IDLE won't run

[Rob]

I have Python 2.4.3 installed on Windows XP on both a real computer and a
virtual machine under VMware. Just recently, IDLE stopped working. I would
select IDLE from the start menu or right click on a .PY file and open it in
IDLE, but nothing happens. I just uninstalled Python on the virtual machine
and installed 2.5 in the hope that that would fix the problem, but it
didn't. It, too, would do nothing when I tried to run IDLE. In both cases,
the Python command line window will come up, but that's not what I want to
use.

Does anyone know of a way to fix this problem? Is there a new Windows
update that is now interfering with IDLE? Would Norton Antivirus be
interfering with it somehow? (It's running in both environments.)

 

[hg]

I have Python 2.4.3 installed on Windows XP on both a real computer and a
virtual machine under VMware. Just recently, IDLE stopped working. I would
select IDLE from the start menu or right click on a .PY file and open it in
IDLE, but nothing happens. I just uninstalled Python on the virtual machine
and installed 2.5 in the hope that that would fix the problem, but it
didn't. It, too, would do nothing when I tried to run IDLE. In both cases,
the Python command line window will come up, but that's not what I want to
use.

Does anyone know of a way to fix this problem? Is there a new Windows
update that is now interfering with IDLE? Would Norton Antivirus be
interfering with it somehow? (It's running in both environments.)

What kind of error do you see by calling idle from the command line (ex:
"c:\....\python.exe c:\....\idle.py"

 

[Scott David Daniels]

I have Python 2.4.3 installed on Windows XP on both a real computer and a
virtual machine under VMware. Just recently, IDLE stopped working. I would
select IDLE from the start menu or right click on a .PY file and open it in
IDLE, but nothing happens. I just uninstalled Python on the virtual machine
and installed 2.5 in the hope that that would fix the problem, but it
didn't. It, too, would do nothing when I tried to run IDLE. In both cases,
the Python command line window will come up, but that's not what I want to
use.

Does anyone know of a way to fix this problem? Is there a new Windows
update that is now interfering with IDLE? Would Norton Antivirus be
interfering with it somehow? (It's running in both environments.)

Likely something turned on firewall behavior.
You can check out this theory:

On your background, right-click
and "New Shortcut" then browse to "C:\Python25\pythonw.exe"
(or wherever your Python is).
When that shortcut has been made, right-click it, and change
The "target" from:
"C:\Python25\pythonw.exe"
to:
"C:\Python25\pythonw.exe -m idlelib.idle -n"

If this shortcut works to give you Idle, the problem is in creating
a separate process linked via a socket to "localhost" port 8833.

--Scott David Daniels
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Rob]

What kind of error do you see by calling idle from the command line
(ex:
"c:\....\python.exe c:\....\idle.py"

When I ran it that way, I got a raft of warnings about a "problem
retrieving theme element 'builtin-forground'" from the colour theme that I
had set up, then IDLE actually came up. After deleting my colour theme, I
tried running IDLE in the usual manner (via the shortcut or by opening a
..PY file in it), and it worked.

(It's rather curious that, even after uninstalling version 2.4.3
completely, my theme was preserved when I installed 2.5.)