TileMill starts, except when it doesn't (windows)

[wboykinm]

Running TileMill 0.9.0 on Windows 7, the UI sometimes fails to load from the shortcut normally. The cmd window pops up for 3/4 of a second then disappears.

Three solutions cause it to work:

1.) running TileMill from the shortcut as an administrator

2.) running `> cd c:\Program Files (x86)\TileMill

platforms\windows\run-tilemill.bat`

3.) running This Series

TileMill worked as normal (without admin permission needed) at last boot two days ago, but this morning I attempted some git integration before launching TileMill. Specifically, I cloned this repo into a parallel \My Documents\MapBox\project\ folder called "project2". I then copied the subfolder "btv_cenblock" from "project2" into \My Documents\MapBox\project\. Following this I tried to start TileMill and the above issue began. I suspect this is related but am not sure how.

[springmeyer]

/cc @tpstigers - did you also run into something like this? (whereby all of a sudden you needed admin for no clear reason). Can you provide some details about the lead up? This is a total mystery right now.

[tpstigers]

Sorry, but I've got nothing. Sophia had this problem from the outset, but she doesn't swim in Microsoft waters very often, so I thought it might have been a Win7 issue. I assumed I didn't have the problem because I had installed TileMill by right-clicking on the installer and running IT as an administrator.

When I ran TileMill last night, though, I ran into this issue. The CMD window pops up briefly but TileMill fails to start. Running it as an administrator solves the issue, so I didn't worry about it. All I know is that nothing is showing up in the event viewer, and every once in a while TileMill will start normally if I try it repeatedly in rapid succession.

Sorry I don't know more.

• - I do know that I hadn't made any changes to my system or to TileMill between the time when I didn't have the issue and when I started to experience it.

[springmeyer]

Fascinating, thanks.

[tpstigers]

Curiouser and curiouser. Originally, TileMill worked just fine. Last night, I suddenly (and inexplicably) needed to run it as an administrator.

If I turn off UAC, TileMill doesn't run at all (even as an administrator). When I turn it back on, TileMill again works if I run it as an administrator.

It sounds like a rather complicated permissions issue. But I have no guess at to why it suddenly started on my system (I do know that when Sophia first mentioned it, Bill and Don also stated that they had no such problem. I wonder if they are experiencing issues with it now?).

[geobabbler]

I'm still going strong. Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I've rebooted a few times since installing and TileMill is still working for me without needing to explicitly run as administrator.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[spara]

FYI, I'm running WIndows 7 Home Premium. It's a new notebook without much installed (except for the Acer crap that it came with).

[donmeltz]

I'm seeing the same as Bill. Windows 7 Ultimate x64, plenty of reboots, TileMill still opens fine for me. I do not use git on my Windows partition, though. I save that for Ubuntu.

[springmeyer]

Thanks for the details all! I'm currently working on moving from a .bat file (which is what is is used to start tilemill when you click on the startup shortcut) to a true .exe, which I hope will help me catch and push more error output.

My only wild guess right now for the differences between machines is access to the windows firewall. When the installer runs it adds an entry to the registry allowing node.exe to attach to the firewall (Allows tilemill to open a port for the tileserver on localhost port 20008 and 20009). What may be happening is that the installer adds firewall access for a given network setting (e.g. "public") and then your machine, when opened later on a new network (like a private one) no longer has firewall access in non-admin mode.

[springmeyer]

New packaged build available at https://github.com/downloads/mapbox/tilemill/TileMill-0.9.0-Setup~1.exe. The only change here is that the startup script is different.

Can you guys test:

1) Does this possibly allow TileMill to start without having to right-click and run as admin (if you needed to do this previously)? If not, are there any new error pop-ups or firewall warnings that appear when run as non-admin?

2) Does it properly dump debugging output to ~/tilemill.log still?

[springmeyer]

/cc @willwhite

[spara]

Works now without running as admin; log below - looks like a couple of things broke

Starting TileMill... The "sys" module is now called "util". It should have a similar interface. Note: Unknown option "updatesVersion" in config file. Note: Unknown option "updatesTime" in config file. The "sys" module is now called "util". It should have a similar interface. The "sys" module is now called "util". It should have a similar interface. Note: Unknown option "updatesVersion" in config file. Note: Unknown option "updatesTime" in config file. Started [Server Tile:20008]. Plugin [carto] loaded. Plugin [editor] loaded. Plugin [fonts] loaded. Plugin [map] loaded. Plugin [templates] loaded. Started [Server Core:20009]. Client window created.

[springmeyer]

@spara - great that is good news :). And all that above debug output is the normal stuff at the moment.

[tpstigers]

I got the same result. Installed over the existing installation, and it works a charm. Removed the existing log file and TileMill created a new one. Same content as Sophia got.

[wboykinm]

Works perfectly, no admin required. And I can pin it to the taskbar now!

[springmeyer]

Great, thanks a ton everyone from testing and for the positive spirit (and patience) :)

Going to close this issue now. Hopefully with startup ironed out now we can start focusing on smoothing out the many other windows runtime issues.