Unable to create a runnable msixbundle

[boergegrunicke]

Describe the bug

Creating a new project with from template in Visual Studio and publishing them to msixbundle only produces crashing output but nothing working

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Open Visual Studio and create a new project
2. Select blank app with windows application packaging project (WinUI 3 in Desktop)
3. Give it a name and create it (target and minimum version seem not really to matter)
4. Run it (it will run properly)
5. Right-click the packaging project -> Publish -> Create App Packages ... -> Sideloading -> Select a vertificate -> Create!
6. it will fail "The specified RuntimeIdentifier is not recognized" -> okay by removing all win10-xxx runtime identifiers and only keeping the win-xxx identifiers this will work.
7. Jump to the output folder and install the msixbundle.
8. Try to launch the app from the start menu -> Nothing will happen
9. Check the system event log. There is an error containing a hint to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.1.5_5001.178.1908.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Microsoft.ui.xaml.dll#
10. By setting PublishTrimmed to false and PublishReadyToRun to True in the publish profile as well as WindowsAppSDKSelfContained to True in the csproj and wapproj this can be solved
11. Publish again and install it: Now it will crash again:

Application: App.exe
CoreCLR Version: 8.0.724.31311
.NET Version: 8.0.7
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for '<Module>' threw an exception.
 ---> System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'Void System.Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(System.String, System.String)'.
   at Microsoft.Windows.Foundation.UndockedRegFreeWinRTCS.AutoInitialize.AccessWindowsAppSDK()
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

Expected behavior

Creating an app package should produce something that contains all necessary references will start without a crash, or there should be at least a guide somewhere how to get it running

Screenshots

No response

NuGet package version

Windows App SDK 1.5.5: 1.5.240627000

Packaging type

Packaged (MSIX)

Windows version

Windows 11 version 22H2 (22621, 2022 Update)

IDE

Visual Studio 2022

Additional context

No response

[Scottj1s]

@boergegrunicke Thanks for reporting this issue. I suspect the problem lies here:
7. Jump to the output folder and install the msixbundle.

The .\Dependencies folder (which contains the Windows App Runtime framework packages) must also be installed. The Install.ps1 script generated by Visual Studio takes care of this, whereas just double clicking the msixbundle (or msix) does not.

[boergegrunicke]

@Scottj1s Thanks for the response, actually I was using all the time the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 script to install the package because this was mentioned in one of the tutorial pages for creating WinUI3-Apps. I double-checked it now with the Install.ps1 script instead, the error is the same, so I assume that cannot be the cause of the problem.

[Scottj1s]

@boergegrunicke Thanks for clarifying. Looking again at your repro steps, I missed this:
10. By setting PublishTrimmed to false and PublishReadyToRun to True in the publish profile as well as WindowsAppSDKSelfContained to True in the csproj and wapproj this can be solved

I interpret this as saying you can work around the crash with step 10. Is that correct? If so, I think you're encountering the trimming issue described here, which also links to a couple workarounds:
microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml#9740

[boergegrunicke]

@Scottj1s Thanks for taking care.
By setting the described Flags from Step 10, I can work around the crash from step 9, what finally leads to the crash described after Step 11. During the last couple of days, I figured out, that this crash does not happen, in case the msixbundle contains only a x64 msix.
With this finding, I tried to apply the same to my main application project, this lead to the next crash: Either the <WindowsAppSDKSelfContained>true</WindowsAppSDKSelfContained> propertiy is set true (like it should be) for the main application csproj and the wapproj packaging project. in this case, the compilation fails with

Found multiple publish output files with the same relative path: <ProjectFolder>\obj\x64\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-x64\MsixContent\Microsoft.WebView2.Core.dll, obj\x64\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-x64\R2R\Microsoft.WebView2.Core.dll

Or if I set the WindowsAppSDKSelfContained to true only for the wapproj (and not the main app csproj-file), the bundle is built successfully, but after installation it again crashes. In this case, I can find in the system event monitor

Windows App Runtime
ERROR 0x80070032: Bootstrapper initialization failed while looking for version 1.5 (MSIX package version >= 5001.178.1908.0) 

[Scottj1s]

@boergegrunicke Thanks for the clarification. You describe two subsequent issues:

1. Found multiple publish output files with the same relative path: ...\Microsoft.WebView2.Core.dll
   This may be due to stale build artifacts following an upgrade to Windows App SDK 1.6. In 1.6, WebView2 code has been factored out and WinAppSDK now just carries a reference to the public WebView2 nuget package. You don't mention upgrading, but you might still try deleting your obj and bin folders to ensure a clean rebuild (specifically, the MsixContent and Manifests folders should be purged).

2. Windows App Runtime ERROR 0x8007003 ...
   The bootstrapper should normally only be invoked for an unpackaged configuration (WindowsPackageType=None). You don't mention that here, but if you've made that change you'll need to run the Windows App Runtime installer.

Feel free to provide a self-contained repro project if that's easier.

[boergegrunicke]

Hi @Scottj1s,
thanks for your effort.
Regarding the two points:
I am not using an experimental Version of the App SDK, I am still on Version 1.5.5 (1.5.240627000). Upgrading to the latest experimental Version is blocked by nuget. But in two of my subprojects I have the reference to the "Microsoft.Web.WebView2" package, as I need it for some modules.
To the second point:
As I described, I am running a project with a separate package creation project. In this combination, as I understood, the application package always is treated as unpackaged. However, the runtime is installed on my machine and if I run it from Visual Studio, it works. The described crash only happens after installing the package