ClickOnce: BadImageFormatException when running x86 package on 64 bit windows - c#

My .NET 2.0 application imports unmanaged 32 bit dll.
The dll is loaded (first interop call happens) when user opens a file via a dialog within the application.
When I deploy the application via clickonce with target platform "Any", users on 64 bit windows get BadImageFormatException when trying to open files from the application (at the moment the unmanaged dll is loaded). I understand this is due to incompabible bitness of the 64 bit process and the 32 bit unmanaged dll.
I have redeployed the application using x86 as target platform. As I understand it, this should solve the bitness problem.
BUT
When I run the deployed application built for x86 on 64 bit system, I now get BadImageFormatException immediately before the application even starts. Tested on at least three 64 bit machines. On 32 bit machines, it works with no problem.
When I run the application directly from VS (or not directly, just a normal build, not going via ClickOnce), there is no problem on 64 bit windows when using x86 target platform. The application starts and user can load file - the interop call succeeds.
I have been debugging this for 2 days straight with no result - I have tried on different computers. It seems to consistentnly work on one of the computers I have tried. However, I do not have permanent access to this computer.
I have managed to build the ClickOnce deployment on my computer once and it worked on a 64 bit machine. This was single of maybe 100 tries! Nothing has changed, the only changed variable was that I did the successful build immediately after computer restart.
I did clean/rebuild/restart VS/restart windows MANY times. I have reinstalled VS 2008 and now also the whole OS, it did not help.
EDIT: I have just managed to get one good build (out of next 100 :)) and did comparison between the deployed directories.
The source of the problem is that ClickOnce generates the wrong target platform in the manifest of the main .exe:
<asmv1:assemblyIdentity name="app.exe" version="1.0.4.18" publicKeyToken=".token here." language="neutral" processorArchitecture="<b>msil</b>" type="win32" />
processorArchitecture should be x86.
So the question is how to consistently force VS to generate the correct processorArchitecture in the manifest when deploying.
Can anyone help please?

This was resolved by installing VS 2008 SP1 on 64 bit Windows 7. VS2008 SP1 on XP had the problem on two machines I have tried with.

I had this problem as well, using VS2008 SP1.
In my case I had a 32 bit DLL which had to be compiled as 32 bit and an application that was using it in the same solution.
Even though I specified X86 as the build target for the release build, when I published a 64bit application was compiled and included in the installer.
I found a slightly brutal solution to the problem:
Go into the configuration manager and remove all possible configurations except the one that you want it to build (Debug and release versions).
After doing this I found that the clickonce installer was generated with the correct application.
I hope this helps someone else, I have been battling this problem on and off for months.

I'd suggest to use Reflector to open the main exe deployed by ClickOnce and see the dependencies to make sure you are not deploying the 64 bit version of the dll by mistake.

You must resolve to run 32-Bit Applications in IIS 7. See http://www.fishofprey.com/2009/04/badimageformatexception-in-iis-70-on-64.html

Sometimes the ClickOnce publishing process seems to cache old files from previous Any CPU or x64 builds. Doing a Clean and Rebuild All didn't fix this problem for me. I needed to delete all of the bin and obj folders from my projects and reopen Visual Studio.

We ran into this problem and determined that the subdirectory of the user profile to which ClickOnce deployed our application must have become corrupted, because we were able to deploy the application successfully with ClickOnce when logged in as a different user on the same machine.
We were able to solve the problem simply by deleting the subdirectory of C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Apps under which ClickOnce was deploying our application. In our case, this was C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0.

Related

An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format ERROR

I am trying to create a webservice where the functions are performed by a 64 bit DLL. When I try to build this service i get the error "An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format."
But when I run a 32 bit DLL it works fine.
I am trying to run in a visual studio 2012 on .net 4 framework in C#
I have tried changing the app pool settings in IIS and changed build platform target to any cpu. Cannot identify where the problem is coming from. Please provide you assistance. Thank you
Right click on the application pool you are using and go to Advanced Settings. Under (General) there is a setting called Enable 32-Bit Applications. If you're running on a 64 bit OS and this is set to true then the app-pool will be a 32bit process, and therefore your 64bit DLL won't load. Set it to false to make your app-pool a 64bit process.
Also, check the dependencies of the DLL you're building as 64bit. It may be using a 32bit dll/assembly. If you've got any [DllImport] attributes in your code then look at the .dlls they refer to and ensure they're 64bit compatible.
If your web service references 64 bit dlls it must be compiled to x64
Try not to mix AnyCPU compilation with 32 or 64 bit DLL (DLL can be compiled as 32bit or 64bit or both) - behavior will depend on platform and in some environments it will work, in some not.

Could not load file or assembly 'Oracle.DataAccess error

I am building ASP.NET application with C# and I want to connect to oracle database.
I have added reference to Oracle.DataAccess in my application on my 64bit Microsoft Window Server 2008 machine.
I also installed ODAC (Oracle Data Access Component) on my machine
and Oracle.DataAccess.dll is also present on this path
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_64\Oracle.DataAccess
but when i'm trying to connect i encounter following error:
Could not load file or assembly 'Oracle.DataAccess, Version=4.112.3.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
As far as I know, the Oracle.DataAccess assembly works only with 32 bits, I also have this kind of problem with 64 bits and it really does not work. My solution was remove the 64bits from GAC and install the 32 bits on GAC. I also remove any .dll file in the bin folder to my application find the assembly on GAC.
There is no problem if your machine and operational system is 64bits, the 32bits version will work fine.
UPDATE
I recommend you take a look at Official Oracle ODP.NET, Managed Driver, that is a better version than Oracle.DataAccess. This Managed Driver does not need the Oracle Client on the machine, and you just need to provide the TNS on the DataSource field of the connection string and it works fine for 32 and 64 bits.
You need to install both x64 and x86 versions of Oracle, because something (I think it was Visual Studio) uses the x86 version when debugging.
In VS2010, I changed the platform target to x64 and this error message disappear.
essentially same error
missing ODP.NET installation components as per last post from me and the other answer participant.
You check the GAC yet?
If you do not see Oracle.xxx folders,
you are not making any headway.
put the correct version and bit of Oracle.DataAccess.dll into the application /BIN folder and make local reference. It solves many problems.
To run your website, you must use IIS since visual studio's development server only runs in 32 bit mode.
In IIS application pool, set your application to run in 64 bit. (The setting is in advanced settings)
To resolve this error, I set my app pool in IIS to allow 32bit applications.
Open up IIS Manager, right click on the app pool, and select Advanced Settings --> set “Enable 32-bit Applications” to True. It's working fine for me.
I got the same exception on a c# console app. What solved it for me is to change the platform target to x86. (project properties => build )

How to compile 32-bit (my OS is 64-bit) - Error exe is not a valid Win32 application

As title suggests I am compiling C# app using VS 2012 on a 64-bit machine. I would like the program being built to run on a 32-bit machine.
Right now the only help I found online was for:
Menu>Build>Configuration>
Active Solution Platform defaulted to Any CPU, and I tried that but didn't work on 32-bit machine (unless I did something wrong)
Tried Add a new one to the Debug configuration for platform x86 with build checked
Compiled and ran the app on 32-bit machine getting error A.exe is not a valid Win32 application.
My above was similar to what was done here: Link to Stack Overflow Similar Question
UPDATE 1:
The target OS is WinXP SP3 but we dont believe it has .NET 4.5 on it. I will be testing to see if compiling earlier ver of the app in .NET 4.0 will solve the problem and fix the problem. The problem may not be what the error message is displaying.
Setting your project to target AnyCPU should allow it to run on a 32bit machine, provided you aren't using a library which loads 64bit native code. If you have any dependencies, you'll need to make sure to use AnyCPU or 32-bit versions of those dependencies, as well. Also, make sure you have the proper .NET Framework installed on the 32bit machine (.NET 4.5 by default, if you're using VS 2012 with a new project).
Note that the default in VS 2012 for new projects is AnyCPU, with the Prefer 32 Bit option checked. This will cause it to always run as a 32bit application, even on your 64bit OS.
Note that, since your friend is running XP sp3, you can't use .NET 4.5. .NET 4.5 is not supported on Windows XP. You will need to change your application to target .NET 4.0, which will then work on the XP machine (if he installs the 4.0 framework).
That error is the Win32 error ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT. It's generated by the loader and is what happens when you try to run a 64 bit process on a 32 bit operating system. There are other ways to see that error, but this is by far the most common reason for it to occur on a .exe file.
To compile a 32 bit process you need to target x86 in your project configuration. Another alternative would be to target AnyCPU. That will result in a 32 bit process when executed on a 32 bit OS, and a 64 bit process when executed on a 64 bit OS. It would appear that your build targets x64.
The Platform name (shown on the top of the properties, page "Build") is only a name. The same for "Active Solution Platform" in configuration editor. This is a bit confusing.
You have to make sure that the "Target platform" setting is really set to "AnyCPU" or "x86".
I had same problem. I strugle with it. and the and I found a solution.
The solution is :
Firstly choose platform target "x86". After that build your project as "release mode" not "Debug mode". finally you can run on any platform (32 bit or 64 bit).
If none of the solutions presented above helped you, then try the following:
Open the project properties and click General in the left column.
Change Platform Toolset to the one with Windows XP in it.
For example, in Visual Studio 2015 it will default be set to "Visual Studio 2015 (v140)". To be able to run on Windows XP, you have to change this to "Visual Studio 2015 - Windows XP (v140_xp)".
Now do a full rebuild, and the exe should work on Windows XP.

64-bit SQLite.dll and Any CPU

I finally decided to post a question here after some time spent trying to figure out this problem. A few days ago I posted this same question on sqlite forum but that website is currently not available .
http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/forums/t/2669.aspx
So, here is the question:
I have 64-bit computer with 64-bit OS. A co-worker has 64-bit computer with 32-bit OS. We develop a web application that brings a lot of data from server and keeps it in memory SQLite database, so everything can run faster. Right now we use 32-bit SQLite.dll on both machines. However we want to switch to 64-bit dll (and increase amount of data we can use and store). I have downloaded from http://system.data.sqlite.org/index.html/doc/trunk/www/downloads.wiki
folowing files: sqlite-dotnet-x64-1007300.exe and instaled on my machine. I have placed System.Data.Sqlite.dll and System.Data.Sqlite.Linq.dll into lib folder, while I have copied Sqlite.Interop.dll into bin\Debug folder.
When I debug application by using Any CPU everything works fine on my machine, however, my co-worker is getting errors.
I want to use 64-bit dll and build exe file using Any CPU and not worry if the system is 32 or 64. Is that possible? And if it is what I should do to accomplish that?
Thanks in advance!
P.S. We use C# - Visual Studio 2008 3.5 SP1
Today, you don't have to any more. Just make sure you bundle both interop DLLs like this:
path_to_exe\System.Data.SQLite.dll
path_to_exe\x64\SQLite.Interop.dll
path_to_exe\x86\SQLite.Interop.dll
and the System.Data.SQLite.dll will find the correct one depending on the platform.
I guess that you'll have to ship both 32 bit and 64 bit SQLite.dlls, and install one or the other depending on the target system architecture.
Just install it from nuget. It will install both builds and they will be copied in separate folders and used based on the target system. Just set your build mode to Any CPU and you are good to go!
From here.

Why might I get a DLL not found exception on Vista but not XP?

I have an app that relies on several managed libraries. These managed libraries in turn rely on some unmanaged libraries.
When I deploy the app to a machine running XP, it runs fine. When I do the same on a machine running Vista, I get a DLL not found exception.
I've tried both a VS2010 setup project and an NSIS installer to do the deployment and it's the same in both cases.
Why might this happen? What can I do to get around it?
Update - Further details
Both installers check for the installation of .NET 4.0 and install it if need be
The Vista computer is 64 bit, but the installation gets directed to the x86 program files folder as expected
In both cases I have an admin account
The DLLs are kept in the same directory as the executable
As far as I can tell, the files are getting copied to the right directory
Update 2
The full error is at http://pastebin.ca/2046487
The DLL is Audiere.Net.dll, which is one of mine and is a managed library.
I'm not sure if that error means that it can't find Audiere.Net.dll, or whether it can't load it because one of it's dependencies can't be found.
Update 3 - Stuff from Process Monitor
After running process monitor (thanks Mehrdad!) there are several entries which don't have a status of "SUCCESS". Some of these are "NAME NOT FOUND" and some are "PATH NOT FOUND". (It's even querying the PDB files, which I had thought were only used by a debugger.) It's really hard to see which entries might be the one leading to the actual failure. Anyway, I've uploaded the log (filtered to have a relevant path) in case it means something to anyone.
Update 4 - Added .pdb files
So I kinda got desperate and included the .pdb files to the output of the installer. I thought it would be useless, but it actually resulted in a more useful error. Rather than simply saying DLL not found, I now get a BadImageFormatException. Googling this tells me that this is a common problem for binaries compiled on x86 but being run on x64 (as the Vista machine is).
The suggested remedy is to force it to target x86, but Audiere.Net.dll already was. Could the fault lie with the library that it wraps?
Maybe there's some sort of redirection that's not actually letting your app install in the intended folder?
We'd need a bit more detail, but are you installing for the user or the machine? Are you an admin? Where is the DLL normally located?
Edit: Try using Process Monitor to monitor what file is actually being accessed.
If you are running a .Net application, do both computers have the proper Framework installed?
You mention that Audiere.Net.dll is targeted at x86, but what about your executable?
You can obviously recompile your program or use Corflags (part of the framework) to view the current setting on your exe.
Corflags ssd2.exe
Or to set or unset the flag
Corflags ssd2.exe /32BIT+
Corflags ssd2.exe /32BIT-
(Note, if your app is signed with a strong name it won't work unless you use /Force to remove the signature)
The solution turned out to be quite straightforward: one of the unmanaged DLLs needed to be recompiled for x64.
Key steps:
Check process monitor for likely sources of error. Look carefully at the error report that Windows offers to send when the app crashes.
Include the .pdb files for managed libraries. This seemed to result in more informative error messages.
These error messages not only specified which managed library was causing the error, but also indicated that it was a x86/x64 issue. (BadImageFormatException)
Following some sound advice, check that all of the unmanaged libraries are targeting x86. (Mine were, but it's good to be sure.)
Recompile the unmanaged dependencies of the troublesome managed library on an x64 machine.
Write an install script that copies the appropriate (x86 or x64) version of the DLL.
Profit!
Specifics:
The problem I had seemed to be with Audiere.Net.dll, but was actually caused by a problem with libaudieresharpglue.dll.
I use NSIS for installers. To accomplish the architecture specific DLL, I used a header called x64.nsh.
Usual reason is that the dll in question depends on other dlls which are not on the Vista machine (or possibly there but not registered.)
We ran into something simlar and found we needed to download the c++ Redistibuatable Package to get the program to run on windows 7 using 3rd party dlls.
I recall running into a similar issue with SQLite wrapper.
The source of the problem is the 32/64 bit issue of course, and it's the same scenario as the SQLite wrapper is a managed wrapper which makes it processor dependent.
I am guessing that while you're managed lib (Audiere.Net.dll) is compiled for 32 bits, you main application (ssd2.exe) is not.
The installation folder is determined by the configuration of the setup, but if the application project is not strictly configured to compile as a x86 project (usually targeting the default Any Cpu environment) then the application will launch as a 64 bit process, regardless of the installation path. This can be easily verified by looking at the process in task manager on a 64 bit machine, all 32 bit processes have an additional *32 on a 64 bit windows machine (they won't have it on a 32 bit machine).
EDIT: or more easily by looking at the project properties->Build-> Platform Target :)
Anyhow - you should change the project settings for the project that builds ssd2.exe to target x86 and you should be ok.

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