CefSharp.Core unable to load when published (ClickOnce)

[dtbiedrzycki]

Hey all,

I've recently created a project using the latest Prerelease version through NuGet. It runs swimmingly through Visual Studio, however, when I publish the application (through VS creating the one click install type of application), the installed application always fails to start.

When I've been able to catch the error, it states that it was unable to load the CefSharp.Core dependency. I've tinkered with the cef.redist package as well and got it so that the application would install and actually open a window, but the browser fails to load properly.

Now this could be my own mistake as I'm new to publishing applications, but I haven't had this problem with other small projects that have third party dependencies.

So far I've tried building in both x86 and x64 as well as building in a specific configuration and removing the unnecessary references (i.e. build in x86 and remove all x64 references). That didn't seem to change anything. When I've looked at the other issues listed here, they seemed to be revolving around errors while in VS, not in a published application, so I thought this would still be fit as a new issue.

[dtbiedrzycki]

UPDATE:

I was able to get this to work. I kept digging through the existing issues and found (this)[https://github.com//issues/500]

I had to modify one of the responses further; here is what I did

• copy over all of the dlls in cef.redist.3.1750.1738\CEF\x[you-choose]
• copy over all .pak files in cef.redist.3.1750.1738\CEF (and make them always copy and build action of 'Content')
• add .\packages\CefSharp.Common.33.1.0-pre01\CefSharp\x[you-choose]\CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.Core.dll as a reference
• for what it's worth, I've also included the CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.Core.exe (but it didn't work until I added the reference to the .dll)

[amaitland]

@dtbiedrzycki Excellent, glad you managed to sort this yourself 👍

[jornh]

I'd second @amaitland's praise. Thanks that you took the time to document for others to find 😄 appreciated! Welcome to CefSharp land.

I took the liberty to link to your https://github.com/dtbiedrzycki/SlackWindowsApp, where I see you applied what you learned. Apparently there's now both a WPF and a WinForms CefSharp based http://slack.com client 💃

[dtbiedrzycki]

No problem guys! Glad I could help at least in some small form.

Now, the problem that I was having; is that expected behavior or is there something I can help with so that the correct dll's are where they need to be when publishing?

[amaitland]

Unless ClickOnce has improved it's handling of native assemblies then I'm not sure there is much that can be done other than manually deal with the problem (I personally embed the dll's in the assembly and copy them to the bin folder on application startup, it's a little crude, though reliable).

There are alternatives to ClickOnce as mentioned here #500 (comment)

[stepanets]

Hi, I dont understand where should I copy dlls

[jankurianski]

@stepanets The full source for a working example is available at https://github.com/dtbiedrzycki/SlackWindowsApp - have you checked to see what it does?

[stepanets]

What exactly should I check? I dont see dll and pak files in this project.

[amaitland]

For CefSharp to run all the CEF dependencies need to be in the same directory as your executable.

[stepanets]

I copy dependencied to project, it works fine if I run application from project Release folder, but after ClickOnce setup I get error in libcef.dll.

[amaitland]

Have you read #500 as noted above?

[stepanets]

About SlackWindowsApp - I've published it by clickonce and inslalled and I got same error

An unhandled exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in SlackApp.exe 
Could not load file or assembly 'CefSharp.Core.dll' or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.

[amaitland]

About SlackWindowsApp - I've published it by clickonce and inslalled and I got same error

No, #500 has details on ClickOnce

[stepanets]

I've read #500. When I add dependencies dlls to my project I get error not about "Could not load file or assembly 'CefSharp.Core.dll'". But error about libcef.dll (sorry for russian lang)

When I try debug it I get only

The program '[8660] RealtTranslator.exe' has exited with code 1073741855 (0x4000001f).
The program '[6828] RealtTranslator.vshost.exe: Program Trace' has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The program '[6828] RealtTranslator.vshost.exe' has exited with code 0 (0x0).

[amaitland]

The exception says that CefSharp.Core.dll cannot find libcef.dll, so check that it's part of your click once distribution and is in the same path as your executable.

You can use the Cef.Initialize dependencyCheck option to confirm all the files are present.

[stepanets]

This is folder generated by click once

[amaitland]

Have you got VC++ 2012 Update 4 loaded on your target machine?

See what the dependency checker tells you, it'll throw an exception if it can't find key files.

[stepanets]

@amaitland BIG thx!!! dependencyCheck shows that next dependencies was missed

/loacales
icudtl.dat
CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.Core.dll
CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.exe

[Cyberneticist-UK]

I know this is closed, but I had the same issue and this was a life saver! I also had to do a bit of coding with it to get it working, so I fixed it by:
Referencing as set out here, after removing the references created by NuGet.

I told the settings file NOT to check for dependency:

CefSharp.CefSettings set = new CefSharp.CefSettings();
set.CachePath = CacheStorage;
set.LocalesDirPath = Application.StartupPath + "\Locales";
CefSharp.Cef.Initialize(set, true, false);

Until I did this, I couldn't do ClickOnce, nor would the application open when called as a process or from a shortcut yet WOULD work when double clicking on the Exe file! Took a bit of hunting through log files, and this article to get it sorted!!

[SQ0227]

Facing same issue.
Can we please have a documented guide on how to resolve such issues rather than going through 100 threads on stackoverflow and git on the same.

[amaitland]

See #1314 (comment) for details.

Locking this conversation as it's entirely outdated (hasn't been updated since 2016). If you are still having problems then please join in the discussion at #3613