Older WPF app (CefSharp 135.0.170) crashes after newer version (137.0.100) is installed

[hariharanpalanivelu]

Hello CefSharp Community,

I am HariHaran from Trimble Inc., and I am encountering an issue with CefSharp in our WPF application that I'm hoping to get some insights on.

Problem Description:
Our application uses the CefSharp.wpf NuGet package.

1. Our previous release used CefSharp.wpf version 135.0.170.
2. Our new, current release uses CefSharp.wpf version 137.0.100. This new version works perfectly on its own.

The problem occurs when a user has both versions of our application installed. If the user first installs the new release (v137.0.100) and then tries to open the older release (v135.0.170), the older application crashes immediately upon initializing the Chromium browser.

The crash report points to an issue with libcef.dll. This strongly suggests a version mismatch or "DLL Hell" scenario, where the older application is likely attempting to load the libcef.dll from the newer installation.

Expected Behavior:
Each version of our application should be able to run independently without interfering with the other, even when both are installed on the same machine.

Question:

1. Has anyone else experienced a similar issue?
2. Are there specific best practices or known issues related to side-by-side installations of different CefSharp versions that we should be aware of?
3. Are there any official PDB files for libcef.dll available for versions 135.0.170 and 137.0.100? Having these would be incredibly helpful for debugging the crash and understanding the call stack at the point of failure.
4. Any insights or suggestions on how to properly isolate the dependencies for each application version would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your time and any help you can provide.

Best regards,
HariHaran
Trimble Inc

[amaitland]

We've seen these kinds of issues before, where Chromium code does not support forward compatibility (e.g. running older version with newer cache crashes). These are generally considered bugs, and you can file an issue with Chromium at https://crbug.com/new. The fix will generally be with future versions (e.g. in the future they'll correctly delete/recreate the file if the format is unsupported).

There is a conversation about this at https://www.magpcss.org/ceforum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20310#p57611 with a workaround proposed at https://www.magpcss.org/ceforum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20310#p57612

If you have further problems I'd suggest you join in the conversation on ceforum.

A chromium issue was raised at https://issues.chromium.org/issues/430178763

3. Are there any official PDB files for libcef.dll available for versions 135.0.170 and 137.0.100? Having these would be incredibly helpful for debugging the crash and understanding the call stack at the point of failure.

https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp/wiki/Trouble-Shooting#loading-native-symbols-for-easier-diagnosis

4. Any insights or suggestions on how to properly isolate the dependencies for each application version would be greatly appreciated.

Nothing here suggests you've got a dependency issue.