diff --git a/advanced/creating-silent-dragon-lite-msi-installer-for-windows-with-wixl.md b/advanced/creating-silent-dragon-lite-msi-installer-for-windows-with-wixl.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc9dab9 --- /dev/null +++ b/advanced/creating-silent-dragon-lite-msi-installer-for-windows-with-wixl.md @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ +# Creating SilentDragonLite MSI installer for Windows with msitools and wixl +This documentation is for creating a SilentDragonLite MSI installer for Windows using msitools and wixl. Documentation for msitools is here: https://wiki.gnome.org/msitools Documentation for wixl can refer to WiX toolset as it tries to share the same syntax: https://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/ +This was tested on Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS +## Install msitools and wixl +``` +sudo apt-get -y install msitools wixl +``` +## Download latest SilentDragonLite Windows release and unzip +Latest releases located here: https://git.hush.is/hush/SilentDragonLite/releases Example below is for SilentDragonLite 1.5.2 +``` +wget https://git.hush.is/attachments/37c68ff3-725c-4ceb-b28a-8c131739585c +unzip 37c68ff3-725c-4ceb-b28a-8c131739585c +``` +This will unzip into a directory named SilentDragonLite-v1.5.2-win +``` +cd SilentDragonLite-v1.5.2-win +``` +## Copy silentdragon.ico to SilentDragonLite directory +The icon file `silentdragon.ico` is currently not included in release zip, but is required to create an MSI installer with a smaller size. Setting icon SourceFile in the .wxs file to SilentDragonLite.exe will duplicate the .exe and make the installer over 100MB instead of ~80MB. How you get this .ico file is up to you. I extracted from .exe on Windows. Maybe it will be included in .zip release in the future to make this easier for anyone trying to create a MSI file for the first time. + +## Create WiX source file (.wxs) +This is an XML file. You should name it what you want the .msi file to be named IE: `SilentDragonLite-1.5.2.wxs` +Below is a copy of the contents of the `SilentDragonLite-1.5.2.wxs` file. Note that GUID's all need to be unique. This will create shortcuts to SilentDragonLite on desktop and in the start menu as well as have uninstall support from Add/Remove Programs. A tutorial that explains the basics of creating these files can be found here: https://www.firegiant.com/wix/tutorial/ +``` + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +``` +## Build MSI file from WiX source file +``` +wixl -v SilentDragonLite-1.5.2.wxs +``` + +This will create a `SilentDragonLite-1.5.2.msi` file in the same directory which can then be distributed. If it created without error and is larger than 0kb, congratulations! + + +## Potential known issue and work-around if wixl generates MSI with corrupt cabinet file +There is a known issue where wixl may generate a corrupt cabinet file, causing the Windows installer to fail with a corrupt cabinet file error. This appears related to the file size of `SilentDragonLite.exe` and reported issue with gcab: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gcab/-/issues/16 + +File size where this becomes an issue is not exactly known, but it has occurred when `SilentDragonLite.exe` was ~100 MB. There is no cabinet file corruption when compressing `SilentDragonLite.exe` to ~80 MB. UPX is used to compress the executable and then MSI is created again: https://upx.github.io/ + +### Install UPX ### +``` +sudo apt-get install upx +``` +### Compress SilentDragonLite.exe ### +``` +upx SilentDragonLite.exe --force +``` +### Re-create MSI using compressed exe ### +``` +wixl -v SilentDragonLite-1.5.2.wxs +``` \ No newline at end of file