Failed to initialize GeckoRuntime - Xamarin Forms

[Galle94]

When opening the page with GeckoView for the second time, throw the following exception.

Unhandled Exception: Java.Lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to initialize GeckoRuntime

The first time when open the page it work perfectly, but when go back in navigation and get in again it fail.

Specs

• Xamarin.Forms v4.1.0.581479

• Xamarin.Android.GeckoView v0.0.1 (only Android Project)

• Xamarin.Android.GeckoView.Forms v0.0.1 (Android, Shared)

• Android Target: Android Pie 9.0

• PCL Target: Net Standard 2.0.3

MainActivity -> OnCreate

public class MainActivity : MvxFormsAppCompatActivity<StartUpViewModel>
    {
        protected override void OnCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
        {
            TabLayoutResource = Resource.Layout.Tabbar;
            ToolbarResource = Resource.Layout.Toolbar;

            base.OnCreate(savedInstanceState);
            GeckoViewRenderer.Init(this);
            global::Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(this, savedInstanceState);
            FormsMaterial.Init(this, savedInstanceState);

            LoadApplication(new App());
        } 
}

PortCostsPage.cs

public PortCostsPage()        
{
            InitializeComponent();
            var view= new GeckoViewForms
            {
                Source = "web page url..."
            };
            view.HorizontalOptions = LayoutOptions.FillAndExpand;
            view.VerticalOptions = LayoutOptions.FillAndExpand;
            stack.Children.Add(view);
}

Debug Console

Thread started: #9 08-02 04:23:21.221 W/GeckoFontScaleListener(21207): Already attached! 08-02 04:23:21.222 W/GeckoRuntime(21207): init failed (could not initiate GeckoThread) 08-02 04:23:21.861 I/anyname.AMSTes(21207): Background concurrent copying GC freed 7072(672KB) AllocSpace objects, 23(460KB) LOS objects, 49% free, 1855KB/3MB, paused 29.778ms total 140.709ms Unhandled Exception:

Java.Lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to initialize GeckoRuntime

08-02 04:23:25.923 E/GeckoProcessManager(21207): Cannot connect to process tab [Parent 21207, IPC Launch #1] WARNING: Failed to launch tab subprocess: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/glue/GeckoChildProcessHost.cpp, line 588 [Parent 21207, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (88): Connection reset by peer: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc, line 35708-02 04:23:25.923 I/Gecko (21207): [Parent 21207, IPC Launch #1] WARNING: Failed to launch tab subprocess: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/glue/GeckoChildProcessHost.cpp, line 588

08-02 04:23:25.924 I/Gecko (21207): [Parent 21207, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (88): Connection reset by peer: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc, line 357

Greetings!

[Daddoon]

Sorry, i didn't seen your issue as i forgot to subscribe to all notification on my repository. I'm taking a look about your issue.

[Daddoon]

Can you give me more info about your issue ?

When you say "When opening the page with GeckoView for the second time, throw the following exception.", what do you mean by this ?

1. You changed the URL source
2. You navigated to another URL
3. You created another GeckoView component ?

I'm actually shipping an update as i have seen that the Xamarin.Forms component does not change URI when Source is changed. I didn't have seen any crash during my tests.

[Galle94]

Thanks for reply!!

I mean when I navigate to the page with GeckoView component, go back and navigate again.

I could locate the line when it threw the exception and is GeckoRuntime _runtime = GeckoRuntime.Create(Context);

I think when it initialize the GeckoView component for the second time it fail.

I solve it creating a CustomGeckoViewRenderer and overriding CreateNewSession Method.

public override Tuple<GeckoSession, GeckoRuntime> CreateNewSession()
{
       GeckoSession _session = new GeckoSession();
       GeckoRuntime _runtime = GeckoRuntime.GetDefault(Context);

       _session.Open(_runtime);

       return Tuple.Create(_session, _runtime);
}

I don't know if it's the best option but it works like a charm

Greetings!

[Daddoon]

Well it's very strange, i would imagine that if you go back and go on GeckoView again, the component would be totally cleared as it has been disposed by you going back.

I'm wondering if something is happning about the current Android context ?

I will take a look maybe in few days, as i'm already working on other things during the week. Thanks for your feedback and your own workaround.

I will see if there is something that is staling somewhere in the component.

[Daddoon]

This or there is something wrong with the current GeckoView android build. I know that newer version have some additionnals dependency about app lifecycle and some other things, maybe there is some evolutions.

I don't have upgraded the GeckoView component because somehow signatures have changed in the new version, and i have a lot of difficulty to generate the same delegates class API from GeckoView with the new version.

Android java bindings for Xamarin are a pain ! :p

[Daddoon]

You were right about the GeckoRuntime.GetDefault(Context); call. I have search some doc and related comments on this thing (some are from 2 years ago). It seem that:

• You can only have one GeckoRuntime per application lifecycle (or something like that)
• GeckoRuntime.GetDefault(Context) is actually a shorthand to GeckoRuntime.Create(Context) the first time, and then consecutive call should only return the cached runtime. So using GetDefault is the easiest and safest way.

Also reading documentation, i have seen there is also an issue in the default OnNewSession method written in the NavigationDelegate i provide. The documentation state that the newly created session from this call must not be opened, and also the object must be referenced somewhere to not be garbage collected.

I have made modification, that i will ship very soon. Thanks for your feedback !