Deploying Qt5 on Windows 7: Too Difficult
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The documentation for how to deploy Qt 5 on Windows is too hidden and is missing several pieces of crucial information. This makes deploying Qt5 MUCH more painful than it really should be.
Through a lot of searching on other posts, I know I'm supposed to include platforms/qwindows.dll and platforms/qminimal.dll as well as the (somewhat stealthy) their dependency: libEGL.dll. I also know I am supposed to include the plugins my program is using, but I have no way to determine which ones they are!
I have defined the environment variable QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS to a non-zero value to try to get more info. No luck.
I have tried to deploy a debug version from the console to see if I get any useful output. No luck.
I have double checked my .pro file and stripped out any unneeded dependencies like this:
@QT -= gui
QT += core quick multimedia
CONFIG += thread qt@But there is no documentation on EXACTLY which plugins correspond to which dependencies, so no luck here.
I temporarily removed all my QML files and replaced them with a single file that displayed a single maroon rectangle. Still no luck.
I have even tried copying ALL the plugins at Qt5.0.1\5.0.1\msvc2010\plugins into my apps directory so that I have:
myapp\myapp.exe
myapp\accessible
myapp\bearer
... etc.
But even THAT didn't work.Everything I try, I am stuck staring at a blank white screen with no information on what I am doing wrong. It is highly frustrating!
What do I need to do differently?
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You do need the QtGui module, and QtQml.
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QT = core gui qml quick
@For QtQuick 2 apps. Normally, no plugins apart from platform plugin (qwindows.dll. Minimal plugin is not needed) are required. Optionally, image plugins and database plugins might be needed, but that depends on your Qt build and app requirements.
I have no experience with QtMultimedia, so I can't help there. I don't have too much experience with Windows, too, to be hones. On Linux it just works.
"link":http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5.0/qtdoc/deployment-windows.html.
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Thank you very much for the response sierdzio.
I had thought it odd that my program would compile without those modules. I wonder why I don't get a compile issue when omitting gui or qml, but I DO get a compile issue when omitting multimedia. Maybe it is because I am using multimedia components in C++.
I discovered this morning that QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS really IS working. The issue is that I can only see the output when the program is executed by QtCreator. I was checking for output in the console with the deployed executable. I thought this would enable that behavior:
@CONFIG += console@With QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS turned on, I found a nice list of plugins used when I exit the program. Each entry looks like this:
QLibraryPrivate::unload succeeded on "D:/Programs/Development/Qt/Qt5.0.1/5.0.1/msvc2010/plugins/mediaservice/wmfengine.dll"Tracking down and adding these plugins to my program was pretty trivial. HOWEVER, I am still unable to deploy my program. I think it has to do with this output:
loaded library "D:/Programs/Development/Qt/Qt5.0.1/5.0.1/msvc2010/qml/QtQuick.2/qtquick2plugin.dll"
loaded library "D:/Programs/Development/Qt/Qt5.0.1/5.0.1/msvc2010/qml/QtMultimedia/declarative_multimedia.dll"These "plugins" are in a different location than the rest and are in a different format. I am sure my program is looking for them to run, but I do not know where it is looking.
I tried pathing like this:
myprogram/myprogram.exe
myprogram/QtMultimedia/declarative_multimedia.dll
myprogram/QtQuick.2/qtquick2plugin.dllI also tried
myprogram/myprogram.exe
myprogram/qml/QtMultimedia/declarative_multimedia.dll
myprogram/qml/QtQuick.2/qtquick2plugin.dllBut neither worked. Where do these plugins need to be placed relative to my executable? Do they have any "hidden" dependencies as with libEGL.dll for qwindows.dll?
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Plugins need to be put in <your app dir>/plugins, as outlined "here":http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5.0/qtdoc/deployment-windows.html#creating-the-application-package. Make sure you read the note on ANGLE if you are using prebuild packages form Downloads page.
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I had read that before, but I didn't notice at the time that ANGLE is included by default. I've added D3DCompiler_43.dll to my program next to my executable and placed the plugins as specified, but I'm still not able to deploy the application.
I used depends profiling on my application on another computer and got did see some Qt error messages pointing to the lines:
@import QtQuick 2.0
import QtMultimedia 5.0@It says the modules "QtQuick" and "QtMultimedia" are not installed. I presume it really means the "QtQuick.2" and "QtMultimedia" folders I found in the directory at: Qt5.0.1\5.0.1\msvc2010\qml. However no matter where I put these folders the application cannot find them. How am I supposed to include "QML Plugins" (as opposed to regular plugins)?
One other .dll Depends found as missing was "Qt5MultimediaQuick_p.dll". While I've heard of similar dlls and plugins for everything else from Qt 4, I haven't heard of this one. What is it used for and do I need it?
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[quote author="Scorx Ion" date="1363334790"]
Everything I try, I am stuck staring at a blank white screen with no information on what I am doing wrong. It is highly frustrating![/quote]Heh I know what you mean, I'm stuck with the same stuff currently, trying to run the app built on x64 machine for VS2010 x86 on the same machine.
QtQuick 2.0 QML app, getting a full-screen window with nothing but blank white in it. Run from the QtCreator it works nicely. Sigh..
EDIT: Oh and a funny thing. Qt Widgets test app works, also QtQuick 1.1 test app - but none of the QtQuick 2.0 ones. Not our real app, nor a test hello world app. Just white screen. Interesting.
- Matti
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I needed to include these files for deployment of my application:
D3DCompiler_43.dll
icudt49.dll
icuin49.dll
icuuc49.dll
libEGL.dll
libGLESv2.dll
Qt5Core.dll
Qt5Gui.dll
Qt5Qml.dll
Qt5Quick.dll
Qt5V8.dll
<DIR> QtQuick.2/(all of qml/QtQuick.2 goes here)
<DIR> platforms/qwindows.dllThen I can deploy and run it on another machine.
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[quote author="Torgeir" date="1363947185"]
<DIR> QtQuick.2/(all of qml/QtQuick.2 goes here)
[/quote]We're building our .qml files into the executable via .qrc. What exactly are you putting into QtQuick.2/ directory ? I would prefer not to ship the qml files separately.. :o
- M
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Oh Eureka! There indeed was a dir QtQuick.2/ under the SDK; copying this as-is under the application directory did the trick. Sweet, thanks to this thread we even have 2 hours to spare on our deadline. :D
- M
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Ahem, next issue arises. We're using SQLite from QtQuick 2.0 projects javascript (QtQuick.LocalStorage 2.0) .. and now that we're deploying on windows outside the QtCreator sandbox, none of the SQL stuff works. I havent yet figured out how to make the app log into a console (CONFIG += console does not seem to do the trick) with console.log() so Im not getting much info whats wrong - we tried adding the sqldrivers plugin directory under the app dir but that didnt help. Whats needed..?
While Qt/QML is sweet, building the windows deployment package is a real pain in the arse :o
- Matti
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It's really too cumbersome to deploy a qt/qml application on Windows.
After a lot of googling and trying now my app is working.
I am using SQLite in my project, but I am using the C++ library <QtSql/QSqlDatabase>.
I have:
exedir/sqldrivers/qsqlite.dll
exedir/platforms/qwindows.dll
exedir/QtQuick.2/...
exedir/qml/exe_name/qmlfiles.qml
exedir/icudt49.dll
exedir/icuin49.dll
exedir/icuuc49.dll
exedir/libEGL.dll
exedir/libGLESv2.dll
exedir/Qt5Core.dll
exedir/Qt5Gui.dll
exedir/Qt5Network.dll
exedir/Qt5Qml.dll
exedir/Qt5Quick.dll
exedir/Qt5Sql.dll
exedir/Qt5V8.dll
exedir/D3DCompiler_43.dll
exedir/exeI am new to qt/qml, the most difficult part was to figure out where the plugin folder had to be.
Each plugin folder (sqldrivers, QtQuick.2 ...) you use have to be in the exe folder, right?
There is a way to change search path for plugins?
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Yes theres QQmlEngine::addPluginPath() for that.
Aha so SQLite stuff works from C++ side with those, awesome, today's task will be to make it work somehow, hopefully with the existing code (from .pragma library javascript file..)
- M
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Adding QtQuick/LocalStorage did the trick for the JS part..
My working set now is:
@
│ D3DCompiler_43.dll
│ icudt49.dll
│ icuin49.dll
│ icuuc49.dll
│ libEGL.dll
│ libGLESv2.dll
│ log.txt
│ binary.exe
│ binary.exe.embed.manifest
│ Qt5Core.dll
│ Qt5Gui.dll
│ Qt5Multimedia.dll
│ Qt5MultimediaQuick_p.dll
│ Qt5Network.dll
│ Qt5Qml.dll
│ Qt5Quick.dll
│ Qt5Sql.dll
│ Qt5V8.dll
│
├───platforms
│ qwindows.dll
│
├───QtMultimedia
│ declarative_multimedia.dll
│ plugins.qmltypes
│ qmldir
│ Video.qml
│
├───QtQuick
│ └───LocalStorage
│ plugins.qmltypes
│ qmldir
│ qmllocalstorageplugin.dll
│
├───QtQuick.2
│ plugins.qmltypes
│ qmldir
│ qtquick2plugin.dll
│
└───sqldrivers
qsqlite.dll
@I really find it intolerable that the plugin system just silently fails when it cannot load something instead of showing a message (at least in console, preferable in a MessageBox). Totally nasty to debug.
- M
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I had a blank screen after launching my app but when i added
@
├───QtQuick
│ └───LocalStorage
│ plugins.qmltypes
│ qmldir
│ qmllocalstorageplugin.dll
│
├───QtQuick.2
│ plugins.qmltypes
│ qmldir
│ qtquick2plugin.dll
@
the problem was resolved.Thank you.
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I'm a little confused by what the docs have under: Writing a qmltypes File found here: http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5.0/qtqml/qtqml-modules-qmldir.html
First it says:
bq.
As such qmltypes files have no effect on the functionality of a QML module. Their only use is to allow tools such as Qt Creator to provide code completion, error checking and other functionality to users of your module.It also says:
bq.
Any module that uses plugins should also ship a type description file.So should we distribute "plugins.qmltypes" files with our app, provided that I am not interested in providing any editing capabilties to my end user on the shipped files?
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I have included all of the files and directories mentioned in this thread as well as ALL of the plugins in the mingw directory to be extra safe, and my app also just shows a white screen; in fact I am using an included Qt Quick demo app, the Minehunt application. There is just no way I can get it to actually run correctly in an environment that does not have Qt installed already. It runs fine in Creator. This is so frustrating. No errors, not crashes, just a white screen.
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[quote author="qttester5" date="1377757029"]I have included all of the files and directories mentioned in this thread as well as ALL of the plugins in the mingw directory to be extra safe, and my app also just shows a white screen; in fact I am using an included Qt Quick demo app, the Minehunt application. There is just no way I can get it to actually run correctly in an environment that does not have Qt installed already. It runs fine in Creator. This is so frustrating. No errors, not crashes, just a white screen.[/quote]
what is your grafic card ? have you tested it under other machines ?
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If it was a problem with my graphics card, then why can the project run fine on the same machine, in a different VM that has Qt installed?
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maybe the correct drivers are installed on the VM and not on the Real Machine.
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No, I am using two identical VMs on same machine. One with and one without Qt.
