Mono: can my GTK-app be executed on Windows-64bit? - mono

I have created an Application in Linux 64bit with MonoDevelop, GTK#2 as GTK2-Project.
I am able to make an executable, the platform-target is "AnyCPU" (I have removed Posix references and GetText()-support), but I have also tried "x64".
This executable can be executed on Linux 64bit (terminal: mono App.exe)
This executable can be executed on Windows 32bit (terminal: mono App.exe)
This executable CANNOT be run on Windows 64bit (terminal: mono App.exe)
brings error:
Unhandled Exception: System.DllNotFoundException: libglib-2.0-0.dll
I have installed the GTK+ for Windows Runtime Environment on both machines, Windows 32bit and Windows 64bit.
In fact I have found this DLL libglib-2.0-0.dll on the GTK/bin-path and also have copied it to my executable-folder, even though it is set in the PATH environment variable.
Anyway, I get the same error message, but only in Windows 64bit.
Do I have a chance of making my GTK app to be running with Windows 64bit?
Is there a different libglib-2.0-0.dll for Windows x64 and how can I obtain this?

It's certainly possible to run a Gtk# 2 application on 64-bit windows, but it requires a bit of work. It appears you've already obtained the necessary .Net assemblies, and the native Win64 Gtk+ DLLs that are needed, but you also need an additional set of 64-bit native "glue" DLLs. I have not yet found a good source for these in pre-compiled form in any of my searches, but it is possible to build them from the gtk-sharp source.

Related

Can Windows Store apps be compiled as x86 instead of AnyCPU?

I have some .NET code that I am looking into porting into being a Windows Store app.
This code does a few different things and one of the things it does has a dependency on being compiled as x86 instead of AnyCPU.
Is this going to be a problem? Can a Metro app be compiled as x86 and still be distributed on the Windows Store? Is being compiled as x86 going to stop it from being able to run in Windows RT? Would I have to come up with a version without this subset of functionality to run in Windows RT? If I can get the code into its own assembly can I just have the Windows RT version not use it? (so, the main executable is AnyCPU and this one assembly is x86).
Can a Metro app be compiled as x86 and still be distributed on the Windows Store?
Yes. However, it would only be installable for x86 installations.
Is being compiled as x86 going to stop it from being able to run in Windows RT?
Since Windows RT is designed to run only on ARM CPUs, compiling for x86 will stop it from being able to run on Windows RT.
Would I have to come up with a version without this subset of functionality to run in Windows RT? If I can get the code into its own assembly can I just have the Windows RT version not use it?
You could use conditional compilation symbols to include/exclude functionality as required in your code. https://stackoverflow.com/a/6587823/61385 shows an example of how to do this.
Just compile whatever libs you need and when you upload to app store just upload the one you want to. Check your apppackages folder and look for the .appxupload files.

Calling an x86 dll from a VS 2010/DotNet 4.0 x86 targeted app

I'm getting an 'AccessViolationException' 'Attempted to read or write protected memory' when calling a method in an x86 dll when running on an x64 platform (Windows 7). Everything works great on x86 platforms.
I've read many, many posts about similar problems but haven't been able to get my code to work.
I'm in the process of trying to make our old x86 app work happily on Windows 7 (x64) and Server 2008 R2 (x64). The app is an assortment of VB6 , VB.Net, C#, MicroFocus COBOL and C++. (We couldn't think of any other languages to throw in at the time). The DotNet code was originally written in Visual Studio 2003 for DotNet 1.1. I've ported the code up to Visual Studio 2010 and DotNet 4.0. I've set the target for all the projects to x86. When I call into un-managed 32 bit dll's I get the above error.
Our InstallShield setup routine is installing the x86 dll's into C:\Windows\sysWOW64 instead of C:\Windows\System32. This behavior seems correct. The dll's are some COBOL object code and runtime components linked together into a 'C Style' dll. I don't think the problem has to do with COBOL or the linking process as I also ported up a sample app from Code Project with a VB.Net WinForms app that calls a simple C++ dll, all targeted to x86. I get the same error there. I've also tried building a C++ command line app to call the dll. The Load Library succeeds. GetProcAddress succeeds. Calling the function pointer for the particular method fails. Our VB6 apps can call the dll's just fine when running on Windows 7 x64. I've also tried turning off UAC and setting the requestedExecutionLevel in the manifest to the highestAvailable. I've tried running as administrator.
Seems like this should work, but not sure what to try next. Any ideas?
On x64 .net programs will be run as 64-bit programs and cannot call 32bit-dlls.
Try compiling the application with target x86 instead of "Any Target". You can also force the
target of the built .exe with the .Net CorFlags.exe utility to run in 32bit-mode.
Of course your program will then run in the 32bit environment, especially it will only have a maximum of 2gb of RAM.
Good news,
We investigated DEP as a possible cause of the problem as we saw that even our VB6 code will fail when DEP is turned on. We noticed that the VB.Net code was failing in the same way as VB6 when DEP was on. Apparently our COBOL dll's do something that DEP isn't happy with. Unfortunately the DotNet assemblies don't seem to respect the operating system DEP setting, so you have to turn off DEP with using editbin.exe:
editbin.exe /nxnocompat:no
I still have to test it on our full application, but it looks like we have a solution!

how to enable Mono.Simd

I'd like to use Simd in Mono, but the following code is highlighted as error in MonDevop
using Mono.Simd
I already installed the "Mono 2.8 for Windows", what else I need to install to enable Mono.Simd?
In this link
http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2008/Nov-03.html
It talk about the tarbal, but after download it an uncompress it (mono-Mono.Simd.Math-942e804), there are many cs file and no dll file.
Did you add the Mono.Simd.dll to the build? MonoDevelop correctly highlights the error because in the assemblies you're using there isn't any Mono.Simd namespace.
Mono.Simd.dll is included in recent Mono releases.
As for the other answer, Mono.Simd works on any operating system on x86 and amd64, not only on Linux.
Mono.Simd only works when you run your programs on Mono runtime, on a supported operating system. If I'm not mistaken, it's currenly restricted to 32 & 64 bit Linux. Even if you manage to compile it on Windows, you won't get any speed benefit from it.
MonoDevelop for Windows runs on the .Net runtime, while the Mono.Simd.dll that comes with Mono 2.8 is installed in Mono's GAC.
You will need to Add Reference in your project to the Mono.Simd.dll that came with Mono 2.8.
It should be roughly in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mono-2.8\lib\mono\2.0\Mono.Simd.dll.

Trouble registering ChilkatDotNet4.dll to the GAC

I'm trying to add a .NET 4.0 .dll to the GAC. I am attempting to do this because it is published by a 3rd party company as both a 32 and 64bit .dll which I must use from different apps on different platforms in both formats.
At any rate, I am having trouble registering this dll to the GAC on a Windows Server 2008 environment.
I have tried copying gacutil.exe (and supporting file) found at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools" on my local machine to the "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319" folder on the target production server per the suggestions found here.
I then tried copying them to "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319".
Running from both locations indicated successful installation. And indeed, the registration appears successful:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_64\ChilkatDotNet4\v4.0_9.0.8.0__eb5fc1fc52ef09bd\ChilkatDotNet4.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_32\ChilkatDotNet4\v4.0_9.0.8.0__eb5fc1fc52ef09bd\ChilkatDotNet4.dll
However, running a console app that refers to the (64bit) version of the dll errors out with the following message:
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could
not load file or assembly
'ChilkatDotNet4.dll' or one of its
dependencies. The specified module
could not be found. File name:
'ChilkatDotNet4.dll'
So, I have now manually created the following GAC entries using mkdir and copy from a command prompt (which may or may not actually work. I have no clue what is so special about gacutil.exe):
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\ChilkatDotNet4\v4.0_9.0.8.0__eb5fc1fc52ef09bd\ChilkatDotNet4.dll (using the 64bit version of the dll)
C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_64\ChilkatDotNet4\v4.0_9.0.8.0__eb5fc1fc52ef09bd\ChilkatDotNet4.dll
C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\ChilkatDotNet4\v4.0_9.0.8.0__eb5fc1fc52ef09bd\ChilkatDotNet4.dll
After each "install" of the dll, I tested and received the same error. Any ideas welcome!
EDIT: the GAC issue above may not actually be the culprit. Turns out, even when I create a brand new Console App project and add the .dll directly (so that it lives in the bin), I still can't run it on the sever. Also, I've noted that Console apps are created targeting the .NET 4.0 Client Profile rather than the .NET Framework 4. When I try to run it targeting the client profile, it appears that none of the System.Web* libraries are available. However, I tried running a very simple test app targeting both and neither would run on the server while referencing the bad .dll.
Is there a special kind of install that was to occur to run .NET 4.0 Console Apps?
For anyone else who may have trouble with this in the future. It was not a generalized problem with the way I was registering the dll to the GAC or how I was referring to it from my projects.
ChilkatDotNet4.dll (and the other versions I'm sure) was built in Visual C++. So, the server it is being deployed to has to have the Visual C++ Runtime installed for the appropriate processor architecture.
For 2010 (.NET 4.0):
x86
x64
If you're running an x86 app on a 64-bit platform. Make sure to mark the application pool with "Enable 32-bit applications" = true.

Windows 64-bit registry v.s. 32-bit registry

I heard on Windows x64 architecture, in order to support to run both x86 and x64 application, there is two separate/different sets of Windows registry -- one for x86 application to access and the other for x64 application to access? For example, if a COM registers CLSID in the x86 set of registry, then x64 application will never be able to access the COM component by CLSID, because x86/x64 have different sets of registry?
So, my question is whether my understanding of the above sample is correct? I also want to get some more documents to learn this topic, about the two different sets of registry on x64 architecture. (I did some search, but not found any valuable information.)
I ran into this issue not long ago. The short answer is that if you run a 32 bit application on a 64 bit machine then it's registry keys are located under a Wow6432Node.
For example, let's say you have an application that stores its registry information under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CompanyX
If you compile your application as a 64 bit binary and run it on a 64 bit machine then the registry keys are in the location above. However, if you compile your application as a 32 bit binary and run it on a 64 bit machine then your registry information is now located here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\CompanyX
This means that if you run both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of your application on the same machine then they will each be looking at a different set of registry keys.
Your understanding is correct. There wouldn't be any need for a x64 app to access the x86 CLSIDs since it could never load those components anyway and vice versa.
If you want to create component for use by both x86 and x64 then you need to either create a pair of dlls one built for x86 and the other for x64 and register both in their appropriate parts of the registry. The regsrv32.exe in the System32 folder will perversely register the x64 component and the regsrv32.exe in the SysWOW64 folder will register the x86 component.
Alternatively build a .NET assembly for Any CPU which can used by either CPU architecture.
They aren't separate registries--one is a subnode of the other, and the OS does virtualization to make sure that 32bit apps get their keys and 64bit apps get their keys.
Here is the Wikipedia article on the WOW64 registry which may give you some of the information you are looking for:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOW64
I run an x64 bit machine as my desktop; and I have never run into any issues with the different registry configurations.
Per MSDN, there is apparently a difference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms724072(VS.85).aspx
HTH
How to register .NET assembly to be used as COM in pure 64-bit application?
Problem:
By default, if you enable "Register for COM Interop" in build settings, it DOES NOT register type library for 64-bit.
Solution:
To register your assembly which is not in GAC on a 64-bit machine, open cmd window and do:
cd c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework64\v2.x.xxxxx
regasm /codebase "path to your compiled assembly dll"
This will eliminate "Class Not Registered Error" when using native C++ to instanciate .NET assembly as COM object.