Sudden failure of MikTeX console: no Qt platform plugin

Discussion:

Add Reply

Dr Engelbert Buxbaum

2024-10-12 13:42:37 UTC

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

Holger Schieferdecker

2024-10-14 07:00:36 UTC

Permalink

Post by 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

Dr Engelbert Buxbaum

2024-10-14 13:51:40 UTC

Permalink

Post by Holger Schieferdecker

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
miktex packages update-package-database
miktex packages update
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.

Holger Schieferdecker

2024-10-15 07:59:23 UTC

Permalink

Am 14.10.2024 um 15:51 schrieb Dr Engelbert Buxbaum:
[...]

Post by Dr Engelbert Buxbaum
\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

Dr Engelbert Buxbaum

2024-10-19 08:30:02 UTC

Permalink

Post by Holger Schieferdecker
[...]

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.

Dr Engelbert Buxbaum

2024-10-14 13:53:11 UTC

Permalink

Post by Holger Schieferdecker

Ulrich D i e z

2024-10-14 16:18:30 UTC

Permalink

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