problems creating static Qt (was "5.10.1 broke one of my builds")

SGaist

Hi,

Did you do an out of source build ?
Is your kit pointing to the right version of Qt ?
Are you sure there's not a mix between your current static build and the old one ?

mzimmers

Hi Samuel -

I can't remember what "out of source build" means. I used the script windows-build-qt-static.ps1, though I did have to make a couple minor modifications (worked for 5.9.1).

Yes, my kit's pointing to my build of 5.10.1 (static).

I don't know how there'd be a mix between builds, but I suppose anything's possible. Assuming this is the issue, how would I remedy it -- delete and reinstall?

Thanks....

SGaist

It's: "not building in the source folder".

I'd rename the folder to something else, then call make install from your 5.9.1 build folder. Then I'd ensure that the 5.10.1 doesn't use the same prefix as the 5.9.1.

mzimmers

I just noticed that my /Qt/Static/5.9.1 folder is now empty. Something definitely went awry in the build process.

Should I unzip the .zip file and start from scratch? First for 5.9.1, then 5.10.1? Anything I should do before this?

Thanks...

SGaist

Not much, ensure that your build folders are not the same as well as use a different prefix and you should be good to go.

mzimmers

"different prefix?"

SGaist

The install prefix, basically the folder where make install will put stuff in.

JKSH

@SGaist said in 5.10.1 broke one of my builds:

The install prefix, basically the folder where make install will put stuff in.

To add to @SGaist's explanation, -prefix is one of the options for configuring your Qt build: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/configure-options.html

mzimmers

So, I'm back at this. I tried to build a static version of 5.9.4 just to see if that would work, and during configure, I get lots and lot of errors due to a missing OpenGL header file (GLES2/gl2.h). I've never worked with OpenGL directly, so I know very little about it, but in doing a bit of searching, it appears quite tedious to install and configure.

I'm assuming that Qt requires OpenGL for something, so merely removing it from the configure command probably isn't an option. Can someone recommend a better course of action?

Thanks...

EDIT: here's the configure command from the script (with a couple changes from me):

    cmd /c "configure.bat -static -debug-and-release -platform win32-g++ -prefix $QtDir `
        -qt-zlib -qt-pcre -qt-libpng -qt-libjpeg -qt-freetype desktop -no-openssl `
        -opensource -confirm-license `
        -make libs -nomake tools -nomake examples -nomake tests"

When I removed the -opengl option, I get a message warning me that using OpenGL ES 2.0 on Windows without ANGLE will most likely cause the build to fail.

SGaist

What compiler are you using ?

mzimmers

Mingw530_32.

EDIT: Additional information, from http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/windows-requirements.html#graphics-drivers:

Dynamically Loading Graphics Drivers

In addition to the build time configuration, Qt supports choosing and loading the OpenGL implementation at runtime. To use this mode, pass -opengl dynamic to the configure script.

configure -opengl dynamic

Note: As of Qt 5.5 this is the configuration used by the official, pre-built binary packages of Qt. It is strongly recommended to use it also in custom builds, especially for Qt binaries that are deployed alongside applications.

If I'm reading this correctly, this wouldn't be a good option for a static build, would it?

mzimmers

OK, I have another update on this. I think that the whole issue with OpenGL may be due to either a bug in the configure program, or due to me leaving some file behind that I should have deleted between build attempts.

I noticed that this command:

    cmd /c "configure.bat -static -debug-and-release -platform win32-g++ -prefix $QtDir `
        -qt-zlib -qt-pcre -qt-libpng -qt-libjpeg -qt-freetype -opengl desktop -no-openssl `
        -opensource -confirm-license `
        -make libs -nomake tools -nomake examples -nomake tests"

(note the presence of the -opengl option)

Produced the error I mentioned above, along with an advisement to specify "-opengl desktop." On a hunch, after I ran this configure command, I ran configure again with only the "-opengl desktop" option, then ran make and make install. Both appear to have run successfully.

The configure utility is a total black box to me, so I can't even speculate on why this might be happening. My next step is to see if this version of Qt looks good (and shows up) in Creator, then I'll do the same thing for 5.10.1 and compare results.

SGaist

Before 5.5 you had to choose whether you would be using the "full desktop OpenGL" backend or ANGLE which sits on top of OpenGL ES2. Since then Qt has a dynamic backend selector which adapts to what is available on the machine your application is run on.

You can still do a hard selection if your application requires desktop OpenGL.

mzimmers

That makes sense, but it seems that the configure command was ignoring my "-opengl desktop" option when it was part of this command:

    cmd /c "configure.bat -static -debug-and-release -platform win32-g++ -prefix $QtDir `
        -qt-zlib -qt-pcre -qt-libpng -qt-libjpeg -qt-freetype -opengl desktop -no-openssl `
        -opensource -confirm-license `
        -make libs -nomake tools -nomake examples -nomake tests"

It was only when I re-ran configure with only the -opengl option, that it appeared to work. But, I just discovered that doing so failed to re-use my -prefix command, so it installed into /usr/local (on a Windows system). So, I'm running it again, using the "-redo" option.

I wonder if the -opengl option is incompatible with one of the other options in that long command line...

SGaist

The options looks correct.

However, what you should do is re-run from a clean state. Changing the OpenGL option is typically something that modifies the build setup.

mzimmers

So, what exactly does it mean to "re-run from a clean slate?" What all do I have to delete or uninstall? The target directory was empty when I did this the first time.

SGaist

It means that if you are using an out of source build, then delete folder in which you called configure. Otherwise, you have to cleanup the sources before calling configure again.

JKSH

@mzimmers said in 5.10.1 broke one of my builds:

So, what exactly does it mean to "re-run from a clean slate?" What all do I have to delete or uninstall?

Delete all the files that were not part of the source code package. These are created the moment configure.bat starts running.

Out-of-source builds, as mentioned by @SGaist, are the easiest to clean: You just delete the entire build folder.

If you didn't use an out-of-source build but you did get the code via git, run this from the same folder as configure.bat to preserve your source files but remove all other files:

> git clean -dfx
> git submodule foreach "git clean -dfx"

The target directory was empty when I did this the first time.

The configuration files are created in your build directory, not your target (PREFIX) directory.

P.S. Using -opengl desktop means that your end-user needs OpenGL drivers provided by their graphics card vendor to run apps built with Qt Quick. The drivers provided by Windows itself are too old.

mzimmers

Thanks, JKSH - I need static builds for delivering utility programs to customers. Your last paragraph suggests that opengl desktop probably isn't a good idea for me, then. What is the best approach for producing static builds?

JKSH

@mzimmers said in 5.10.1 broke one of my builds:

Thanks, JKSH - I need static builds for delivering utility programs to customers. Your last paragraph suggests that opengl desktop probably isn't a good idea for me, then. What is the best approach for producing static builds?

Hi @mzimmers, I'm afraid I don't have much experience with static builds of Qt -- I only use dynamic linking.

Which GUI technologies do your programs use? If it's Qt Widgets or the Graphics View Framework, then the OpenGL setting won't matter because those technologies don't use OpenGL.