Deluge 1.2.2 and 1.2.3 GTK problems - suggestions to resolve

[Nil Einne]

Make sure you've read the FAQ. Also while debugging, I suggest you use a command prompt or shell and avoid the .CMD files but use the .EXEs in deluge-python so that you get feedback (you're probably already doing this if you know you have GTK problems but just in case). Do make sure you open the command prompt/shell again after you make a change, like reinstalling (irrelevant if you are restarting).

If you are having problems with GTK after a very long time I finally managed to resolve mine.

After you have uninstalled the old GTK and deleted the directory, look for any other GTK installations on your computer. By default these will be in Program Files or Program Files (x86) depending on your OS. If you usually use customised directories, I hope your smart enough to look there or even better, do a search on your computer for any stray versions.

In my case, I found one simply called GTK (in the same directory as where my GTK-runtime was) instead of the GTK-runtime of the current version. I'm not sure where this came from, at first I was worried it may be important to something else. It was an old version (2.12.9 or something) and created in ~ April or May 2009. I now believe it may have been from an older version of Deluge, perhaps the older installer? Regardless uninstall this (you'll probably find an uninstaller in the directory) and delete the directory if necessary.

Next have a look at your environmental variables and in particular the path. There should be nothing related to GTK, if there is, delete it (to keep your computer clean, make sure the directory doesn't exist).

You may want to restart here although if you deleted all the files fine etc I don't think this will be necessary. Then reinstall GTK and do not use a custom directory. Use the default Program Files or whatever is chosen on your computer. For the reason why, see my next post.

Again, if you are using a command line or Power Shell or whatever to test deluge, close it and OPEN A NEW ONE before trying anything.

Hopefully your deluge will work after this.

[Nil Einne]

In my case, I spent a very long time on this with a Windows XP SP3 comp (and it was on a remote computer with a fairly high latency! albeit at least that meant I could do something else while restarting). I started with versions 1.2.2. Found it wasn't working, eventually worked out the problem by running deluge.exe from the command line. Then searched a bit and came across suggestions to reinstall or perhaps uninstall, delete then reinstall GTK. Tried this numerous times restarting, uninstalling, making sure the directory was deleted etc. I did notice when doing this the extra GTK directory (since it was in the same place as my GTK-runtime) but since as I mentioned I thought this may have been needed for something else left it. Didn't work. Then I looked harder and found there was a newer 1.2.2 installer. So I tried this. Same problem. At some stage, I searched for GTK on my computer and other then finding the extra GTK directory again, I noticed an odd thing. There seemed to be a GTK-runtime in my program files and it was very recent. Thought maybe I made a mistake and forgot to specify custom directory. So uninstalled and made sure both were deleted. Except next time I found the directory came back even though I definitely specified the custom directory. Looking more carefully, it seems it places some or all of the bin files in the program files directory but most of the other files in my custom directory. I decided to make sure there wasn't an even newer version so checked out the download site directly. Of course I then realised I probably had the newer 1.2.2 all along since I downloaded not long before 1.2.3 came out i.e. long after 22 March and a quick hash of both files confirmed it. So there was no point trying the new 1.2.2 installer, it was the same thing.

Anyway I also realised there was a 1.2.3 which came out not long after I downloaded 1.2.2 for the first time as I said. So tried that without custom directory for GTK. Didn't help. A few uninstall, restart etc cycles later, decided to check my environmental variables. At this point I realised two things. 1) I majorly screwed up when I left that earlier GTK installation. 2) Since it was in my path and was the first thing in my path to boot. So uninstalled this, made sure the path was clean. Decided to give custom directory one more try. Didn't work. (I did notice the path points to the Program files\bin rather then the custom directory.) Uninstall and made sure directory was gone and then install into program files. Still not working. Uninstall restart this time and finally it works. I began writing this post but having finally made it work I decided to try one more thing. I wasn't confident I tested the custom directory properly. I do find the installation of some files into program files odd since <inst dir>\bin should I presume be the directory I specified as the <inst dir> but because I had to restart to get it to work with default/program files and I didn't recall what I'd done when testing custom directory, I decided I might as well test properly. At about the same time I realised something about the restarts but I'll mention that later. Anyway I found it does semi work with a custom directory but it looks like it's in some sort of *nix, I guess because it's missing the libs and stuff. It may also have other problems so I strongly recommend against doing this unless you manually fix the GTK installation (moving the files and fixing the path should do it).

Anyway about the restarts. It bugged me that the restarts were necessary. The files were deleted okay. While restarting is sometimes necessary for a variety of reasons, there was no obvious reason why I needed a restart here hence part of the reason I often didn't do it. Suddenly it hit me once again how silly I had been. I HAD BEEN USING THE SAME COMMAND PROMPT WHEN DOING ALL MY TESTS. Of course the path is loaded when you load the command prompt. Unless you manually update it, it's not going to get the new Windows environmental variables such as the new path. If you open a new command prompt, it should get them I believe (I've seen some suggestion it doesn't work on Windows 7 but didn't care enough to search or test it myself). If you're opening the files from explorer or whatever (particularly the .cmd files obviously) I think it should also be fine. Worst case scenario, restarting shouldn't be necessary since it's a per use issue and doesn't involve files loaded at startup, so a simple logout and login should be enough. Of course if you are still having problems I would recommend a restart but I suspect it isn't actually that important if in use files aren't a problem, it's simply the path not being updated.

BTW I didn't record every step in detail, I did try a lot of things before I got it working and it did take a lot of time so I may have mixed up or missed things above.

In any case, the extra GTK installation is likely one of the big problems for people since as I mentioned above, I'm guessing this came from an older version of Deluge. The fact that it's path is first is an obvious problem since Windows would always look in path in order I presume. I can guess two reasons why this wasn't a problem in 1.2.1 (well at least it wasn't for me, and the numerous people with 1.2.2 still reporting problems with the newer installer AND with uninstalling etc suggest to me I'm not the only one). Either

1) 1.2.1 was fine with the older version of GTK I had and 1.2.2 broke compatibility so it no longer worked.
OR
2) 1.2.1 installers and older put the GTK as the first item in the path. This probably isn't considered good behaviour but obviously prevents problems with other GTKs being earlier in the path (well unless they're added later).

Trying the 1.2.1 installer would help clarify why the change but as you may guess I've spent so long on this I'm not going to bother.

[phuzz]

I had the same problem, and found that there were two dll's left in the GTK folder after uninstall.
Deleting these and re-installing GTK solved my issue.