Microsoft Edge WebView2 installation failing (current versions)

[w-user]

With the all-new wine 9.0 version I wanted to revisit one of the unimportant incompatibilities that are bugging me, namely getting Mailwasher to fully work. As reported elsewhere (viewtopic.php?t=37418) Mailwasher uses Microsoft Edge WebView2 to display html emails. Back then, installing WebView2 worked, but Mailwasher was still not able to display html emails.

Now, having wine 9.0 installed, installing WebView2 fails every time, as it did with the last v8.x versions, but I'm not sure which ones I tested this with. It's only to say, that this is not something that is new with v9.0.
I did try offline installers of v119 and v120, but mostly I tried using the webinstaller (at first the old version I had from back then, and later on the current version of the webinstaller). Downloading the install package (v120) works fine, but the install process stays at "installing..." forever. Nothing ever happens. No folder gets even created. I even cleaned the registry of any Edge entries.

(Of course I searched the internet, but none of the so-called "solutions" worked - all being not very recent, too.)

So, I went back and checked which wine version I used back when WebView2 installed fine - using the same webinstaller! It was wine v8.0. There might have been later version it works fine with, but that was the last time I tested it and it worked. I think, with wine v8.16 it didn't work.

Anyway, I now went ahead, downgraded to wine v8.0 and re-tried - this time using the current version of the webinstaller. Result: WebView2 installs fine! But it installs v109. So somehow the installer determines that wine v8.0 isn't capable of handling a more recent version of WebView2, or something.

Note: This is all using the same prefix!

Mailwasher is still not able to display html emails - I also tested with upgrading back to wine v9.0. Now that WebView2 was installed, it also "worked" with this wine version. By "working" I mean that I can see instances of some part of Microsoft Edge WebView2 getting started by Mailwasher - just as with wine v8.0. But the result remains the same.

But in the course of this more or less academic exercise I learned that apparently older versions of WebView2 install fine and that somehow the webinstaller is detecting differences between wine v8.0 and v9.0 and choosing a different version of Microsoft Edge WebView2 to download and install.

Now, trying to install WebView2 using the install exe that the webinstaller had downloaded (v109) and the install flags that were used and I copied from the task manager, the installation for version 109 worked with wine v8.0 and v9.0, the installation of v120, using the same install flags failed on both wine versions. Although, I have to add that when installing WebView2 manually on wine v9.0, EdgeCore would also be installed which doesn't happen on wine v8.0...

These findings are in line with the AppDB which also states that more current versions of WebView2 are "garbage" (v115, while v113 allegedly works).



So, this is not really a question, but rather a status report regarding current experiences with installing Microsoft Edge WebView2.

But, of course, if someone is able to install current versions of Microsoft Edge WebView2, feel free to share how to do it.

[w-user]

Small update:

If windows version is set to 8.1 or lower, Microsoft Edge WebView2 v109 gets downloaded and installed with wine 9.1.
If windows version is set to 10/11, Microsoft Edge WebView2 v120 is downloaded but never installs successfully with wine 9.1.

[qwertymnb]

Hi,

Nice summary of why the installer succeeds in lower windowsversions like 8.1

I opened a bugreport here https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56259, with a patch that makes the installer succeed for me in win10. Maybe you could if it a try if you know how to compile wine. I'll see if I can get this upstreamed.

Regards

[w-user]

Thanks for looking into this and creating a bug report.

I'll wait for the binaries, compiling is not for me, sorry.

You mention in the bug report, that you don't know how to test if the webviewer works. As the bug seems to affect install only, it should work, but also, as webviewer is one part of the edge browser and that one has the same problems installing, you could test installing edge browser and see if it works.

I see, you tested on x86_64. We'll see if it works for arm, too, but if you had the same problems installing before patching, it *should* work.

It's not a serious bug for me because the successful install didn't result in a successful working with Mailwasher. The webviewer process runs, but Mailwasher isn't able to display emails using the html view.

But maybe others will profit from that fix!

[w-user]

(Not sure why I missed that you tested msedge.exe - so that part of my previous post was unnecessary. I don't seem to be able to edit that post anymore, thus this post here.)

[w-user]

I can confirm that with wine v9.3 and windows version set to Win10 WebView2 installs now fine (current version is v122).
(I didn't test v9.2 because it didn't show tray icons which renders 2 of the Windows programs I use unusable, so I immediately downgraded back to v9.1)

Thanks again for help, efforts and the fix!

[w-user]

Addendum: the install works fine now, but the installed Edge browser which apparently is installed along with the newer versions of WebView2 seems to work. It starts (using right-click on the edge.exe file and choosing "wine Windows program starter") but there's only the top bar visible, not the rest of the window. There are two instances running, both clocking in at ~13% of cpu usage each until killed, one of which is labeled "CrashPadMainThread" by conky.

This is, however, in line with the appDB which attests Edge browser in general the "garbage" status.

This is Edge 122. Edge 109 is similar, but at least the rest of the window is visible, although unresponsive, and after ~20s Edge crashes on its own (if Windows version is set to Win10).

If Windows version is set to e.g. Win7 or 8.1, Edge browser 109 seems to work ok. Probably not perfectly, but cpu load is ok, the whole window is visible and web content is loaded. Also, there's no "CrashPadMainThread" running.


Regarding WebView2:

The only program I have that uses webview2 and that I can thus test is mailwasher.

With Windows version set to Win10 (for mailwasher, edge and webview2, to be consistent), v122 starts when mailwasher calls it, but just with edge v122, one instance of CrashPadMainThead" runs as well, with those 2 and wineserver64 having very high cpu load. Mailwasher is unable to show html content, though, and also reacts very slowly when switching between html view and plain text view - until webview2 eventually crashes on its own..., then it's switching fast.

With Windows version set to Win8.1, v122 behaves the same as with Windows version set to Win10.

WebView2 v109 doesn't seem to run at all, no matter if Windows version is set to 10 or 8.1 - mailwasher doesn't seem to be able to call it. Other programs that use webview2 might be able to use it.


As i don't really miss mailwasher being able to display html view the above exercise was just that. Maybe it helps someone.