Running KeePass 2.x+Mono from USB on WinXP
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I know it's weird that I'm trying to run KeePass 2.x using Mono on Windows instead of using the standard .NET assemblies. I've mentioned elsewhere that I planon figuring out how to run KeePass 2.x purely from a USB drive using Mono to avoid having to install the .NET runtimes on WinXP machines. Another reason I'm trying this is that I don't have immediate access to a non-windows machine and I wanted to see if the plugin I wrote works fine when KeePass 2.x is run under Mono (and yes it does!).
It turns out that getting Mono 2.4 on USB is fairly straightforward. You should be able to install Mono directly onto the USB drive and then run this: "<path to mono>\bin\mono.exe <path to keepass>\KeePass.exe". Personally, what I did was to install mono on the standard install path (C:\Program Files\Mono-2.4) and then copied the whole mono install onto the usb drive and then uninstalled mono from program files. What I haven't done is trying it out on a pc where Mono was never installed. I'll try that later.
KeePass 2.x doesn't run on Mono perfectly though, at least on WinXP. I'll have access to a Mac soon to check if the issues are specific to Mono on WinXP.
> I planon figuring out how to run KeePass 2.x purely from a USB drive using Mono to avoid having to
> install the .NET runtimes on WinXP machines.
This sounds like what I'm looking to do, too. In particular, I want to be able to use KeePass ENTIRELY from USB among several machines. These various systems include Linux AND Windows systems, and would NOT necessarily have Mono or .NET installed (let alone having the latest versions). Thus, I want to be able to plug the USB drive into ANY Linux or Windows machine - even computers I've never used before - and have secure access to my passwords and to KeeForm.
> KeePass 2.x doesn't run on Mono perfectly though, at least on WinXP.
Please elaborate. What are the problems you have encountered? I hope to test this out in the next couple of days, and would like to know what to expect - good and bad - when I do so.
Thanks!
I'm particularly interested in how it works when you are logged on as an unprivileged Windows user so it would be great if you could try that when you get a spare moment.
Thanks,
Chris
Chris, I'm guessing you're talking about getting KeePass 2.x + Mono on an account like the guest WinXP account, right? In any case, this is one of the reasons why I wanted to run it entirely off USB. So far, I've noticed no difference whatsoever running it with admin and on a guest account on another computer and I see no reason why there should be a difference on WinXP if you're running KeePass 2.x with Mono except when you don't have write permissions to the directories involved or when you don't even have read permissons for the KeePass 2.x and Mono directories.
Obviously, though, if you don't have write access to where your database is, you won't be able to save it. And since KeePass 2.x saves its configuration in an xml file in the same directory as the exe file, you won't be able to save configuration settings. If you have no write access to your database, I recommend disabling any auto-save features as it can get very annoying.
Yes that was what I was thinking about (or even just a "standard user" rather than an administrator) so it does sound promising.
I wasn't sure if some .NET features would require the use of security privileges that could be only be granted as a result of running the Mono installer. Looks like I was worried for no reason :-)
I'll have a play with Mono on XP myself one day (maybe when MonoDevelop has a nice Windows installer to get me up and running quickly).
Lets hope that the remaining KeePass + Mono glitches can be ironed out over the next few versions of each.
From what I gather about the other Mono related posts is that the biggest problem is Mono compatibility. As it is though, KeePassX is useable I believe and alongside KeePass 1.x you can achieve what you want with that combination, though you won't have access to KeePass 2.x only features and plugins.
If you, like me, really want to get KeePass 2.x running on Mono, our best bet would be to report as much detailed info about Mono-specific bugs as we can and hope that it is something that can be fixed on KeePass 2.x and not something that we have to wait to get fixed on Mono itself.
One thing you might be interested in is the mkbundle command on Mono. It allows you to embed Mono in an executable to allow it to run without the need to install the need for separate Mono binaries. I personally have not tried this yet, but it is one of the things I plan on trying eventually.
I also have yet to test Mono and KeePass 2.x on a Mac btw. Something came up at work and I had to put that on hold. I will get to it eventually.
Hey,
here some problems with Ubunut + Mono:
https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=3212031&forum_id=329220
Now i've tested Mono + Vista + Keepass 2.07. I can start Keepass. After automatically opening my database i can enter my masterpassword.
After that the following problems occure:
- the Keepass icon in the tray seems to be rendered in wrong Colors
- i´ve got a main windows an nothing else (empty menu, no fonts, no table entries, no grouptree)
- the only thing i can do is to close keepass
Has anyone an idea?
greetings
Your Vista issues seem to be identical to mine on XP. The bugs are most likely Mono related and not KeePass related, but there might be workarounds that avoid those bugs altogether. Anyway, what you can do to make the menu options and the toolbar icons to appear is, while the KeePass window is visible, is to double-click on the tray icon again, or right-click->show keepass window. (i'm not sure if i got the option right, i forgot to bring my usb stick with keypass with me.) It works even if you have enabled the setting that only shows the tray icon when the KeePass window is minimized because the first time you make the KeePass window visible via the tray icon, the tray icon doesn't disappear when it should. I kept that option disabled though as the presence of the tray icon reminds me that the KeePass window isn't in a proper visible state yet.
On the otherhand, Mono would never be necessary on Vista because, as far as I know, .Net 2.0 is included with every installation of Vista.
Hey,
i know that Mono is not necessary on Vista. This was just a test if Mono + Ubuntu and Mono + Vista produce the same problems. And that is not the case.
And I want to debug Keepass if I find some time for it. My plan was debugging on Vista with .Net and Mono parallel. So i don't have to restart my System each time.
Could anyone tell my with which development environment Keepass is produced? VS 08 (or 05) and .Net?
greetings
Visual Studio 2008, .NET Framework 2.0.
I will cantact you if I've git some time and find some solutions for mono.
By the way thanks for this great program.
Oh I thought you were just mucking about with Vista and Mono for some reason. Anyway, since the bugs are identical with Vista and XP you could use Vista as a debugging platform for Mono on Win32. As for linux, you could try some form of virtualization software instead, like Cygwin or Cooperative Linux. I'm not sure if they work with Vista though. I'll see if I can get that running this weekend, and if time permits, I'll test Mono and KeePass on those as well. The bugs you encountered on Linux could be specific to Gnome/KDE (whichever you use) so if you can, that might be something you'd like to test as well.
Cygwin works with Vista. I'am using Ubuntu with GNOME. I'll try KDE next weekend.
Hi,
little BUG-Update (Vista + Mono):
- i think all icons have only 256 colors
- if keepass is in the tray: you have to type the global command for keypass (ctrl + k) twice for open Keepass; if you only type it once there will be an empty disabled windows without "database-open"-dialog
- sometimes graphicerrers in the menu
- the fontcolor in the menues is white (i think this is a result of my gtk theme). Keepass should use the system color for the font and the backgroud. Now it seems so that the backgroud color is set to gray and the fontcolor is the systemfontcolor
I've got an other question. Does anybody know how i can integrate mono for debugging in VS 2008? Can i use MonoDev for opening VS 2008 solutions?
bye
I doubt you can integrate Mono with VS 2008, however, I'm believe you can open VC# 2008 solutions on MonoDevelop.
That's what I've read too. I've not been able to test yet because MonoDevelop doesn't run well on Windows - this is something they claim to be working on and I'll be trying it out when a Windows installer is available for testing. I'll report back if / when I have any success.