On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 7:27 PM, John Hunter<jdh2...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 8:48 PM, Patrick Rynhart<prynh...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Dear all, >> >> We are using Python 2.5, matplotlib and NumPy on Windows to assist >> with the teaching for an undergraduate paper. On a small number of >> installations, an error attempting to load some required DLL's is >> being reported (on approx 3 machines out of approximately 60). There >> doesn't appear to be any pattern with this - we can seen it on one >> install of Windows Server 2008 and also on various versions of Windows >> XP (Professional and Home). >> >> Symptoms are, after a "from pylab import *", the following traceback: >> >> Traceback (most recent call last): >> File "C:\Documents and >> Settings\Jo\workspace\test\src\root\nested\__init__.py", line 2, in >> <module> >> from pylab import * >> File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\pylab.py", line 1, in <module> >> from matplotlib.pylab import * >> File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib\pylab.py", line 206, >> in <module> >> from matplotlib import mpl # pulls in most modules >> File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib\mpl.py", line 1, in <module> >> from matplotlib import artist >> File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib\artist.py", line 4, in >> <module> >> from transforms import Bbox, IdentityTransform, TransformedBbox, >> TransformedPath >> File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib\transforms.py", line >> 34, in <module> >> from matplotlib._path import affine_transform >> ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found. > > We have seen this problem several times before, and have labored hard > to banish it, but it always has a way of coming back to haunt us. I > am aware of a bug in python2.6 which causes mingw to build broken > win32 binaries, but am not aware of such a problem w/ python2.5, > which you appear to be using. We often use a program called > dependency walker to track these problems down: > > http://www.dependencywalker.com/ > > Open the problematic file (it should be > C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib\_path.pyd) and report any > errors you find here; it should tell you which DLLs are missing. > Search the good and the bad boxes for these DLL filenames and see if > it is a difference in the boxes, eg do the good boxes have the DLL and > the bad boxes not, and if so maybe you can figure out why (different > version in the OS patch level?). I am really interested to know the > difference in the boxes because it may give us the critical clue as to > why some users report this problem and others do not see it. > > Also, on one of the bad boxes, could you try the new 0.99 release and > let me know if you have the same issue? > > I build the python2.5 installers with mingw; Christoph builds the > python2.6 installers with Visual Studio precisely because mingw is > broken on python2.6. If we can't banish this bug on 2.5 w/ mingw, I > may have to lean on his generosity and ask him to make a python2.5 > installer with Visual Studio as well. > > JDH > > PS: rereading your email, I see you are using 0.98.3. The first time > I read it, when I wrote the response above, I thought you were using > 0.98.5.3 -- the .3 at the end tricked me. The latter is fairly > recent, and came out 10 months after 0.98.3, and we did several things > to fix exactly this dll problem in interim. At a minimum, you need to > be testing and installing 0.98.5.3. This is a very stable, bug fix > release, suitable for use in the classroom. I can't guarantee you > won't hit the same problem, but at least you will be using a version > that *shouldn't* have it, though I am still interested in the results > of the dependency walker tests above, because I have wasted so much > time trying to fix these win32 installers. >
Dear John, Many thanks for your detailed post with regard to how to troubleshoot this issue. The use of dependency walker allowed me to determine that affected systems were missing the Visual C/C++ shared runtime libraries - in particular, MSVCP71.DLL (the version of the runtime shipped with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003) was missing on these systems. According to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/326922, installing the .NET 1.1 framework should - as a side-effect - also install this DLL. However, on Windows Server 2008 (the only box that I have direct access to in a faulted state) this DLL didn't seem to install when I installed the .NET 1.1 framework. (Aside: This could be because Explorer in Vista/2K8 appears to hide system files exceptionally well. Even after playing with the Windows Desktop Search syntax I couldn't get a match. Dropping to a cmd prompt and listing %systemroot%\system32 also didn't provide a match for the DLL.) On one of the student Windows XP machines, I copied the above DLL from a working XP SP3 install to "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib" and confirmed that matplotlib then works correctly. Attempting the same trick on Server 2K8 didn't work, but this is probably to be expected (given that it's a major version change of Windows NT). Also, I don't think that M$ permit redistribution of the runtime by just copying a DLL across, so I have asked students to try installing the .NET framework 1.1. Thanks again for your help. Do you think that testing for the version of the Visual C redistributable is required during an install of matplotlib (and/or possibly at runtime). Thanks again for your assistance - this has been most appreciated. Regards, Patrick -- Dr Patrick Rynhart Linux Systems Administrator / Team Leader IT Support Group School of Engineering and Advanced Technology AgHort A Room 3.61 Massey University (Turitea Campus) NEW ZEALAND Phone +64 6 356 9099 extn 2444 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ Matplotlib-users mailing list Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
