How to get libsecp256k1 when running from source on Windows?

[nc50lc]

Tested on Feb10 Build to the Latest Build.
OS: Windows10
Python versions: 3.6.1 and 3.8
All other dependencies are installed

When trying to run Electrum:
C:\Python\Python361>python electrum-master/run_electrum

E | ecc_fast | libsecp256k1 library failed to load
Error: Failed to load libsecp256k1.

libsecp256k1 was installed through:
C:\Python\Python361>python -m pip install libsecp256k1

Requirement already satisfied: libsecp256k1 in c:\python\python361\lib\site-packages (0.1)

In comparison, the dev build copy that I have downloaded last February 5 is working despite not having libsecp256k1.
It's just crashing when I'm trying to enable lightning due to obvious reasons.

This might be caused by this PR: #5947
"make libsecp256k1 a mandatory dependency"

[SomberNight]

Like the README says, libsecp256k1 is a non-python dependency; you should not install it via pip.

libsecp256k1 was installed through:
C:\Python\Python361>python -m pip install libsecp256k1
Requirement already satisfied: libsecp256k1 in c:\python\python361\lib\site-packages (0.1)

This package you installed is named libsecp256k1 but it is virtually empty. Someone is probably just namesquatting it.

What you will need is a dll, named libsecp256k1-0.dll, e.g. placed into the inner "electrum" folder.
As the README says, we provide a script to build this yourself when running from source, contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh, however atm this script only works on Unix-like systems (Linux/Mac).

Our own build script for the Windows binaries is cross-compiling from Linux to Windows.
If you have access to a Linux machine (e.g. VM) or perhaps even using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), you can cross-compile from there to Windows this dll.

Whether you need a 32 bit or a 64 bit binary depends on the Python interpreter you have installed.
To compile a 32 bit (x86) dll, run:

GCC_TRIPLET_HOST="i686-w64-mingw32" ./contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh

To compile a 64 bit (x86_64, amd64) dll, run:

GCC_TRIPLET_HOST="x86_64-w64-mingw32" ./contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh

I guess this should be made easier... We weren't/aren't sure how many people there are running from source on Windows.

[nc50lc]

Thanks! I'll try it later.
But I guess I can close this issue now.

[HardCorePawn]

I can't seem to get this to work either... I compiled libsecp256k1 using the .sh in the contrib folder as advised and then copied the .dll and the .so that it generated to my Windows box...

Still getting:

E | ecc_fast | libsecp256k1 library failed to load
Error: Failed to load libsecp256k1.

After hacking in some debug into ecc_fast.py

E | ecc_fast | LibPath: E:\electrum-master\electrum\libsecp256k1-0.dll
WARNING: [WinError 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application
E | ecc_fast | LibPath: libsecp256k1-0.dll
WARNING: [WinError 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application

Seems the .dll being produced isn't correct? ???

[SomberNight]

@HardCorePawn

[WinError 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application

I get that exception if the dll is for the wrong architecture (32 vs 64 bit).

---

Let's keep this issue open, as the current workaround is not ideal.

[HardCorePawn]

Turns out that:
sudo apt-get install gcc-mingw-w64

Is a "good idea"™ if you're building this outside of the build-wine docker "fresh_clone" thing ;)

Not sure why it didn't complain and still produced a .dll file earlier? Anyway, it seems to have produced a "proper" x64 bit .dll file now

22/02/2020 08:45 743,971 libsecp256k1-0.dll

And with that copied over to the Windows 10 box and put in the /electrum-master/electrum directory, Electrum is starting up OK when running from source

[boskowski]

Download the raw nupkg file from https://www.nuget.org/packages/Secp256k1.Net (use "Download package" link in "Info" section on the right), unzip the file, extract libsecp256k1.dll from runtimes\win-x86\native or runtimes\win-x64\native, place it as libsecp256k1-0.dll in the electrum project folder.

[brianddk]

On my station from my MINGW64 shell on Windows 10

pacman -S git python-pip base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-python-pyqt5 mingw-w64-x86_64-python-cryptography
git clone https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum.git
cd electrum
git checkout tags/4.0.0b0 -b 4.0.0.tmp
GCC_TRIPLET_HOST="x86_64-w64-mingw32" ./contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh
cp /mingw64/bin/libgmp-10.dll electrum
python -m venv --system-site-packages .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
.venv/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade setuptools
.venv/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade pip
.venv/bin/python -m pip install -e .[full]
.venv/bin/python run_electrum

Everything worked fine. Verified with a Trezor-1

[SomberNight]

I've built a 64-bit DLL for people - that trust me - to use.
libsecp256k1-0.zip

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

I've built this libsecp256k1-0.dll now, for 64-bit python.
The build should be reproducible.

$ sha256sum electrum/libsecp256k1-0.dll 
9e719c3ccaa946f08983f148b5880527ed6fcab718b1502cb916b52a9380a1e9  electrum/libsecp256k1-0.dll

Details:

$ GCC_STRIP_BINARIES="1" GCC_TRIPLET_HOST="x86_64-w64-mingw32" ./contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh

$ git log -n 1
commit b7cc5f329c7d85f416cc35af00d11fe93c74ec09 (HEAD -> master, spesmilo/master, spesmilo/HEAD)

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/b7cc5f329c7d85f416cc35af00d11fe93c74ec09/contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh

LIBSECP_VERSION="dbd41db16a0e91b2566820898a3ab2d7dad4fe00"


ghost43
2021-07-12
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[Stanislav-Povolotsky]

Thank you, guys!

I was able to build libsecp256k1-0.dll following your advices.

Now you can easily build your own libsecp256k1-0.dll (x86 and x64) using docker and
https://github.com/Stanislav-Povolotsky/electrum-libsecp256k1-0.dll-builder

[developeroka]

Like the README says, libsecp256k1 is a non-python dependency; you should not install it via pip.

libsecp256k1 was installed through:
C:\Python\Python361>python -m pip install libsecp256k1
Requirement already satisfied: libsecp256k1 in c:\python\python361\lib\site-packages (0.1)

This package you installed is named libsecp256k1 but it is virtually empty. Someone is probably just namesquatting it.

What you will need is a dll, named libsecp256k1-0.dll, e.g. placed into the inner "electrum" folder.
As the README says, we provide a script to build this yourself when running from source, contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh, however atm this script only works on Unix-like systems (Linux/Mac).

Our own build script for the Windows binaries is cross-compiling from Linux to Windows.
If you have access to a Linux machine (e.g. VM) or perhaps even using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), you can cross-compile from there to Windows this dll.

Whether you need a 32 bit or a 64 bit binary depends on the Python interpreter you have installed.
To compile a 32 bit (x86) dll, run:

GCC_TRIPLET_HOST="i686-w64-mingw32" ./contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh

To compile a 64 bit (x86_64, amd64) dll, run:

GCC_TRIPLET_HOST="x86_64-w64-mingw32" ./contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh

I guess this should be made easier... We weren't/aren't sure how many people there are running from source on Windows.

after doing this command through WSL I get the error "collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [Makefile:910: libsecp256k1.la] Error 1
🗯 ERROR: Could not build secp256k1"

[developeroka]

Like the README says, libsecp256k1 is a non-python dependency; you should not install it via pip.

libsecp256k1 was installed through:
C:\Python\Python361>python -m pip install libsecp256k1
Requirement already satisfied: libsecp256k1 in c:\python\python361\lib\site-packages (0.1)

This package you installed is named libsecp256k1 but it is virtually empty. Someone is probably just namesquatting it.
What you will need is a dll, named libsecp256k1-0.dll, e.g. placed into the inner "electrum" folder.
As the README says, we provide a script to build this yourself when running from source, contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh, however atm this script only works on Unix-like systems (Linux/Mac).
Our own build script for the Windows binaries is cross-compiling from Linux to Windows.
If you have access to a Linux machine (e.g. VM) or perhaps even using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), you can cross-compile from there to Windows this dll.
Whether you need a 32 bit or a 64 bit binary depends on the Python interpreter you have installed.
To compile a 32 bit (x86) dll, run:

GCC_TRIPLET_HOST="i686-w64-mingw32" ./contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh

To compile a 64 bit (x86_64, amd64) dll, run:

GCC_TRIPLET_HOST="x86_64-w64-mingw32" ./contrib/make_libsecp256k1.sh

I guess this should be made easier... We weren't/aren't sure how many people there are running from source on Windows.

after doing this command through WSL I get the error "collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [Makefile:910: libsecp256k1.la] Error 1
🗯 ERROR: Could not build secp256k1"

I made it work
thank you all

[SomberNight]

Note: I've added a "Running Electrum from source on Windows" guide now in 941db42.
It is building on brianddk's comment (#5976 (comment)) using MSYS2.

[GiverofMemory]

Note: I've added a "Running Electrum from source on Windows" guide now in 941db42. It is building on brianddk's comment (#5976 (comment)) using MSYS2.

I followed this the MSYS2 method and the .dll was made no problem but when I get to the final step I get this error:

python3 ./run_electrum
Error: No module named 'dns'. Try 'sudo python3 -m pip install '

[accumulator]

try python3 -m pip install dnspython

[SomberNight]

I followed this the MSYS2 method and the .dll was made no problem but when I get to the final step I get this error:

python3 ./run_electrum Error: No module named 'dns'. Try 'sudo python3 -m pip install '

The dependencies should have been installed as part of step 1:

Run install (this should install most dependencies):
> python3 -m pip install --user -e ".[gui,crypto]"

Try running electrum in the original shell you used for those steps, e.g. powershell/cmd/"windows terminal", instead of msys2 (which is used solely for building libsecp).