libxml2.dll error on upgrade to 2.8 in Win7 x64

KNIME Analytics Platform
1

I just upgraded from 2.7 to 2.8 and I started receiving the folowing error on KNIME startup.

The procedure entry point xmlParseFile could not be located in the dynamic link library libxml2.dll"

On clicking OK, KNIME seems to load fine, but I will take a bet something broke somewhere :-). I use Windows 7 Enterprise x64.

Some of the google results seem to suggest that this happens for a lot of programs and it might be due to a deleted or incompatible libxml2.dll. I am going to try overwriting this file but have a feeling that wont help as I really dont know where this file should be in the first place.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Regards,
-Aravind

2

libxml2 is part of Java. Do you use a Java version other than the one bundled with KNIME? Or do you have any 3rd party extensions installed?

3

Thanks for the reply thor. And my apologies for not responding sooner.

I think I blindly installed every possible 3rd party extension that is available. Are you suggesting that the culprit is some third party extension that uses the external Java rather than the packaged Java?

Is there a way to dig deeper to see what is causing the trouble - any logs to read, etc? As a last resort, I could start uninstalling every individual extension to see which one is causing it. But I would rather not put myself through that.

Regards,
-Aravind

4

Probably it easier to first check if a fresh installation has the same problems on your computer. You may also check whether the libxml2.dll (it's somewhere in the jre-folder of KNIME) is the same in both installations.

5

Hi Thor,

I think I might have finally identified the problem. I am not sure if I solved it though.

The OpenBABEL plugin has a libxml2.dll in there at
knime/plugins/org.knime.ext.chem.openbabel.bin.win32.x86_2.3.1.0036373/win32/x86/.
I just renamed that file and the error disappeared. But I am not sure what the effect of renaming the file was other than to make the error go away. I made a simple protocol using the OpenBABEL node to convert an SD file to SMILES format and it worked just fine. And this node did its job just fine before and after the change in file name.

Any light that you could shed on what the role of that libxml2.dll in the OpenBABEL package is??

Thanks,
Aravind

6

Well, the libxml2.dll in OpenBabel is 32bit, but I have not idea, why the knime.exe should pick up this DLL. OpenBabel is only launched as an external executable.

I also don't know why OpenBabel needs libxml2.dll. The contents of the plug-in are just copied from the OpenBabel installer.

7

DLL files are those files that are used for running application and software if DLL files is missing or got corrupted due to any reason then related software will not run or work properly.

So, in your case also the software you trying to run after upgrading are throwing libxml2.dll error, because its DLL file is missing or may be it got corrupted or damaged. So, it is very necessary to repair and fix the Dll error in order to run your application smoothly. For fixing your libxml2.dll error, you can use PC Repair Tool to easily fix it.

Note  - Never download dll files from  dll downloading sites as it may not solve your problem and harm your computer.