I can confirm this.
I made a simple example a.exe by this a.lua:
a,b = require'serial'
print(a,b)
sleep(1000000)
first is ok:
a.exe
serial: 000001CEEE5FFFE0 __modules/serial/serial.dll
second failed:
a.exe
a.lua:1: module 'serial' not found:
no field package.preload['serial']
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\lua\serial.lua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\lua\serial\init.lua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\serial.lua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\serial\init.lua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\lua\serial.wlua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\serial\serial.wlua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial\serial.lua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial\init.lua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial.lua'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial.wlua'
no file '__modules\serial\serial.lua'
no file '__modules\serial\init.lua'
no file '__modules\serial.lua'
no file '__modules\serial.wlua'
no file '__modules\serial\serial.wlua'
no file '.\serial.lua'
no file '.\serial.wlua'
no file '.\serial\init.lua'
no file ''
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\serial.dll'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\lib\lua\5.4\serial.dll'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial\serial.dll'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial.dll'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial\serial.dll'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial.dll'
no file '__modules\serial\serial.dll'
no file '__modules\serial.dll'
no file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\loadall.dll'
no file '.\serial.dll'
no file ''
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\lua\serial.lua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\lua\serial\init.lua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\serial.lua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\serial\init.lua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\lua\serial.wlua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\serial\serial.wlua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial\serial.lua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial\init.lua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial.lua'
no embedded file 'LuaRT-2.1.0-x64\luaRT\bin\..\modules\serial.wlua'
no embedded file '__modules\serial\serial.lua'
no embedded file '__modules\serial\init.lua'
no embedded file '__modules\serial.lua'
no embedded file '__modules\serial.wlua'
no embedded file '__modules\serial\serial.wlua'
no embedded file '.\serial.lua'
no embedded file '.\serial.wlua'
no embedded file '.\serial\init.lua'
no embedded file ''
from output I saw that it did not try embedded file '__modules\serial\serial.dll'
really kind of strange. why second failed?
and why a blank file '' tried?