Windows 7 compatibility?

[pavolgaj]

Should the plugin be compatible with Win7? Now, Pidgin crashes with "program has stopped working" error:

Maybe, the solution for the Signal plugin (hoehermann/purple-presage#3) will also work here...

[hoehermann]

Thank you for your request. To get this plug-in built for Windows 7, I need a go compiler that supports Windows 7. The last go version that did support Windows 7 was go 1.20. Unfortunately, the plug-in depends on whatsmeow which, at time of writing, demands go 1.26.2. There are some projects which do offer a patched version of the go compiler which targets Windows 7:

• https://github.com/XTLS/go-win7/releases
  Does not offer an i386 release.
• https://github.com/thongtech/go-legacy-win7
  Fails to compile the plug-in since it seems to refuse to build in "module mode".

A while ago, I re-structured the entire project after a lengthy discussion. As far as I can tell, the go compiler's opinion on where source files need to be has changed over the years. What is mandated today, allegedly was forbidden earlier. Although the "go-legacy-win7" uses the recent compiler, it seems to demand the old style layout. It might be possible to move the code into a separate module and find a common solution that works for everyone. I currently do not want to do that. If you would like to give it a try, I would gladly accept your contribution.

[EionRobb]

Wouldn't that go version requirement just cause the plugin to not load, rather than crash?

[hoehermann]

Wouldn't that go version requirement just cause the plugin to not load, rather than crash?

Good point. I did not even think of that.

BEX indicates a buffer overflow which indeed may or may not be caused by this project or another plug-in.

[EionRobb]

@pavolgaj Can you supply the backtrace from %appdata%\.purple\Pidgin.RPT? It might shed some more light on the cause of the crash

[pavolgaj]

@EionRobb There is nothing in Pidgin.PRT related to it.

[Jevil7452]

This crash occurs because of the missing function ProcessPRNG from bcryptprimitives.dll. For end-users, using VxKex on the Pidgin process will fix this. (simplest method)

[hoehermann]

Nice to hear that there is a workaround with VxKex.

There is also some information about the ProcessPRNG issue here: https://github.com/stunndard/golangwin7patch I am still unwilling to patch and build the go compiler for gaining compatibility with Windows 7.