Topic: Upgrade problems from legacy version of Electrum. Coins stuck on WinXP PC wallet - page 3. (Read 723 times)

It had to be because Python 3.5 was released at the end of 2015, while Electrum 3.0.0 was released at the end of 2017. It was too soon back then to drop 3.4.


Yes.


It should be able to run 32-bit Windows 7 provided that it has at least 1GB of memory. I have made it run with just 512MB but it struggles with speed. That'll be much easier for you then, since Python 3.6 is supported on Windows 7 so you can simply use the source distribution.

Thank you NotATether.

I am having a hard time understanding what you are telling me. Prior to release 3.0.0, Electrum was distributed using a version of python that did run on XP? Since Electrum 3.0.0 the version of python used no longer works on XP?

Are you suggesting that I download the last version of python which supports XP and then attempt to rebuild the Electrum executable using that version of python?

I think I could upgrade the OS. The PC is from 2000. The only reason I was keeping it around was for maintaining my offline wallet.

Regards,
James.

I think you're overcomplicating things.  If you have the seed phrase, just upgrade the OS to a newer version of Windows if possible, or the current LTS release of Ubuntu.  Then reinstall Electrum and restore the wallet.  Ensure you have the right seed phrase before you nuke the XP OS.

If you created the wallet with imported private keys, you should back those up, of course.

Windows XP support is entirely dependent on the version of Python you are using. Python dropped support for Windows XP starting at version 3.5.

The Python bundle available on Electrum's download page needs Python 3.6.1 or higher. But that bundle is just made by installing all the python modules that Electrum uses and bundling them together.

You could try installing Python 3.4 and cloning https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/tree/4.0.9, installing the dependencies using pip install -r contrib/requirements/requirements.txt. If you also need hardware wallet support, you also need to do  pip install -r contrib/requirements/requirements-hw.txt

Then you should have a working Electrum on Windows XP.

Dear Friends,

I am hoping someone can offer some assistance. I have a number of coins that are stuck in an old wallet on a PC running Win XP.
I also am looking for some help on the transaction signing process which has not been updated in the official documentation for the current release.  

History:
Back in 2017 I created an Offline Wallet using Electrum 2.9.0. The offline PC is an old Pentium running a fresh install of 32 bit Windows XP. The PC has never been connected to the internet and has nothing installed on it except the OS and Electrum. On my newer Win 10 laptop I have my Watching Only Wallet with the public master key.

My standard process for transactions in 2017 was to;
1. Create the transaction on my Win 10 laptop using my Watching Only Wallet.
2. Save the unsigned transaction to unsigned.txt.
3. Open unsigned.txt and decode the hex to json and visually verify the outputs of the transaction.
4. Copy unsigned.txt to a thumb drive.
5. Open unsigned.txt with my Offline Wallet, sign the transaction, and save it back to the thumb drive.
6. Visually verify raw signed transaction on my laptop.  
7. Open the transaction with the Watching Only Wallet and transmit it to the network.

I kind of forgot about things for 3 years, but now I would like to use Electrum again and I am having problems. I tried to follow the same process I outlined above.

The first issue I had is that when opening the Electrum 2.9.0 Watching Only Wallet with my laptop it is unable to connect to the sever nodes. I upgraded to Electrum 4.0.9. This solved that problem. I am now able to use my Watching Only Wallet using Electrum 4.0.9. Next, I created my unsigned transaction using Electrum 4.0.9 and saved it to disk. I then tried to open the unsigned transaction file to visually verify the outputs. This did not work because the file looks like it is encrypted. Reluctantly, I assumed the transaction was correct and saved it to my thumb drive. Also, I copied Electum 4.0.9 to my thumb drive to upgrade my Offline Wallet PC so that it can read these encrypted unsigned transactions. That is about as far as I got.

On my offline PC with Windows XP os, Electrum 4.0.9 does not work. On starting Electrum I keep getting a windows alert box with "the procedure entry point _wputenv_s could not be located in the dynamic link library mscrt.dll" I did some searching and the best information I could find was that I probably needed to install the "Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable package" from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=29. This did not work. The package appeared to install, but I still get the same alert box when trying to start Electrum. After more investigating I noticed that Electrum 4.0.9 says it is for Windows 7 and above. I tried to use some other releases of Electrum. It looks like the oldest Elecrum release that will connect to the server nodes is 3.0.1. That version also has the same mscrt.ddl library problem when running on Win XP.

So, That is where I am at now. My questions are;
1. Does anyone know if there are any library(s) that I can install on XP that will allow me to access an old Electrum wallet that is on a Win XP machine?
2. Is there anyway to still visually verify transactions before they get moved to a Offline Wallet PC? I am very uncomfortable with copying unsigned transaction files to the offline pc if I have no idea what is inside these files. I was hoping to be able to still follow a process like I outlined above.  
3. If there is no way to run Electrum on Win XP, how should I correct this situation? Is the best process to copy the Offline Wallet from my Win XP machine and put it on my newer laptop and try to open it there with Electrum 4.0.9? (I am reluctant to loose the security of the Offline Wallet)

Thank you.
James..