import gtk/glib produces ImportError: DLL load failed

Question

I installed the latest versions of python (2.6.5), gtk+, pygtk (and friends) from their respective websites on Windows XP SP3. When you try to import gtk (or just glib for that matter), an ImportError is raised:

Python 2.6.5 (r265:79096, Mar 19 2010, 21:48:26) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import gtk
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\gtk-2.0\gtk\__init__.py", line 38, in <module>
    import gobject as _gobject
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\gtk-2.0\gobject\__init__.py", line 26, in <module>
    from glib import spawn_async, idle_add, timeout_add, timeout_add_seconds, \
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\gtk-2.0\glib\__init__.py", line 22, in <module>
    from glib._glib import *
ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified procedure could not be found.

This was working on the same machine around 6 months ago, although this time around I have re-installed. I tried different versions of the libraries but still couldn't get it to work.

There are a couple of pages out there relating to this, but not suggest a solution, and I'm unable to find one.

Answer 1

I got a work around this by installing the windows GTK+ runtime as indicated in this link http://www.gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php?title=Windows_installer#Installation

Also see their page dedicated to troubleshooting import errors on windows: http://www.gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php?title=ImportError:_DLL_load_failed

Answer 2

I managed to solve this myself. Firstly, there can be more than one cause so this may not help everyone.

I went through the PATH system environment variable and removed all paths that pointed to old versions of gtk+ (for example, those that come packaged with applications).

Answer 3

Same problem, answer was to reinstall pygtk from grampy page. It was problem of pygtk, not system or gtk. (Before this, import pygtk works well)