Hello.

I run Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Feb 21 2008, 13:11:45) on Windows Vista
Home Premium.
IDLE won't start if not installed in the default directory.
When insalled in a custom directory, running idle.py
(\Lib\idlelib\idle.py) produces this error:

"Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Programmer\Python\lib\idlelib\idle.py", line 21, in <module>
idlelib.PyShell.main()
File "C:\Programmer\Python\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 1390, in main
root= Tk(className="Idle")
File "C:\Programmer\Python\lib\idlelib\Tkinter.py", line 1636, in
__init__ self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className,
interactive, wantobjects, useTk, sync, use)
_tkinter.TclError: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following
directories: {C:\Programmer\Python\tcl\tcl8.4}
{C:\Programmer\Python\tcl\tcl8.4} C:/Programmer/Python/tcl/tcl8.4
C:/Programmer/Python/lib/tcl8.4 C:/Programmer/Python/lib/tcl8.4
C:/lib/tcl8.4 C:/library C:/tcl8.4/library


This probable means that Tcl wasn't installed properly."

Do you have TCL_DIR or TK_DIR environment variables set?

No, nothing.
It's just a standart clean installation.

Hi. I have the same problem, but i'm running Pyhton 2.6.1. I'm using
Windows Vista 32bit SP1.

I installed Python to C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\ and when I try to run
idle from the start menu, it doesn't work.

When I try to run it from the command line, the same error is displayed:

"C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\Lib\idlelib>python idle.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "idle.py", line 21, in <module>
    idlelib.PyShell.main()
  File "C:\Programas\Python\2.6\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 1386, in main
    root = Tk(className="Idle")
  File "C:\Programas\Python\2.6\lib\lib-tk\Tkinter.py", line 1643, in
__init__
    self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className,
interactive, want
objects, useTk, sync, use)
_tkinter.TclError: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following
directories:
    {C:\Programas\Python\2.6\tcl\tcl8.5}
C:/Programas/Python/2.6/lib/tcl8.5 C:/P
rogramas/Python/lib/tcl8.5 C:/Programas/lib/tcl8.5
C:/Programas/Python/library C
:/Programas/library C:/Programas/tcl8.5.2/library C:/tcl8.5.2/library



This probably means that Tcl wasn't installed properly."

zlm, did you chose to install Tcl/Tk when installing Python?

Yes, I did.

> Yes, I did.

So do you have a file C:\Programas\Python\2.6\tcl\tcl8.5\init.tcl ?

> So do you have a file C:\Programas\Python\2.6\tcl\tcl8.5\init.tcl ?

Yes, I have.


Could this problem be related to paths with slashes and backslashes? In
the error log, the first path (the right one) has backslashes, but the
others have slashes.

"    {C:\Programas\Python\2.6\tcl\tcl8.5}
C:/Programas/Python/2.6/lib/tcl8.5 C:/P
rogramas/Python/lib/tcl8.5 C:/Programas/lib/tcl8.5
C:/Programas/Python/library C
:/Programas/library C:/Programas/tcl8.5.2/library C:/tcl8.5.2/library"

> Could this problem be related to paths with slashes and backslashes?

Unlikely. The exact same package works on many other machines, so there
must be something strange with your machine.

Can you run the Sysinternals filemon to find out what files it is accessing?

I don't think it's just his machine (and mine), but i don't think so.
Unfortunealy, i don't have a Windows Vista key ready, else i'd have
testet it on a clean install, but i'll try to install the same package
on the next computer with Vista i stumple upon.

> Can you run the Sysinternals filemon to find out what files it is
accessing?

I tried Sysinternals ProcessMonitor (equivalent of filemon to Windows
Vista), but the simple act of trying to open IDLE produces thousands of
entries to the log window.

I also don't think this is a problem of my machine, because i'm not the
only one with this problem. I think this situation can be easily
reproduced by installing Pyhton to other than the default path on
Windows Vista.

> I think this situation can be easily
> reproduced by installing Pyhton to other than the default path on
> Windows Vista.

I could not reproduce it that way. I just installed Python 2.6.1 into
c:\tmp\python26, on Vista SP1 x64 (although I installed the 32-bit
version of Python), and IDLE works just fine.

Okay, i'll try to find a key for Vista in all my drawers, and install a
clean version, try it, and then i'll tell you the result.
I just can't see what could produce the error at our computers.

> I installed Python to C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\ and when I try to
> run idle from the start menu, it doesn't work.

> "C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\Lib\idlelib>python idle.py
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "idle.py", line 21, in <module>
>     idlelib.PyShell.main()
>   File "C:\Programas\Python\2.6\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 1386, 

Note the TWO different paths: C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\ and C:
\Programas\Python\2.6

Do you have a PYTHONPATH environment variable?
Did you install twice, once per directory? Perhaps one of them without 
tcl support?

I don't think thats the solution.
"C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\" and
"C:\Programas\Python\2.6\"
are the same, as "C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\" is a symbolic link to
"C:\Programas\Python\2.6\" to allow compatibility with different
operation system languages.

> I don't think thats the solution.
> "C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\" and
> "C:\Programas\Python\2.6\"
> are the same, as "C:\Program Files\Python\2.6\" is a symbolic link to
> "C:\Programas\Python\2.6\" to allow compatibility with different
> operation system languages.

It could be a hint to the problem, though.

Jacob: what language version is your Vista installation? Is
"c:\Programmer" the local translation of "c:\Program Files"?

Perhaps something doesn't work right with symbolic links on Vista.
Unfortunately, I have only the English version of Vista for testing.

Can you two please install Python into a non-standard folder that
isn't a symbolic link?

Great idea :)
Maybe we're starting to find the problem.
I'm using a Danish version of Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, and
C:\Programmer is the danish path for C:\Program Files.
I'll try that, and leave another message when i'we tried it.

"Programas" is the portuguese translation to "Program Files".

I have just installed it to C:\Test\Python and IDLE is working!

The problem should be related to the Vista symbolic links.

> The problem should be related to the Vista symbolic links.

Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as "install into a symbolic
link, and it fails". I created c:\temp -> c:\tmp, and installed
into c:\temp (i.e. into the symlink), and it still worked fine.

Maybe it's "install into a symbolic link pointing to a path with spaces
in it, and idle fails"?

I reinstalled Python to "C:\Program Files\Python\" (I wrote this path in
the installer) and IDLE works fine. I can access the Python folder by
going to "C:\Programas\Python".

Then, I unninstalled and installed again to "C:\Programas\Python". IDLE
doesn't work. I can still access the Python folder by going to
"C:\Programas\Python".

Jacob, can you try installing it to "C:\Program Files\Python" to sse if
that works?

Installing to C:\Program Files\Python\ worked.
Now we just have to find out WHY it doesn't work with the
C:\[Programmer/Programmas]\ to C:\Program Files\ link.

> Installing to C:\Program Files\Python\ worked.
> Now we just have to find out WHY it doesn't work with the
> C:\[Programmer/Programmas]\ to C:\Program Files\ link.

With process monitor, I made partial progress (after installing
the German Vista version). It looks like that there is an explicit
Deny ACL entry for read for Everyone in the Programme symlink.
As a consequence, os.listdir(r"c:\programme") fails, even though
os.listdir(r"c:\program files") succeeds. It looks like Tcl wants
to list the contents of the symlink (I'm not yet sure why), and
that this fails (ACCESS_DENIED).

Here is a patch that should fix the problem. It uses Vista's
GetFinalPathNameByHandleW to expand symbolic links before passing the
path to Tcl.

Fantastic.
I started this post in October, and now we finaly found a solution.
Thank you Martin.
Will this patch be included in future versions of python?
Best regards, Jacob.

I got my problem fixed in 4 days!
Thank you for all your help, Martin!

Committed as r68893, r68894, r68898, r68901.

This patch had unintended consequences; see #6906