Building headless Bitcoin and Bitcoin-qt on Windows

[old c coder]

Instructions updated:
-Make sure to use prepackaged repository catalogues during mingw installation
-Boost 1.54.0
-Qt 4.8.5

I'm still compiling bitcoind & bitcoin-qt successfully, on windows, for windows, using boost 1.53, qt 4.8.4, Berkeley DB 4.8.30 (if it is still used?), openssl 1.0.1c or 1.0.1e. I am compiling the release sources for 0.8.3 and a gitHub 0.8.0

Should I "up" boost & qt?

Ron

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[nitrogenetics]

Not really needed, official gitian build for 0.8.3 uses boost 1.50, openssl 1.0.1c and qt 4.8.3. BDB is still required for wallet.dat, but versions newer than 4.8 are not recommended as they would break binary wallet compatibility.

[bandjhughes]

I'm a total noob with this code (although I do code).  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I did look at the INSTALL file as suggested in the error message, but I still couldn't figure out what is wrong.  I loaded mingw, pearl, set the path, opened minGW and unpacked the files exactly as prescribed, but it bombs at the configure step.

Try reinstalling Mingw/Msys. (Online installer can randomly skip a component or two. The only way to notice is to inspect its log file.)

Thanks, that must have been it.  I uninstalled everything and started over.  However now on step 2.2 where the instructions say "after configuring make sure to edit your build_unix/db.h by replacing line 113:" I have another problem.  I don't have a db.h file in the build_unix folder.  I have several db.h files, but they're all in other folders:  \build_vxwork, \build_wince, \build_windows, \build_brew, and \build_s60.  Is there supposed to be a db.h in the build_unix folder?  I notice the only db.h file with an apparently matching line 113 is the one in the \build_brew folder, but it already has the suggested change implemented.  Do I need to copy and paste the db files from \build_brew to \build_unix?

Thanks again,

Just to follow up with the difficulty I was having.  The author "nitrogenetics" recommends starting with a clean virtual machine.  That is very good advice since all my problems apparently cropped up because I initially started with an old version of MinGW on my machine and then installed the newer version on top of it.  Also if you remove MinGW using Window's control panel-> uninstall program, it doesn't really uninstall MinGW.  It just removes the shortcuts and keeps the files intact. So then if you uninstall and re-install (as I tried), you may still have issues.  What finally fixed my problems was completely deleting the MinGW directory and then doing a clean re-install from scratch.

[phelix]

Building on Windows is hell on earth. Thanks for the guide.

Is it really necessary to install ActivePerl? MSYS has it's own Perl...

edit: Seems like the MSYS Perl is not working or too old. It seems to work after updating/installing so might be an alternative to ActivePerl:

Code:

mingw-get install msys-perl

[nitrogenetics]

Msys-perl option added to first post 

[phelix]

[ANN] EasyWinBuilder - The Easy Way to Build Bitcoin on Windows   

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=252931

[wsmith366]

So, I'm almost there, but not quite.

I got the bitcoin-qt.exe file in the release folder, like I'm supposed to.  However, when I attempted to run it, I got a "qtcore4.dll" is missing error message.  Easy enough...I downloaded qtcore4.dll, put it in the system 32 folder, and ran a command line with " regsvr32 qtcore4.dll ".  I then got an error message that the .dll might not be compatible with my version of windows.  I tried the bitcoin .exe again anyway, and I got a different error message.  This time I got "The procedure entry point _Z17qt_message_output9QtMsgTypePKc could not be located in the dynamic link library QtCore4.dll".

Can anyone help me out here? I'm using 64-bit windows 7, by the way.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.  Honestly I'm amazed I got this far on my own.

Hello ?

See message #41 (above) in this thread. Been there done that, fixed. Basically one corrects the Makefile.Release and Makefile.Debug that bitcoin-qt.pro produce so that those files are visible at link time.

Ron

Hello Ron.  Thanks for the reply.

Sorry for the trouble.  I skimmed your post the other day while looking over this thread, I guess I missed the line about qtcore4, so I thought it didn't relate to my problem.

I edited the makefile.debug and .release files like your post instructed, and rebuilt the .exe, unfortunately it doesn't seem to have solved my problem.  I'm pretty stumped since everything about this error has said the same thing you have, that it's a simple directory error.  My qt/4.8.4/bin directory has qtcore4 sitting right there, and my makefile points to it now, so I don't understand why it's still giving me the entry point error.  I even temporarily removed qtcore4 from the bin directory just to see if it would have any effect, and it didn't.  Could the bitcoin program still be looking for qtcore4 in the wrong place, somehow?

Hello ?

Since you are redoing the linking process, with more libraries (dlls\'s, etc.) available, you should delete the bitcoin-qt.exe at least, to force it to recreate it. And not knowing how makefile.release nor makefile.debug really work, I would delete all the build/*.o object files to really make it do it from the top, as it were.

Did you notice that the makefile.release & .debug that bitcoin-qt.pro produces creates lines that are longer than 2K (2048) characters! Can you editor handle that! If not you need to break up those lines with the usual \
type stuff.

Have you successfully created a bitcoind.exe release and debug using nitrogenetics info, first? If not, you need to do that in order to have all the libraries and have them in view for makefile.release or .debug

Step 3.1 for the levelDB code is important, and step 4.2, creating all the boost, bdb & openssl include and library paths for the bitcoin-qt creation process.

Hope this helps...

Ron

Hello again Ron.

Okay, so, in order to eliminate the possibility of stupid mistakes, I backed up all the way to the beginning, and started from scratch.  Double and triple-checked that directory paths were correct, and that I was accurately following nitrogenetics'  directions.  bitcoind.exe was created successfully, and all the dependencies were extracted and compiled properly.  Start to finish, no error messages.

However, I am STILL getting the message that the procedure entry point for QtCore4.dll can't be found, when I attempt to run bitcoin-qt.exe.  And I am friggin' stumped.

I'm using QT Creator to edit the files...I would think that editor would be able to handle the long lines of code you mentioned.  Do you really think that's what could be causing my issue?  I would think that would cause compile errors, not such a specific .dll error.

[old c coder]

Hello wsmith?

From what you describe, it seems you are at nitrogenetics's step 4.3, where he says and I quote:

"Compiling with UPNP support will require miniupnpc libraries. See: http://miniupnp.tuxfamily.org/files/
Qt (QtCore4.dll QtGui4.dll QtNetwork4.dll) and MinGW (libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll and libstdc++-6.dll) libraries will need to be distributed along with the executable."

As a first approximation, have you tried "exposing" those above mention 5 dlls to bitcoin-qt at run time?

But as I said in message #41,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149479.msg2177060#msg2177060

As qmake "concocts" makefile.release/debug from bitcoin-qt.pro, the output to the DOS screen suggests that it is turning UPNP on and off and on...

Remember that every time you run qmake on bitcoin-qt.pro it will overwrite any changes you make to makefile.release/debug! Unless you squirrel them away somewhere

Have you really editted bitcoin-qt.pro to reflect the paths on all 7 lines as per step 4.2? 3 boost lines, 2 BerkeleyDB lines and 2 openssl lines? Note that this file also has long lines that are 2K+! And did you comment out the code suggested on line 112? More like 117 or so on mine!

Hope this helps.

As an addendum to message #41, I have had success in running bitcoind & bitcoin-qt with a wallet.dat file that may now have any name and be in any directory! It is no longer tethered to the data directory! And I have a bitcoin-qt splash screen that "Stands up for itself" and isn't "stepped on" by any passing window or pop-up! 

(Shameless plug) See
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=252539.0 and
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=240119.0

Ron

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

Isn't it time to explore a native 64-bit version? I remember with wxwidgets that a 64-bit version was built for Windows for Solidcoin.

[wsmith366]

Hello wsmith?

From what you describe, it seems you are at nitrogenetics's step 4.3, where he says and I quote:

"Compiling with UPNP support will require miniupnpc libraries. See: http://miniupnp.tuxfamily.org/files/
Qt (QtCore4.dll QtGui4.dll QtNetwork4.dll) and MinGW (libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll and libstdc++-6.dll) libraries will need to be distributed along with the executable."

As a first approximation, have you tried "exposing" those above mention 5 dlls to bitcoin-qt at run time?

But as I said in message #41,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149479.msg2177060#msg2177060

As qmake "concocts" makefile.release/debug from bitcoin-qt.pro, the output to the DOS screen suggests that it is turning UPNP on and off and on...

Remember that every time you run qmake on bitcoin-qt.pro it will overwrite any changes you make to makefile.release/debug! Unless you squirrel them away somewhere

Have you really editted bitcoin-qt.pro to reflect the paths on all 7 lines as per step 4.2? 3 boost lines, 2 BerkeleyDB lines and 2 openssl lines? Note that this file also has long lines that are 2K+! And did you comment out the code suggested on line 112? More like 117 or so on mine!

Hope this helps.

As an addendum to message #41, I have had success in running bitcoind & bitcoin-qt with a wallet.dat file that may now have any name and be in any directory! It is no longer tethered to the data directory! And I have a bitcoin-qt splash screen that "Stands up for itself" and isn't "stepped on" by any passing window or pop-up! 

(Shameless plug) See
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=252539.0 and
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=240119.0

Ron

Well, I'm getting closer thanks to your help, Ron, unfortunately it seems to be one thing after another with this program. :S

Adding the .dlls solved my entry point issue, however, now when I try to run, I get the message that bitcoin-qt.exe has stopped working.

Error details:

 Problem Event Name:   BEX
  Application Name:   bitcoin-qt.exe
  Application Version:   0.8.99.0
  Application Timestamp:   51df9173
  Fault Module Name:   StackHash_0a9e
  Fault Module Version:   0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:   00000000
  Exception Offset:   00fb38d0
  Exception Code:   c0000005
  Exception Data:   00000008
  OS Version:   6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
  Locale ID:   1033
  Additional Information 1:   0a9e
  Additional Information 2:   0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
  Additional Information 3:   0a9e
  Additional Information 4:   0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

I did some research, and apparently this is caused by a buffer overflow, triggering windows data execution prevention to stop the program?

I tried adding bitcoin-qt.exe to the DEP exception list, but windows wouldn't let me, saying bitcoin MUST run with DEP enabled.

So I tried turning off DEP completely (temporarily), same error.

And yes, I did recompile bitcoin and try again after the first time I got the error.  Is there some kind of workaround for this? All the threads and Q/As I find usually stop at "add program x to DEP ignore list".

[old c coder]

I remember that I had some sort of issue with the 0.8.99 version? I think it didn't like my block chain and insisted I reload all 246,000 of them, or maybe it wanted to "resync" them, whatever that means? Which took 24 hours on my system Not sure, but using 0.8.2 or 0.8.3 was much better. I actually think 0.8.2 or 0.8.3 are "better" than 0.8.1, which is where I began.

I don't think the 0.8.99 version from github is a "final" version ready for "consumption"? I use both
https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/ download button
https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/latest/download?source=dlp which is 0.8.3 or
some other github choice, such as
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/tree/v0.8.3 you may have to "prowl" around the branches and tags tabs and fork->clone various until you find one with a version of 0.8.3 (in clientversion.h)

I find that selecting an 0.8.2 gets an 0.8.0 etc. Maybe it's me? I don't know.

Note that the layout from the sourceforge download is slightly different, but the general pattern is the same, so the directory where bitcoin-qt.pro is where one compiles from.

All that I do is make sure my 7 paths are correct in the .pro, then add the missing directory in the makefiles it produces and it compiles.

Compiling all of the sources takes ~15 minutes or so for bitcoind or bitcoin-qt on my system. If I am just changing a few files, much faster ~1 or so for one or two compiles and a "link" as it were.

Hope this helps

Ron

[nmersulypnem]

This may be a stupid question, but when I make modifications to the source, which make do I need to run?  The Qt make, or the mingw make?  I've been doing both as the Qt make doesn't seem to pickup non-qt source changes.

Also, it is not picking up Qt and Mingw static libraries (ie. I'm having to redistribute them).  Where do I point the gcc to incoporate them in the exe?  -static in LDFLAGS doesn't seem to do it (at least not alone).

[CaptChadd]

Hi everyone, I have followed this tutorial word for word but everytime I try to compile boost I get this error - C:\deps\boost_1_54_0>bootstrap.bat mingw
Building Boost.Build engine
'gcc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Does anyone know what i am doing wrong as I do not want to botch it and try and carry on with this error?

Thanks

[old c coder]

Hi everyone, I have followed this tutorial word for word but everytime I try to compile boost I get this error - C:\deps\boost_1_54_0>bootstrap.bat mingw
Building Boost.Build engine
'gcc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Does anyone know what i am doing wrong as I do not want to botch it and try and carry on with this error?

Thanks

If it says it can't find gcc, then did you do nitrogenetics step 1.3? Which is
Add MinGW bin folder to your PATH environment variable (C:\MinGW\bin if you used installer defaults)

Ron

[old c coder]

This may be a stupid question, but when I make modifications to the source, which make do I need to run?  The Qt make, or the mingw make?  I've been doing both as the Qt make doesn't seem to pickup non-qt source changes.

Also, it is not picking up Qt and Mingw static libraries (ie. I'm having to redistribute them).  Where do I point the gcc to incoporate them in the exe?  -static in LDFLAGS doesn't seem to do it (at least not alone).

as to those "loose" dlls, I still think it is in my message #41,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149479.msg2177060#msg2177060

the problem is in bitcoin-qt.pro, I believe. When I added the change as described in the link above, of course then doing step 4.3
qmake "USE_UPNP=-" bitcoin-qt.pro to create the makefile.release.

Beware that qmake is "sensitive" to changes in white space, tabs, etc.! Sort of "pythony"!

If you modify the source files and don't rename or delete any, then for bitcoind, you only have to do step 3.3, i.e.
mingw32-make -f makefile.mingw
(I have that line in a batch file)

for bitcoin-qt, just step the last line in step 4.3, i.e.
mingw32-make -f Makefile.Release
(again I have it in a batch file)

Ron

[CaptChadd]

Hi everyone, I have followed this tutorial word for word but everytime I try to compile boost I get this error - C:\deps\boost_1_54_0>bootstrap.bat mingw
Building Boost.Build engine
'gcc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Does anyone know what i am doing wrong as I do not want to botch it and try and carry on with this error?

Thanks

If it says it can't find gcc, then did you do nitrogenetics step 1.3? Which is
Add MinGW bin folder to your PATH environment variable (C:\MinGW\bin if you used installer defaults)

Ron

Yeah I have gone that but still get this error:

Building Boost.Build engine
'gcc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Any ideas?

Thanks for you help so far.

[CaptChadd]

This boost is annoying me no end, everything else has gone so smooth but I have added everything people have told me and follow the guide to the T. I just don't know what I am missing.

[CaptChadd]

Ok, it seems just my actually using my brain for once that I managed to get the boost to work, strangely by copying my MingW folder to D:\MingW. Must be pointing to that directory for some reason as my main drive is C.

Hoever, a new problem, on the mingw32-make -f makefile.mingw command in the Windows CMD prompt I get this error :

d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_system-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_filesystem-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_program_options-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_thread-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_chrono-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
mingw32-make: *** [bitcoind.exe] Error 1

Does anyone know what could be the problem?

I have searched loads and tired quiet a few things and also a few methods of my own but just cannot get it to work, the 30 Degree Centigrade heat at the moment in the UK is not helping either lol.

Please help me someone, I beg of you? 

[old c coder]

 

Ok, it seems just my actually using my brain for once that I managed to get the boost to work, strangely by copying my MingW folder to D:\MingW. Must be pointing to that directory for some reason as my main drive is C.

Hoever, a new problem, on the mingw32-make -f makefile.mingw command in the Windows CMD prompt I get this error :

d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_system-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_filesystem-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_program_options-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_thread-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_chrono-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
mingw32-make: *** [bitcoind.exe] Error 1

Does anyone know what could be the problem?

I have searched loads and tired quiet a few things and also a few methods of my own but just cannot get it to work, the 30 Degree Centigrade heat at the moment in the UK is not helping either lol.

Please help me someone, I beg of you? 

So you are trying to make a bitcoind.exe since you are doing a (step 3.3)
mingw32-make -f makefile.mingw

and you see a cannot find ...
cannot find -lboost_system-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0

This suggests that you never edited the makefile.mingw, (according to the previous step 3.2)
If you did step 2.3, you installed boost 1.53.0

Do I get a few Satoshis?

Ron

[CaptChadd]

Ok, it seems just my actually using my brain for once that I managed to get the boost to work, strangely by copying my MingW folder to D:\MingW. Must be pointing to that directory for some reason as my main drive is C.

Hoever, a new problem, on the mingw32-make -f makefile.mingw command in the Windows CMD prompt I get this error :

d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_system-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_filesystem-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_program_options-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_thread-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
d:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find -lboost_chrono-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
mingw32-make: *** [bitcoind.exe] Error 1

Does anyone know what could be the problem?

I have searched loads and tired quiet a few things and also a few methods of my own but just cannot get it to work, the 30 Degree Centigrade heat at the moment in the UK is not helping either lol.

Please help me someone, I beg of you? 

So you are trying to make a bitcoind.exe since you are doing a (step 3.3)
mingw32-make -f makefile.mingw

and you see a cannot find ...
cannot find -lboost_system-mgw46-mt-sd-1_52_0

This suggests that you never edited the makefile.mingw, (according to the previous step 3.2)
If you did step 2.3, you installed boost 1.53.0

Do I get a few Satoshis?

Ron

Well I got stuck in again before I saw this post and changed the path variable of MingW back to the C: which is how I wanted it at the start. I then downloaded Boost 1_54_0 and I did make all the changes that were detailed in the Makefile.

MY head is spinning as I have done exactly what is written in the tutorial section by section.

It just keep putting up that same error.