881bedadc6cb31a13f376a7c9038df91fe

The example command in the virtual console should look like this:

OK, build 0.57c is ready, let me know if command line is OK now in portable mode!

Follow the link in my signature.

Its working now but there is a strange bug:

This is what I get when I open the console (offline) and hit "enter":
12.06.2012  9:58:50,73> electrum -w "../../::/::/ELECTRUM:DAT" -O ADDRESSES
Usage: electrum [options] command
Commands: restore, help, unprioritize, freeze, signmessage, verifymessage, addre
sses, contacts, create, label, validateaddress, unfreeze, reseed, eval, import,
password, sendtx, prioritize, mktx, seed, deseed, balance, payto, history

electrum: error: no such option: -O

Finally this is what I get when I hit enter 3 times (3x close and reopen the console):
12.06.2012  9:58:14,32> electrum -w "../../../../electrum.dat" -o addresses
-- 1ADwVBLHRpnUjq4nSUbP6yDsinHiLQYUBE
-- 14s6FkuN1KXuJV2efBFr6xj7pHmmqqewfn
-- 1FaY7PuSv3bZGpSYA5MeBstvdGQ9jW9LSw
-- 1ARcWC1EKrjHHgR6N7cZ3yHxbdv744TQ8K
-- 1Fdkh7jMcBT7E7QjfPPME5C1c3rmAsg3Q3

Sometimes it even needs 4 or 5 "starts" until I get the correct (lower-case) characters.

Off topic:
Could you tell me what is the easiest way to make an anonymous transaction using electrum?

@flatfly: did you finally fix the menu bug?
could you make public all the modifications that you made to the code? I may want to merge that fix into the main branch.

I would like to see is a set of compilation instructions, so that independent reviewers can generate exactly the same build and check that they obtain the same sha1 hash

(I believe the bitcoin-qt client is verified that way)

OK, this method I'm using is just not reliable enough with Vista. I guess I will just remove this example in the next release.

Sorry, I'm afraid I'm not an expert on anonymous transactions... Perhaps you'd better ask in the general forum?

I still have to test it on a few different Windows platforms... If all is OK I will post the (very simple) code later.
Hopefully it won't cause side-effects on Linux.



Yes I am aware of the way Bitcoin-Qt builds are made and cross-verified (except for the MacOS version, which Gavin is compiling all alone I believe), and indeed this is a very good security measure that is currently missing in the other clients.

However I use a combination of custom scripting and commercial packaging software as part of my build procedure,
so that might be a problem for others to use, licensing-wise.   I'll see if I can find open-source alternatives.

Building standalone Python apps for Windows (while supporting all OS flavors) can be a pain :(

0.58 is out! I just did away with the command example in the console. Also, in portable mode, it will automatically look for the wallet file in the same location as the executable (no need to use -w at all). Please let me know if this works for you.

Also please could you see if the right-click menu works fine in the GUI (history tab)? Or does it still appear at strange places?

By the way, another thing that is somewhat related, but I'm not sure if it is Windows-specific or not: On Linux, what happens if you double-click on the balance of a transaction? For me, the context menu pops up, but at the very beginning of the line, not where the mouse pointer is. Anyway, not very important...

it's normal. I just did not expect users to bring the menu that way... :)

I need a download link for v. 0.58 portable

Download page is in my signature.
Perhaps you still have the old page in your browser cache?
Here's the direct link:  http://win-electrum.googlecode.com/files/elec058-portable.exe

I changed the server and now it won't connect anymore...

All servers are up, I just checked.
What version of the client are you using?
Latest stable version is 0.58, try to update perhaps?

the latest 0.58-compact. I created the wallet, chose the ecdsa server. Later I tried changing it (by clicking on the green circle and changing to a different one), and from then it doesn't want to connect even if I change it back to ecdsa. If I rewrite the wallet with the old one it works again. Tried the same thing with an older version and it works (or doesn't work) in the same way.

Strange... Never had this kind of issue... I guess ThomasV should be able to help

Can you reproduce it or is it only on my end?

No I can't reproduce it... Connectivity is fine here. However I'm not able to do more testing as I'm out of BTC  at the moment :(

How many do you need? Is the address in your sig ok?

btcback.com is down (bitcoind crashed)
electrum.bitcoins.sk is broken (wrong number of blocks)

that being said, I cannot reproduce vuce's problem

Yes the address in my sig is OK.
1 or 2 would be nice... Let me know if it is a donation or you need them back :)  

sent, you may keep them. Keep up the awesome work!

Many thanks for that!
I need to wait for a confirmation before I can play around and do some testing with the wallet...

Are you still not able to connect? Ecdsa.org works fine for me...

Also, is there anything particular about the wallet that has changed recently (such as frozen, prioritized, or newly imported addresses)?

I reverted to the older (working) wallet. Seems like every time server is changed wallet changes in some way, and this doesn't quite comply. It's working ok with the older one.

Oh yes, that might be relevant but I totally forgot. I had one prioritized and one frozen address (I was just playing around with that). I also had expert mode checked and display zeroes set to 2. I will try to remove that and test again.

edit: no joy, still the same. this (http://i47.tinypic.com/24ctmrc.png) is what I see. After a restart I see nothing as it wouldn't connect at all. I tried all three servers I have available (ecdsa.org, electrum.bitcoins.sk, electrum.novit.ro), none of them would work.

OK, could you try in console mode? Perhaps that will give us some additional clues / error messages...
To enter console mode, just start Electrum while holding down the SHIFT key.
Then try a simple online command, such as 'electrum balance' (without the quotes)
Any error messages when you do that?

13-Jun-12  0:09:50.92> electrum balance
Connected to btcback.com:50001
0

Balance shouldn't be 0 though... There are no error messages.

edit: ok, ecdsa server works fine in console mode, even when it doesn't in gui.

btcback.com has crashed as ThomasV reported a few posts above.
Can you try to connect to ecdsa.org instead?

You will need to select it first through the GUI connection dialog first.

yup, tried that, this works perfectly in console mode, but it still won't connect in gui mode.

Ok, now we're making some progress. Looks like a problem with the gui, specifically. Could you try to just type 'electrum' at the console? This will launch the GUI window, while still having the console open. I am mostly interested in any errors and tracebacks you might get in the console then.

13-Jun-12  1:13:42.86> electrum
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "electrum", line 139, in <module>
    import electrum.gui_qt as gui
ImportError: No module named electrum.gui_qt

Everything works fine now! Please take a look at the colors: http://i48.tinypic.com/73ibee.jpg
As you see, in Vista it is a bit difficult to clearly distinguish this colors. Would it be possible to choose a kind of orange/red background for the frozen addresses?

Another question: Thomas wrote some days ago, that the consolas font could be added as an option. Is this realizable?

I send you some bacon  ;)

OK, this error can be ignored.

Please try the following: rename your wallet file to electrum.baddat (or anything else),
restart the application and select the option to restore the wallet (have your seed ready).
It will then proceed to regenerate all of your addresses (except the imported ones) and
hopefully, you will be able to connect fine afterwards.

(I remember having a similar issue a few months ago and that's how I fixed it.)

Thanks!
I will check for the colors and fonts and let you know.

It seems that they were down, but now it works again, except for ecdsa.org

Excellent progress! Donation on it's way!

I think i found one mini external bug: "Download" and "Portable" link is the same for v0.58.

And a question: Addresses are now huge compared to label names (they look tiny). Is it normal that the font for "Label" tab is different?

Thanks.

It's not a problem, it works with the old wallet as long as I don't change servers, but there's still some kind of a bug somewhere, obviously. Is there any other way of having a console and gui open at the same time apart from running "electrum" command (that prints the error above and it won't open the gui)?

Currently, this is the only way to have both the console and GUI open (in my build, at least).
I didn't realize that the GUI wouldn't open for you, after that error message.

I have a few questions for you, to help me understand the cause of this issue:

 1/ what is your version of Windows?

 2/ by any chance, did you manually install another version of Python at some point?

 3/ did you make any edits to the source code (in the Electrum_SysFiles folder)?

Any idea yet?

Windows 7, 64 bit

Had python 2.6 and python 2.7 installed long before I started using electrum. Tried removing python 2.6 but it doesn't help.

No, no edits

Thanks again for the nice donation!

Thanks for reporting both issues, I will fix the label fonts and download URLs.

Not yet, my schedule is rather busy at the moment, but I'll come back to you in the next few days!

OK, now that it has been confirmed to work, here's the fix (more of a workaround really, but it does the job just fine):

Just insert the following code at line 205 in gui_qt,

 (that's at the end of class ElectrumWindow, right after the self.setWindowTitle( title ) and self.show() lines)


Sorry, no time to elaborate on why it works, I gotta go right now (can provide more info later if needed)

Thanks for the answers.  

Also, just curious, have you tried to "manually" install Electrum (as per the instructions at http://ecdsa.org/electrum/) ?  

I wonder if this issue is specific to my builds or not.
 

tried that, but get the same error as when trying to open a gui:

that terminates execution.

@vuce:

I have made a test build in which the search method for Python modules should be a little more robust - may be this could solve your Import issue:

http://win-electrum.googlecode.com/files/elec058-1.exe
 SHA-1: 846021e0744a3de2706e0a78e26f3fed5026ac4e

@flatfly:

Just quick update on the "not connected" problem. Tried to debug it on Windows 7 x64, elecwin 0.58 portable.

When trying to connect:


For some reason trying to manually import encodings.idna fails to load unicodedata.pyd.

Also, for some reason running packed python.exe (2.7) as console:


Last working version for me is elec047a. Next I got is elec048b and it has the problem.

I'll try to figure this out later, no more time for now.

Thanks for the testing. Did you also try the build I posted just above? (0.58-1)

EDIT: I've added support for CP866 (Cyrillic) in this new build (0.58-2) (http://win-electrum.googlecode.com/files/elec058-2.exe)
Could you give it a try and let me know if it helps?

SHA1: e1008974289c2e0fcbc639bbfea859ac38b034b7

For some reason all non-compact builds give the "Not enough memory!" warning when I try to run them in console mode. I think you don't need to bother with it anymore as long as I'm the only one having this problem, since the workaround works ok.

OK, but just to be sure, which exactly is the workaround that works ok for you?
Also, what do you mean by non-compact builds? Which ones?
Also, it would be nice if you could post a screenshot of the
"not enough memory" error. (Just for my reference.)

Using an old wallet, works - that is a wallet before I changed servers. As long as I stay on the same server everything is ok.


Ah I'm sorry, it was a total commander error, don't know how I missed that. Anyway, it's working now, when trying electrum balance:

If I run "electrum" and try changing servers same thing happens.

This is weird because the previous build worked in offline mode just fine...

Ok, 058-2 works for me. If cp866 is copied to 058-1 Electrum_SysFiles it works too.

But is there any explanation why cp866 is needed at all? R047a lacks it and still works fine.

@vuce: try: electrum -o balance

that works, what exactly does it do? I assume it doesn't need to connect to the server, since that obviously doesn't work?

You're correct, -o is offline mode. It just gets the information from your existing wallet file.

I think it's due to some of the new localization code that was added in the meantime.

Adding preference dialogs for font and color customization can be
done by Thomas but I don't think it's a big priority for him at the moment.

For colors, have a look here: http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Just tell me the RGB codes for your preferred colors, and I can point you to the
relevant changes you can make to the code (or provide you with a patch, as you prefer).  

For the moment my priority is to stabilize the servers.
the increase of traffic caused by Satoshi Dice has revealed some inefficiencies in the server code.

Hi, I just fixed the font size issue (build 0.58-3).

I just changed a few design details (colors, fonts, window size):

http://i49.tinypic.com/bfh0ms.jpg


I also inverted the checkbox for the change address. Now it never creates a change address unless i check the box.
I changed the text next to the checkbox to: "Create change address"

Very nice!

Thanks.
As every command starts with "electrum ...", it would be nice if you could preset the "electrum" command example in the next build?

(Do you speak french?)

I will check if I can do that in a clean way, but here's a tip: you can just type 'el' then hit TAB to autocomplete the name :)  

(Yes I do speak some French too!)

Ok merci  ;)

Release 0.59 has been released, and the Windows build is now available too!

As of 0.59, in the console, it is now possible to just type 'e' for electrum. :)

So, for example:

EDIT: A couple of issues related to the new 'use change address' setting have been fixed in 0.59b, available now.
 

Does anyone else have problems with their clients not updating (on ecdsa.org server)?

Yes, ecdsa.org seems to be stuck at block 185096. I would suggest to use electrum.novit.ro in the meantime - it's been quite stable lately.

@flatfly

I did some more digging why I couldn't change servers, and I think I figured it out. If I change the server using electrum the wallet updates as
, where the (working) default was . If I make adjustments to the wallet by hand so that "u" is not appended everything works perfectly (I am able to connect to other servers like that just fine).

edit: confirmed by another friend, but only for tcp
edit 2: found out "u" stands for unicode string. I have no idea why this wouldn't work then.  ::)

Really strange... I haven't had that kind of issue at all.
Just curious, does the wallet recovery procedure work for you, or does it also fail?



Really? Does he have the same version of Windows as you? Using the latest version of Electrum too?

Nope, not working either.

Yes on both counts. I'll try on a different windows version when I get the chance.

Really? Could you try to do it from the command line and post any error messages?
This could help us find out what's going on.

I can't seem to restore or create a new wallet using the latest version. I'm not sure if it's due to my incompetence, lack of patience (That damn generating addresses box stays open for 30 minutes) or something else.

Any advice?

Hi,

30 minutes is definitely not normal... Restoring a wallet can take between a few seconds and several minutes depending on your transaction history. For instance, my wallet (568 transactions currently) takes about 5 minutes to restore.

I would guess both issues (restoring and creating a new wallet) are related, so let's try to work on the easier one first: new wallet creation.
Can you try that from the console and let me know of any error messages?


Just hit 'Enter' at all questions to accept the default values.
Generation should complete in less than 5 seconds normally.

Ok did some more testing.

Via de console it can create the wallets just fine, no problem.

When starting the latest download by simply double clicking it I get a wallet created 50% of the time give or take. Other times it's just doing nothing. I can't rule out server problems at this point.

I've just done some testing, and I may have found something.
At the server selection dialog, make sure you don't connect to "electrum.bitcoins.sk" as
it is dead (as far as I can tell). The problem is that it's currently among the 3 hardcoded server names in the client, which causes issues at wallet creation or restore if the client happens to choose that one. (The server selection logic in the console version is slightly different and doesn't have seem to have that problem)

Let me know if that solves your issue or not.

@ThomasV: you may want to have a look at this little issue :)

EDIT: also, why does wallet creation even bring up that server dialog, anyway? The process is completely local, isn't it?

I confirm the client is currently failing to create new wallets roughly 30% of the time due to the above reason.  I guess electrum.bitcoins.sk must be removed from the hard-coded list, and/or the (GUI) client must not try to connect to a server during wallet creation - unless I am missing something?

In the meantime, I will prepare and push out a build later today with the electrum.bitcoins.sk server entry removed.

Awesome, thanks for the update.

The Windows minimal build for release 0.60 is ready! (Download page in my signature.)

Changelist in 0.60 is in this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50936.msg983997#msg983997).

I also decided to leave in my little block count display mod
for now, as it makes troubleshooting some issues a little easier.

I've discussed the block count mod with Thomas and he only would accept a pull request if the code only shows in expert mode. I've supplied a pull request (https://gitorious.org/electrum/electrum/merge_requests/12) for him. (Also wrote a pull request (https://gitorious.org/electrum/electrum/merge_requests/11) for the original client's style of confirmation icons which I hope Thomas might accept.)

I'm having trouble getting 0.60 to connect to my server. The normal python version works fine but for some reason the windows version just keeps connecting. Any idea why that could be? (no errors on neither side)

Can't connect to any server or just to your server? What is the server name? Also, try both tcp and http and see if one works.

Ps: thanks for the pull request!

It seems I can't connect to any servers with the windows build. I do remember an out of memory error popped up when I ran the .exe for the first time. Perhaps I can repeat that initial extracting by removing the files it extracts? Can I start clean somehow?

Sure, to start clean, just delete (or rename) the below directory:
  %appdata%\Electrum_SysFiles\0.60

Perhaps some files failed to extract properly the first time? 

If you do get that memory error again, please post a screenshot if possible.

I removed the folder and it did re-extract it when I ran it now but it still won't connect. Since I can't even get 0.59 to work anymore I'm pretty sure it's a local problem. Thanks for the suggestions.

Just another thought, can you still create new wallets fine or even that doesn't work anymore?

Also, do you get any error messages if you launch the console (shift-click the executable) then just type 'electrum' ?

I moved my original wallet out of place and created a new one, everything is working again. Somehow my wallet got corrupted?

After trying to connect to an other server; wallet seems bugged again, can't connect to any of the servers again.

Weird stuff happening ^

I've actually had something like that happen to me a while ago. The wallet file also contains user preferences, including server settings, so a corrupted wallet can cause connection issues. There must be an unidentified bug still lying around that only manifests itself under certain conditions.

If you have the chance (and enough patience!), it would be interesting to compare the corrupted wallet and the good one in a text editor, to see if anything jumps out as unusual.

Can you open your wallet file, find where the server string is and delete the "u" in front of the server, and check if it works then?

I took some time to compare the two but because my original wallet has so much more activity in it it's hard to compare. I couldn't find anything that looked really faulty.


Tried it but made no difference.

Or you could perhaps try to compare the new wallet before and after it goes bad?  So the files will be less cluttered...

Ah good idea, I can probably do a diff on the files before and after trying a reconnect. Will do that later today :)

Just wondering, have you had a chance to try that?

No I did not yet, kinda slipped my mind. The "funny" thing is though that I'm getting the same problem on Linux. So I'm guessing it's not totally related to the Windows client.

Well this is getting strange... Just minutes after your reply, I started having the same problem!!
Stays forever stuck on "Connecting...", no matter what server I try. I do see some network
traffic, though.

The good news is that I will be able to investigate more easily :)

OK, for me it was just caused by a buggy gui_qt.py file I was using for some tests.
Replacing it with the official one fixed the issue.

Perhaps it's also some edits that you made to that file that caused the "Connecting..." issues for you?

If you're still interested in that, check out my new guide to anonymous transactions (http://dre.tx0.org/anon_btc.htm) :)

Thanks for the tutorial.
I'd prefer to use electrum with TOR.

Agree, that would be great...

If you setup a TOR hidden service then we can see how easy it is, and try to set it up. A TCP Stratum server running over Tor.

I'm guessing it should be trivial (hopefully).

Now that I can post here, ...

Thank you for Electrum. It's a great addition as it opens up bitcoins to a wider audience.

I am trying to use the portable client, but it does not work.

Downloaded http://win-electrum.googlecode.com/files/elec060-portable.exe Ran it. Clicked "Create new wallet". Selected the ecdsa.org server.

The window that comes up says

Please wait...
Addresses generated: 0
Kilobytes received: 0.0

And nothing happens. When I close it, I get the window that gives me the seed for the new wallet. Click OK, no password. Electrum opens. On the bottom: Not connected, Blocks: -1.

Is the problem on my end? Anyone else able to use the portable client? Is my computer blocking something? (My computer filters some websites.)

Seemingly unrelated issues. electrum.dat is created, but in the wrong folder. IIUC, it should be created in Electrum_SysFiles\0.60\C_\ElectrumPY . Instead, it's created outside of Electrum_SysFiles. I moved it by hand, no problem.

e.cmd doesn't work out of the box. I had to rewrite it like this:

@ECHO OFF
set path=foo\Electrum_SysFiles\0.60\sys;%path%
foo\Electrum_SysFiles\0.60\C_\Python27\python.exe electrum %WALLFILE% %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7

Also, I renamed Electrum_SysFiles\0.60\%System% to Electrum_SysFiles\0.60\sys, so I could use it in the path statement.

Thanks for trying Electrum on Windows! The portable version should work out of the box, We've had a lot of users with very few issues. You shouldn't have to edit or move any files at all for it to work.

No, electrum.dat is not supposed to be created in the ElectrumPY folder.
The portable version should create it in the same directory as the executable (elec060-portable.exe).

The Electrum_SysFiles folder contains all the required Python files and libraries for
Electrum to work properly. Normally, the end-user never has to deal with those.
 
(FYI, e.cmd is only there for the console mode, which is accessed by holding down
the SHIFT key while starting Electrum, to work properly - it's normal that it does
nothing when executed manually, don't worry about it)

It could be that server ecdsa.org was down at the moment you tried to connect.

What I would suggest is to delete all files, and start over again.
If ecdsa.org does not work for you right now, perhaps you can try
another server, such as electrum.novit.ro for instance.
Let me know if you still encounter those issues.

Please note that my web page is down at the moment, due to my web host. Hopefully this won't be too long.

website still down, sorry about that.

in the meantime, v0.60 can still be downloaded through
the following links:

(SHA1: a4fd9d0ed152d3beee7d1859e8736ef5bb5d8ee9)

https://code.google.com/p/win-electrum/downloads/detail?name=elec060.exe&can=2&q=

https://code.google.com/p/win-electrum/downloads/detail?name=elec060-portable.exe&can=2&q=

Need some temp hosting? I can give you a small VPS if that would help.

Yeah, actually that would help me out quite a bit, as it seems the problems with my host are going to take a while to solve. I would need minimal storage only, as the larger files are stored on Google Code.

Very appreciated, thanks!

Hello,

I had to change my URL for Windows builds due to hosting issues.
The new URL is:

http://dre.redmartian.org/elecwin.htm

I couldn't build 0.61 yet, though.

ok, I'll update the link

can you explain why you could not build 0.61?

Thanks for updating the link.

Actually, it's got nothing to do with 0.61: my "development"
machine (which was just an old EeePC, believe it or not)
decided to die on me last weekend. And with my financial
situation being extremely bad (probably the understatement
of the year), I can't even afford to buy a new one for
now, and probably won't until I find a new job.

I will see if I can get someone to lend/give me a
replacement computer in the meantime.

PS:
How could a 35-year-old former Cisco employee get himself
into such a mess? That's a long story I'm not ready to
share on this forum just yet. But any help or advice is welcome.

Also wanted to mention that I'm still working on making my build process fully documented / repeatable by others, but replacing my tools with 100% open-source ones is proving tougher than I thought (especially when trying to keep the same build compatible with XP, Vista, and 7).

I was able to find a solution to my hosting issues.
 
Tachikoma, thanks again for helping out with the temporary VPS.
I guess I will no longer need it now but it was very appreciated.

Roger! I will remove it again, hit me up if you ever need something a little more permanent :)

 

A customer of mine had problem connecting to any server using your Windows build version 0.60. She gets the message "Not connected. Block: -1".

I resolved this by restoring her wallet on my Linux desktop with version 0.61.

I've got the same problem,
not connected to any server with 0.60 on XP64 (tried the portable version too without success), while 0.56 worked fine.

Yes this is a known occasional issue and hasn't been fixed yet. It's not totally clear whether it is windows specific or not.

hi, i had some strange behaviour with the crypt option for the wallet, (sometimes it crypt, sometimes is decrypt without asking password... and os on, very strange in my opinion)
so i decided to rename the wallet in order to play with a fresh one

now i have two wallets and each time i open/close the exe, it alternate reading one or other, its switching constantly after each open/close action

i am using the portable exe version for xp

is that behaviour normal?

This is the first time such an issue is reported. Definitely not normal. 
Perhaps something special with your setup? Are you running Electrum from
a USB drive or your hard disk? Any spaces in the path?  Version 0.60?

0.60, from C:\


i had the same problem with the "non"  portable windows version and tahts why i switched to the portable one, for test.

now i must say i just killer python.exe and looks like everything works as it should now
i have the feeling sometimes gets stucked in memory and make a mess of paranormal activity

OK, so it seems that the Python runtime doesn't always exit properly for some reason.
I will further investigate this when I can setup a new computer (writing this post from a friend's computer). 

One thought... Did Electrum get stuck while you created your very first wallet?
It sometimes happens if a server is down at the wrong time (known issue).

yes sometimes it get freezed creating the 5 first addresses or whatever it is doing,
I must click in the "X" and then a window with the seed and so on appears,

someone told me the reason of this is just when it can't connect to the server



the strange behavior is definitely due to python stucked into memory, but i can't reproduce a way to make it keep in memory so any kind of senseless error can appear; looks like random... sometimes it exit and sometimes it don't

by the way, what about update to a longer seed? 2^128 looks a bit short compared to 2^166
it possible in next version to put the window in the middle of the screen for the initial booting position?, to me its too high and i have the windows bar covering it always,


cheers

Hopefully, this will be fixed in a later release.


Why? 2^128 should get you covered until the end of the universe... Unless I'm missing something? Anyway, if you would like to discuss this further, I would recommend to post about it in the main Electrum thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50936.0).


Sure, I will address that in the next Windows build.
Do you have your Windows taskbar at the top of your screen? Could you post a screenshot if possible?

why the transaction fee is always multiplyed by 2 and 4 once configured in the options?
if i put 0.000001 btc fee it never stay at 0.000001

then i put " 0.x "  in the amount, i get 0.000002 btc transaction fee
then i put " 1.x "  in the amount, i get 0.000004 btc transaction fee

whats even more strange is if i put 0.00000001  btc

then i put " 0.x "  in the amount, i get 18 btc transaction fee
then i put " 1.x "  in the amount, i get 48 btc transaction fee


if i put 0.0000001  btc

then i put " 0.x "  in the amount, i get 27 btc transaction fee
then i put " 1.x "  in the amount, i get 47 btc transaction fee

Good catch! I just tried the same settings here, and
I'm able to reproduce it. Sure looks like a little bug in the fee calculation for tiny values.

Anyway, I would recommend setting the fee to 0.001 to get higher priority than SatoshiDice transactions - otherwise, setting smaller fees will often delay your transaction for hours if not days.

Hey, I just noticed that I got a 2.2BTC tip yesterday! Thank you
anonymous donator, it was very appreciated!  No idea who the donator is, though...

Wow, so it was you? Thanks a lot :)

I should put up a little hall of fame with the greatest donators!

Are you still working on brining out new versions Flatfly? We are about to release a new version and I would love there to be a easy to download windows version of it to. If not I would like to know so I can try to build an .exe myself :}

Hi, I have no Windows system available for now (my computer died on me), but
hopefully I will get a new PC in the first week of September and then I will be able to
make new builds.

That said, if you do have some time to make Windows builds as well, go ahead :)

I think it would be nice to eventually have several people working on the binary creation
and distribution, documenting the build process so it is easily repeatable by any user.    

That would be my end-game too, there are already build scripts for OSX and a PIP install for Linux. I will see if I can get a python dev env on Windows setup so I can try building a Windows binary.

What about having a amazon windows instance?

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not too familiar with amazon's offering, but will check it out.

Overall I like the client and interface and performance way better than multibit and satoshi client.  There are a couple things that need to be fixed however.  The transaction order for pending transactions is not correct, which was extremely irritating when I was playing satoshidice.  I would send a payment, and receive one back from satoshidice, and not be able to tell if I had won because the transactions would not appear at the top of the history list.  They would appear in some random spot farther down.  

Also, there is a problem with being able to copy addresses on the history screen and identify them on the contact list.  For example, I wanted to send my friend a few bitcoins to his phone from my laptop, so I had him send me .01 bitcoins so I could get an address to send back to his phone.  The .01 arrived, and I could see it in my history list, but by right clicking it I could not copy his address, as i can with the satoshi client.  So I went to the contacts tab, but it was just a big wall of addresses because I had not labeled anything.  This took me a while to figure out and is a usability problem.  Same thing when I click on receive, its just a big wall of addresses with no easy way to tell which ones haven't been used before or generate a new address.

One more thing is that when it doesnt connect at startup and I go to select a different server, it doesnt try to connect immediately unless i restart the client.

flatfly: Could you eventually make a portable version of the new electrum client?

Hi, I agree with your feedback. Hopefully these issues will be addressed in the near future.

Regarding copying an address from the history view, you can already do so, by first editing the
address field, then right-clicking on the address. I admit this should be made more intuitive though.

Also, if you enable expert mode (in the settings), you get a new column with individual address balances in the "contacts" & "receive" tabs.

I still don't have a Windows computer, so didn't plan to do that before September,
but as you're one of my top donators, I will see if I can borrow my dad's
laptop, secure it properly, and make an early 1.0 portable build :)

Thanks a bunch but you dont need to hurry. I prefer a stable version. :)

Sure, me too :) 

Windows Builds for 1.0 are now available!

Note that there are few apparent changes in this release.
See this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=100502.msg1133880#msg1133880) for more info.

Thanks to all contributors and donators for their support!


http://dre.redmartian.org/elecwin.htm

I can't get Electrum 0.60 or 1.0 to connect to the network on Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64.  I have PyCrypto 2.1 (Python 2.7).  I don't know what other information would be useful.

It's the same issue that's been reported before where Electrum can't connect to the network.

Upon launch, I get a window says,

If I close that window, I can get the seed, create a password, and then get to the main window.  However, in the lower left hand corner of the main window, it says "Connecting" then "Not connected."

Switching servers does not help.

I added Electrum to my trusted programs list in Kaspersky Internet Security, but that didn't help either.

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

Hi, we are investigating this issue with 1.0.
0.60 should work if you delete and re-create your wallet file (electrum.dat) -
please could you try?

A new Windows build (1.01-c) is now available. It should fix the connection issue for new wallets. Could you try it?

Just downloaded and installed 1.01-c

Seems to be working, am connected to uncle-enzo.info

Great job,

Thanks

I tried deleting the wallet file on 0.60, 1.0, and 1.01-c.  It not working on this original computer.

However, I also tried another computer with Windows 7 Home Premium x64, and 1.01-c DID work.  Yay! 

Here's a candidate build (1.01-d), with slightly different connection values configured in interface.py, that you can try on your original computer.
 https://code.google.com/p/win-electrum/downloads/detail?name=elec101d.exe&can=2&q=

Does that work better?

Nice!  That worked for me on my original computer if I deleted the wallet.dat.  Thanks.

Great news :)
Remember it's still version 1.01, though - this kind of stuff will only get more intuitive/stable with each new release.

I need some help please, I dowloaded v1.01 and used it great, with over 10 transactions, but now I cant move my bitcoins anywhe

http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/squall1066/d6800fbc.png

The last transaction has over 60 confirmations, does not matter where I try and move or how much?

Hi,
I think that some servers will reject a transaction if the fee is extremely low - is that the case here?
Could you post more details or a screenshot about the transaction, if it's not too private?

I was doing this

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104630.0

So there was no fee attached (otherwise not worth it) I sent myself 2BTC then sent 8x0.25 and recieved all back no problems.

Did this about 12hours ago, now just cant move it anywhere.

EDIT - Just tryed again, still no luck, But then I tryed to do the whole balance back to me and it got sent!

EDIT 2 - 1BAXx8YU1DyVfKWPQNAArvJrcmHifXgEME Links to me.

Hi Flatfly! I still can't get Electrum to work! This time I get no windows log errors for the latest version I just tried, its pretty mych the same thing as before......unpacking modules then an empty shadow outline for a small window. Any help! My Windows is 7 ultimate 64-bit and is nothing but a standard installation. Are there any prerequisites to running this app or is it self contained?

Hey, no there aren't any prerequisites, the app contains all the required libraries.

As for the strange issue you are having, perhaps the following could help us investigate:

Start Electrum while holding down the Shift key on your keyboard - this should open the virtual text-mode Python console. If that works, just type "e" (without the quotes) there to launch the Electrum GUI. If you get any new error messages
at this point, please let me know.

Wow, that worked in getting me an error message finally! Here it is:

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26)

Type "electrum -help" for a list of available commands.
(Full documentation at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum)
---

03/09/2012 20:37:25.97> e
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "electrum", line 23, in <module>
    from electrum.util import print_error
ImportError: No module named electrum.util

03/09/2012 20:37:50.23>

Interesting... It could be a "path" issue. Is your system language other than English?

Also, if possible, could you post the output of the following command:

 dir /S | find "util"

My system language is English. Here is the output for that command:

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26)

Type "electrum -help" for a list of available commands.
(Full documentation at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum)
---

03/09/2012 21:36:25.46> dir /S | find "util"
C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e\C_\ElectrumPY\e
cdsa\util.py
C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e\C_\ElectrumPY\e
cdsa\util.pyc
C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e\C_\ElectrumPY\l
ib\util.py
C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e\C_\ElectrumPY\l
ib\util.pyc

03/09/2012 21:36:42.72> e
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "electrum", line 23, in <module>
    from electrum.util import print_error
ImportError: No module named electrum.util

03/09/2012 21:37:49.29>

03/09/2012 21:36:42.72>

Hi, I'm still investigating this...

I've packed a test build that loads modules using a different method. Perhaps
that will work for you.

You can get it from here:
 http://code.google.com/p/win-electrum/downloads/detail?name=elec101e2.exe

This is the error message I am now getting :)

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26)

Type "electrum -help" for a list of available commands.
(Full documentation at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum)
---

05/09/2012 10:12:48.15> e
C:\Users\Sovereign 108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e2\C_\Python27\py
thon.exe: can't find '__main__' module in 'electrum'

05/09/2012 10:12:54.54>

Hmmm... What if you type "python (electrum)" instead of "e"?

I tried that, this is the error message now:

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26)

Type "electrum -help" for a list of available commands.
(Full documentation at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum)
---

05/09/2012 10:24:22.23> python (electrum)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "(electrum)", line 23, in <module>
    from electrum.util import print_error
  File "C:\Users\Sovereign 108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e2\C_\Ele
ctrumPY\electrum\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from wallet import Wallet, format_satoshis, prompt_password
  File "C:\Users\Sovereign 108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e2\C_\Ele
ctrumPY\electrum\wallet.py", line 267, in <module>
    from interface import DEFAULT_SERVERS
  File "C:\Users\Sovereign 108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e2\C_\Ele
ctrumPY\electrum\interface.py", line 20, in <module>
    import random, socket, ast, re
  File "C:\Csvn\Python25\lib\socket.py", line 47, in <module>
    import _socket
ImportError: DLL load failed: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

05/09/2012 10:24:40.73> "python (electrum)"
'"python (electrum)"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

05/09/2012 10:24:53.19>

OK, looks like we've found the root cause.
There is an old version of Python (2.5) installed on your system...
The Electrum executable normally uses its own embedded Python runtime,
but somehow that other installation of Python is conflicting with it.
 
If you type "set path" without the quotes in the Electrum console,
you should see if it's pointing to that old Python version.

Are you using it for anything?
If not, it's probably best to uninstall (or upgrade) it, then try Electrum again.

I uninstalled one old python version, and changed the directory name for the other Python distribution that comes with an old version of python as standard and this is the error i get. Am I to remove the reference to the old python from the paths list in Windows also?

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26)

Type "electrum -help" for a list of available commands.
(Full documentation at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum)
---

05/09/2012 11:23:29.91> E
ImportError: No module named site

05/09/2012 11:23:32.23> e
ImportError: No module named site

05/09/2012 11:23:33.89> Python (electrum)
ImportError: No module named site

05/09/2012 11:24:02.50>

Ok, I removed the old python from the path variables also. Still the same error as above!

Python is such a mess! I was even thinking to learn it but now.....Ruby :)

Ok, I renamed the python directory to its original state and electrum targets it even though I removed it from the Path variables, so I don't know what is going on here...

Ok, I upgraded that folder anyway to Python v3.2.3 and this is the error message: The folder called Python25 is actually Python 32

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26)

Type "electrum -help" for a list of available commands.
(Full documentation at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum)
---

05/09/2012 11:39:25.20> e
  File "C:\Csvn\Python25\\lib\site.py", line 159
    file=sys.stderr)
        ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

05/09/2012 11:39:30.04> Python (electrum)
  File "C:\Csvn\Python25\\lib\site.py", line 159
    file=sys.stderr)
        ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

05/09/2012 11:39:45.75>

Yeah Python can easily turn into a version hell under Windows :(

Ok, let's force Electrum to use the correct environment:

Type this into the console (probably easier to copy-paste that):
 echo ..\python27\python.exe (electrum) %WALLFILE% %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 > e.cmd

then "e" again.

Does that work any better? If yes, I will incorporate this change when I make my next build.

I removed the offending environment variable pointing to the old Python version and only the newer python paths exist. I renamed the old python version folder so no program can point to it and this is the error message:

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26)

Type "electrum -help" for a list of available commands.
(Full documentation at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum)
---

05/09/2012 12:58:14.09> echo ..\python27\python.exe (electrum) %WALLFILE% %1 %2
%3 %4 %5 %6 %7 > e.cmd

05/09/2012 12:58:17.72> e

05/09/2012 12:58:18.76> ..\python27\python.exe (electrum)
ImportError: No module named site

05/09/2012 12:58:18.78>

If you just type "python" (without the quotes), what do you get? specifically, what version number is displayed?

BTW, to exit the Python interpreter, type quit().

Also try these commands:

set PythonHome=
set PythonPath=


and then:

e

Hey, this finally worked! Electrum is definitely fast and simple, I like the brain wallet thing and the fact that the wallet is in the cloud.

So I hope I don't have to always start electrum via Python Console?

Also, its called a compact build. Does that mean some features were trimmed off?

Great news!

I will try to make another build that fixes this issue for you (within the next few days).
In the meantime, I guess it should work if you just clear the PYTHONPATH and PYTHONHOME
 environment variables in your Windows settings.

This build is compact in the sense that it only includes essential Electrum files and dependencies,
anything extra (add-on scripts, scanning module, etc) are not included to keep the package small
and fast. If you want to experiment with all the extras, you will need to install it from source, at this time.

Why not just standardize it, it can only remove incompatibilities? Also, I tried removing the environment variables where python was present and that didn't go too well!

@Sovereign108:

How does this build (http://code.google.com/p/win-electrum/downloads/detail?name=elec101g.exe&can=2&q=#makechanges) work out for you?

Hopefully this should fix the startup problem that you've experienced.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it doesn't work! It does work via the Python cmd console though, I just type e and thats it! using python 27.

Just curious, does electrum work with python 32?

OK, we're almost there... What about this one (http://code.google.com/p/win-electrum/downloads/detail?name=elec101g2.exe&can=2&q=)?

As for Python 3.2, I don't know if Electrum runs on it, but the 2.7 branch is usually considered more stable for mission-critical applications (for now) and still has more libraries available anyway. Also, it is still being officially updated.

Yea, that worked like a charm ;) thanks for your efforts! I still hate Python though!!!

Electrum is a great lightweight client

Great! And thanks for your patience too!

Please don't hate Python, without Python there would be no Electrum :)

.....but loading electrum still leaves that halo of a shadow for a small window. I posted a screenshot some time ago. What could be causing that?

Now gonna google python vs ruby :) Love those showdowns...

 
No other users reported this "shadow window" issue on Windows 7 (both 32 and 64bit), so it's pretty strange...

Does it also happen when you type "e"?
And are you able to close it somehow or do you have to kill the process?

Well, it just happened once after startup without me loading the console. After it loaded once, that shadow window doesn't come up again console or not. The shadow remains after I quit electrum and I have no idea how to get rid of it!

Hmmm I will get a Windows 7 machine soon so hopefully I will be able to
further investigate this...

HI, I've got another issue with electrum! basically, all of my receive address labels have vanished! Are they supposed to be saved or what?

Address Labels and other preferences are saved in the wallet (electrum.dat) file. Can you give more details as to what happened?   Did you try to edit, move or delete  the wallet file?

Didn't do anything Just a restart from a BSOD, and a couple of times closing and opening electrum for various reason.....

I did see this message though in the console (electrum still works though)...

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26)

Type "electrum -help" for a list of available commands.
(Full documentation at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum)
---

11/09/2012 10:00:24.56> e
Install zbar package to enable QR scans
Connected to electrum.bitcoins.sk:50001
Exception in thread Thread-1:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-g2\C_\Pyt
hon27\lib\threading.py", line 551, in __bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-g2\C_\Ele
ctrumPY\lib\interface.py", line 426, in run
    self.handle_response(response)
  File "C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-g2\C_\Ele
ctrumPY\lib\interface.py", line 376, in handle_response
    self.wallet.receive_history_callback(addr, result)
  File "C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-g2\C_\Ele
ctrumPY\lib\wallet.py", line 865, in receive_history_callback
    self.save()
  File "C:\Users\Sovereign108\AppData\Roaming\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-g2\C_\Ele
ctrumPY\lib\wallet.py", line 670, in save
    f = open(self.path,"w")
IOError: [Errno 22] invalid mode ('w') or filename: 'C:\\Users\\Sovereign108\\
AppData\\Local\\Electrum\\electrum.dat'

Disconnected.
Poking

Can you search your C:\users\sovereign108 folder (+sub folders) for all occurrences of electrum.dat ? Do you find several?

Just a wild guess, could it be that the BSOD has corrupted some of your directory structure somehow?

Perhaps time to make a fresh profile? I was actually wondering if that 'shadow' window you've been getting is not caused by some corruption in the current profile...

I don't see any electrum.dat files, just electrum files. i deleted everything and the shadow window still comes up. Somehow, it remembers my wallet transaction details??? I thought I deleted everything...

If it still remembers your details, it means the electrum.dat file is still there. It's the only place any electrum data gets stored.

Make sure you enable the "hidden files and folders" checkbox when searching.

Sorry for the slow replies, I'm travelling and can't go online very often.

Hi, I lost my labels again! This time I didn't do anything out of place and I don't see any error messages.....

There still seems to be something wrong/corrupted with your electrum.dat file... Were you able to locate it?

It should be in the %appdata%\electrum directory, unless you're using the portable version. When you find it, try to delete it and restore the wallet from your seed. This should create a fresh electrum.dat file.

Hope this helps!

i'm using electrum on mac and the application doesn't connect to a server anymore.
I found an executable with console in the app package folder  and found this error:

/Applications/Electrum.app/Contents/MacOS/Electrum ; exit;
MacBook-pro-myname:~ myname$ /Applications/Electrum.app/Contents/MacOS/Electrum ; exit;
Install zbar package to enable QR scans
Connected to 176.9.206.164:50001
received error: {u'id': 4, u'error': u'limit reached: 1BMRCqkRWGS9v59NfMTDoJn5egPX1fAxJi'}


how can i restore my wallet?



+there seems to be a bug in the mac version.  when i press "pro mode" nothing happens, until i go into the menu and press "about electrum" then it goes to the pro interface.

Hi, this is the Windows build thread... Please post in the main thread for help:
 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=100502
(I don't have much experience with MacOS)

Is there any way to sign a message with an address using electrum?  I want to quit using the satoshi client completely.

Sure, here's a step-by-step guide I once compiled for this:


A. To sign a message:

1. Hold SHIFT down while launching Electrum
2. (Only if the address is external and must be imported)
    Import your address by typing:
    e -o import 1YourBitcoinAddress:5YourPrivateKey
3. In the virtual console that has appeared, type:
    e signmessage 1YourBitcoinAddress "MessageLine1\nMessageLine2\nMessageLine3"
  
    This should output the base64-encoded cryptographic signature.    


B. To verify a signed message:

1. Hold SHIFT down while launching Electrum
2. In the virtual console that has appeared, type:
    e verifymessage 1YourBitcoinAddress "TheSignature" "MessageLine1\nMessageLine2\nMessageLine3"    
     (Be sure to include the quotes.)

   If successful, this must return True.  


Note that all of the above can be performed on a non-networked computer, if preferred.

PS: hopefully in a future release, these commands will be accessible from the graphical interface. For now, they are only available through the advanced (text-based) console.

Sweet!  That was the only reason I was putting up with satoshi client.  Didn't think to ask before now.

Is there a way to copy the signed message to the clipboard fast?  It's annoying to select it.

Not that I know of, as of the current release, but I could provide a quick/unofficial patch that automatically copies the signed message to the clipboard, if you're interested.

That would be great!

Here you go! This is a simple mod of the wallet.py file that automatically copies signatures to the clipboard.

To use it, make sure you are running Windows build 1.01e of Electrum,

 go to this directory: %AppData%\Electrum_SysFiles\1.01-e\C_\ElectrumPY\lib
 and replace the original wallet.py file in there with the one below:

Download (http://win-electrum.googlecode.com/files/wallet.py)
Size: 41686 bytes
SHA1: d18a4d273105a80a2e655ddabc2513dd004053ec

(for your info, the only source code changes are lines 477-478 and importing the Qt library - feel free to manually review the file if you're familiar with Python)

I'm unable to connect using any of the 3 servers available, each time it tries for awhile then shows "Not connected". 
I'm using electrum 1.01-e (flatfly compact build) and this is the first time I've tried loading the program in about 2 weeks.

There aren't many settings I can change beyond switching servers so I'm kinda at a loss as to what to try next :-\

Open your electrum.dat file in notepad (back it up first), and look for the server name
and port number currently in there (not too far from the top of the file). If you see port 50000, change it to 50001 and save. Now try to run Electrum again.
(This is a known occasional issue that will be fixed in the next release)

If that doesn't work, remove the electrum.dat file and recover your wallet from the seed.

how did that arise?

The default server list (in interface.py) has an error for the port number for electrum.bytesized-hosting.com:


I discussed it with Tachikoma (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=100502.msg1137258#msg1137258) in August, and he already fixed it in the master branch already. But it hasn't made it into an "official" release yet.
 

well, it's a pity there hasn't been any release since then.
I will take over for the next release (1.1).
it should be ready in less than a week.

Great! :)

Compact build of Electrum 1.1 for Windows is ready. I've also included the BkkCoins patch for red debits (see screenshot below) - I haven't published it yet as I'm on the go and probably won't be able to update my website by FTP until next week, but donators can get it early - just PM me.

https://i.imgur.com/cZobm.png

By the way, I'll take this opportunity to thank my most generous donators:

- minimalB
- bitcats
- genjix
- vuce
- freewil

Your support is greatly appreciated and I couldn't continue to provide quality builds without it!

The latest Windows compact build, SHA-1, and VT scans for version 1.1 are now available (http://dre.redmartian.org/elecwin.htm)!

Thanks for the little tip yesterday, anonymous donator :)
Come forward if you'd like a little mention on my download page (http://dre.redmartian.org/elecwin.htm)!

Windows compact build for Version 1.2 is now available (http://dre.redmartian.org/elecwin.htm)! Early testing hasn't revealed any major issues.

Note that this is the first build that is SPV-enabled - SPV will be automatically and transparently used when connecting to SPV-compliant servers (this can be verified through the console.)

Link: More info on the SPV protocol (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Thin_Client_Security#Simplified_Payment_Verification_.28SPV.29)

v1.2 is not working for me on XP sp3.

It opens up and shows transactions, but after few clicks on tabs I get (not responding) string in titlebar and game over.

If it helps: icons are not displayed (clock (for 1-6 confirmations) and check-mark icon) and there is no red / black color for positive and negative transactions.

Also, python.exe process goes to 90-100%.

Hmmm... This actually looks somewhat similar to the performance issue I also encountered (once) with the block header download...

When you get the "(not responding)" message in the title bar, try to let it run anyway and it should
resolve itself within 10 minutes or so.  You can also launch Electrum from the console to get more detailed progress messages.

In the meantime, I have reverted my download page to the previous (1.1) version until I can further investigate. Thanks for reporting this issue.

[EDIT] Seems that the SPV implementation in 1.2 must be re-worked anyway, due to a bug that has just been discovered. (see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50936.msg1312652#msg1312652)

A fresh, SPV-enabled build of Electrum 1.3 is ready!
As usual, download links and SHA1 hash are available at my download page. (http://dre.redmartian.org/elecwin.htm)


Important:

- Please note that only 2 servers support SPV currently:
   bysh.me and ecdsa.org. The other 6 servers should upgrade shortly.

- Allow a few (up to 10) minutes for initial download of blockchain headers.
  Confirmation icons will not show up until this has completed.

- I didn't include the header file inside my package because it would have prevented
  it from being scanned by VirusTotal (which has a 20MB upper limit)... I'll see if I can
  find another way to add it.

VirusTotal.com recently bumped up their max file size from 20MB to 32MB so you might be able to squeeze it in.

:-)

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the heads up! :)
Will try it out for my next build.

thanks for the Windows build.

Note that you can include an incomplete headers file; it will still save some download time.
The length of the file should be a multiple of 80

Windows build for version 1.4 is available (http://dre.redmartian.org/elecwin.htm)!

No visible changes, but there's an important fix to the
wallet recovery procedure when connecting to upgraded servers.

You can upgrade your client without losing any of your existing settings.

This version seems to work great and fast!

Donation sent!

BTW: I have only one server available (electrum.bysh.me). Is this normal?

thanks for the support!

New clients filter out all the old servers since the protocol has changed. For the moment there are only two servers running the new protocol:
electrum.bysh.me and ecdsa.org

Thanks!

I see ecdsa.org online as well now, and I believe more servers will upgrade very soon.

flatfly, I just tested latest 1.5.4 build. Not displaying QR codes is known issue (seed, address on Receive tab)?

Btw any chance to pack Electrum with zbar package, which is available for Windows as well? It adds QR scanning features to Send dialog...

Hm, looks like there are more bugs in 1.5.4 in general. 1.5.3 works for me nicely, too bad that Windows builds are not 1.5.3 :-(.

Hi slush,

Thanks for trying the new build!

Yes the qr bugs are known issues, but the good news is that thomasv just fixed them on the github master! What other bugs have you noticed in 1.5.4?  If there are too many, I'll consider making a 1.5.3 build available as well until they're fixed.

About the zbar package, I usually try to keep my builds as lean as possible, but I'll see if I can include that (+ any required dependencies) in my main build without impacting the download size too much.

Also, as I often get requests for custom builds, and the time I can currently devote to this is quite limited, I usually give priority to donators :)

I using your build, but I changed GUI to Gtk.

Now, it now starts Gui mode.

Only when I run + SHIFT to select to GUI mode qt or lite.

How Can I fix to qt or lite? Via Regedit?

Good Work, and Thanks!

Hi, thanks for trying my build :)

Indeed, some GUIs (gtk and text) are not supported in my build.
Regedit is not necessary to fix the issue you have, as Electrum doesn't save anything
to the Windows registry. The best way to solve the issue is to issue the following command
from the console:

 electrum set gui "qt"

This will set the default GUI back to Qt (classic).

I just downloaded and tried using your build from here: http://dre.redmartian.org/elecwin.htm

I'm running Windows 7 64 bit.

Anyways, I installed it, but it looks like the .exe is all there is to it. Is that right? Because when I double click electrum1.5.6-flatfly.exe, then it starts up.

I was also surprised that it did not do any setup, did not shaw a wallet seed or any of that. Is that normal?

Finally, it doesn't connect to anything. It just sits there saying "trying to connect" on the bottom.

Any idea where I should start trying to trouble shoot this? Or should I just use the official Electrum client?

The above is normal: I've spent a lot of time to make my build totally self-contained so it doesn't require "installing", and does not touch the Windows system files in any way.



This is not normal - It is probably due to an old electrum.dat wallet file lying around on your hard disk from the old days, and pointing to a non-existing server... To fix the issue, find that file (in your Application Data folder, not sure about the exact path on Win7 x64), rename it to something else, and start Electrum again. It should then prompt you to create a new wallet (or restore an existing one from seed.)

Let me know how that goes so I can help you further if needed.


You could give it a try, but I think it will exhibit the same behavior, as we're using the same codebase.

You were right. I did find an old electrum.dat file. The path, BTW is C:\Users\Windows Username\AppData\Local\Electrum\electrum.dat

It's probably leftover from when I tried Electrum back in August, but I honestly did not give it a fair shot back then.

I opened the file in Wordpad just to see what was in it. I see about 5 Bitcoin addresses. Does electrum.dat store the private keys to those addresses also? Where are the private keys stored?

I'm basically trying to make sure I keep my bitcoins safe and need to know what files to make encrypted backups of. I plan on importing my private keys that I already have from the QT client into my Electrum wallet.

Thanks for the help so far!

Electrum.dat is the only file where all sensitive information is stored.
The private keys to those 5 (and any subsequent) addresses are not stored anywhere, they are dynamically computed from the seed, which is stored in the electrum.dat file. This is one of the great benefits of deterministic wallets: you only need to back up your wallet just once, and that's it!

Just be sure to use a strong password and the seed will always be stored in encrypted form, using AES256.

If, for any reason, you do need to access the private keys for each individual address, you can do so by issuing the following command:

Thanks a lot for your time in explaining this. I think I only have 2 more questions (until I tackle figuring out offline wallets and trasnactions, that is).  :-\

I found in the documentation (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Electrum) how to import private keys:

Since those keys are not "deterministic," then they will need to be stored in electrum.dat, I guess. Will they be encrypted in there?

Also, I think I found the wallet seed in electrum.dat. It's 88 characters, with numbers, upper- and lower-case letters and some special characters. Is that the actual seed, or is that an encrypted version of the seed that I would have to enter a password to unlock?

Thanks again for the help.

1. Sure, any imported private keys get encrypted as well.  However please note that electrum doesn't support importing compressed keys at this time. There is a pull request for this but it still needs to be adapted to the current codebase and merged in.
Anyway, the best practice is to avoid importing keys as much as possible, and send funds from bitcoin-qt to electrum addresses instead (if at all possible in your case) - this is to get the full benefits of deterministic wallets.

2.  That's the encrypted version of the seed (ending with equal signs). It can't be used without your password. The actual seed is a 128-bit high-entropy random number, which is usually displayed as either a 12-word mnemonic code or a 32-digit hex number.



No problem, always glad to help. I won't be online very much next week, though, but you can also get assistance in the main electrum thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50936.0) or on the #electrum IRC channel.

I've just released a stable build for version 1.5.7.
As usual, the download links can be found in the first post of this thread.

The server is down  : /

Sorry for that, it looks like an issue at my (cheap) hosting provider.
Not sure how long that will take to resolve, but in the meantime,
the direct download link is still available (hosted at Google Code, thankfully):

http://win-electrum.googlecode.com/files/elec-1.5.7-flatfly.exe    (6.3MB build, no dependencies)
 
SHA-1 hash: ea9d9a2717a9294d0c0374d2eda93170a35b539e

VirusTotal report (https://www.virustotal.com/file/9010a53639629b8b86fbde64f607ad58838954cbd89a03084fdcdf4b62332647/analysis/1356346565/)

Thanks!

In Lite mode: if you start typing previously saved Label in "Enter a recipient address..." field, whole string (label and address) is copied... string stays in RED color (indicating an error address) and I'm unable to send BTCs.

It works fine in classic mode, though.

Donation sent.

This doesn't work for me under win7 64bit. The process runs, takes up about 3mb of memory and nothing happens. The first time I ran it it hung at the unpacking stage.

EDIT: nvm, got it to work, I had to manually find and delete all files and folders associated with electrum and I think the problem was I already had appdata\local\electrum\ with a wallet and blockchain headers from slushe's build..

Where is a list of version changes?

Thanks for the new donation, always VERY appreciated :)

Regarding the bug in Lite mode: I've reported the issue to the dev team, hoping for a fix in the next release.

Glad to know you could fix it. Just a tip if you do encounter this kind of issue again in the future: you can get more information about what is going on by starting the application while holding down the SHIFT key (which opens the virtual console), and execute "electrum -v" from there and watch for any error messages.

Wow that's really neat! And it allows me to execute the console commands which is something I really needed 2 days ago while trying to retrieve a single private key.


BTW this reminds me. I abandoned Electrum for my cold storage option. I don't know if you're familiar but I had an USB stick with ubuntu on it and two user accounts, one admin that was never connected with an offline wallet and another regular user that was online with a seedless wallet. But I was using electrum 1.0 which stopped working and when I updated to 1.57 it would give me some sort of error.

Anyway my point is that Electrum is a great client, but all of you who are developing it lack skills for selling it effectively. You can make it, no doubt, but your websites, documentation, ect is seriously lacking.  One virtually needs to be on your level of expertise to be able to troubleshoot any sort of an issue. For example I couldn't find a changelog for various versions, I couldn't figure out which version I must install on my ubuntu stick (linux or ubuntu/debian nightly) or how to update my version and there was some other stuff that I can't remember right now but was making me go mental over when I was trying to get it to work.

Anyway, that's ok, you don't need to know how to sell it effectively, any great business always distributed the making, selling and keeping the finances in order between different experts and all I'm trying to say here is that when you all get a chance please hire someone that will help you out and create user guides, FAQs and user friendly documentation so regular users like myself can easily learn how to use it (like this run while holding shift trick..).

Just a suggestion.

I do agree with your point. The main issue is that the Electrum team is still quite small, 100% voluntary, and has no marketing / communication guru yet... Hopefully that will come soon.

A basic changelog was started recently and is being maintained there:
 https://raw.github.com/spesmilo/electrum/master/RELEASE-NOTES

Fixed on master, will be in the next release.

Great, thanks!
Also I've finally found a fix for a long-standing little bug in the Qt GUI - I'll send a pull request in a little bit.

My web page is still down :(   I'm kinda fed up with that host.
 
By the way, I've updated Qt to 4.9.6 on my development system and played around with the different styling options... As a result, I will probably use a slightly more polished (and modern) GUI style for my next build:

https://i.imgur.com/auXgA.png


Unless people prefer the current style:

https://i.imgur.com/TEU13.png

I like it overall, I would bring the indentation for the icons on the bottom bar back personally. But I guess that's a matter of taste :)

Thanks for your feedback :) The indentation (or lack thereof) is part of the built-in style, so I'm not sure I can change that, but I will double-check.

By the way - my web page has a new address: http://dre.natverk.org/elecwin.htm
Hopefully this one will last longer... At least till I get me a little VPS or something.

A stable build for new release 1.5.8 is now available.

Reminder - note that my URL has changed:  http://dre.natverk.org/elecwin.htm

I like new design... Nice job flatfly!

Hi Flatfly,

I like the new page layout !

Have you thought of creating a PGP key and signing the installers ?
I started doing it for multibit a couple of weeks ago and it does not take long to set up.
It was just a matter of installing gpg, creating a key and uploading it to a keyserver.

That way people can verify the download was really built by you. It also makes it easier/safer for other people to mirror your downloads which might be useful in the future if and when Bitcoin gets more popular.

:-)

Glad you like it! However, the Qt framework deserves most of the credit, not me :)