Can Not Freeze App (pyinstaller, cx_freeze)

Specification

• Platform: Windows, Python
• Version: Win 10 [64bit], Py 3.6.x [32bit]

Description

First of all thank you for this package.

[Problem] App runs great in python mode but gives errors in executable mode. Executable gets generated but it does not run. Used pyinstaller and cx_freeze. Couldn’t use py2exe because of Py 3.6. Spent a whole night but no joy.

Directory Structure:

/
    db/
    static/
    templates/
    main.py
    server.py # i changed the static and template to be default rather than `gui`
    setup.py

Below are the config and commands i used and errors.

cx_freeze

after making executable, when i run the .exe i get this error. i pasted Python.runtime.dll in to the lib folder in executable directory but no joy.

This is my setup.py file for cx_freeze

import os, sys
from cx_Freeze import setup, Executable

base = None
include_files = [
    "C:/Users/Ahmed Noor/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python36-32/Lib/site-packages/Python.Runtime.dll",
    "./static", "./templates", "./db"
]

if sys.platform == "win32":
    base = "Console"

setup(
    name = "Institution_Name",
    version = "0.1.0",
    description = "Student_Record_System",
    options = {
        "build_exe" : {
            'packages': ['encodings', 'asyncio', 'flask', 'cs50', 'sqlalchemy', 'jinja2', 'flask_compress', 'passlib', 'werkzeug', 'uuid', 'os', 'operator', 'win32gui', 'win32con', 'win32api', 'win32ui', 'ctypes',
                 'comtypes', 'webview', 'webbrowser'],
            'excludes':['tkinter'],
            "include_files" : include_files
            }
    },
    executables = [Executable("main.py", base=base, targetName="Institution_Name.exe", icon="static/img/system/logo.ico")]
)

This is the Error I get when running .exe,

INFO:werkzeug: * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5100/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)
INFO:werkzeug:127.0.0.1 - - [11/May/2018 22:00:01] "GET /check_if_app_is_running HTTP/1.1" 200 -
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Ahmed Noor\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site-packages\cx_Freeze\initscripts\__startup__.py", line 14, in run
    module.run()
  File "C:\Users\Ahmed Noor\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site-packages\cx_Freeze\initscripts\Console.py", line 26, in run
    exec(code, m.__dict__)
  File "main.py", line 42, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\Ahmed Noor\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site-packages\webview\__init__.py", line 176, in create_window
    _initialize_imports()
  File "C:\Users\Ahmed Noor\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site-packages\webview\__init__.py", line 101, in _initialize_imports
    import webview.winforms as gui
  File "C:\Users\Ahmed Noor\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site-packages\webview\winforms.py", line 18, in <module>
    import clr
SystemError: initialization of clr did not return an extension module

pyinstaller

When I make executable with pyinstaller, during the process WARNING Text keeps appearing something like WARNING: lib not found: api-ms-win-crt-<core, stdio, runtime etc.>-l1-1-0.dll dependency of <path/to/python.exe or path/to/python_dir/some_other_lib>

This is the command I use for pyinstaller,

pyinstaller main.py --hidden-import "clr" --name "SRS" --icon "static/img/system/logo.ico" --paths "static" --paths "templates" --paths "db" --path "server.py" --exclude-module "tkinter"

This is the problem I get when I run .exe,

INFO:werkzeug: * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5100/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)

But no window opens. If i open the address on a web browser, it says Internal Server Error

I end task all .exe instances from task manager and copy pasted the db, static, templates and server.py manually in the dist/<dist_dir> but got the following

INFO:werkzeug: * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5100/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)
INFO:werkzeug:127.0.0.1 - - [11/May/2018 23:27:31] "GET /check_if_app_is_running HTTP/1.1" 200 -
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 42, in <module>
  File "site-packages\webview\__init__.py", line 176, in create_window
  File "site-packages\webview\__init__.py", line 101, in _initialize_imports
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 961, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 950, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "c:\users\ahmed noor\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\PyInstaller\loader\pyimod03_importers.py", line 631, in exec_module
    exec(bytecode, module.__dict__)
  File "site-packages\webview\winforms.py", line 37, in <module>
  File "site-packages\webview\util.py", line 144, in interop_dll_path
Exception: Cannot find WebBrowserInterop.dll
[10740] Failed to execute script main

Files

I will attach main.py, server.py and setup.py with this thread in files.zip. You can download the db/, static/ and templates/ directories from the following github repo, Github Repo: https://github.com/ahmednooor/SRS

.py Files: files.zip

[ahmednooor]

Got it working with pyinstaller using the following command,

pyinstaller main.py ^
    --clean ^
    --windowed --noconsole ^
    --hidden-import "clr" --name "SRS" ^
    --icon "static/img/system/logo.ico" ^
    --paths "C:/Users/Ahmed Noor/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python36-32/" ^
    --add-data "static;./static/" ^
    --add-data "templates;./templates/" ^
    --add-data "db;./db/" ^
    --add-data "server.py;./" ^
    --add-data "C:\Users\Ahmed Noor\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Lib\site-packages\webview\lib\WebBrowserInterop.x64.dll;./" ^
    --add-data "C:\Users\Ahmed Noor\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Lib\site-packages\webview\lib\WebBrowserInterop.x86.dll;./" ^
    --exclude-module "tkinter"

Feel free to close this issue. Thank you.

[r0x0r]

I have never managed to get the onefile option working too, but I think another user succeeded. This issue should be addressed though. Creating a pyinstaller hook would be the first step. I will create a new ticket.