Unable to load the native module on windows when the application is packaged

[nlko]

Hello,

I have some trouble packaging for windows an electron app with pcsc-mini : it fails to load the pcsc-mini module when doing a require / import.

I'm asking here but I don't know if it's a problem with the packager itself (electron-builder).

I have this simple js application that is run by electron and I try to package it as standalone app for linux and windows :

const {log, error} = require('electron-log');
try {
  log('starting app');
  require( "pcsc-mini");
  log('pcsc-mini module loaded successfully');
} catch (e) {
  error('Failed to load pcsc-mini module: ' + e.message);
  error(e)
}

Results:

No problem on linux, I can build and execute the generated AppImage .

On windows I'm able only to execute the app using yarn electron src/index.js : I'm unable to package it properly because it can't find the native module in addon.node.js.

Here is the execution log on windows when the app is a standalone .exe:

23:40:01.000 > starting app
23:40:01.099 > Failed to load pcsc-mini module: Required addon dependency not found (@pcsc-mini/windows-x86_64-electron):
Error: The specified module could not be found.
\?\C:\Users\dolly\AppData\Local\Temp\34RGWp2IIbMeJ6QvWoHxJtnesmN\resources\app.asar.unpacked\node_modules@pcsc-mini\windows-x86_64-electron\addon.node

ΓÜá NOTE: If optional dependencies are disabled, you may need to add @pcsc-mini/windows-x86_64-electron as an explicit dependency.

23:40:01.103 > Error: Required addon dependency not found (@pcsc-mini/windows-x86_64-electron):
Error: The specified module could not be found.
\?\C:\Users\dolly\AppData\Local\Temp\34RGWp2IIbMeJ6QvWoHxJtnesmN\resources\app.asar.unpacked\node_modules@pcsc-mini\windows-x86_64-electron\addon.node

ΓÜá NOTE: If optional dependencies are disabled, you may need to add @pcsc-mini/windows-x86_64-electron as an explicit dependency.

at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\dolly\AppData\Local\Temp\34RGWp2IIbMeJ6QvWoHxJtnesmN\resources\app.asar\node_modules\pcsc-mini\build\addon.node.js:64:9)
at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1714:14)
at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1848:10)
at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1448:32)
at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1270:12)
at c._load (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:17993)
at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)
at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:244:24)
at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1470:12)
at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:147:16)

To summarize

• The problem is that the file C:\Users\dolly\AppData\Local\Temp\34RGWp2IIbMeJ6QvWoHxJtnesmN\resources\app.asar.unpacked\node_modules@pcsc-mini\windows-x86_64-electron\addon.node exists on the disk (I can do fs.statSync on it from the app without problem);
• I'm able to use this app and the native module with electron (yarn electron src/index.js is OK);
• I'm not able to use this app when it's packaged (execution of the result of yarn electron-builder is KO on windows);
• If I cheat and replace the addon.node file by another valid nodule (for instance the old pcsclite), the generated package seems to work.

I'm using pcsc-mini version 0.1.3

I tried node 24 with electron 36 and electron-builder 0.26 (I also tried node 18 with electron 19 and electron-builder 0.24)

Does someone have an example of a pcsc-mini working in a packaged electron application ?

Am I missing something ?

Here is a folder with the code

bug-electron-builder-pcsc-mini.zip

I spent the full day trying to tweak the configuration of electron builder without any luck and any help would be greatly appreciated.

[nuortie]

Hi!

What's your executable name in windows? I got similar problems and I found out that pcsc-mini works only with electron.exe named executable.

Is there a way to use custom executable name? that would be nice

[nlko]

Hi @nuortie,

In my case the application is a packaged application (with electron-builder), the name of packaged application is defined in the package.json. (hence in my case bug-electron-builder-pcsc-mini-1.0.0.exe)

[kofi-q]

Thanks for flagging this! And sorry for the delayed response here. The workaround for #5 was to publish an Electron-specific addon for Windows, but that meant hardcoding the expected process name as electron.exe, which is what's causing this issue, as @nuortie pointed out - this doesn't handle the case where an election app is packaged under a different app name.

I'm going to look into a longer term fix that doesn't depend on a specific process name - have to work around some limitations in the Zig build system on the native, but should hopefully figure something out.