[GNC] Forces Rebalance Causes Fatal Error - Now with images

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Hello, Griffin, and welcome to GnuCash.

Thank you for providing screen excerpts in your previous message. That 
helps me understand. Maybe I can give you some insight. See my replies 
interleaved below.

On 2024-11-02 07:49, Griffin wrote:
>
> On 2024-10-30 2:56 p.m., Griffin wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am trying... 

OK, before you go any further.

What version of GnuCash are you running, and on what operating system?  
(I'm going to guess Windows, but please tell us explicitly.) Different 
versions of GnuCash behave differently. This basic information is important.

>> ...to reconcile accounts that have got way behind. They are stock 
>> (options) trades that might have been entered before I understood how 
>> trading accounts should be setup.
>>
>> When I view the register for the account, I notice some of the 
>> records display a box with a square in it, in the top left corner of 
>> both the deposit and the Withdrawal field.... 

What is the Account Type of this account? I am guessing it is Stock or 
Mutual Fund.  See 
<https://gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-manual/acct-types.html> for a 
list of account types.   The registers for different account types 
behave differently.

What is happening in the transaction you are showing us?   I suspect it 
is a sale of a stock "NCLH" for Canadian Dollars, but it might be a 
purchase.

What I see in your screen excerpt "Transaction split.jpg" is that each 
cell in the credit and debit columns have a small shape drawn with thin 
black lines, forming a square having diagonals drawn that form an "X". 
This shape appears in every row, whether the background colour is green, 
light beige, or vivid yellow.  This excerpt shows a transaction — a 
stock sale or purchase — containing one split in CAD currency and one 
split in NCLH stock. This transaction is not balanced (see below). 
Another of your screen excerpts, "After Rebalance.jpg", does not have 
these small shapes in the debit and credit columns.

I speculate that these small squares are an artifact of the technology 
going wrong — maybe in a small way, maybe large. They might be a place 
where GnuCash can draw indicators of some kind. Perhaps the indicators 
have to do with the transaction not being balanced. The drawing is not 
working right, and so you see these squares. If you care to take the 
time to describe this situation clearly, you might consider filing a bug 
report about it.  See <https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Bugzilla> to get 
started with a bug report.

For now, I suggest you treat the small squares as a separate issue from 
your other questions.


>> ....When I tab through the deposit and the withdrawal fields as the 
>> focus leaves the withdrawal field, a dialog pops saying the 
>> transaction needs to be rebalanced.
>>
>> The transaction split looks like this. You can see the box with a 
>> cross in it
>>
>> As I don't know what needs to be balanced I click on "Let GnuCash add 
>> an adjusting split", and I click <Rebalance>.
>>
>> The transaction split, then looks like this.

Next, let's look at the issue of "balanced transactions". You say you 
set up this book without Trading Accounts, entered some transactions, 
then turned on Trading Accounts. You might be seeing GnuCash attempting 
to clean up the older transactions so that they become correct with 
Trading Accounts.

Three basic things to know:

1. A balanced transaction is where the sum of all the debits equals the 
sum of all the credits. If a transaction involves multiple currencies, 
then these sums are calculated separately for each currency.

2. GnuCash uses the same mechanisms for representing currencies and 
securities in the book. Thus your transaction involves the CAD currency 
and the NCLH "currency".

3. When a transaction is not balanced in one of its currencies, GnuCash 
inserts a split using Trading Accounts with whatever debit or credit 
amount brings that currency into balance for that transaction. For more 
on Trading Accounts, see 
<https://gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/currency_trading_accts.html>.

What I see in "Transaction split.png" is a transaction which is not 
balanced. There is one split for 120.30 CAD, and another split for 5 
NCLH.  I can imagine that GnuCash accepted this transaction before you 
turned on Trading Accounts, and will not accept it after. What I see in 
"After Rebalance.png" is a transaction which is now balanced, via one 
split using a trading account in CAD and a second split using a trading 
account in NCLH.

Thus I think this sequence sounds like GnuCash dealing correctly with a 
transaction which is no longer acceptable given your Trading Accounts 
setting. To a first approximation, it is separate from the mysterious 
square shapes, or the crash. It is not a problem to be solved.


>>
>> As I move onto the next transaction, and follow the exact same steps, 
>> after clicking on <Rebalance>, there is a pause of 1 to 2 seconds, 
>> following which GnuCash silently crashes.

This is a separate issue. GnuCash should not not crash. When it does, 
you have three options:

1. Find a way to work around the crash.

2. Upgrade to a newer version of GnuCash, if any, which fixes the 
problem that caused the crash.

3. File a carefully described bug report, to help the developers fix the 
problem.

As far as a workaround, my first suggestion is to check and repair all 
your accounts. From the Accounts list, select menu item Actions… Check & 
Repair… Check & Repair all . This tells GnuCash to go over each 
transaction and fix those which are badly structured. I suspect it won't 
balance the unbalanced transactions, but it might correct some 
corruption in your book which encourages GnuCash to crash.

Next, it sounds like the crash happens when you rebalance a second 
transaction.  If that is the case, you might try opening one unbalanced 
transaction, rebalancing it, then saving the file, before you attempt to 
rebalance a second transaction. If you still get a crash, then rebalance 
one transaction, quit GnuCash, and restart GnuCash. Yes, workarounds 
like this are tedious. But once you balance the transactions, you won't 
have to do it again.

>>
>> When I reopen GnuCash I am presented with cannot get a lock popup
>>
>> I can delete the file 2024 Accounts.gnucash.LCK to restart GnuCash.

This is yet a separate issue.  It is normal GnuCash behaviour when 
starting after a crash.  GnuCash makes a .LCK file when it has a book 
file open, to make it less likely that someone will use a second copy of 
GnuCash to open the same book file.  Normally, GnuCash deletes the .LCK 
file when it exits normally. When GnuCash crashes, the .LCK file 
remains. GnuCash puts up a dialogue to warn you that someone else might 
be using the book file.  One of the options is "Open anyway". If you 
know that the .LCK file comes from your previous use of that file, and 
it is there because GnuCash crashed, then select that option. GnuCash 
will open your book file, and you can resume work.

So, the "lock popup" and the .LCK file are a consequence of the crash 
problem, but they are not a part of the crash problem.

Does that help?

Best regards,
      —Jim DeLaHunt

>>
>>
>> Nothing has been changed of course, and there was no time to save 
>> anything. Some times Even the first try ends abnormally.
>>
>> Any ideas, anyone, Bueller… anyone?