After the latest upgrade from 2.4.0 to 2.4.2, GnuCash fails to start. I get the splash screen and the tips window, both which disappear quickly. Then nothing. I'm running portable apps on a Win Vista PC. I thought it might have been the same issue as I had for 2.4.0 (see recent post Feb 7, GnuCash 2.4 fails to start after upgrade), and tried the suggestions there, but to no avail. This seems to be a different issue.
I've reverted back to 2.4.0 and all is well again.
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Have you tried a clean install with no existing data? Do you get the prompt to update the registry? What path are you installing to?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I had a similar problem starting with version 2.4.0.
Installed on Vista 32-bit on a flash drive. When I went to open a different splash screen appeared then closed without the program opening. Nothing in the logs. I tried opening on my Win 7 64-bt PC at work and it was fine though with the splash screen I was used to. Version 2.4.2 same exact problem. After opening in Win 7 64-bit the program runs fine on Vista. Hope this helps.
I just had the exact same problem as the others had, and discovered a *WORKAROUND* that seems to work perfectly. Now keep in mind that I typically run all of my PortableApps from hard drive; on either the C: or D: partition, depending on the workstation on which I'm using. However, I would expect that this workaround should work for USB users, also.
(CAUTION: Because I did not have any user data, this was performed a test procedure. If you currently use this program, I would highly suggest copying the \PortableApps\GnuCashPortable\Data folder to an alternate location as a safety backup before proceeding!)
What I did was move the folder D:\PortableApps\GnuCashPortable up one level to the PARTITION ROOT as D:\GnuCashPortable and then executed GnuCashPortable.exe from within its folder. Upon GnuCash successfully loading, I terminated it, monitored Task Manager, waiting for the processes to unload, then re-executed it again to check consistency. After finished with all testing, I simply moved D:\GnuCashPortable back to it's normal D:\PortableApps\ location and executed it successfully thereafter.
I performed this routine a number of times, even totally deleting the GnuCash folder and starting from scratch to confirm it works. I'm not a coder/programmer, so I have no idea exactly
WHY 
this procedure corrected it. All I know for sure is that it worked consistently. I suspect there are some path issues within the Portable version that resolve itself after successfully initializing. Again, I would expect that this workaround should work for USB users if, upon successfully loading, it is moved back to the USB device. 
>REALITY ERROR: UNIVERSE HALTED
FYI, I also smoothly and successfully performed the above workaround on another workstation; upgrading from v2.2.9 to v2.4.0 to v2.4.2 in succession, while testing initialization in between to check consistency. Seems to do the trick easily enough. 8)
>REALITY ERROR: UNIVERSE HALTED
Users of Windows-based personal firewalls that block outgoing ports will likely need to allow the following files to pass through upon installation/upgrade, and/or after using my WORKAROUND above.
gnucash.exe
gnucash-bin.exe
gconfd-2.exe
In ZoneAlarm (my personal choice; various versions), this was a popup alert that asked "allow access to the Internet Zone?" while GnuCashPortable was loading. If denied, GnuCashPortable will throw back errors and terminate before the splash screen even shows.
Other Windows-based personal firewalls should be addressed accordingly.
Hope this helps...
>REALITY ERROR: UNIVERSE HALTED
It's what's known as a loopback connection where one EXE communicates with another on the same local system via networking calls (rather than Windows API calls) but isn't actually making any external network connections. It's common on other operating systems and occurs in several multiple operating system apps like GnuCash. Some Windows-only firewalls don't understand loopback connections and will block (and, thus, break) applications that use them. ZoneAlarm is known not to work properly with loopback connections and will detect them as attempts to access the internet.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
A clean install seems to work.
My GnuCash data is in \Documents\Financial on the thumb drive. GnuCash is in the standard path \PortableApps\GnuCashPortable.
Once I'm in GnuCash and have selected my GnuCash data, the only change I make is to set the Date Format in Preferences to UK (dd/mm/yyyy). Wondering if this setting upsets the GnuCash upgrades? I've had upgrade problems moving to both 2.4.0 and 2.4.2.
Found an even quicker way to fix it simply delete slibcat and GnuCashPortableSettings.ini from GnuCashPortable\Data\Settings and let it recreate them for you. Presto it works and my book opened correctly automatically on start-up.
This worked for me too.
I had installed 2.4.0 and it loaded but just fine; then the 2.4.2 upgrade started to load but then terminated before finishing. Nice simple fix!
Something to keep in mind with the next GnuCash upgrade. My track record with GnuCash upgrades so far has been less than brilliant.:)
I created a "New Folder" in E:\PortableApps\GnuCashPortable\Data\Settings and moved slibcat and GnuCashPortableSettings.ini into it and then the launch worked...
Thanks.
it crashes on windows vista. I tried it at home on windows xp machine and it worked.
it did not worked on vista but worked on XP, when I tried back again in vista, it worked!. Right now I have no problems with 2.4.2, someone should diff working and non working directories to see what is happening.
OK, here my experience with last versions of portable gnucash. System: windows xp sp3
1) when gnucash v2.4.0 came out I tried to decompress the original files and exchange the GnuCashPortable\App\GnuCash data of my existing v2.2.9. Only renaming of gnucash.exe to gnucash-bin.exe (or vice versa) was necessary. It worked perfectly as far as I can say. But I don't know if this was really portable and safe. So I decided to wait for official GnuCashPortable
2) GnuCashPortable v2.4.0 did not run, when installing over v2.2.9. Splashscreen comes up, but then crashed or ended. Clean installing it to another folder solves the problem. Opening old data from v2.2.9 works. Saving them again in sqlite-format works as well.
3) Now, installing Verion 2.4.2 (again to a new folder) and running it from scratch (without data) works, too. BUT: opening the data file (GnuCashProfil.gnucash) crashes the program. Same happens if I copy complete data-folder from v2.4.0 to v2.4.2. So this must be the problem when installing v2.4.2 over an older version.
There must be any incompatibility with previous data files.
Hopefully this helps solving the problem...
Do you still have your 2.2.9 files to try opening? GnuCash 2.4.0 was a bit buggy so 2.4.2 was put out as a fix for it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
mh, too late to edit previous post ...
EDIT: Fortunately I stored my data folder from GnuCashPortable v2.2.9. When copying this to data folder of v2.4.2 it works fine. Data is stored in older standard xml-format there. But trying to save data in sqlite3-format now, again crashes the program.
--> Perhaps a problem with sqlite3 ?
EDIT2: I did 2 further Tests:
Since copying old (2.2.9) profile-data into a clean install of v2.4.2 seems to work, I did a new installation of v2.4.2 over my old GnuCashPortable 2.2.9. --> Crashes after splash screen
Then I put the original (non-portable) gnucash files into GnuCashPortable/App folder again --> the program started correctly.
But trying to store the data in sqlite3 format it crashes even with the "original" files. (XML can save and load correctly)
Conclusion:
Seems we have 2 problems:
1) Upgrading GnuCashPortable over previous versions doesn't work
2) Storing data in sqlite3-format doesn't work
EDIT3: Just for everyones information: Problem 2) is not caused by PortableApps according to the warning on gnucash webpage: "Broken SQL support in GnuCash 2.4.2 on Windows"
I had the same issue and I also fixed it by deleting GnuCashPortableSettings.ini and letting the app recreate it. Here was my file prior to the upgrade:
and here it is after it's been recreated:
So it seems that the line "WarnedNoAdmin=Yes" prevents the app from starting in 2.4.2.
This should be fixed in 2.4.4 Pre-Release 1 that I just posted here:
https://portableapps.com/node/27190
GnuCash should start properly even on upgrade from a 2.2.x install. Please try it and let me know if it works for you.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!