"The system cannot execute the specified program."

[Tim Slattery]

Our office has a copy of Python 3.0 installed on a network share
device. When I try to run it I get this message: "The system cannot
execute the specified program."

When I googled that message, the links that came up had to do with
missing DLLs. So I fired up Dependency Walker and found out that there
were indeed DLLs that it needed that the OS couldn't find. So I
supplied those DLLs. And it still gives the same message, even though
Dependency Walker is now happy.

Does anybody have a clue what might cause this amazingly uninformative
message?

On a related note: there's a *.chm file on the same share, that's a
PYthon user's guide. When I start that, I get a window with the full
table of contents and index on the left side. But on the right side
where the contents should be ... "Navigation to the web page was
canceled". WTF???

 

[Tim Golden]

Our office has a copy of Python 3.0 installed on a network share
device. When I try to run it I get this message: "The system cannot
execute the specified program."

To be honest, I'd look at one of the Portable Python installations,
specifically designed to be run off a stick or a network share.


http://www.portablepython.com/

http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/movpy/


TJG

 

[Tim Slattery]

Our office has a copy of Python 3.0 installed on a network share
device. When I try to run it I get this message: "The system cannot
execute the specified program."

I should add that before I knew about our shared installation, I
downloaded the AS distribution of Python 2.6 from ActiveState. Their
install procedure is a *.bat file that calls Python to put everything
in the right place. When the bat file tries to invoke Python, I get
the same message.

 

[Trent Mick]

I should add that before I knew about our shared installation, I
downloaded the AS distribution of Python 2.6 from ActiveState. Their
install procedure is a *.bat file that calls Python to put everything
in the right place. When the bat file tries to invoke Python, I get
the same message.

I'm jumping in mid-thread here, so apologies if I've missed something.
Just want to clarify something: the main AS distribution of Python
(ActivePython) for Windows is an MSI.

There is sometimes a .zip file with an install.bat -- but that isn't
really intended for wide use. Is that what you are referring to here?


Cheers,
Trent

 

[Tim Slattery]

I'm jumping in mid-thread here, so apologies if I've missed something.
Just want to clarify something: the main AS distribution of Python
(ActivePython) for Windows is an MSI.

Given the way my machine here is locked down, I'm pretty sure I
couldn't run the *.msi file.

There is sometimes a .zip file with an install.bat -- but that isn't
really intended for wide use. Is that what you are referring to here?

That's what it is. They give you a choice of MSI or AS. The AS choice
is a zip file that you unzip, then run the bat file on the top level.
There's no indication that it's "not intended for wide use".

 

[Tim Slattery]

Are you using Vista?

No Vista involved. My machine is XP Pro. The server is some MS server
OS, I'm not sure which one.

Alternatively for a non-Vista wild guess, could it be that Python 3.0 is
loading some libraries that use .Net and is therefore triggering the 'code
access security' which prevents the running of .Net applications from a
network share?

I saw nothing that remotely resembled that message.

 

[Trent Mick]

That's what it is. They give you a choice of MSI or AS. The AS choice
is a zip file that you unzip, then run the bat file on the top level.
There's no indication that it's "not intended for wide use".

Granted not much, other than it isn't listed in the main download tables:
http://www.activestate.com/activepython/downloads/
and not discussed in the install notes:
http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.6/installnotes.html

Cheers,
Trent

 

[Terry Reedy]

Slightly OT, but do try to replace that with 3.1 as soon as you can.
Significant improvements in certain areas.

 

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

When I googled that message, the links that came up had to do with
missing DLLs.

Ironic, isn't it, that Microsoft designs these messages to be non-technical
to avoid putting off ordinary users, and yet it just ends up blanding them
to the point of unintelligibility, so that you need to resort to Google to
figure out what they mean.