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Can't install app on other Macs #266

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dsquared22 opened this issue Jan 28, 2022 · 12 comments
Open

Can't install app on other Macs #266

dsquared22 opened this issue Jan 28, 2022 · 12 comments

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@dsquared22
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Hi - I have a paid license for fbs Pro.

  • Your operating system(s) - Mac OS X 12.1
  • Your Python version 3.7
  • Your fbs version LATEST
  • Your PyInstaller version LATEST
  • Your PyQt / PySide version Pyside6

Everything worked fine on my Mac. Was able to do fbs run, fbs freeze, fbs installer with no issues. And then installed the app via the generated .dmg file on my Mac and it installs and runs fine.

However, when I copy the .dmg file to another Mac, and then try to install the app, I get this error:
Image 1-27-22 at 10 47 PM.

Basically, it says "madlibs" (app name) is damaged and can't be opened.

Any suggestions? Thanks.
@mherrmann
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Hi, what's the OS version of the other Mac? If it's lower than 12.1, then you might have to freeze and create the installer on the oldest macOS version you wish to support. From the relevant section in fbs's Manual:

Unlike Windows, there is one thing to take into account when publishing your app: Try to build it on as old a version of macOS as possible. This improves the compatibility of your app with older versions of macOS. For example, an app built on macOS 10.10 is most likely to also run on 10.14, but not the other way around. Most people use virtual machines to run old versions of macOS.

@meramsey
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To second this.
Got a report of this same issue from someone from compiling with Monterey and latest everything pyinstaller fbs_pro.1.1.0 as well.

Reaching out to get details of what there version is and looks like I'm going to have to create a fresh MacOS dev environment from scratch again but with lower version if that is the only fix :/

@meramsey
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meramsey commented Feb 21, 2022 •
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@dsquared22 so this issue is not about which version its compiled with like @mherrmann and I thought. I spent last 6 hours getting multiple MacOS KVM VM's setup to test this out.

Compiling on like High Sierra and then copying that installer over to any other version including newer OS like Monterey/BigSur showed that same misleading err um straight up lying error message. It appears that Mac is now being more sinister when your app is not codesigned. I can install the same app on the system compiled on no problem no warning which makes it all the more frustrating till you try on other systems or have others test. I also had 2 other people test this out on various versions and they had the same issue.....

The good news is there is an easy fix but it requires the end user running an extra command in terminal after allowing the app to be installed. Thanks to the tip from here

With the command line you can use xattr to view and remove extended attributes from a file on the Mac including the application throwing the “Appname.app is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash.” error message.

Launch Terminal and then issue the following command:

xattr -cr /path/to/application.app

For example:

xattr -cr /Applications/Signal.app

The -c flag removes all attributes, whereas -r applies recursively for the entire targeted .app directory contents.

The xattr command can also be used to remove the ‘application downloaded from the internet’ error message on the Mac too. Again this is only recommended to advanced users because modifying extended attributes may have unintended consequences, and again you might be attempting to run an app that you should not be running, either for stability, privacy, security, or other reasons.

Which i tested and confirmed the app is not in fact damaged or corrupted it just doesn't meet apples signed standards and they aren't courteous enough to fess up to why there blocking it under that false pretense. I'm all for security but lying about the reason and blocking something in this manner and not having the old options they used to have to allow the app through which doesn't exist anymore like it states in their guides is all the more enraging when you gotta deal with it....

Looks like I'll have to advise the few people using Mac to do that until I can be bothered with dealing with getting an Apple Developer account and code signing license.

Hopefully this saves someone else the hours wasted debugging and trying older and older MacOS just to find out its not at all that issue.

@mherrmann
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Sorry for your terrible experience @meramsey. I hate Apple for things like this. And getting a VM setup is also a nightmare. Your post here will likely help other people avoid many wasted hours. So thank you very much for sharing.

I have some code for code signing on macOS, but it's not yet in fbs. Once you have a Developer certificate, I could send it to you on a private channel. And then if you find some improvements to it from your use cases, I could integrate it into fbs Pro for you and others.

@dsquared22
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dsquared22 commented Feb 21, 2022 via email

@meramsey
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Sorry for your terrible experience @meramsey. I hate Apple for things like this. And getting a VM setup is also a nightmare. Your post here will likely help other people avoid many wasted hours. So thank you very much for sharing.

I have some code for code signing on macOS, but it's not yet in fbs. Once you have a Developer certificate, I could send it to you on a private channel. And then if you find some improvements to it from your use cases, I could integrate it into fbs Pro for you and others.

sounds good I'll work on that and get back to you. appreciate the offer :)

@meramsey
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meramsey commented Mar 3, 2022

Sorry for your terrible experience @meramsey. I hate Apple for things like this. And getting a VM setup is also a nightmare. Your post here will likely help other people avoid many wasted hours. So thank you very much for sharing.

I have some code for code signing on macOS, but it's not yet in fbs. Once you have a Developer certificate, I could send it to you on a private channel. And then if you find some improvements to it from your use cases, I could integrate it into fbs Pro for you and others.

@mherrmann I finally got my Apple Developer account activated and generated a Certificate Type > Developer ID Installer which I hope is the correct kind. If not just let me know and my email is on my profile if you prefer to send me a message directly over email.

Many thanks in advance. Looking forward to trying it out and will definitely let you know how it goes so its hopefully added to fbs_pro officially in the future. :)

@trappitsch trappitsch mentioned this issue Jul 8, 2022
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@Settide
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Settide commented May 7, 2023

Did the apple developer account work to resolve this issue? Has this been fixed/built in to more recent version of FBS Pro? We have run into this same issue as mentioned above, working with macOS 10.15 as our oldest compatible OS and app works with this, macOS 11 and 12, but 13 (Ventura) throws this same "damaged" issue. Using fbs_pro-1.1.7. Have not obtained an Apple Developer account yet, nor do we release our mac app on the App Store. Is this the only workaround for this? Had a few users try the terminal command mentioned above but seems to be no luck.

@mherrmann
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@meramsey and I were in touch via email back then, but I didn't see a way to incorporate his work into fbs in a way that would be usable for others. So unfortunately, it's not in fbs yet.

@Settide
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Settide commented May 11, 2023 via email

@meramsey
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@mherrmann @Settide See thread here: pyinstaller/pyinstaller#6612 (comment)

@mhogg
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mhogg commented Jun 11, 2024

Any movement on this? I'm facing the same issue. I'm building on macos 12 and running on macos 14. 'xattr' works, but not ideal. Code signing on mac?

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@mherrmann @meramsey @mhogg @dsquared22 @Settide