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GnuCash running from stick

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January 15, 2009 - 6:30am
#1
whynot
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GnuCash running from stick

I recently used GnuCash under linux. Now i installed it on my laptop at home and also on a usb-stick. GnuCash from stick runs fine at home. But when i want to use it in the office it tells me that it has to do some entries in the registry. As i have no admin rights i just submitted the window and hoped that GnuCash would start as usual. But nothing happened. The splashscreen didn't dissappear and the application seems to stuck. I just could terminate it by deleting the process in the taskmanager.

Is there a way to use GnuCash on an other pc than the installed without having admin rights ? Otherwise it makes no sense to me to have GnuCash on a stick.

thanks in advance
Stefan

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January 15, 2009 - 3:54pm
Kim_Wood
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GNUcash & Admin Rights

Stefan,

The beauty of Portable GNUcash (and almost every other portable application on this website) is that you DON'T need admin rights, and nothing is left behind on the computer you ran the portable app on. Why don't you make sure your data file is backed up, delete the GNUcashPortable subdirectory found in the PortableApps directory on your memory stick, reinstall GNUcashPortable and run it again on your computer. Look carefully at the screen prompts the first time you run it. It should run fine whether you have admin rights or not.

Kim

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January 20, 2009 - 6:26am
whynot
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what to do ?!

Hey Kim,

i assumed that the portableapps run without installing on the system i run it. Hence i assumed that it would run in the office too, as i installed it on my stick at home. But when i started the application in the office there appeared a window which told me, that there had to be some entries in the registry to make sure it is compatible with other GnuCash releases. So i assume GnuCash does some entries in the registry, although it is a portable application (recently i found such a behaviour with OpenOffice 3.0, which prevented me from using OO from stick Sad ).

I just downloaded the application again and tried to install it on my office-pc (unfortunately i have no admin rights). When i start GnuCash after the install it tells me: "Changes to the registry must be made to enable some features and prevent conflicts with a non-portable GnuCash installation. This changes require you to be logged in as a local administrator. Do you want to continue without making this changes ?". I just can submit this, as i'm no administrator. But after that the application fails to start (the splashscreen appears and nothing happens anymore).

What to do to use the application without having admin rights ?!

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January 20, 2009 - 9:34am
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Not Needed

As stated, you don't need admin rights unless you want to use the online banking features. This is a limitation in GnuCash itself that will hopefully be resolved in the next version or so (there is already a bug filed to have them use a later version of the online banking utility that doesn't need admin rights). If you answer no, GnuCash should start as normal. If it doesn't, then something else is going on.

Are you sure you installed to X:\PortableApps\GnuCash? Other paths may have issues.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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January 20, 2009 - 10:56am
(Reply to #4)
whynot
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my stick has driveletter F in

my stick has driveletter F in the office, but i also installed GnuCash on drive E of my office-pc. When i press "no" in the window GnuCash starts afterwards, shows the splashscreen, shows the tip of the days and stucks. The progressbar in the splashscreen stopps too.
The logfile is created, but has size 0, so nothing is written there.

I have tried some options in the ini-file, but nothing helped Sad

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January 20, 2009 - 12:38pm
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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Hmm

Have you tried resetting your preferences by deleting the Data directory (be sure to save a copy of your data files if you are also saving them to their first) and deleting the GnuCashPortable.ini if you created one?

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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January 20, 2009 - 1:12pm
(Reply to #6)
Shawn Faucher
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Firewall?

It sounds to me like your office machine may be locked down pretty tight, perhaps with firewall software. GnuCash uses TCP/IP sockets for local communication with its settings utility (just on the local computer, not out over the internet) which we've had some users report to be a problem with some firewall software in the past. It is likely hanging when trying to communicate with the settings utility at startup and having the connection blocked.

Unfortunately there's not much we can do about that if you don't have admin access to change the firewall settings. It's an artifact from GnuCash being developed on Linux. Local socket access is not a security risk and is quite common in other operating systems but in Windows most security vendors are overly zealous since it isn't a common practice.

formerly rayven01

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January 21, 2009 - 2:44am
(Reply to #7)
whynot
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yes, i did

@John:
yes, i have tried to start GnuCash with the standard-Data-folder on one hand, and tried it with the copy of my Data-folder from the home-installed-GnuCash on the other hand. It stucks with both Data folder. Deleting the ini-file didn't change anything.

@Shawn:
yes, the webaccess in my company is very limited, the firewalls are closed as much as possible. Just the access via http and ftp is open. Some other ports may be open too, but i don't know which (5900 for VNC maybe open too). But is this a problem if GnuCash accesses just its own preferences via TCP/IP ? It has just to access the own pc and doesn't has to pass the firewall ?!

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January 21, 2009 - 9:55am
(Reply to #8)
John T. Haller
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Firewall

Many Linux-originated apps use loopbacks to connect to their preferences and other things. GnuCash does. Some Windows firewalls do a poor job of understanding this. Comodo is the most common one with issues. You need to set an exception for the app. Or contact Comodo and get them to fix their issue.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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January 23, 2009 - 2:55am
(Reply to #9)
whynot
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Port ?

hmm... which port ist used by GnuCash to read its preferences ? Or where could i see this (without having admin privileges) ?

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January 23, 2009 - 12:11pm
(Reply to #10)
Shawn Faucher
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Random

Unfortunately it generates a random set of two ports every time it runs. It will try to use two consecutive ports though, one for gnucash-bin.exe and one for gconfd-2.exe

formerly rayven01

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