Unable to create a debugger engine of the type "No engine"

Question

I just installed Qt Creator (Windows 64 bits) and I am checking that everything works as expected.

At this point the only problem I have is related to the debuggers. Firstly I tried adding gdb manually (gdb.exe) and some problem about python popped-up, so I added gdb-python (gdb-python27.exe) and the result is:

Unable to create a debugger engine of the type "No engine"

I use this kit:

MinGW -> MinGW\bin\mingw32-gcc-4.8.1.exe
GBD-Python -> MinGW\bin\gdb-python27.exe

I read this post, but didn't help me since I am using MinGW :/

Thank you in advance.

Edit1: I am open if you want to recommend me another kit configuration :-)

Edit2: I tried to execute gdb-python27.exe and I got an error (missing python27.dll). I installed it in C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and now the error (when I try to open gdb-python27.exe) is something like The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000007b). Still the same error while debugging in Qt creator.

Edit3: Is the problem related to the difference between my MinGW (32bits) and my OS (64 bits)? Don't think so (Qt creator is 32 bits). I think the message The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000007b) is because I use python27.dll (64 bits) instead of 32 bits.

Edit4: I download python27.dll (32 bits) and now I can execute gdb-python27.exe but I got this message through the cmd.exe: ImportError: No module named site.

I still got the error Unable to create a debugger engine of the type "No engine" while trying to debug with Qt creator.

Solution 1

Unable to create a debugger engine of the type "No engine"

This is a bug in Q1t Creator 3.3.0, if you update, you should be OK. Alternatively, it seems solvable by updating to Python 2.7.1.

---

The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000007b)

If Qt is 32bit, so does the Python.dll

---

ImportError: No module named site

This seems to be a Python configuration problem as discussed here: Python (Windows) - ImportError: No module named site

Setting the PYTHONPATH / PYTHONHOME variables

Right click the Computer icon in the start menu, go to properties. On the left tab, go to Advanced system settings. In the window that comes up, go to the Advanced tab, then at the bottom click Environment Variables. Click in the list of user variables and start typing Python, and repeat for System variables, just to make certain that you don't have mis-set variables for PYTHONPATH or PYTHONHOME. Next, add new variables (I did in System rather than User, although it may work for User too): PYTHONPATH, set to C:\Python27\Lib. PYTHONHOME, set to C:\Python27.

Alternatively, installing Python 2.7.1 seems to fix that too.

Solution 2

I had similar issue when I installed Qt 5.8.0 having QtCreator 4.2.1 inside it.

I did not have Visual Studio 2015 installed on my machine, and I didn't want to install Visual Studio 2015 for it. So I installed visualcppbuildtools_full from microsoft website, which installed all the required compiler. QtCreator detected the MSVC compilers.

Still QtCreator complained about debugger. For that, I downloaded Windows SDK 10 stand alone with only Debugging Tools as selected. And installed the Debugging tools, which resolved the debugger issue also.

To cross check,

• Verify whether C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe and C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x86\cdb.exe are created with all other binaries.
• Now, open QtCreator. Go to Tools | Options | Build & Run | Debugger tab.
• Verify above cdb.exe files paths are listed under Auto-detected section.

Debugging starts working after this.

Comments

[Antonio VR]

Unable to create a debugger engine of the type "No engine" problem was solved installing Python 2.7.1 (but possibly it works with newer versions). Note I use Qt Creator 3.3.2. Also the ImportError: No module named site message disappers after installing Python 2.7.1. (again, it should work with newer versions).

[Mooing Duck]

Oh, I'd misunderstood. I've added those to the post then.

[bot1131357]

This helped me. I'd also like to add that my x64 project is configured to x86 debugger. I had to manually switch it to work. More info here: doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-debugger-engines.html