Can't get MinGW64 for Qt Creator

TGVF · wrote on 31 Jul 2013, 13:24

I am an amateur C++ developer using a Win 7 laptop and willing to migrate to Qt. I thought I should take advantage of my 64 bits configuration and consequently installed what I supposed to be a 64 bit version : Qt Creator 2.7.2 based on Qt 5.1.0.
Installation was straightforward (using qt-windows-opensource-5.1.0-msvc2012_opengl-x86_64-offline.exe); I accepting all default options) Launching Qt Creator, I can see in the "About..." dialog that this Qt version is "(32 bit)", strange but OK, so far so good. Until I tried to compile an example: no compiler detected, gasp!
In fact, I got a MinGW32 that works fine, but it is ignored by Win 7 as it came embedded with the Dev-Cpp installation (actually: wxDev-C++) and not as stand-alone.
Now, I would like to have the bin's for MinGW64 and have it recognized by Qt Creator. Simple enough? I must be dumb; I spend more than three hours downloading and extracting all sorts of packages from SourceForge and other sites and simply could not find the right one that would deploy on my laptop! (I only thing I could get is source & doc packages, which I don't know what to do with). I feel comforted by so many fellows complaining for years on several forums with same kind of problems; unfortunately none of the solutions proposed to them worked with me... The FAQ won't help either.
May be I am overly ambitious with 64 bit stuff; I could simply copy and paste my MingW32 folder directly in the folder "Program files (X86)". Would it be recognized by Win7 and Qt that way? Should I re-install a 32 bit version of Qt Creator instead of my current version? (I understand that, anyway, Qt Creator does not install any compiler but expects compilers to be available separately under Win7). Thanks for any suggestion!

koahnig · wrote on 31 Jul 2013, 14:01

welcome to devnet

You have installed
[quote]
Qt Creator 2.7.2 based on Qt 5.1.0.
Installation was straightforward (using qt-windows-opensource-5.1.0-msvc2012_opengl-x86_64-offline.exe);
[/quote]

You can use this version only with msvc2012. There is a free express version available on ms sites if you choose to cotinue that route.

You can also use MinGW64 version, but that is not available from Qt download site. You can either compile it yourself with MinGW compiler or download from another site (I do not have the link at hand).

Personally I have compiled MinGW 64 bit version and used it for a while. However, besides it is 64 bit, I do not see a real advantage over 32 bit. I do professional applications on windows 7 64 bit.
As an amateur programmer the MinGW 32 bit version might be completely sufficient for you. I would expect that you can seamlessly switch to 64 bit later on anyhow.

TGVF · wrote on 31 Jul 2013, 15:52

Thanks for answer, koahnig!
I am not sure I have enough free time to get involved with VS2012 and /or all this compiler-make-path- options stuff, in addition to Qt / Qt Creator itself. Nonetheess,I tried and followed your recommendation and downloaded and installed the followings:

vcredist_x86.exe
vcredist_x64.exe
vcredist_arm.exe
The last one would not run on my Win 7 laptop ("not a valid Win32 app"). I don't know what these apps are actually for; anyway apparently not what Qt/Qt Creator needs (not even detected, while when I tried to install MinGW32 (using the installer from wxDev-C++, it was, at least, detected). I may be getting too old for crawling in the jungle of C++ compilers, debuggers & makefiles...

koahnig · wrote on 31 Jul 2013, 16:31

I would recommend to use Qt libs with MinGW then.

You can download it as offline installer "here":http://download.qt-project.org/official_releases/qt/5.1/5.1.0/qt-windows-opensource-5.1.0-mingw48_opengl-x86-offline.exe

You can also use the "online installer,":http://download.qt-project.org/official_releases/online_installers/qt-windows-opensource-1.4.0-x86-online.exe but not install the msvc versions just the MinGW stuff.

The three exes you mention above are for ms and are not required for MinGW.

You have then installed everything at once, which make the "compiler" jungle a bit easier. These bundles deliver already the MinGW compiler with the Qt libs.

This is not possible for ms compilers because of license issues.

Again even though you are doing everything with a 32 bit compiler, it is not really a disadvantage. Later you can recompile anyway in case you would hit any ceiling with the limitation to 32 bits. And if that will be the case I assume that there will be a pre-built of Qt with MinGW 64 compilers.

TGVF · wrote on 31 Jul 2013, 17:38

yes indeed, the MinGW32 version of Qt 5.1.0 & Qt Creator works nicely without need to install anything else nor change any parameter in the kit & compiler options.
Perfect! The 64 bit version will be for a later time if ever needed. Again thanks a lot for your support!

JKSH · wrote on 31 Jul 2013, 23:17

A maintainer for the MinGW-builds project has provided a 64-bit Qt package, if you want (note, this is an unofficial package):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingwbuilds/files/external-binary-packages/Qt-Builds/

tobias.hunger · wrote on 1 Aug 2013, 08:00

About Creator claiming it is using a 32bit version of Qt 5 in its about dialog: It is:-)

The creator packages come with its own Qt version for Creator to use and that is a 32bit version.

You are free to install a range of (incompatible) flavors of Qt via the installer on windows (mingw, msvcX) and can also build your own (stripped-down, broken, for arm/mips or whatever architecture, etc.) versions of Qt. Having Creator depend on any one of them being fine to run its binaries on is a bit of a gamble. So we ship a Qt as part of the Qt Creator binaries.

TGVF · wrote on 1 Aug 2013, 13:34

As an amateur working with C++, I will first use the official Qt creator build using the 32 bit Qt. In case I come across a serious performance issue with some CPU intensive routine, I will try to compile with an unofficial 64 bit Qt package as proposed by JKSH. Thanks again to all for your help!