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  • Sudden failure of MikTeX console: no Qt platform plugin

    From Dr Engelbert Buxbaum@21:1/5 to All on Sat Oct 12 15:42:37 2024
    Hi,

    When I tried to do an update, I could no longer start the console
    because of a missing Qt platform plugin. I tried to uninstall MikTeX and
    then re-install it, but the uninstall also requires the plugin.

    Anybody else also has the problem?

    Sincerely
    Engelbert

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  • From Holger Schieferdecker@21:1/5 to All on Mon Oct 14 09:00:36 2024
    Am 12.10.2024 um 15:42 schrieb Dr Engelbert Buxbaum:
    Hi,

    When I tried to do an update, I could no longer start the console
    because of a missing Qt platform plugin. I tried to uninstall MikTeX and
    then re-install it, but the uninstall also requires the plugin.

    Quite a while ago I had an issue at least sounding similar. I don't
    remember the details, but I think I was able to fix it on the command
    line. Then there are two commands:

    miktex packages update-package-database

    miktex packages update

    Afterwards you can refresh the filename database:

    miktex fndb refresh

    The above commands are meant for a user installation of MiKTeX. If you
    have a system wide installation you should use

    miktex --admin ...

    Remark: older releases of MiKTeX don't know the command 'miktex'. There
    was something similar called 'mpm', but I don't know the detailed commands.

    Holger

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  • From Dr Engelbert Buxbaum@21:1/5 to All on Mon Oct 14 15:51:40 2024
    In article <veififU1v0taL1@usenet.in-ulm.de>, spamless@gmx.de says...

    Am 12.10.2024 um 15:42 schrieb Dr Engelbert Buxbaum:
    Hi,

    When I tried to do an update, I could no longer start the console
    because of a missing Qt platform plugin. I tried to uninstall MikTeX and then re-install it, but the uninstall also requires the plugin.

    Quite a while ago I had an issue at least sounding similar. I don't
    remember the details, but I think I was able to fix it on the command
    line. Then there are two commands:

    miktex packages update-package-database

    miktex packages update

    Afterwards you can refresh the filename database:

    miktex fndb refresh

    The above commands are meant for a user installation of MiKTeX. If you
    have a system wide installation you should use

    miktex --admin ...

    I have been able to temporary repair the system by manually deleting C: \Users\eb\AppData\Local\MiKTeX and re-installing MikTeX from setup-5.3.1 +b8f430f-x64 (April 2023 according to file date). This old MikTeX works,
    but an update then causes the same problem.

    "miktex packages update-package-database" results in error messages that
    the files MikTeX230100-fmt.dll, MikTeX231000-expat.dll and MikTeX230100- curl.dll are not found. Effective file search confirms that these files
    are not anywhere in the MikTeX-tree.

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  • From Ulrich D i e z@21:1/5 to Dr Engelbert Buxbaum on Mon Oct 14 18:18:30 2024
    Dr Engelbert Buxbaum wrote:

    Hi,

    When I tried to do an update, I could no longer start the console
    because of a missing Qt platform plugin. I tried to uninstall MikTeX and
    then re-install it, but the uninstall also requires the plugin.

    Anybody else also has the problem?

    Some time ago, before switching to Debian Linux and TeXLive, I
    encountered this, twice, when installing MiKTeX under Win 10.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Excursus:

    In the Win95-days Qt was an abbreviation for Apple QuickTime player.

    Nowadays there is another Qt-thing which is not related to Apple
    QuickTime player:

    A cross-platform application development framework for desktop, embedded
    and mobile by the Qt Company. (<https://wiki.qt.io/About_Qt>)

    In Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_(software), you find:

    | Qt (pronounced "cute" or as an initialism) is a cross-platform
    | application development framework for creating graphical user
    | interfaces as well as cross-platform applications that run on various
    | software and hardware platforms such as Linux, Windows, macOS, Android
    | or embedded systems with little or no change in the underlying
    | codebase while still being a native application with native
    | capabilities and speed.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The first time with MiKTeX I encountered message about missing qt
    platform plugin, some of the MiKTeX stuff was blocked by some software
    for malware detection. The MiKTeX Uodate manager was affected by this
    blocking, too.

    The second time I encountered message about missing qt plugin I needed
    to log in as administrator and to run the mikex package update in admin
    mode,

    miktex --admin packages update

    , after(!) manually setting the PATH environment variable appropriately
    so that MikTeX binaries were found - s.th. like;

    set PATH=<USER>\AppData\Local\Programs\MiKTeX\miktex bin\x64;%PATH%

    There are some Github-issues related to this:

    - <https://github.com/MiKTeX/miktex/issues/1486>
    - <https://github.com/MiKTeX/miktex/issues/1488>
    - <https://github.com/MiKTeX/miktex/issues/1489>

    There is also a question on TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange:

    - <https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/270862/qt-platform-plugin-not-found-since-updating-miktex/716743#716743>

    Sincerely

    Ulrich

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  • From Holger Schieferdecker@21:1/5 to All on Tue Oct 15 09:59:23 2024
    Am 14.10.2024 um 15:51 schrieb Dr Engelbert Buxbaum:
    [...]
    I have been able to temporary repair the system by manually deleting C: \Users\eb\AppData\Local\MiKTeX and re-installing MikTeX from setup-5.3.1 +b8f430f-x64 (April 2023 according to file date). This old MikTeX works,
    but an update then causes the same problem.

    I never used the command line installer.

    Yesterday I switched from my old MiKTeX 32 Bit to a new MiKTeX 64 Bit
    version. I used the latest basic installer (January 28, 2024) and didn't
    have any problems (on Windows 10). Also the updates could be installed.

    Holger

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  • From Dr Engelbert Buxbaum@21:1/5 to All on Sat Oct 19 10:30:02 2024
    In article <vel7cqU2418eL1@usenet.in-ulm.de>, spamless@gmx.de says...

    Am 14.10.2024 um 15:51 schrieb Dr Engelbert Buxbaum:
    [...]
    I have been able to temporary repair the system by manually deleting C: \Users\eb\AppData\Local\MiKTeX and re-installing MikTeX from setup-5.3.1 +b8f430f-x64 (April 2023 according to file date). This old MikTeX works, but an update then causes the same problem.

    I never used the command line installer.

    Yesterday I switched from my old MiKTeX 32 Bit to a new MiKTeX 64 Bit version. I used the latest basic installer (January 28, 2024) and didn't
    have any problems (on Windows 10). Also the updates could be installed.

    Holger

    The problem seems to be solved for the time being. I have done the
    following:
    - automatic loading of missing packages was set from 'ask' to 'yes',
    that way the problem, should it re-occur, will not interrupt me in the
    middle of a LaTeX run.
    - After installing, I left the console without updating (ignoring its
    protest) and did the first update on the command line. Further updates
    and package installs are then possible from the console.

    Nevertheless, this seems to be a frequently re-occuring problem that
    should be looked into. Unfortunately, my programming skilles (or the
    lack of them) don't allow me to do so myself.

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