How to get a MacOS packaged build to run?

[liana-p]

I've been trying to get a MacOS build running and can't get it to work. My app runs fine if using electron directly, or if building without steam. It's when using steamworks that it breaks.

I was getting the following errors. Using the open command on MacOS and pointing it to the executable inside the .app folder I was able to get logs out:

[0624/140510.973198:ERROR:base/i18n/icu_util.cc:177] icudtl.dat not found in bundle
[0624/140510.973600:ERROR:base/i18n/icu_util.cc:224] Invalid file descriptor to ICU data received.
[46433:0624/140511.034126:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:586] Network service crashed, restarting service.
[0624/140511.221391:ERROR:base/i18n/icu_util.cc:177] icudtl.dat not found in bundle
[0624/140511.221719:ERROR:base/i18n/icu_util.cc:224] Invalid file descriptor to ICU data received.

That was after I added a command to copy steam_appid.txt inside game.app/Contents/MacOS. On other OSes I was just copying steam_appid.txt to the root of the executable, but on mac the executable is deeper in subfolders, so I had to do that for it to work when testing builds locally.

After more research I found this thread and ended up trying to add the no-sandbox command line argument for mac builds. Now they were launching, so I tried copying it to my Windows PC and uploading it to steam with steam pipe (I can't find any way to upload builds from Mac, and I wonder if copying the folder to windows could break it). Once downloaded from Steam, the build has the following errors, despite working locally:

dyld[49394]: Library not loaded: @rpath/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework

  Referenced from: <[SOME ID]> [HOME FOLDER]/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/[GAME FOLDER]/[GAME].app/Contents/MacOS/[GAME EXECUTABLE]

  Reason: tried: '[HOME FOLDER]/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/[GAME FOLDER]/[GAME].app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework' (not a mach-o file), '[HOME FOLDER]/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/[GAME FOLDER]/[GAME].app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework' (not a mach-o file)

I have no background knowledge on how electron or chromium works so I don't know what could be happening.

I also tried what's mentioned in #149 and looked at any other issue threads about Mac, but it's hard to tell how to get a Mac build working, or if anyone has.

Other relevant info:

• I am not doing code signing. I'm not sure if we have to?
• This is a Mac M1 (so apple silicon)
• The build architecture is intel (x64). Universal builds don't work, and I wanted to make an intel build for compatibility
• I am using electron forge

[liana-p]

The issue I'm at now is the same as #120, which has as "solution" to ask your users to uninstall and reinstall the app, which isn't really viable.

I am keeping all the details of the steps I got problems at above so that anyone trying to make a Mac build can find this thread as hopefully the main source for all the troubleshooting.

I am still stuck though as right now even if I reinstall the steam build, the same error shows up (dyld[49394]: Library not loaded: @rpath/Electron Framework.framework/Electron Framework).

I found this thread online and tried deleting node_modules and cleaning pnpm cache, but that didn't help. I also tried doing this again but switching to npm in case it helps, same issue.

I still suspect it might have to do with breaking the files as they get copied/uploaded across. but I don't know what to do about this or how to test this theory.

It would be great to hear if anyone has successfully gotten MacOS builds to run on Steam, and how.

[liana-p]

Looked into this more and I am 90% sure it is a file transfer across OSes issue. I dug into where that Electron Framework file was, and on MacOS, it's a symlink to the Versions folder. On Windows... They are just "files".

Original folder on MacOS (see the symlinks, they all point to content in the versions folder:

The final files being used are the ones in the "A" folder. The "Current" version folder is also a symlink to "A". In it, Electron Framework is a 180MB file:

Then on Windows, they are just "files":

Back in the build downloaded on MacOS from Steam, after Windows has uploaded it using the Steam tools:

The files are now just presumably empty 1kb executable files, instead of symlinks to the versions folder (which contains the right 180MB file).

So I decided to copy-paste the files in the right place directly in the downloaded steam build, to see if it would fix it. The error changed and asked for another framework. Oh right, there are other frameworks in there with the same issue:

After copy-pasting the right files for each of those frameworks, the build worked! I can launch it from Steam and it plays. There is no overlay though.

It might be possible to write a script to automate this copy-pasting process after the fact, as otherwise I don't really know how to get the build uploaded without breaking it in the process of switching it to windows.