Emacs 25.3+ fails to start on Win XP

Emacs 25.3+ fails to start on Win XP

[Uwe Siart]

Dear all,

Emacs 25.3 and newer fails to start on a Win XP box. When clicking
runemacs.exe I get an error that says that the procedure call "_time32"
fails in msvcrt.dll.

I don't see this with Emacs 25.2.

Are there any known ways to solve this issue other than "Finally quit
using XP"?

Or does it mean that 25.2 is the last version that supports XP?

-- 
Uwe

Re: Emacs 25.3+ fails to start on Win XP

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Uwe Siart <usenet@siart.de>
> Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2017 09:45:57 +0100
> 
> Emacs 25.3 and newer fails to start on a Win XP box. When clicking
> runemacs.exe I get an error that says that the procedure call "_time32"
> fails in msvcrt.dll.
> 
> I don't see this with Emacs 25.2.
> 
> Are there any known ways to solve this issue other than "Finally quit
> using XP"?
> 
> Or does it mean that 25.2 is the last version that supports XP?

Emacs continues to support XP, I use it that way all the time.  I'm
guessing that you are using precompiled binaries from some site, and
those binaries were linked against system libraries which require
functions not present in the C runtime on XP.  (If these are official
GNU binaries, then it's unfortunate we provide such binaries.  In that
case, please file a bug report using report-emacs-bug.)

I think the root cause is that MinGW64 stopped supporting Windows XP.
This is probably justified in the 64-bit builds, but MinGW64 also
offers a 32-bit build environment, where XP should have been
supported.  FWIW, mingw.org's MinGW still supports Windows XP (and
also Windows 9X).

Re: Emacs 25.3+ fails to start on Win XP

[Uwe Siart]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Emacs continues to support XP, I use it that way all the time. I'm
> guessing that you are using precompiled binaries from some site, and
> those binaries were linked against system libraries which require
> functions not present in the C runtime on XP. (If these are official
> GNU binaries, then it's unfortunate we provide such binaries.

Yes indeed. I got that issue with

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/emacs-25.3-i686.zip

and also with

ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/windows/emacs-26-snapshot-x86_64.zip

and

ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/windows/emacs-27/emacs-27.0.50-snapshot-i686.zip

> In that case, please file a bug report using report-emacs-bug.)

Will try to do so.

> I think the root cause is that MinGW64 stopped supporting Windows XP.
> This is probably justified in the 64-bit builds, but MinGW64 also
> offers a 32-bit build environment, where XP should have been
> supported.  FWIW, mingw.org's MinGW still supports Windows XP (and
> also Windows 9X).

Thanks, Eli, for that hope-raising background information.

-- 
Uwe

Re: Emacs 25.3+ fails to start on Win XP

[Uwe Siart]

Uwe Siart <usenet@siart.de> writes:

> ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/windows/emacs-26-snapshot-x86_64.zip

Sorry, I meant to say

ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/windows/emacs-26-snapshot-i686.zip

-- 
Uwe

Re: Emacs 25.3+ fails to start on Win XP

[Uwe Siart]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Emacs continues to support XP, I use it that way all the time.  I'm
> guessing that you are using precompiled binaries from some site, and
> those binaries were linked against system libraries which require
> functions not present in the C runtime on XP.  (If these are official
> GNU binaries, then it's unfortunate we provide such binaries.  In that
> case, please file a bug report using report-emacs-bug.)

The latest Emacs 27 snapshot build from alpha.gnu.org works again on
Windows XP. Thanks for restoring this! It helps a lot.

-- 
Uwe

Re: Emacs 25.3+ fails to start on Win XP

[Glenn Morris]

Please send this information to the bug report that you opened.