punktfunk/clients/windows/packaging

punktfunk Windows client — MSIX packaging

The Windows client ships as signed MSIX packages so Windows boxes get a real package (Start tile, clean install/uninstall) instead of a loose exe. CI builds + publishes them from .gitea/workflows/windows-msix.yml to Gitea's generic package registry (https://git.unom.io/unom/-/packages), on every main push that touches the client (canary) and on vX.Y.Z release tags (stable) — see Release Channels.

Two architectures, one x64 runner. Both x64 and arm64 packages are produced off the single x64 Windows runner — x86_64-pc-windows-msvc builds natively, aarch64-pc-windows-msvc is cross-compiled (the x64 MSVC toolset ships the ARM64 cross compiler; the matrix points FFMPEG_DIR at the runner's ARM64 FFmpeg tree, C:\Users\Public\ffmpeg-arm64). Artifacts are arch-suffixed (..._x64.msix / ..._arm64.msix, each with its matching .cer); pack-msix.ps1 -Arch x64|arm64 stamps the manifest ProcessorArchitecture and names the output. See windows.yml for the cross-build rationale.

What's in the package

pack-msix.ps1 assembles a layout from a cargo build --release and runs makeappx + signtool:

File	Source
punktfunk-client.exe	the release build
Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.Bootstrap.dll, resources.pri	auto-staged by windows-reactor's build.rs
SDL3.dll	auto-staged by the sdl3 crate
avcodec/avformat/avutil/swscale/swresample/...-*.dll	FFMPEG_DIR\bin
Assets\*.png	checked-in tile/store logos (rasterized from packaging/flatpak/io.unom.Punktfunk.svg)
AppxManifest.xml	the template here, with {VERSION}/{PUBLISHER} substituted

Why an "unpackaged" WinUI app packages cleanly

windows-reactor calls MddBootstrapInitialize2 with OnPackageIdentity_NOOP (crates/libs/reactor/src/app.rs), so under MSIX package identity the App SDK bootstrapper is a no-op and the runtime is resolved from the manifest's <PackageDependency> on Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.2 instead (reactor pins WINDOWSAPPSDK_RELEASE_MAJORMINOR = 0x20000 = 2.0). It's a full-trust Win32 app (EntryPoint="Windows.FullTrustApplication" + runFullTrust) because it owns raw D3D11, Win32 low-level input hooks, WASAPI and SDL3.

Versioning

MSIX requires a strictly 4-part numeric version. The workflow computes:

• vX.Y.Z tag → X.Y.Z.0 (THE release; any -rc/+meta suffix is dropped for MSIX). Published to the stable latest/ alias and attached to the unified Gitea Release.
• main push / workflow_dispatch → 0.3.<run_number>.0 (canary, climbs by run number; canary/ alias).

Signing & install

CI signs every build with a stable self-signed code-signing cert (CN=unom, SHA-1 CD1EFDEEEC9743AFC38F56C5AF30C5A3009BE941, valid to 2036). Its public half is checked in as punktfunk-codesign.cer; the private .pfx + password live in the MSIX_CERT_PFX_B64 / MSIX_CERT_PASSWORD Actions secrets. Because it's the same cert every build, trusting it is one-time, per machine — once imported, every future build and in-place upgrade is trusted with no further prompt:

# once per machine (elevated): trust the publisher
Import-Certificate -FilePath .\punktfunk-codesign.cer -CertStoreLocation Cert:\LocalMachine\TrustedPeople
# then install the package for your CPU (and re-run for each upgrade — no re-trust needed)
Add-AppxPackage -Path .\punktfunk-client-windows_<ver>_x64.msix     # Intel/AMD
Add-AppxPackage -Path .\punktfunk-client-windows_<ver>_arm64.msix   # ARM64 (Snapdragon, etc.)

The matching .cer is also published next to each .msix in the registry, so it's always at hand.

The MSIX declares a dependency on the Windows App SDK 2.x runtime; install the App SDK runtime if Add-AppxPackage reports a missing Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.2 framework.

pack-msix.ps1 signing precedence: it uses the MSIX_CERT_PFX_B64 / MSIX_CERT_PASSWORD secrets when present (the stable cert above), else generates an ephemeral self-signed cert (forks / local builds without the secrets). Either way it exports the signing cert's public .cer for the import. To move to a publicly-trusted (no-import) cert — Azure Artifact Signing or a public OV cert — replace the two secrets with the new .pfx; the cert's subject DN must equal the manifest Publisher, so pass a matching -Publisher (it's stamped into the package Identity, and changing it changes the package identity → a one-time reinstall).

Building locally

On the Windows runner / dev VM (MSVC + Windows SDK present), after a release build:

# x64
cargo build --release -p punktfunk-client-windows --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
pwsh -File clients/windows/packaging/pack-msix.ps1 `
  -Version 0.2.0.0 -TargetDir C:\t\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\release -OutDir C:\t\msix

# arm64 (cross-compiled; point FFMPEG_DIR at the ARM64 tree)
$env:FFMPEG_DIR = 'C:\Users\Public\ffmpeg-arm64'
cargo build --release -p punktfunk-client-windows --target aarch64-pc-windows-msvc
pwsh -File clients/windows/packaging/pack-msix.ps1 `
  -Version 0.2.0.0 -Arch arm64 -TargetDir C:\t\aarch64-pc-windows-msvc\release -OutDir C:\t\msix

Validated end-to-end on the build VM (pack → sign → Add-AppxPackage → framework-dependency resolution). The only step that needs a real display is launching the WinUI window (same on-glass constraint as the rest of the client).