Dominik Roth
2282a7d521
Real issue hit on a real run: dockur/windows warns about BTRFS storage but it's not idle -- on this host it boot-looped Windows Setup for hours (same log lines repeating forever, disk barely growing), a known bad combination for QEMU disk images on a copy-on-write filesystem. build_windows.sh now disables COW on storage/ itself (chattr +C, harmless no-op on non-btrfs or an already-populated dir from a prior run). README updated to reflect both real fixes now confirmed needed on this host (this one, plus the earlier SELinux :Z mount fix) instead of the original "written but never run" status. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
87 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
87 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
# Windows .msi build (via dockur/windows)
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Builds a Windows installer for FEnigma on a Linux host with no Windows
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machine and no GitHub, by booting a real Windows VM inside a container
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([dockur/windows](https://github.com/dockur/windows), QEMU+KVM under the
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hood, no license key needed for the eval install it fetches automatically)
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and driving the whole build over a shared folder.
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**Status: has actually been run.** Two real environment issues hit and
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fixed so far (both already applied in this directory, see "Confirmed
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issues hit" below); Windows install itself was still in progress as of
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last check. `oem/install.bat` onward (MSYS2/GTK4/WiX provisioning, the
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actual .msi packaging) has NOT been reached/exercised yet — treat that
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part as still a debugging session, not a push-button success. Watch it
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happen at http://localhost:8006 (dockur's noVNC viewer) if it stalls.
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## Confirmed issues hit (on Fedora + BTRFS)
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- **SELinux blocks the bind mounts** ("Storage folder (/storage) is not
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writeable!") — fixed with `:Z` on every volume in `docker-compose.yml`.
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Harmless no-op on a host without SELinux.
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- **BTRFS + QEMU disk images boot-loop Windows Setup for hours** with no
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error, just the same boot-manager log lines repeating forever and the
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disk barely growing — dockur/windows warns about this itself
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("you are using the BTRFS filesystem for /storage, this might
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introduce issues with Windows Setup!"), and on this host it wasn't
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idle chatter. Fixed by disabling copy-on-write on `storage/` before
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the VM ever writes to it (`chattr +C`, only affects files created
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after it's set, so it needs an empty directory) — `build_windows.sh`
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now does this itself on every run. No-op on a non-btrfs filesystem.
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## How it fits together
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- `docker-compose.yml` — boots the VM. Needs `/dev/kvm` on the host.
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- `oem/install.bat` — **one-time** provisioning, auto-run by Windows's own
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unattended setup on first boot (dockur/windows's `/oem` mechanism):
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installs MSYS2, then GTK4/libadwaita/PyGObject/numpy/Pillow/OpenCV/
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Tesseract through it, plus the WiX v3 toolset, and registers a
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boot-time watcher task. This is the slow part (Windows install itself,
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then package downloads) and only ever happens once — it lives on the
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VM's persistent disk (`./storage`, gitignored) from then on.
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- `oem/watch_build.bat` — runs at every boot from here on, polls the
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shared `Z:\` drive for a build request.
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- `oem/build.bat` — the actual per-build packaging: assembles a dist tree
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(bundled MSYS2 `mingw64` runtime + the `fenigma` package), harvests it
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into WiX components with `heat.exe`, and links it into an `.msi` with
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`candle.exe`/`light.exe`.
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- `oem/product.wxs` — the hand-authored shell around that harvested file
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list: install directory, Start Menu shortcut, and the `PYTHONPATH`
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environment variable the shortcut needs (mirrors `run.sh`'s
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`PYTHONPATH=src python -m fenigma.app`).
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- `build_windows.sh` — run this. Starts the VM, copies `../../src` onto
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the shared folder, drops a request file, waits for the `.msi` to come
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back, copies it to `../../dist-windows/`.
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## Running it
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```bash
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cd packaging/windows
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./build_windows.sh [version]
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```
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First run: full unattended Windows install + provisioning, likely
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30-90 minutes, unattended (no interaction needed, but it needs to
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actually finish — don't kill it early). Every run after that: just boot
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the already-provisioned VM and build, a few minutes.
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Requires `/dev/kvm` (virtualization enabled, your user in the `kvm`
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group) and Docker with Compose.
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## Known rough edges / likely follow-up work
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- **The dist tree is fat, not lean.** `build.bat` bulk-copies the entire
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`mingw64/` runtime rather than tracing the actual DLL/typelib/icon-
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theme/schema dependency closure of the app — reliable, but probably
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1GB+. Trimming it (e.g. by walking `pythonw.exe`'s and the compiled
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extension modules' actual dependencies) is a real but separate project.
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- **`heat.exe`'s default harvest options are a starting guess** for a
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tree this large and this GTK-specific (icon caches, gschemas, typelibs);
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it may need `-t` transforms or manual exclusions to produce a working
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component set.
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- **Not tested against a real GTK4/libadwaita Windows install at all** —
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MSYS2 ships these, but this is the first time this specific app has
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been pointed at them; expect a missing-DLL or schema error on first
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actual launch, not just a packaging error.
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- No code signing — Windows will show an "unknown publisher" warning.
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