# Troubleshooting

If you experience problems with StarDict, examine StarDict output. By default the application prints the most important messages to standard output and standard error. To see messages, start StarDict from the console. You may increase verbosity of the output using the --message-level command line option, see Command line options.

To see standard output and standard error on Windows, start StarDict from windows console and pass non-zero parameter to the --message-level command line option. Unfortunately, often windows console can not display all unicode characters that are sent to output. If this problem effects you, redirect output to a file or use StarDict logging facility.

## Starting StarDict from windows console

In some cases, StarDict prints nothing to console or console is not available. Then turn on logging function, see Logging for details.

If StarDict fails to start, it's recommended to set the output message level to the highest value so you can see all produced messages. They may help in diagnosing the cause of the problem. StarDict loads a number of plug-ins at startup. A broken plug-in may crash or hang the entire application. Each plug-in prints Loading PLUG-IN NAME plug-in... at the very begging of the plug-in initialization process. PLUG-IN NAME plug-in loaded. message marks the end of the initialization process. If you do not see the paired message, the plug-in definitely fails to load. Plug-ins normally print error messages, they may help you to identify and fix the problem. On the other hand, you may simply remove the misbehaving plug-in. Just remove the corresponding library. All plug-in are optional, StarDict will work without plug-ins.

Typical StarDict output:

    [debug] Loading StarDict configuration...
    [debug] StarDict configuration loaded.
    [debug] Loading skin...
    [debug] Skin loaded.
    [debug] Loading Man plug-in...
    Man plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading WordNet dict rendering plug-in...
    WordNet dict rendering plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading Wiki data parsing plug-in...
    Wiki data parsing plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading Spelling plug-in...
    Spelling plugin loaded.
    [debug] Loading Gucharmap plug-in...
    Gucharmap plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading QQWry plug-in...
    QQWry plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading Dict.cn plug-in...
    Dict.cn plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading WordNet data parsing plug-in...
    WordNet data parsing plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading Festival plug-in...
    Festival plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading XDXF data parsing plug-in...
    XDXF data parsing plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading HTML data parsing plug-in...
    HTML data parsing plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading Espeak plug-in...
    Espeak plug-in loaded.
    [debug] Loading PowerWord data parsing plug-in...
    PowerWord data parsing plug-in loaded.
    bookname: StarDict dictionary, wordcount 9