Windows - Intel display driver update 27.20.100.8682 causes crash at startup

Software darktable
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I first posted this bug on GitHub but it was suggested to me that it was more appropriate to post it here, as it is an issue the developers can’t do anything about (see the reply to my GitHub post for a technical explanation. As a non-programmer the explanation is way beyond me but I hope my temporaty fix may be useful to anyone encountering the same problem.

By the way, a big thank you to all the programmers contributing to this wonderful app!

Since today 11-03-2020 Darktable 3.2.1 on Windows crashed on startup (see crash report file). Starting Darktable with option --disable-opencl it opens normally (see also bug #6585) but in a basic layout without themes.

The bug occurred after Windows Update installed Intel display driver version 27.20.100.8682. After reversing the driver update to version 27.20.100.7989 by choosing a Windows restore point (not the fastest way to do this ;)) Darktable behaved normally. I used the Windows Update troubleshooter to block further driver updates.

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darktable developers can’t do anything about it as that particular bug is in a part of the operating system, i.e. the environment darktable uses, but can’t influence.

Why it crashes even if openCL is finally not available: on startup, dt tries to see if certain features are available. So if that part of a driver is broken, dt can crash in that stage. --disable-opencl skips that start-up stage completely (as the results wouldn’t be used anyway), so avoids the crash situation.

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