Installation Manager FileNotFoundError

[efficacy]

%23 Description of problem
The Installation manager fails to find a file while creating a virtual python environment.
Sadly, I can't find a clue as to which file is not found, as it is not shown in the error trace :(

May be a duplicate of #2857, #2815, #2779, #2753, #2751 but there is no action on any of those either

BEFORE SUBMITTING, PLEASE SEARCH FOR DUPLICATES IN

• https://github.com/platformio/platformio-vscode-ide/issues%3Fq=is%3Aissue

%23 Configuration

VSCode: 1.77.3
PIO IDE: v3.1.1
System: Windows_NT, 10.0.19045, x64

%23 Exception

Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\get-platformio-1.1.2.py", line 69, in <module>
  main()
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\get-platformio-1.1.2.py", line 61, in main
  bootstrap()
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\get-platformio-1.1.2.py", line 47, in bootstrap
  pioinstaller.__main__.main()
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\pioinstaller\__main__.py", line 133, in main
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\click\core.py", line 1128, in __call__
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\click\core.py", line 1053, in main
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\click\core.py", line 1637, in invoke
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\click\core.py", line 1395, in invoke
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\click\core.py", line 754, in invoke
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\click\decorators.py", line 26, in new_func
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\pioinstaller\__main__.py", line 61, in cli
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\pioinstaller\core.py", line 70, in install_platformio_core
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\pioinstaller\core.py", line 98, in _install_platformio_core
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\pioinstaller\penv.py", line 71, in create_core_penv
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\.cache\tmp\.piocore-installer-n89oo_f3\tmpdiu6ubj0\pioinstaller.zip\pioinstaller\penv.py", line 141, in init_state
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\python3\lib\subprocess.py", line 424, in check_output
  return run(*popenargs, stdout=PIPE, timeout=timeout, check=True,
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\python3\lib\subprocess.py", line 505, in run
  with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as process:
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\python3\lib\subprocess.py", line 951, in __init__
  self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
File "C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\python3\lib\subprocess.py", line 1420, in _execute_child
  hp, ht, pid, tid = _winapi.CreateProcess(executable, args,
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified
-> Installer version: 1.1.2
Platform: Windows-10
Python version: 3.9.10 (tags/v3.9.10:f2f3f53, Jan 17 2022, 15:14:21) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)]
Python path: C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\python3\python.exe
Creating a virtual environment at C:\Users\Frank\.platformio\penv

  at c:\Users\Frank\.vscode\extensions\platformio.platformio-ide-3.1.1-win32-x64\node_modules\platformio-node-helpers\dist\index.js:1:5303
  at ChildProcess.o (c:\Users\Frank\.vscode\extensions\platformio.platformio-ide-3.1.1-win32-x64\node_modules\platformio-node-helpers\dist\index.js:1:4601)
  at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:526:28)
  at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:475:12)
  at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1092:16)
  at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:302:5)

[efficacy]

Just in case anyone does read this. I eventually found a work-round.

It seems that the bug or conflict which is causing the problem is in the platformio core installation script, so neither the auto-install in the VS Code plugin nor installing the core using the script from https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/core/installation/methods/installer-script.html would work. Debugging that script was a PITA as it auto-deleted if anything went wrong, so I gave up.

To make Platformio IDE work on my system I had to do three things:

• install a recent Python + pip (in my case 3.11) and add both the main folder with python.exe and the Scripts folder to my path
• globally install platformio core using the "not recommended" pip method from https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/core/installation/methods/pypi.html
• go into the settings for the PlatformIO plugin in VS Code and uncheck both Use Builtin PIO Core and Use Builtin Python

Only once I had done all three of those things did the PlatformIO IDE home page finally appear.

Phew!

[ivankravets]

Do you use any suspicious antivirus tools?

[ivankravets]

Duplicate of platformio/platformio-vscode-ide#884