From 840cdf551273d5da8111bc91e7922f79c1d2d570 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Laurent Cozic Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2019 09:34:03 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Doc: Added troubleshooting section to BUILD.md for Windows development --- BUILD.md | 17 +++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+) diff --git a/BUILD.md b/BUILD.md index f39dbc7ebc..9031d9fa52 100644 --- a/BUILD.md +++ b/BUILD.md @@ -71,6 +71,23 @@ If you get an `error MSB8020: The build tools for v140 cannot be found.` try to The [building\_win32\_tips on this page](./readme/building_win32_tips.md) might be helpful. +## Troubleshooting desktop application + +> The application window doesn't open or is white + +This is an indication that there's an early initialisation error. Try this: + +- In ElectronAppWrapper, set `debugEarlyBugs` to `true`. This will force the window to show up and should open the console next to it, which should display any error. +- In more rare cases, an already open instance of Joplin can create strange low-level bugs that will display no error but will result in this white window. A non-dev instance of Joplin, or a dev instance that wasn't properly closed might cause this. So make sure you close everything and try again. Perhaps even other Electron apps running (Skype, Slack, etc.) could cause this? +- Also try to delete node_modules and rebuild. +- If all else fail, switch your computer off and on again, to make sure you start clean. + +> How to work on the app from Windows? + +You should not use WSL at all because this is a GUI app that lives outside of WSL, and the WSL layer can cause all kind of very hard to debug issues. It can also lock files in node_modules that cannot be unlocked when the app crashes (you need to restart your computer). Likewise, don't run the TypeScript watch command from WSL. + +So everything should be done from a Windows Command prompt running as Administrator. You can use `run.bat` to run the app in dev mode. + # Building the Mobile application First you need to setup React Native to build projects with native code. For this, follow the instructions on the [Get Started](https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html) tutorial, in the "React Native CLI Quickstart" tab.