Problem installing with insert disk error

[richardpd]

I started C programming several months ago on my new Win8 PC and started by installing Cygwin and using Geany4Windows editor (which is good & works well). Since then I have looked at several courses & YouTube C programming playlists that advise using CodeBlocks for C/C++ programming and I wanted to install CodeBlocks and try this myself but I cannot get CodeBlocks to install properly.

I have tried using all 3 Windows binaries,hoping that one would work,but they all fail with the same problem.
First a message box repeatedly appears asking to put a disc in the drive and  when this finally disappears another message box appears stating libxxx.dll is missing and finally a further message box appears saying there is some error between versions!?

It is all a bit confusing for me. I'm not sure whether I need the CodeBlocks installer with a compiler or without one so I can just add the path to the compiler exe for it to work.

I have all these errors as screenshot images (I have x4 in all but can only attach x2! Also file size/quality problems with these!) and I would be grateful for help & assistance to get CodeBlocks installed and working correctly,many thanks.

[ollydbg]

I can NOT see your images clearly, so please upload your images to some site like: http://imageshack.us/, and share the link here, thanks.

[richardpd]

Hi-thanks for the reply..I have uploaded images to my blog. See http://richard-dickinson.com/codeblocks/

I hope this is clearer now & I look forward to help,thanks

[stahta01]

Looks like one of two things are likely wrong.

1. CB Toolchain is NOT configured right. Note: Clicking on "yes" "update settings" might fix the issue.
First link to Wiki http://wiki.codeblocks.org/index.php?title=Installing_a_supported_compiler#Compiler-neutral_setup_steps
Second link to past forum post http://forums.codeblocks.org/index.php/topic,18075.0.html
Note: The forum post section "Third way to manually setup MinGW GCC" is the most likely way to fix the problem if its a CB toolchain config issue.

2. MinGW GCC Installation is bad.

Tim S.

[richardpd]

Hi stahta01, thanks for your reply.

I tried playing around with the compiler settings and using the path to my cyqwin c compiler but still had the same annoying error box saying "Insert disk".

I then saw I had 2 other MinGW directories on my C drive. One was C:\MinGW-4.7.1 which I remember installed when I installed CodeLite editor to try that but I also had C:\MinGW and I am not sure where that came from (possibly NetBeans with C++?).

So I then uninstalled CodeBlocks and deleted the C:\MinGW folder (this may cause me a problem later with NetBeans or whatever the program that installed C:\MinGW was!). Next I reinstalled CodeBlocks(using codeblocks setup.exe only). CodeBlocks now works and from the settings I can see it has autodetected & uses C:\MinGW-4.7.1. and no longer gives the annoying "Insert disk" error box.

It is not that easy trying different code editors/IDE's on Windows when program conflicts & path issues can cause strange errors! Anyway I hope I can now try out CodeBlocks for C programming..time will tell! Best wishes :-)

[stahta01]

Hi stahta01, thanks for your reply.

I tried playing around with the compiler settings and using the path to my cyqwin c compiler but still had the same annoying error box saying "Insert disk".

I then saw I had 2 other MinGW directories on my C drive. One was C:\MinGW-4.7.1 which I remember installed when I installed CodeLite editor to try that but I also had C:\MinGW and I am not sure where that came from (possibly NetBeans with C++?).

So I then uninstalled CodeBlocks and deleted the C:\MinGW folder (this may cause me a problem later with NetBeans or whatever the program that installed C:\MinGW was!). Next I reinstalled CodeBlocks(using codeblocks setup.exe only). CodeBlocks now works and from the settings I can see it has autodetected & uses C:\MinGW-4.7.1. and no longer gives the annoying "Insert disk" error box.

It is not that easy trying different code editors/IDE's on Windows when program conflicts & path issues can cause strange errors! Anyway I hope I can now try out CodeBlocks for C programming..time will tell! Best wishes :-)

FYI: During the building of MinGW the builder must choose a "default directory"; normally this is "\MinGW" which means as a side effect that if the default folder exists like "C:\MinGW" that no other MinGW installation will work correctly. This is because MinGW's code searches the "default directory" for some files like headers and maybe Libraries.

Tim S.

[gd_on]

Hi,
one way to have several compiler's version is to use Hardlinkshell extension in Windows (http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html).
Like that, you can have severall installation forders (as C:\MingW32-4.7.1_TDM, C:\MingW32-4.8.1_TDM, C:\MingW32-4.7.1_Standard, ....) and create a hardlink C:\MinGW to one of the real folder, an other C;\MinGW32 to one of the 32 version, etc...
Playing with this, may help to have several compilers installed, and each IDE may look at it's attended folder. This does not solve all conflicts, not always obvious to set properly, but it helps.

gd_on

[richardpd]

Thanks stahta01 and gd_on for your replies.

There are many C compilers and C IDE's for Windows, as I'm sure most people know (eg Borland C/Lcc/TDM/PellesC/TinyC/DelphiC++Builder/MS Vis Studio with cl.exe/MinGW/Cyqwin/Quincy and others!).

When I started C compiling on my Win8 PC I opted to install Cygwin with GCC/G++ compilers & with the cyqwin path in my Windows env variables I can compile C programs from Windows console and use my present favourite all purpose IDE, Geany4Windows.  

I do like to try other IDE's and I also program in other languages (Java/Perl and web develop with PHP JavaScript etc etc). I am always looking for good (ie easy to use & maintain IDE's & dev environments for my programming on my Windows PC) which can use general IDE's for many languages or IDE's specific to languages eg CodeBlocks for C/C++. Any editor or IDE that makes programming easier is worth trying for me! Many C/C++ IDE's now come with C compilers included but others do not. I have not ever installed MinGW on my PC from the MinGW homepage but I have had two installs of MinGW (C:\MinGW and C:\MinGW4.7.1) added when I have installed other C IDE's.

It is no wonder that conflicts can occur in programming on Windows if care and understanding is not taken!

My issue here has been how CodeBlocks C/C++ IDE installls and works. For me as I had tried other C IDE's on my Win8 PC before installing CodeBlocks I had this very significant error with installing & using CodeBlocks (eg perpetual error message about "inserting disk" and no libxxxx.dll).

The information on the CodeBlocks downloads page for Windows binaries is good. From the download page:

NOTE: The codeblocks-13.12mingw-setup.exe file includes the GCC compiler and GDB debugger from TDM-GCC (version 4.7.1, 32 bit). The codeblocks-13.12mingw-setup-TDM-GCC-481.exe file includes the TDM-GCC compiler, version 4.8.1, 32 bit. While v4.7.1 is rock-solid (we use it to compile C::B), v4.8.1 is provided for convenience, there are some known bugs with this version related to the compilation of Code::Blocks itself.

IF UNSURE, USE "codeblocks-13.12mingw-setup.exe"!

Maybe the C:\MinGW folder I saw on my C drive appeared after I used either codeblocks-13.12mingw-setup.exe and/or codeblocks-13.12mingw-setup-TDM-GCC-481.exe as I used all of the binaries at one stage in an attempt to fix this problem! (with uninstalling each one in turn & then installing the other but for me the fix was when I deleted the C:\MinGW folder from my C drive before reinstalling CodeBlocks setup.exe). I think it more likely to have been added by another IDE I had installed previously (but I'm not sure which one ?NetBeans?).

As CodeBlocks is now working for me I am not going to uninstall it now & repeat the other installs to check this for myself! I've spent enough time with this & now I want to try CodeBlocks as it is working for me at last.

I might just add if there was a bit more of an explanation to clarify the advice

IF UNSURE, USE "codeblocks-13.12mingw-setup.exe"!

that could be useful!

Finally as far as using Link Shell Extension goes I appreciate the information and I agree it maybe useful but I will not try it just now as I am happy with my C compiling setup and want to try CodeBlocks first (but I may look at Link Shell Extension later if I feel the need!).

I hope my experience here may help anyone else who unfortunately may experience this same problem and now I look forward to trying CodeBlocks. Thanks and best wishes and happy C/C++ programming to all! :-)