[iOS] Crash when ServiceCollection is used

[M0n7y5]

Describe the bug

I am using DI from Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection and IOC from CommunityToolkit. For some reason it crashes the app at start. It works on desktop platforms and Android without any issues.

To Reproduce

Create empty cross platform Avalonia app. In the iOS project, Change the AppDelgate class to this:

public partial class AppDelegate : AvaloniaAppDelegate<App>
#pragma warning restore CA1711 // Identifiers should not have incorrect suffix
{
    protected override AppBuilder CustomizeAppBuilder(AppBuilder builder)
    {
        var services = new ServiceCollection();

        Ioc.Default.ConfigureServices(services.BuildServiceProvider());

        return base.CustomizeAppBuilder(builder)
            .WithInterFont();
    }
}

Deploy the app on iOS device, launch it and watch it crash and burn.

Expected behavior

No crash should occur during app start.

Avalonia version

11.3.2

OS

iOS

Additional context

Here the debugger log:

INFO: Starting debugger connection to the app 'TestApp.iOS'. Debugger port: 53097, Device port: 10000
INFO: Creating command connection...
INFO: [iOS Debugger] Connecting to "Kryštof - iPhone" over USB on port 10000...
INFO: [iOS Debugger] Connected to "Kryštof - iPhone" over USB on port 10000.
INFO: Debugger connection completed
INFO: Debugger connection signal received
INFO: [iOS Debugger] Connecting to "Kryštof - iPhone" over USB on port 10000...
INFO: [iOS Debugger] Connected to "Kryštof - iPhone" over USB on port 10000.
INFO: [iOS Debugger] Connecting to "Kryštof - iPhone" over USB on port 10000...
INFO: [iOS Debugger] Connected to "Kryštof - iPhone" over USB on port 10000.
INFO: Connecting to debug console stream...
INFO: Connecting to debug stream from device...
INFO: Connecting to debug stream from remote debugger...
INFO: Connecting to remote debugger on port 53097...
INFO: [iOS HotReload] Connecting to "Kryštof - iPhone" over USB on port 11000...
INFO: 
=================================================================
	Native Crash Reporting
=================================================================
Got a SIGABRT while executing native code. This usually indicates
a fatal error in the mono runtime or one of the native libraries 
used by your application.
=================================================================

=================================================================
	Native stacktrace:
=================================================================

INFO: 	0x1064718cc - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : load_aot_module

INFO: 	0x1063ad56c - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_assembly_request_load_from

INFO: 	0x106492c1c - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_core_preload_hook

INFO: 	0x10647adc8 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : load_image

INFO: 	0x106471864 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : load_aot_module

INFO: 	0x1063ca75c - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : create_exception_two_strings

INFO: 	0x1064e2ad4 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : sigabrt_signal_handler.cold.1

INFO: 	0x106498190 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_runtime_setup_stat_profiler
	0x1dc750d48 - /usr/lib/system/libsystem_platform.dylib : <redacted>
	0x1dc768844 - /usr/lib/system/libsystem_pthread.dylib : pthread_kill
	0x18bad06ac - /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib : abort

INFO: 	0x106498964 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_dump_native_crash_info

INFO: 	0x106482f78 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_handle_native_crash

INFO: 	0x10646f2b4 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_jit_init_version

INFO: 	0x1062eaeb4 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : xamarin_bridge_initialize

INFO: c0 03 5f d6 10 29 
INFO: 80 d2 01 10 00 d4  .{......P.......

=================================================================
	Managed Stacktrace:
=================================================================
	  at <unknown> <0xffffffff>
=================================================================

The app has been terminated.
INFO: 	0x10634f40c - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : monoeg_g_logv

INFO: 	0x106359984 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_log_write_os_log

INFO: 	0x1063ad088 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_assembly_request_open

INFO: 	0x1063aeea8 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : invoke_assembly_preload_hook

INFO: 	0x10634f554 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : monoeg_g_log

INFO: 	0x1064683f0 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_jit_runtime_invoke

INFO: 	0x106476094 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_aot_get_method

INFO: 	0x1063ac804 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_assembly_request_byname

INFO: 	0x10646a0d4 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_jit_compile_method_with_opt

INFO: 	0x1063ca4e0 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_exception_from_name_two_strings_checked

INFO: 	0x10640fe10 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_runtime_invoke_checked

INFO: 	0x106467d38 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mini_init

INFO: 	0x1063a9020 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : mono_runtime_init_checked

INFO: ._..._..)......
0x1bbcc7bbc  
INFO: 	0x1062efe78 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : xamarin_main

INFO: 00 d4  .
INFO: e3 00 00 54 fd 7b bf a9 fd 03 00 91 91 ee ff 97  ...T.{..........
0x1bbcc7bcc  bf 03 00 91 fd 7b c1 a8 c0 03 5f d6 c0 03 5f d6  .....{...._..._.
0x1bbcc7bdc  fd 7b bf a9 fd 03 00 91 50 00 
INFO: 80 d2 01 10 
INFO: Closing debug connection from device (USB)
INFO: 	0x1064dc048 - /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/007C19F9-51BE-47DE-869F-F568F623E6B4/TestApp.iOS.app/TestApp.iOS : main
	0x1093ac4d0 - Unknown

=================================================================
	Basic Fault Address Reporting
=================================================================
Memory around native instruction pointer (0x1bbcc7bbc):0x1bbcc7bac  c0 03 5f d6 
ERROR: An error occurred while writing to the debug stream. Details: ObjectDisposed_Generic
ObjectDisposed_ObjectName_Name, UsbStream
INFO: Disposing input and output streams...
INFO: Disposing input and output streams...
ERROR: An error occurred when writing to the output stream. Details: net_io_readfailure, Operation canceled
INFO: Closing debug connection from remote debugger (TCP)

[maxkatz6]

Seems to be an issue in one of the dependencies not supporting AOT, not Avalonia.
You can try to set new <PublishAOT>true</PublishAOT> flag in the csproj file, it might work better. Or at least show better error early.

[M0n7y5]

Looks like PublishAot is not supported for iOS at all atm. I get System.ExecutionEngineException without even using MEDI. After disabling PublishAot i was able to get the test app working again, even with Jab as a DI. IMHO, iOS support is not production ready as the runtime has a lot of issues on Apple devices. The core problem is in the runtime.

I checked their runtime repo and there is several reported issues with having System.ExecutionEngineException on iOS some of them are closed, but not resolved and some of them are still opened after several years.

[MikeCodesDotNET]

I respectfully disagree that .NET on iOS isn't production ready. iOS just has fundamental platform limitations that affect all runtimes, not just .NET.

The core issue isn't with .NET's runtime quality but rather that Apple prohibits JIT compilation on iOS. All code must be ahead-of-time compiled, which creates limitations with generics, reflection, and dynamic code generation. Despite this, folks have been using .NET to ship production iOS apps for years.

It's important to remember that the simulator behaves differently to devices. It can JIT, so you can end up in a situation where something works on the simulator, but breaks on device. This has always been the case and is well-documented.

[M0n7y5]

Oh no, i am not using simulator. My app is using BLE so i am deploying to actual iOS devices. As for runtime stuff. You should not easily crash the runtime this easily. Also, when you crash, the stackframes also gets corrupted. So you cant even see what went wrong. Thats a bug.

Not to mention that i am not able to find much apps that are on App Store and are made in C#. I asked almost everywhere about iOS and C# and i got almost no answers, most of them where talking about the poor stability and minefield type of app development.

I would not say that .Net on iOS is not production ready if i would not be able to crash the whole runtime by single line of code in completely empty Avalonia App. I also tried to use logging extensions from MS and i got completely different runtime crash.

Honestly i dont know if i should even report this to runtime repo as i witnessed closing actual important issues without resolving them. There is bunch of opened issues with System.ExecutionEngineException on apple devices, some of them are 4 years old.

The only way to solve most of the crashes is to force enable interpreter mode which then cripples the performance.
For me, i just got different error with interpreter:

[maxkatz6]

Honestly i dont know if i should even report this to runtime repo as i witnessed closing actual important issues without resolving them.

You should. Unreported issue has even less chance to be resolved.
Meanwhile, make sure you use latest .NET 9.0 SDK and target framework. I don't see if you mentioned these versions before.

There is something very wrong. Why is it trying to JIT compile anything? It should be all precompiled into native code right?

I don't think PublishAot was used in your situation. Possibly you used an older SDK, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/deployment/nativeaot?view=net-maui-9.0.
Old Mono AOT is buggier, and still keeps IL code and interpreter as a fallback, depending on the configuration (by default on iOS, it's not, unless UseInterpreter=true is enabled).

[M0n7y5]

Looks like somebody already made the report
dotnet/runtime#109451
Does not matter the settings of the project, interpreter or not. Its bug in a runtime.

[Guyiming]

I encountered the same issue where MSDI couldn't be worked. But I created a MAUI app, its DI worked normally. So I'm curious why Avalonia's doesn't work, and they are using the same .net 9 version and nuget package version.
I'm trying to find out the reason.

[Guyiming]

Update:
I upgrade the vs2022 version from 17.10 to 17.14.11(the latest version). My avalonia app worked. May some bugs in vs2022 or .net9 workload.