Ogre3d SampleBrowser.exe crashes in ConfigDialog::display on MSYS2/MinGW: executable has no Win32 resources

[ninepillars]

Description / Steps to reproduce the issue

Environment

• OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11 (please adjust as needed)
• Toolchain: MSYS2 MinGW-w64 (x86_64)
• Compiler: GCC (from MSYS2)
• Ogre version:
• Build system: CMake
• Render system: OpenGL (or D3D11, if applicable)

Description

When running SampleBrowser built under MSYS2/MinGW, the application fails when showing the render system configuration dialog.

The error message reported by Windows is:
"The specified image file does not contain a resource section."

The crash happens in:
ConfigDialog::display()

Expected behavior

SampleBrowser should display the render system configuration dialog normally.

Actual behavior

SampleBrowser fails when attempting to display the ConfigDialog. The executable does not appear to contain a Win32 .rsrc section.

Analysis

It appears that the Win32 resource file (.rc) for SampleBrowser is not being compiled or linked into the executable when building with MinGW/MSYS2.

As a result, calls to Win32 APIs such as FindResource / LoadResource fail because the executable has no resource section.

This can be verified by inspecting the executable:

• objdump -h SampleBrowser.exe shows no .rsrc section.

Possible cause

The .rc file may not be processed by windres or not added to the target sources in the MinGW/MSYS2 build configuration.

Workaround

Manually skipping the ConfigDialog (e.g. by predefining ogre.cfg or calling restoreConfig()) avoids the crash, but the dialog itself remains unusable.

Question

Is this a known limitation of the MSYS2/MinGW build, or is the resource file expected to be compiled and linked automatically?
If this is unintended, I would be happy to test a patch or provide more build information.

Expected behavior

SampleBrowser.exe start and show the config dialog

Actual behavior

Crashes in ConfigDialog::display

Verification

• I have verified that my MSYS2 is up-to-date before submitting the report (see https://www.msys2.org/docs/updating/)

Windows Version

Windows 11

MINGW environments affected

• MINGW64
• MINGW32
• UCRT64
• CLANG64
• CLANGARM64

Are you willing to submit a PR?

No response

[lazka]

Afair it hasn't worked in a while. Thanks for the hints as to what could be the problem.

[hmartinez82]

This is also affecting the UCRT64 build. Investigating...

[hmartinez82]

It's true. The .rc file doesn't go inside SampleBrower.exe, it goes inside OgreBites.dll, but even then, I don't understand the existing code. It's trying to load IDD_DLG_CONFIG from OgreMain.dll, not from OgreBites.dll 🫤.

Anyway. I found a fix.