This is a variation on the old
System.DllNotFoundException: Unable to load DLL 'foo.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E).
problem (where, of course, foo.dll is the name of an actual DLL). The strange part is that I only get this error when I "Run" in VS (2008 if that's relevant). That sits in the MyApp.vhost.exe processes.
If I run the actual app in a command line (MyApp.exe) I encounter no errors. The problem extends to unit tests with MSTest.
A check on the DLL with DependencyWalker on Foo.dll doesn't show any issues.
Any ideas?
Make sure the DLL is in the folder where your EXE is.
Related
I'm writing a 32-bit C++ application on Windows 8.1 x64 using Visual Studio 2013 that depends on Python 3.3 and libVLC. I have python33.dll, libvlc.dll, and libvlccore.dll in the same directory as my executable, which I also have set as the working directory under Project > Properties > Debugging. According to MSDN, unless you're using the altered search path (which should only apply if you're using LoadLibraryEx to load the DLLs at run-time; in my case these DLLs are loaded at load-time), the application directory should always be searched before the system directory. However, according to Visual Studio, all three of these DLLs are being loaded from C:\Windows\SysWOW64. This is causing me problems as the version of libVLC I have there is much older than the one I'm trying to use.
That MSDN article only lists 3 exceptions to the normal search process. These DLLs are loaded as soon as the process starts, so obviously it couldn't be the system versions were already loaded (but just to be sure, I created a .local file since it mentioned redirection would override that, and it had no effect). I've checked the registry to see that they didn't somehow get registered as "Known DLLs", so that doesn't appear to be the problem. It's possible that python33 is being loaded as a dependency of Boost.Python, but even if it's loaded only by name the app directory should still be searched first, and in any case none of my other dependencies reference VLC. As a guess I tried marking the VLC libs as delay-load (I couldn't with Python due to data imports), and I got the following warnings, which I found interesting:
1>LINK : warning LNK4199: /DELAYLOAD:libvlc.dll ignored; no imports found from libvlc.dll
1>LINK : warning LNK4199: /DELAYLOAD:libvlccore.dll ignored; no imports found from libvlccore.dll
However, dumpbin shows that my compiled exe imports several functions from libvlc.dll.
I could of course replace or delete the system versions, but that's not really a solution if I ever attempt to distribute this application. I'm not really sure what else would be causing this. Can anyone suggest anywhere else for me to look?
I've created a word add-in, which uses one of my DLL's. The application works fine when I'm running it in Visual Studio (both debug or release mode), however when I try starting Word on it's own (and the add-in is still present) and then proceed to trigger a method which loads the DLL, I get a DLL error as shown in the picture below. I'm quiet certain that the problem is not related to x86/x64 compatibility issues as I've set the platform target to x86 for all projects. (The version of Word used for testing is also 32-bit). Any ideas as to what the problem might be will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
So after a day of Googling, I found my solution. It turns out that Word (and Office programs in general) moves your dll's into separate temporary directories - found in:
$User\AppData\Local\assembly\dl3
My dll depended on other resources in the same directory, but because it was being moved separately into this temporary directory then the dll could not be loaded. To get around this, I loaded the dll manually from the directory that it was installed in using:
System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFile(string path)
You can get the directory that it was installed in with these lines of code:
System.Reflection.Assembly assemblyInfo = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
//Location is where the assembly is run from
string assemblyLocation = assemblyInfo.Location;
//CodeBase is the location of the ClickOnce deployment files
Uri uriCodeBase = new Uri(assemblyInfo.CodeBase);
string ClickOnceLocation = Path.GetDirectoryName(uriCodeBase.LocalPath.ToString());
I have a VS2010 C# project, that references a large set of native .dll's (a commercial java runtime). These file are referenced as 'Content' files in the project, since the need to be copied with the project.
The code in these libraries is called using PInvoke, there is no assembly reference.
Every time I compile the solution, the Visual Studio testing framework tries to load all the referenced dll files, expecting to find .net assemblies which may contain unit tests. Since the are no .net assemblies, the following exception is thrown:
Error loading some.dll: Unable to load the test container 'e:\some.dll' or one of its dependencies. If you build your test project assembly as a 64 bit assembly, it cannot be loaded. When you build your test project assembly, select "Any CPU" for the platform. To run your tests in 64 bit mode on a 64 bit processor, you must change your test settings in the Hosts tab to run your tests in a 32 bit process. Error details: Could not load file or assembly 'file:///e:\some.dll' or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.
This takes a whole lot of time, and I would like to tell Visual Studio to not try to load these files.
How can I tell Visual Studio to stop trying to load these files?
Correct me if I got this wrong:
You are including the P/Invoke target binaries in to the VS solution because you want the binaries to be copied over to the target directory when the solution is built. You want this because the project will execute from the target directory as soon as the VS solution is built. Correct?
Often times VS packages (both default and 3rd party) try to get smart about the solution content and will follow certain triggers (which are difficult to contain and control by ourselves) and load the solution and project content in their own ways. Fighting the battle in this area has poor ROI than employing a simpler work around (below).
While I can't provide you with an authoritative answer on how to tell VS's test package to not load all binaries, I suggest removing such binaries from the project as 'content' and leave them in your source control where they are today. Add a post-build task that will copy the said binaries over to the target. This will still give you the same result as it is working today but, takes those binaries out of reach for the test probes.
You must check out configuration settings by just right clicking on your solution name and click on "Configuration Manager"
It will open a pop up window for Configuration Manager.
Check not for the platform your projects are using it is better to choose any CPU.
Hope this can help.Give it a try:)
Because thats what your exeception says as you have quoted
Thanks
I tried to repro this issue and found that the root cause is that you have set your test project to be compiled as !AnyCpu. Is there any particular reason why you would want this for managed test code?
So unless you change this you will continue to see this message.
If you want to continue using this configuration for your test project you would need to update your .testsettings file as suggested in the message.
Sorry if this seems remedial. I am including it for the sake of completeness.
General library behavior
A library can be referenced either in the project file (and so the compiler injects to code to load the references) or dynamically at runtime with LoadLibrary() or PInvoke calls. When a referenced library is loaded, a function at the entry point is run can in turn load any libraries it depends on. When loading the library, there is a well-known set of paths that Windows will search, including %WINDIR%\Assembly and the current directory. There's a lot of good conceptual information on Wikipedia about this. I recommend reading it.
Possible Root Causes
I can't tell from your question if you are having trouble building the application, building the tests, or executing either. Generally I would not expect PInvoke to cause compile errors.
Error during app build: VS generally will show you that you have a reference to a DLL it can't find. However, you may be missing a DLL that is needed to satisfy all the dependencies. To resolve, just add the reference to the missing DLL. (This is the simplest issue, so I'm guessing this isn't what you're seeing.)
Error during test build: Since your test will reference your application/library, it also needs to have the same reference. Usually the easiest way to ensure you are getting everything is to remove all references and add a reference to the project you are testing. It's possible you some additional libraries are necessary for some tests, but not your app/lib itself. These need to be added separately.
Error during app execution: This can happen when starting the application, or later when an call to the external library is made if late binding is used.
Error during test execution: This can happen the same as with app execution. However, tests can also be "partially built" to only execute a small number of tests. In these cases, some files may not be copied. Using the [DeploymentItem()] attribute, you can specify that a test requires the presence of certain files in the test or app/lib project to function. MSDN describes how this can be done.
Resolution
For #1 & #2 the solution lies in adjusting the references in the project.
For #3 & #4, it may get trickier. There is a similar question to yours regarding Windows Mobile here which you may find useful, especially referring to using dumpbin to list out library dependencies. You can also use procmon from SysInternals to monitor file access during compile or load to see which files are not found. Then you can either include the missing file, or remove the library referencing it.
Good luck. Hope this helps.
When I try to run my Visual C++ application, a box comes up saying "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)." The only output is
Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll', Cannot find or open the PDB file
Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\kernel32.dll', Cannot find or open the PDB file
Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\KernelBase.dll', Cannot find or open the PDB file
But all of those files exist...which makes me think that its not the cause of the application's error. With no other output, I don't know what could be wrong. If anyone knows what I could check for or how to fix it, I would be grateful.
Few blueprints:
Rebuild the application, including all dependent DLLs, and try again.
Ensure all dependent DLLs, services (like MSMQ) are available and running.
Check if one of your DLLs DllMain is returing failure, which causes the application to start. OS won't start, if any of DLL returns failure while initializing.
Ensure you have correct CRT/MFC versions for the Debug/Release DLL you are using, or have linked other DLLs/EXE with.
Use Dependency Walker to find out of any DLL is missing, not found, or of different platform.
A colleague of min told me he read once that re-building opencv should fix this. Which worked for me. Notice I'm using opencv1.1(x86) under a win7 64-bit cpu.
Best of luck.
Hasan.
My project generates a dll and when build in Debug mode the dll gets registered automatically by Visual Studio 2005. But when I try to register the same dll in command prompt using "regsvr32" I'm unable to register. I get the following error,
The module ".."
failed to load. Make sure the binary
is stored at specified path or debug
it to check problems with the binary
or dependent .DLL files.
But I have all the dependent dlls in place. What could be the reason for this issue.?
I tried registering and unregistering the dll using the following command,
regsvr32 dll_name.dll
regsvr32 /u dll_name.dll
I just had the same issue.
If you're running 64-bit Windows and you've placed the 32-bit DLL in Windows\System32\ then it'll give you this error.
Simply place the DLL into Windows\SysWOW64\ and register it from there.
Here's where I found the fix:
http://csi-windows.com/blog/all/73-windows-64-bit/378-fixing-qregsvr32-the-module-failed-to-load-the-specified-module-could-not-be-foundq
The DLL might link to another DLL which isn't in the path when running regsvr32 from the command line.
First, you have to start the Command as a administrator.
Second, you didn't specify your dll file in which directory. If your operating system is 32-bit windows operating system, the regsvr32.exe's default working directory is C:\Windows\System32\.
you may get some help for your answers from here, here
I know its too late... but I am adding my solution for others because I faced the same error after following above mentioned answers:
"I just had the same issue.
If you're running 64-bit Windows and you've placed the 32-bit DLL in Windows\System32\ then it'll give you this error.
Simply place the DLL into Windows\SysWOW64\ and register it from there."
If you are facing same error after placing DDL to SysWOW64, then you need to turn on MSMQ feature.
Go to Start
Search "Turn Windows features on or off"
Find "Microsoft Message Queue(MSMQ) Server" and Enable it.
Now, register the same DLL again and this time it will be registered