diff --git a/build/debian/makedist_debian.sh b/build/debian/makedist_debian.sh
index 2ea71e7a6af..fec31a0346b 100755
--- a/build/debian/makedist_debian.sh
+++ b/build/debian/makedist_debian.sh
@@ -19,10 +19,16 @@ rm -rf build/debian/tribler/usr/share/tribler
 
 python3 build/update_version_from_git.py
 
-# ----- Install pip dependencies before the build
+# ----- Prepare venv & install dependencies before the build
+
+python3 -m venv build-env
+. ./build-env/bin/activate
+python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
 python3 -m pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt
 
-python3 -m PyInstaller tribler.spec
+# ----- Build
+
+python3 -m PyInstaller tribler.spec --log-level=DEBUG
 
 cp -r dist/tribler build/debian/tribler/usr/share/tribler
 
diff --git a/build/mac/makedist_macos.sh b/build/mac/makedist_macos.sh
index 343ae882504..cff24fca150 100755
--- a/build/mac/makedist_macos.sh
+++ b/build/mac/makedist_macos.sh
@@ -12,12 +12,17 @@ export RESOURCES=build/mac/resources
 # ----- Clean up
 /bin/rm -rf dist
 
-# ----- Build
-# ----- Install pip dependencies before the build
+# ----- Prepare venv & install dependencies before the build
+
+python3 -m venv build-env
+. ./build-env/bin/activate
+python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
 python3 -m pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt
 
+# ----- Build
+
 PI=pyinstaller
-$PI tribler.spec
+$PI tribler.spec --log-level=DEBUG
 
 mkdir -p dist/installdir
 mv dist/$APPNAME.app dist/installdir
diff --git a/build/win/makedist_win.bat b/build/win/makedist_win.bat
index d9d59dffa7b..6272309e017 100644
--- a/build/win/makedist_win.bat
+++ b/build/win/makedist_win.bat
@@ -16,15 +16,6 @@ REM Arno: Add . to find our core
 SET PYTHONPATH=.;%PYTHONHOME%
 ECHO PYTHONPATH SET TO %PYTHONPATH%
 
-REM ----- Check for PyInstaller
-
-IF NOT EXIST %PYTHONHOME%\Scripts\pyinstaller.exe (
-  ECHO .
-  ECHO Could not locate pyinstaller in %PYTHONHOME%\Scripts.
-  ECHO Please modify this script or install PyInstaller [www.pyinstaller.org]
-  EXIT /b
-)
-
 REM ----- Check for NSIS installer
 SET NSIS="C:\Program Files\NSIS\makensis.exe"
 
@@ -40,10 +31,15 @@ REM ----- Clean up
 
 call build\win\clean.bat
 
-REM ----- Build
+REM ----- Prepare venv & install dependencies before the build
 
-REM ----- Install pip dependencies before the build
+python3 -m venv build-env
+./build-env/Scripts/activate.bat
+python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
 python3 -m pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt
+python3 -m pip install --upgrade PyInstaller
+
+REM ----- Build
 
 REM Arno: When adding files here, make sure tribler.nsi actually
 REM packs them in the installer .EXE
diff --git a/build/win/requirements.txt b/build/win/requirements.txt
index 3dd795b4eb5..0e568918991 100644
--- a/build/win/requirements.txt
+++ b/build/win/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 --no-binary :all:
 
-typing_extensions==3.10.0.2
-pydantic==1.8.2
\ No newline at end of file
+typing_extensions==4.2.0
+pydantic==1.9.0
diff --git a/requirements-core.txt b/requirements-core.txt
index ea35c5499d4..2e08099766c 100644
--- a/requirements-core.txt
+++ b/requirements-core.txt
@@ -11,16 +11,15 @@ lz4==3.1.3
 marshmallow==3.14.1
 netifaces==0.11.0
 networkx==2.6.3
-pony==0.7.14
+pony==0.7.16
 psutil==5.8.0
 pyasn1==0.4.8
-pydantic==1.8.2
+pydantic==1.9.0
 PyOpenSSL==21.0.0
 pyyaml==6.0
 sentry-sdk==1.5.0
 service-identity==21.1.0
 yappi==1.3.3
 yarl==1.7.2 # keep this dependency higher than 1.6.3. See: https://github.com/aio-libs/yarl/issues/517
-Faker==9.8.2
-sentry-sdk==1.5.0
-pyipv8==2.8.0
\ No newline at end of file
+pyipv8==2.8.0
+libtorrent==1.2.15
diff --git a/requirements-test.txt b/requirements-test.txt
index 6402c6ffb51..eed40540517 100644
--- a/requirements-test.txt
+++ b/requirements-test.txt
@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
 -r requirements.txt
 
-pytest==6.2.5
-pytest-aiohttp==0.3.0
-pytest-asyncio==0.16.0
-pytest-cov==3.0.0
-pytest-mock==3.6.1
-pytest-randomly==3.10.2
-pytest-timeout==2.0.1
-pytest-xdist==2.4.0
+pytest==7.1.2
+pytest-aiohttp==1.0.4
+pytest-asyncio==0.18.3
+pytest-mock==3.7.0
+pytest-randomly==3.11.0
+pytest-timeout==2.1.0
 pytest-freezegun==0.4.2
-freezegun==1.1.0
+freezegun==1.2.1
+coverage==6.3.2
+looptime==0.2
 
-asynctest==0.13.0
+asynctest==0.13.0 # this library has to be installed to properly work with ipv8 TestBase.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/tribler/core/logger/logger.py b/src/tribler/core/logger/logger.py
index a6f66cabe95..042ed0cff20 100644
--- a/src/tribler/core/logger/logger.py
+++ b/src/tribler/core/logger/logger.py
@@ -63,5 +63,14 @@ def setup_logging(app_mode, log_dir: Path, config_path: Path):
         logging.config.dictConfig(config)
         logger.info(f'Config loaded for app_mode={app_mode}')
     except Exception as e:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
-        print('Error in loading logger config. Using default configs. Error:', e, file=sys.stderr)
+        error_description = format_error_description(e)
+        print('Error in loading logger config. Using default configs. ', error_description, file=sys.stderr)
         logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, stream=sys.stdout)
+
+
+def format_error_description(e: Exception):
+    result = f'{e.__class__.__name__}: {e}'
+    cause = e.__cause__
+    if cause:
+        result += f'. Cause: {cause.__class__.__name__}: {cause}'
+    return result
diff --git a/src/tribler/core/logger/logger_streams.py b/src/tribler/core/logger/logger_streams.py
index 1ca37ab6df6..0e7008964db 100644
--- a/src/tribler/core/logger/logger_streams.py
+++ b/src/tribler/core/logger/logger_streams.py
@@ -11,7 +11,10 @@ def __init__(self, stream: TextIO):
         self.stream = stream
 
     def flush(self):
-        self.stream.flush()
+        try:
+            self.stream.flush()
+        except:
+            pass
 
     def write(self, s: str):
         try:
@@ -22,7 +25,10 @@ def write(self, s: str):
             self.stream.write(s2)
 
     def close(self):
-        self.stream.close()
+        try:
+            self.stream.close()
+        except:
+            pass
 
 
 stdout_wrapper = StreamWrapper(sys.stdout)  # specified in logger.yaml for `console` handler
diff --git a/src/tribler/gui/code_executor.py b/src/tribler/gui/code_executor.py
index eee80d8e50e..68ecb2477f1 100644
--- a/src/tribler/gui/code_executor.py
+++ b/src/tribler/gui/code_executor.py
@@ -27,15 +27,26 @@ class CodeExecutor:
 
     def __init__(self, port, shell_variables=None):
         self.logger = logging.getLogger(self.__class__.__name__)
+        self.port = port
         self.tcp_server = QTcpServer()
         self.sockets = []
         self.stack_trace = None
-        if not self.tcp_server.listen(port=port):
+        self.shell = Console(locals=shell_variables or {}, logger=self.logger)
+        self.started = False
+
+    def on_core_connected(self, _):
+        self.logger.info('Core connected, starting code executor')
+
+        if self.started:
+            return
+
+        if not self.tcp_server.listen(port=self.port):
             self.logger.error("Unable to start code execution socket! Error: %s", self.tcp_server.errorString())
         else:
             connect(self.tcp_server.newConnection, self._on_new_connection)
 
-        self.shell = Console(locals=shell_variables or {}, logger=self.logger)
+        self.started = True
+        self.logger.info('Code executor started')
 
     def _on_new_connection(self):
         self.logger.info("CodeExecutor has new connection")
@@ -60,7 +71,7 @@ def run_code(self, code, task_id):
             pass
 
         if self.shell.last_traceback:
-            self.on_crash(self.shell.last_traceback)
+            self.on_crash(f'{self.shell.last_traceback}\n\ntask_id: {task_id!r}\ncode:\n{code}\n\n(end of code)')
             return
 
         self.logger.info("Code execution with task %s finished:", task_id)
@@ -84,10 +95,12 @@ def _on_socket_read_ready(self):
 
         try:
             code = b64decode(parts[0]).decode('utf8')
-            task_id = parts[1].replace(b'\n', b'')
-            self.run_code(code, task_id)
         except binascii.Error:
             self.logger.error("Invalid base64 code string received!")
+            return
+
+        task_id = parts[1].replace(b'\n', b'')
+        self.run_code(code, task_id)
 
     def _on_socket_disconnect(self, socket):
         def on_socket_disconnect_handler():
diff --git a/src/tribler/gui/tribler_app.py b/src/tribler/gui/tribler_app.py
index 51eeddb12b8..97a5ddadf19 100644
--- a/src/tribler/gui/tribler_app.py
+++ b/src/tribler/gui/tribler_app.py
@@ -50,8 +50,10 @@ def parse_sys_args(self, args):
             variables.update(locals())
             variables['window'] = self.tribler_window
             self.code_executor = CodeExecutor(5500, shell_variables=variables)
+            connect(self.tribler_window.events_manager.core_connected, self.code_executor.on_core_connected)
             connect(self.tribler_window.tribler_crashed, self.code_executor.on_crash)
 
+
         if '--testnet' in sys.argv[1:]:
             os.environ['TESTNET'] = "YES"
         if '--trustchain-testnet' in sys.argv[1:]:
diff --git a/src/tribler/gui/tribler_window.py b/src/tribler/gui/tribler_window.py
index 4d8b59ebefa..943a331996b 100644
--- a/src/tribler/gui/tribler_window.py
+++ b/src/tribler/gui/tribler_window.py
@@ -199,8 +199,8 @@ def __init__(
         self.core_env = core_env
 
         error_handler = ErrorHandler(self)
-        events_manager = EventRequestManager(api_port, api_key, error_handler)
-        self.core_manager = CoreManager(self.root_state_dir, api_port, api_key, app_manager, events_manager)
+        self.events_manager = EventRequestManager(api_port, api_key, error_handler)
+        self.core_manager = CoreManager(self.root_state_dir, api_port, api_key, app_manager, self.events_manager)
         self.version_history = VersionHistory(self.root_state_dir)
         self.upgrade_manager = UpgradeManager(self.version_history)
         self.pending_requests = {}
diff --git a/tribler.spec b/tribler.spec
index 963a013ebdf..9b1cd071d25 100644
--- a/tribler.spec
+++ b/tribler.spec
@@ -13,13 +13,7 @@ from PyInstaller.utils.hooks import collect_data_files, collect_submodules
 
 root_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__name__))
 src_dir = os.path.join(root_dir, "src")
-
-tribler_components = [
-    os.path.join(src_dir, "tribler"),
-]
-
-for component in tribler_components:
-    sys.path.append(str(component))
+sys.path.append(src_dir)
 
 from tribler.core.version import version_id
 version_str = version_id.split('-')[0]
@@ -90,6 +84,7 @@ hiddenimports = [
     'csv',
     'dataclasses',  # https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/issues/5432
     'ecdsa',
+    'ipv8',
     'PIL',
     'pkg_resources', # 'pkg_resources.py2_warn', # Workaround PyInstaller & SetupTools, https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/1963
     'pyaes',
@@ -102,6 +97,7 @@ hiddenimports = [
     'requests',
     'scrypt', '_scrypt',
     'sqlalchemy', 'sqlalchemy.ext.baked', 'sqlalchemy.ext.declarative',
+    'tribler.core.logger.logger_streams',
     'typing_extensions',
 ] + widget_files + pony_deps + get_sentry_hooks()