Xamarin.Mac installer not working

Question

I have a Xamarin.Mac solution that runs correctly in Debug or Release build from within Xamarin Studio, but I am struggling to create a working installer for it.

I want to use direct distribution (outside the App Store), so this is the procedure I used to create the installer:

Within the Apple developer portal:

• Created "Developer ID" application and installer certificates
• Created an App ID for the app
• Created a provisioning profile that references the App ID and the application certificate
• Downloaded the 2 certificates and the provision profile

On the development Mac:

• Double-clicked the 2 certificates and verified that they were installed in Keychain Access
• Double-clicked the provisioning profile and verified that it was installed in Profiles

Within Xcode:

• Opened Preferences > Accounts and downloaded the provisioning profile
• Restarted Xcode to propagate the downloads to Xamarin Studio

Within Xamarin Studio:

• Configured the Bundle ID in info.plist (to match the App ID)
• Selected the Release build signing identity, as created above
• Selected the Release build provisioning profile, as created above
• Selected the Release build installer identity, as created above
• Rebuilt the solution in Release build configuration

After the build is complete, the bin/Release folder contains everything I would expect, including the .pkg and .app files.

If I double-click the .pkg file, it appears to correctly execute the installation sequence, but the installed app is not listed in Applications or Launchpad. Moreover, if I run the .app file from its bin/Release folder, it executes correctly, but if I manually move it to the Applications folder, it crashes on startup.

Within Utilities > System Information > Software > Applications, I can see that the app was installed and that its source is an "Identified Developer", so this seems to confirm that the signing worked correctly.

I'm puzzled why, if it was correctly installed, I am unable to run it.

Sorry, I am quite new to both Mac and Xamarin.Mac, so I am not completely sure what I should expect to see here, but I assume it's more than I am currently seeing.

Any clues please?

Answer 1

Likely if you are able to run an application locally but not able to via an installed package, you are running into code signing issues.

As noted here you could try running your application from the command line:

Run your application from the command line and look at the output (in the Terminal app) by using: MyApp.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp (where MyApp is the name of your application)

and see if you are getting a code signing specific error on launch.

If so, then possibly your machine may not be on the provisioning profile/certificate selected.