Investigate SNI.dll transitive loading in MSIX project

[cheenamalhotra]

Investigate native SNI transitive loading issue for MSIX projects, as tested and reported not working here: #441 (comment)

[jeremy-waguet]

Hi @cheenamalhotra

Here is a sample solution that tests if Native SNI DLLs are presents. It required SqlLocalDb to be installed (see readme.txt) and only contain .NET FX 4.7.2 projects (Console, WinForms, WPF) that works with ClickOnce and associated MSIX projects which does NOT work yet!

I also tried UWP but it seems that SqlLocalDb is not well supported and SNI DLLs are included by the way.

Please don't forget to 'restore' NuGet packages as the packages are not included in this sample ZIP.
TestSNI.zip

Hope you will get a fix quite soon since I plan to migrate my project to .NET Core 3.1 (and MSIX seems to the supported .NET Core alternative to ClickOnce in .NET FX)

[yosefmah]

We also have the same issue which has started with version 2.0.0 on a .NET Core 3.1 WPF app being deployed via MSIX. It works fine with v1.1.3.

This is the error:

Description: A .NET Core application failed.
Application: App.exe
Path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\29311429-bfbd-4963-bd9c-a789267b50fe_2020.6.34.0_x64__g1afbts45jdzr\App\App.exe
Message: Error:
  An assembly specified in the application dependencies manifest (App.deps.json) was not found:
    package: 'Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.runtime', version: '2.0.0'
    path: 'runtimes/win-x64/native/Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.pdb'

For what its worth, we have the same issue with an EF Core module again only when deployed as an MSIX: dotnet/efcore#21383

[cheenamalhotra]

Hi @yosefmah

The difference between v1.1.3 and v2.0.0 is that we have now included symbols in the SNI runtime packages.

The issue you're facing was also reported in dotnet/sdk#10523, please try adding <IncludeSymbolsInSingleFile>true</IncludeSymbolsInSingleFile> to your project.

[yosefmah]

Hi @cheenamalhotra

Thanks for your reply. I have added that to my .csproj file (both the Windows Packaging Project and the WPF App) but the issue still seems to persist, unless I'm adding it in the wrong place. I'm attaching a sample project which runs when published as a standard WPF app but not when published through the MSIX Packaging project.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.WindowsDesktop">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.1</TargetFramework>
    <UseWPF>true</UseWPF>
    <IncludeSymbolsInSingleFile>true</IncludeSymbolsInSingleFile>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" Version="2.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer" Version="3.1.5" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Update: Attaching the sample project.
MsixModuleError.zip

[grant-hoelscher]

Good afternoon,

I have also experienced this issue with a .NET Core 3.1 WPF Desktop app published using a Windows Packaging Project. When the Windows Packaging Project publishes the required dependencies for the WPF Desktop app, it will pack all of the PDB files into an appxsym package. As far as I can tell, there is no way to instruct the MSIX or APPX installers to unpack the appxsym package into the final installation directory.

Is there a way to use v2.0.0 of the SNI runtime without a dependence on the SNI.pdb? I have also temporarily rolled our code back to v1.1.3 and the WPF Desktop app can deploy and run without issue.

Thank you!

[jeremy-waguet]

@mrholshi

Hi,

A dirty workaround can be to add SNI DLLs (x86 & x64) in the project as content resources. They will be deployed in the MSIX package and your application will be able to run (and no PDB deployed)! This is a temporary fix that has to be removed until this issue fixed.

[jeremy-waguet]

@mrholshi

I edited my project csproj this way and I can confirm that SNI DLLs are bundled in the MSIX package and that the app works as expected :

<Content Include="..\packages\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.2.1.0\build\net46\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.x64.dll">
  <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
<Content Include="..\packages\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.2.1.0\build\net46\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.x86.dll">
  <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>

[gseketa]

@jeremy-waguet

I have the same problem described here with my WPF project in .NET Core 3.1. Do you maybe know how your workaround would look like for a .NET Core application (i don't have any packages folder with the dlls you included as content resource...)?

Thanks

[jeremy-waguet]

@gseketa

I tried editing WPF csproj this way and it seems to work for me (SNI DLLs are present in the MSIX package but I don't know if it work or not). Please give some feedback:

  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="$(UserProfile)\.nuget\packages\microsoft.data.sqlclient.sni.runtime\2.0.1\runtimes\win-arm\native\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.dll" Link="runtimes\win-arm\native\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.dll">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
    <Content Include="$(UserProfile)\.nuget\packages\microsoft.data.sqlclient.sni.runtime\2.0.1\runtimes\win-arm64\native\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.dll" Link="runtimes\win-arm64\native\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.dll">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
    <Content Include="$(UserProfile)\.nuget\packages\microsoft.data.sqlclient.sni.runtime\2.0.1\runtimes\win-x64\native\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.dll" Link="runtimes\win-x64\native\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.dll">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
    <Content Include="$(UserProfile)\.nuget\packages\microsoft.data.sqlclient.sni.runtime\2.0.1\runtimes\win-x86\native\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.dll" Link="runtimes\win-x86\native\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.dll">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>

[jeremy-waguet]

@gseketa

PDBs files seem to be required as well as requested by 'WpfApp1.deps.json'. Please include them as well the same way I did for DLLs!

When I run the self-signed sample package I got this in the windows event viewer (Application log):

Description: A .NET Core application failed.
Application: WpfApp1.exe
Path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\a6ecf8ea-fdf6-497a-97f2-85ac64c57bb0_1.0.5.0_x86__kp1tw81z64n68\WpfApp1\WpfApp1.exe
Message: Error:
  An assembly specified in the application dependencies manifest (WpfApp1.deps.json) was not found:
    package: 'Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.runtime', version: '2.0.1'
    path: 'runtimes/win-x86/native/Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.pdb'

[grant-hoelscher]

@jeremy-waguet

This is the issue that I ran into before. Even if you add the corresponding pdb files as "Content" as above with the dll files, the MSIX installer will remove all pdb symbol files and place the symbols into a appxsym package. Since the SNI runtime is dependent directly on the pdb files being deployed alongside the application, v2.0.0 and greater will not work with an MSIX installer project.

Until this project is updated to not rely on the pdb symbol files being deployed with the application, I have been using v1.1.3 with little issue with the MSIX installer.