Setup file crashing on Windows 8.1 & 10

[gerryfrancis]

- Platform (linux/mac/windows):
Windows 8.1 Pro (x64).

- Delta Chat Desktop Version:
0.901.0-1.34.1.

- Expected behavior:
Setup starts and installs Delta Chat.

- Actual behavior:
Setup starts but fails to install Delta Chat.

- Logs:
From Windows Event Log (unfortunately in German):
Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: DeltaChat Setup 0.901.0.exe, Version: 0.901.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x5a6fed7c
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: System.dll, Version: 0.0.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x5a6fed15
Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005
Fehleroffset: 0x00001581
ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0x20f8
Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01d5b89db8f3119f
Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: C:\Users\PC_USER\Downloads\DeltaChat Setup 0.901.0.exe
Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: C:\Users\PC_USER\AppData\Local\Temp\nsd4150.tmp\System.dll
Berichtskennung: f7848027-2490-11ea-8357-5c514fe0a33e
Vollständiger Name des fehlerhaften Pakets:
Anwendungs-ID, die relativ zum fehlerhaften Paket ist:

- Comments:
"DeltaChat Setup 0.900.0.exe" executes successfully, the prior version has been uninstalled.

[gerryfrancis]

To me it seems to be some race condition: I executed the same setup file multiple times and that worked. Running Delta Chat 0.901.0 now...

[Simon-Laux]

We don't generate the setup file ourselves. It gets generated by electron builder.

[gerryfrancis]

Well, I did nothing to make the setup file run successfully, I just executed it several times, like starting the engine of a car, and suddenly the setup process started, showing up the progress bar. I guess further investigation is needed to find the cause. Should you need any information about my Windows system, please let me know, thanks.

[Jikstra]

Did this happen too on Deltachat Setup 0.900,1.exe?

[gerryfrancis]

@Jikstra Do you mean 0.900.1 or 0.900.0? I had the latter one installed without any problem. If you want me to do a comparison, just let me know where I can grab 0.900.1, thanks.

[Jikstra]

Ah sorry, mean 0.900.0, so just the previous setup file.
https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-desktop/releases/download/v0.900.0/DeltaChat.Setup.0.900.0.exe

[gerryfrancis]

Never mind. I just ran multiple tests with 0.900.0 and 0.901.0 and both have the very same issue. So it seems I was lucky in my first attempt of installing 0.900.0 (before 0.901.0 was released).

See electron-userland/electron-builder#2751 as well. (Note: The exception offset is always the same, 0x00001581, so this should be the same issue.)

[gerryfrancis]

Windows 7 and 10 seem to be affected as well, though I cannot test on such systems.

Electron Builder 20.6.0 (pre-release) addresses an identical bug: electron-userland/electron-builder#2518

@Jikstra or @ another DC developer: Should the issue be solved with a higher version of Electron Builder, maybe you want to give it a try, compile a new Delta Chat setup file with it and send it over to me for testing, because this failure is thrown statistically in three of four tries on my system.

[Jikstra]

@gerryfrancis we're using 21.2.0 so this should be fixed already

Does the portable zip file work for you?

https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-desktop/releases/download/v0.900.0/DeltaChat.Portable.0.900.0.exe

[gerryfrancis]

@Jikstra The portable file works, but I have to enter my login credentials with every run, which is not so neat.

FYI: Inspired by this comment vladimiry/ElectronMail#6 (comment) , I copied the setup file from the "Downloads" folder of my user profile to another location ("C:\test") to execute it from there for appx. five times, and I could not reproduce the issue. Then I ran the (original) downloaded file located in the "Downloads" folder again, which resulted in an "APPCRASH" right away. So, it seems that the path or working directory of/to the executable setup file has an influence.

Merry Christmas to the whole team, you are doing a fantastic job!

[gerryfrancis]

Gosh, I think I just nailed it...

Pre-information: In my first post, I replaced my real name inside the path of my Windows user profile to "PC_USER". My full name consists of six characters for the first, and seven for the last (sir) name, with a space character in between.

You might want to do the following test to reproduce the issue:

1. Create a new folder named "test" in the root of "C:".
2. Copy setup file "DeltaChat Setup 0.901.0.exe" to "C:\test".
3. Create a new Windows user named "TestUser" (eight characters).
4. Add Windows user "TestUser" to the "Administrators" group.
5. Log on the newly created Windows user "TestUser". (This step creates a new Windows user profile automatically.)
6. Copy setup file "DeltaChat Setup 0.901.0.exe" from "C:\test" to "C:\Users\TestUser\Downloads".
7. Execute setup file from "C:\Users\TestUser\Downloads", and install/uninstall Delta Chat for at least five times (if you can).

Result: No issues.

8. Log off Windows user "TestUser".
9. Delete the user profile of Windows user "TestUser".
10. Rename Windows user "TestUser" to "Testtest Useruser".
11. Log on Windows user "Testtest Useruser". (This step creates a new Windows user profile automatically.)
12. Copy setup file "DeltaChat Setup 0.901.0.exe" from "C:\test" to "C:\Users\Testtest Useruser\Downloads".
13. Execute setup file from "C:\Users\Testtest Useruser\Downloads", and install/uninstall Delta Chat for at least five times (if you can).

Result: At least one "APPCRASH" occurs. (I performed three tries, and all of them failed consistently.)

My conclusion: Either the length of the full path name or a space character inside can be a huge problem for the installer.

[gerryfrancis]

Sorry, I accidentally closed the issue by pressing the wrong button...

[gerryfrancis]

The issue most likely will not occur with Windows 10 under Microsoft user accounts, because usually the first five characters of the mail address are applied to the user directory name (e.g.: A Microsoft user account "[email protected]" will have the profile path "C:\Users\first", considering that "C:" is the Windows OS volume.). However, earlier user profiles with longer user names might exist when the Windows OS has been upgraded to Windows 10...

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 0.999.1.

[Jikstra]

We didn't update electron builder in 0.999.1 but shortly after. I want to trigger some preview builds including a recent electron builder to see if it works for you. Probably tomorrow or the next days.

[gerryfrancis]

Sorry, it is still an issue in version 1.0.0:

- Logs:
Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: DeltaChat-Setup-v1.0.0.exe, Version: 1.0.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x5c157f86
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: System.dll, Version: 0.0.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x5c157efa
Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005
Fehleroffset: 0x00001581
ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0x29d0
Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01d5ecc3cd832dfa
Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: C:\Users\PC_USER\Downloads\DeltaChat-Setup-v1.0.0.exe
Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: C:\Users\PC_USER\AppData\Local\Temp\nsfFADE.tmp\System.dll
Berichtskennung: 0bf48b85-58b7-11ea-8364-d4c9eff87512
Vollständiger Name des fehlerhaften Pakets:
Anwendungs-ID, die relativ zum fehlerhaften Paket ist:

Looks like it has something to do with this: #1269 (comment)

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.1.0:

Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: DeltaChat Setup 1.1.0.exe, Version: 1.1.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x5c157f86
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: System.dll, Version: 0.0.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x5c157efa
Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005
Fehleroffset: 0x00001581
ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0x60
Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01d5f7a77e80a77e
Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: C:\Users\PC_USER\Downloads\DeltaChat Setup 1.1.0.exe
Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: C:\Users\PC_USER\AppData\Local\Temp\nszF166.tmp\System.dll
Berichtskennung: be2dd295-639a-11ea-8368-d4c9eff87512
Vollständiger Name des fehlerhaften Pakets:
Anwendungs-ID, die relativ zum fehlerhaften Paket ist:

[Michael-Yongshi]

It seams like i have the exact same issue on windows 10.
Both setup 1.1.0, 1.0.0 and 0.999.1 and 0.901 fails.
However 0.900 WORKS!

edit: on my previous install I was using 0.999 successfully, however i just reformatted and started with a fresh install of win10-64 and only now i got this bug

[xiajingren]

hi. Has this problem been solved? I have the same problem

Can you try out the latest version and reply back if it still occurs? I couldn't reproduce this yet on any windows 10 machine.

hi. thank you for your reply. In fact, sometimes my program installed on windows 7 has a similar crash problem. How do you solve this problem? Can you share it?thanks!

I also used electron-builder

[Jikstra]

@xiajingren we probably didn't fix it yet, let's ask @gerryfrancis about this as he reproduced it most often i think?

[xiajingren]

@Jikstra thank you very much. my situation is the same as this issue: electron-userland/electron-builder#3545
this problem has bothered me for a long time.i don't know why.

[gerryfrancis]

@Jikstra Sorry for the late reply, I was not able to test earlier. Yes, unfortunately the issue still exists, I cannot install version 1.14.1 right now, same behavior...

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.15.1.

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.15.3.

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.15.5.

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.20.1.

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.20.2.

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.20.3.

[Simon-Laux]

electron-userland/electron-builder#5119 might help debugging this, but changing stuff in cache directories is not a clean solution in my eyes.

Also there is the option to disable the oneclick installer and allow the user to choose where to install DC to: https://www.electron.build/configuration/nsis

[Simon-Laux]

somebody could look in the NSIS issue tracker if they find our issue there, if someone has time to do it currently: https://sourceforge.net/p/nsis/bugs/

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.21.0.

[gerryfrancis]

Still an issue in version 1.36.2.

[farooqkz]

Might be related: electron-userland/electron-builder#6427

[gerryfrancis]

Might be related: electron-userland/electron-builder#6427

@farooqkz Why do you think the issue might be related? That crash occurs at the end of the Installation process, while our crash happens immediately after the launch of the setup program.

[farooqkz]

Might be related: electron-userland/electron-builder#6427

@farooqkz Why do you think the issue might be related? That crash occurs at the end of the Installation process, while our crash happens immediately after the launch of the setup program.

my bad. didn't read carefully

[Simon-Laux]

does this still happen with https://download.delta.chat/desktop/v1.45.4/ ?

Also we gave up on the certificate / windows signing for now as it is too annoying & expensive to get a signing key, maybe we'll pick it up in the future again, but you can already get deltachat over the microsoft store, so might not be needed (especially as you still get the annoying warnings, even when you have a certificate).

[nicodh]

@gerryfrancis sorry for repeating the same question since years now... :-(
But can you please report if the crash still occurs with current version?

[Simon-Laux]

Lasted status that I know:
We suspected this is an interaction between an anti virus software and the nsis installer that is generated by electron builder.
We hoped signing the executable would fix it, but we didn't manage to sign it correctly and/it didn't worked.
After ssl.com stoped giving out certificate key and tried to charge extra for signing with their e-signer (uploading to their site to sign) instead, we gave up for now on the certificated (that is way too expensive anyway, like 200 bucks per year + some subscription for their e-signer).
Maybe it's possible to change the NSIS script/installer to not interact and to not be disturbed by the antivirus software, but it's so deep inside of electron-builder that it's likely easier to make the installer from scratch. (or with electron forge, which is more hands-on/low-level and the officially endorsed (by electron) way now anyway)

Anyways after many years nobody managed to fix it, so I'll close it as won't fix.
Let's hope that the installer generated by tauri (when I completed the delta tauri project) works better in that regard.

[gerryfrancis]

I think we should distinguish two issues here:

1. Codesign certificate to verify code genuinity.
   My conviction is that any distributed code shall be signed by its developer to e.g. prevent and avoid a setup file to become modified by anyone else. Of course, no one can guarantee that a place/store to download such files will never be hacked one day, as attackers become more and more creative. If e.g. they modified setup files, the users who were trying to execute them would usually be warned by the operating system that the signature of these files was no longer valid (broken) and, therefore, not genuine anymore.
2. The crash itself (whose real cause still seems to be unknown).
   I will try to collect more information about that NSIS installer crash. Issues like this one have not been closed, yet, so we are not the only ones left in the dark.