Building setup project in devenv.com command line fails, works in IDE

File Name	Submitted By	Submitted On	File Size
DevEnvTest.PNG	EMSDeveloper	4/21/2010	219 KB
DevEnvTest.zip	EMSDeveloper	4/21/2010	4.11 MB
DeskDrive.zip (restricted)	Mike Ward - Ann Arbor	6/12/2010	-

Posted by Microsoft on 11/14/2011 at 10:30 AM

Can you please attach a simple project that reproduces this issue after the hotfix is installed?

Posted by LBC on 11/10/2011 at 5:00 AM

I had two different setup projects in which I had the problem, I installed the hotfix and now one is working fine, but the another has the same problem:
ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project

Posted by TimPartridge on 9/28/2011 at 1:24 PM

Hotfix worked for me too. I thought that the installation would never end since the progress would not even start, but it eventually finished.

Posted by TomBrown on 8/15/2011 at 8:24 AM

The fix worked for me. My msi is only 4Mb, had the problem before the fix. Does not have the problem after the fix.

Posted by Grin on 8/12/2011 at 10:23 AM

This is a never ending error in VS2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010. Watchin 2005 I became convinced that is is an out of memory exception when added a "large" file to the build (that is not correctly caught). VS2010 is better behaved but still does it on msi that are over 150MB.

Posted by Microsoft on 6/14/2011 at 10:14 AM

Great. Thanks for the confirmation.

Posted by Michael Soutar on 6/13/2011 at 9:37 PM

Confirming that the hotfix worked for me after a restart of VS2010.

Posted by Microsoft on 4/14/2011 at 10:09 AM

Sorry. Is it working or not working for you? If not, did you try rebuild to see if it works? If you have further problems, it is very likely that it is a different issue that what the hotfix was targeting for. In that case, please log a new connect bug for the issue.

Thank you.

Posted by Chandra Vuppala on 4/14/2011 at 1:45 AM

Hi,

It not works for my scenario. I have created a new project and kept everything that has in old project and it works.

Posted by Microsoft on 4/11/2011 at 12:00 PM

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=30681

Posted by Chandra Vuppala on 4/10/2011 at 8:56 PM

Hi,

Can you please give the link to hotfix?

Posted by Microsoft on 4/7/2011 at 3:53 PM

Hi Chandra,

This bug is considered closed with the published hotfix. Can you try to rebuild to see if it works? The error you encountered could be caused by a different problem than the hotfix was targeted. If you encounter further issues, please log a new connect bug for this issue.

You can go to connect site and login with your Windows Live ID to submit a bug.
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/

Or you can submit a bug in Visual Studio. Please visit the following link for help:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zzszcehe.aspx

Thanks!

Posted by Chandra Vuppala on 4/6/2011 at 10:42 PM

Hi,

I have similar problem, Details are below.

1. Created the Visual studio 2010 installer project in the same solution where by web application lies.
2. Added Primary Output from my web application to the installer project.
3. Added some custom actions dor Install and commit actions.
4. Build the Project and checked in the TFS 2010.
5. After a week, done a build on latest code, build failed with below error.

Error    87    Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'xxx.yyy.Data.dll' cannot be determined.    ..\xxx.yyy.Installer.Web.vdproj    xxx.yyy.Installer.Web
Error    88    Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'NHibernate.dll' cannot be determined.    \xxx.yyy.Installer.Web
Error    89    Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'xxx.yyy.Domain.dll' cannot be determined.    ..\xxx.yyy.Installer.Web.vdproj    xxx.yyy.Installer.Web
Error    90    Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'xxx.yyy.dll' cannot be determined.    ..\xxx.yyy.Installer.Web.vdproj    xxx.yyy.Installer.Web
Error    91    Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'Iesi.Collections.dll' cannot be determined.    ..\xxx.yyy.Installer.Web.vdproj    xxx.yyy.Installer.Web
Error    92    Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'xxx.yyy.Services.dll' cannot be determined.    ..\xxx.yyy..Installer.Web.vdproj    xxx.yyy.Installer.Web
Error    93    Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'xxx.yyy.Eai.Proxies.dll' cannot be determined.    ..\xxx.yyy..Installer.Web.vdproj    xxx.yyy.Installer.Web
Error    94    Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'xxx.yyy.Messages.dll' cannot be determined.    ..\xxx.yyy.Installer.Web.vdproj    xxx.yyy.Installer.Web
    ...\xxx.yyy.Installer.Web\xxx.yyy.Installer.Web.vdproj    xxx.yyy.Installer.Web

Can you please reply back as soon as possible?

Thanks,
Chandra V.

Posted by Microsoft on 11/9/2010 at 1:26 AM

Hi Dierk,

You can go to connect site and login with your Windows Live ID to submit a bug.
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/

Or you can submit a bug in Visual Studio. Please visit the following link for help:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zzszcehe.aspx

Thanks!

Posted by Dierk Droth1 on 11/4/2010 at 12:42 AM

Thanks. May sound like a silly question, but how do I open a new issue on that "board" at the correct "category"?

Posted by Microsoft on 11/3/2010 at 2:01 PM

Unfortunately the problem you are running into sounds like a different issue from this bug which the hotfix is targeted for. The hotfix is meant to fix command line building when dependencies cannot be resolved. This problem will require a separate investigation as the issue exhibits different symptoms. Please open a new Connect issue with this information and we'd be happy to carry forward the investigation from there.

Thank you.

Posted by Dierk Droth1 on 11/3/2010 at 12:56 PM

- rebuilding the project does not help. Tried it multipled times
- thing is, it worked before (for weeks) and suddenly stopped working. This leads me to believe that creating a repro project would not help as I unlikely could reproduce exact same issue. Is there any value in PM'ing you the project file?

Posted by Microsoft on 11/3/2010 at 11:17 AM

Thank you for the information. Could you please attach a repro project for us to investigate? Also, does building a second time fix the problem?

Thank you.

Posted by Dierk Droth1 on 11/3/2010 at 3:22 AM

It's not working for me either. This is a simple installation project with just a 3 "primary output" added. Hard to believe such a simple thing is stalling.

Here is the info requested:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Version 10.0.30319.1 RTMRel
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.0.30319 RTMRel

Installed Version: Professional

Microsoft Office Developer Tools 01018-587-3021431-70655
Microsoft Office Developer Tools

Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 01018-587-3021431-70655
Microsoft Visual Basic 2010

Microsoft Visual C# 2010 01018-587-3021431-70655
Microsoft Visual C# 2010

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 01018-587-3021431-70655
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010

Microsoft Visual F# 2010 01018-587-3021431-70655
Microsoft Visual F# 2010

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Team Explorer 01018-587-3021431-70655
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Team Explorer

Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 01018-587-3021431-70655
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010

Crystal Reports Templates for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Crystal Reports Templates for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU (KB2286556) KB2286556
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2286556.

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU (KB982218) KB982218
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982218.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Developer Tools 10.0.30319

Posted by Microsoft on 11/2/2010 at 10:14 AM

Which version of Visual Studio are you using? This error could be caused by a different problem than the hotfix was targeted and building a second time should solve this problem, can you give that a try?f

Thank you.

Posted by Dimitri S on 11/2/2010 at 8:18 AM

The hotfix is not working in IDE. Still getting "Unable to update the dependencies of the project.".

Posted by bralston on 8/31/2010 at 1:10 PM

We just upgraded to VS2010 this week and experienced this bug almost immediately. I am pleased to report that this hotfix not only fixed the command line build, but also the situation where the setup project fails to build in the IDE the first time and then works fine the second time. Thank you for MS for following this issue to resolution.

Posted by Microsoft on 8/24/2010 at 12:22 PM

Hi all,

Thanks for the confirmations on the hotfix. Looks like it's working well all around. We are going to close this issue now. If you have any problems, please feel free to reactivate this issue or open a new bug.

Thank you for your support.

Posted by Sebastian Dau on 8/23/2010 at 3:21 AM

The Patch worked well for us. We got our TFS Installer Builds green again.

Thanks for the effort!

Sebastian Dau

Posted by Jeff Walsh on 8/20/2010 at 1:28 PM

Took a while to install - at least 5 minutes. It may have been waiting on my CCTray application which is part of Cruise Control but I'm not sure. When I quit CCTray the installer completed immediately. In any case, it is working fine now. Thanks for the update.

Posted by Chris Paske on 8/19/2010 at 1:38 PM

Hotfix applied and command line build working again.

Chris

Posted by rwanauo on 8/18/2010 at 12:46 PM

The hotfix works perfectly. Thanks much!

Posted by siy on 8/17/2010 at 7:05 AM

I can also confirm that building vdproj files through the command line using VS2010 is now working.

Thanks for the fix, much appreciated.

Siy

Posted by Matthew Watson on 8/17/2010 at 3:11 AM

Thanks for the bugfix! :)

Posted by Avery_wu on 8/17/2010 at 2:27 AM

Hi

Please ignore my error, actually, after using absolute path for one assembly, my setup project works fine.

Sorry about my previous input.

Thanks,
Avery

Posted by Avery_wu on 8/17/2010 at 1:28 AM

Hi,

I applied the hotfix, but I still get the same error:
ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project.
It occurs both in command line build and IDE build.

And if I want to "Refresh Dependencies", there is an error message prompting out: "The operation could not be completed."

Do I need to do any additional steps for the setup project after applying the hotfix?

Thanks,
Avery

Posted by PZHUANG on 8/17/2010 at 12:07 AM

Thanks a lot and appreciate the effeort to get this done on schedule.

Posted by Microsoft on 8/16/2010 at 6:49 PM

All,

The hotfix is now ready to be downloaded. It's located here: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=30681

We will leave this bug opened for another 7 days in case if there are additional concerns or questions.

Thank you.

Posted by PZHUANG on 8/12/2010 at 4:52 PM

Thanks for the update on this. Can you make it clear when the hoxfix will be available to download? To be honest, I don't care too much about your "delivery" day, I just care about when it is ready for download.

Posted by Microsoft on 8/11/2010 at 3:50 PM

All,

Thanks for the feedback. The response time is definitely an issue we will raise internally to make sure we correct in the future. In terms of the hotfix, it is currently progressing per schedule and we are on-track to deliver within the next week. It might take a couple days after that to publish the hotfix to be publicly avaliable for download. We understand this is a critical issue and we are working at full speed to get the hotfix out asap. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Posted by Rafi Newman on 8/11/2010 at 7:20 AM

hi,

i have a very complex web project with many .net assemblies, 3rd part dlls and activex. the setup worked several weeks ago with vs2010 and fw 4, but now it fails with "Error 3: Unable to build project output group Content Files from Active" when compiled in IDE, and with "ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project." in the log file when built via command line.

i tried some of the workarround but all result with those failures.

I NEED A SOLUTION ASAP.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

rafi

Posted by PZHUANG on 8/8/2010 at 5:26 AM

Sometimes it is understandable an error regardless small and big can miss the regression test. The critical point is the "response" time. This error was first reported on 20/4/2010, it took so long for Microsoft to act and this is not acceptable.

We have tried the workaround and had mixed results. I hope the hotfix can be out in this week or so.

Posted by aledeniz on 8/2/2010 at 7:15 AM

@Microsoft team following this issue:

Please forward up to your manager.

While I appreciate your efforts, this is exactly the type of issue you should never have relesead, as it is at the same time a critical bug, with no reliable work around, and a reputational disaster. As there is no other publicly known way to build installers using VS Deployment technology than to use DevEnv, and you broke it with the release of VS 2010, this means that Microsoft either has got a different unpublished tool, either does not use VS Deployment technology at all across its line of products. Either way is a totally disastrous reputational nightmare, because from one hand the developing community has been asking for a MSBuild task to build vdproj files ever since those two technologies have been on the market, that's it for years, and discovering you have got one such a thing unpublished is not going to be received happily, not from me anyway, and on the other hand, if you don't have any unpublished tool which can replace DevEnv, that means you do not use your own technology at all across your product line, which raise the question why we should use it at all if you don't feel confident enough to use it in the first place!

And don't start telling me your build engineers are building your products on the IDE, because I am not ready to believe you and I don't believe your build engineers would like to be belittled so.

This is a critical bug that should never have been relesead, and once spotted should have been prioritarized at the top of the stack, throwing at it all resources, firing on all cylinders!

Also, issuing a bullettin and a knowledge base advising all interested parties not to upgrade to VS 2010 while you were searching for a fix should have been the minumum.

Let not even start to advise you that from the messages logged in here it does look you had been able to replicate this in April 2010 ...

Posted by Microsoft on 7/30/2010 at 5:29 PM

We are pushing as fast as we can to get the hotfix released. There is a process that we must follow in order to ensure the quality of the hotfix is met and we are doing our due diligence to ensure the hotfix is ready (i.e. it does not cause any regression of current behaviors). We are still on-track to hit the mid-August timeframe. We ask for your patience and understanding.

Posted by aledeniz on 7/30/2010 at 8:16 AM

I have tried all the advertised work around, none of them worked. The projects in my solutions are targeting 3.5.

Without applying any work arouind, I get just "ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project." with no further information. I cannot fathom for the sake of my life how to make the output of the devenv command line build more verbose.

When trying the work arounds I get slightly more output, specifically I am being informed that "The dependencies for the object 'Primary output from MyProject (Active)' cannot be determined." and that "The dependencies for the object 'Interop.StateServices.dll' cannot be determined." and that "The dependencies for the object 'Interop.ASPTypeLibrary.dll' cannot be determined."

This is really urgent, I have got many installers in this status, as it is we cannot upgrade to targeting 4.0, I need to find a work around that works before next Thursday, otherwise I will have to revert to VS 2008, middle of August is completely unacceptable, this is a critical issue, please upgrade it.

Posted by DVox on 7/28/2010 at 5:26 AM

I changed the build order and the bug disappeared...

Posted by ChrisVJC on 7/23/2010 at 7:42 AM

I have also encountered this issue and the workaround is just not going to cut it for our application. We have 3 installers projects to build, each with something in the neighborhood of 50-100 dependencies. Once I start adding the dependencies to the folder as the workaround suggests, the build begins to complain about finding the dependencies of the dependencies. There are simply too many files to track down and add to the project each time we build. I'd like to reiterate how important it is to my organization that this gets resolved.

Posted by Microsoft on 7/20/2010 at 2:22 PM

The current estimate for the hotfix is mid August.

StevenVL - The details on the possible workarounds are in previous responses. Please give them a try.

Posted by Steven Van Loon on 7/20/2010 at 5:29 AM

I have the same problem: converting install project from 2008 to 2010 give following error when ran from the commandline:

ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project.

* in VS2010 I can build the project,
* NO specific dll is mentioned (like 'The dependencies for the object '....dll' cannot be determined')
* also tried the suggested work-arounds, none of them work

any ideas how to fix / work-around?

Posted by Namus on 7/19/2010 at 5:12 PM

We are encountering this bug as well, though it mostly seems to afflict web setup projects and not all of them. The work-arounds attempted so far have been:
- Copy all dependency assemblies (failed).
- Editing the vdproj files to clear FILE tag contents (failed).
- Create empty files with the same name for all the dependent files in the same directory as the vdproj (failed).

A large section of our server build automation is in limbo right now. We are very keen on knowing when a hot fix for this will be available. Could you give a estimate so that we can plan ahead for the next week or two?

Posted by TimHeron on 7/16/2010 at 6:20 AM

Thank you ! Nice to be heard

Posted by Microsoft on 7/14/2010 at 10:24 AM

Hi all,

Your responses on this issue definitely helped us made a good case for releasing a hotfix. As such, we will release a hotfix for this issue. Just to set some expectations around the timeframe, the turnaround time for a hotfix could take up to a few weeks. Once we have the hotfix avaliable, we will update here with a link to download the hotfix.

We will leave this issue open until we have the hotfix published. In the meantime, we ask for your patience and understanding. Thank you.

Posted by Matthias Moetje [MVP] on 7/14/2010 at 1:25 AM

The workaround does not work for me. After copying the dependencies in question to the vdproj-Dir, the automated build still fails.
When opening in the IDE, the error message is now just "Unable to update the dependencies of the project" without any details (which were shown before I copied the files to the vdproj-Dir). After manually refreshing the dependencies, it builds in the IDE.

We need a solution. This situation is inacceptable. I wonder why this didn't come up during the beta. (we have no time for this).

Posted by rwanauo on 7/13/2010 at 8:54 AM

A hotfix is definitely needed.

Posted by adml on 7/13/2010 at 6:33 AM

Agree. A hotfix is needed; this is making our automated builds very ugly.

Posted by Matthias Moetje [MVP] on 7/13/2010 at 5:11 AM

The workaround is not nice. We seriously need a hotfix, too!

Posted by dougsq on 7/12/2010 at 2:23 PM

this is ugly.

Posted by Microsoft on 7/9/2010 at 5:24 PM

Thanks for the responses. We are in the process of considering a hotfix for this issue and will have an update on status early next week. Stay tuned.

Posted by MichaelDTS on 7/9/2010 at 6:43 AM

I can't believe that there should be no hotfix available.
That bug breaks automated build environments for much than more than 3 people.
Please provide a hotfix as soon as possible to prevent that other users spend a lot of time to fix it with a bunch of annoying workarounds.

Posted by TimHeron on 7/9/2010 at 5:37 AM

No HotFix? The workarounds are clumsy and there is a real business need for this. We are holding out moving to VS2010 because this issue will break our automated build environment and implementing the workarounds for hundreds of projects is not really feasible (and shouldn't be necessary anyway!). It has taken over 2 months from MS being able to reproduce the bug to come up with the suggestion that we should use a 3rd party component.

Posted by Microsoft on 7/8/2010 at 4:36 PM

Imm0rt4l - Thanks for confirmation on the workaround.

RAnand - Could you attach a repro project? Also, the crashing bug you mentioned with InstallShield LE, it only happens in certain cases. Flexera is pursuing a hotfix for it and they will post it on their support forum once it's ready.

All - There is no plan for a hotfix for this issue for now. However, if the workaround is not working and there is a strong business need for this to be fixed, please let us know. Also, consider trying out InstallShield LE. It supports most functionality in setups projects and there is an import tool you can use to convert your vdproj to an InstallShieldLE project. Most importantly, InstallShieldLE projects are MSBuild based so you can build the final setup on the command line using MSBuild.

Posted by pmtg on 7/8/2010 at 3:58 PM

Similar experiences to others. Build works fine in Visual Studio but fails from the command line with the "unable to update dependencies". (it doesn't specify which object/dll it is having problems with)

The copy of the dependency files to the directory with the .vdproj file does allow the command line build to work, however we don't really like this workaround.

Others have mentioned been able to get around the issue by generating interop files for their com dlls and referencing the interop file rather than have the build process automatically generating the interop version. This workaround didn't work for us, which is unfortunate since we prefered it to the copying of files option.

Posted by Quint King1 on 7/8/2010 at 12:05 PM

I'm experiencing this same bug in Visual Studio 2010 building my setup project from the command line.

My solution contains a VB .NET DLL, a VB .NET EXE, a C++ CLR DLL, and *a ton* of 3rd party DLLs. I use an automated build system to make our product builds. Since my build system uses the command line devenv call like this:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC>devenv C:\simsys\BioG.sln "Release" /rebuild

to make our setup.msi. When it gets to the last sub-project ( the setup ) I get the error everyone's reporting:

4>------ Build started: Project: SimSetup, Configuration: Release ------
ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project.

This setup compiles just fine in Studio 2008. I'm kinda stuck. The workarounds listed are kinda non-starters because the sheer # of components we're using is huge.

When can we expect hotfix for this issue? This is a big blocker for our development team.

I have decided to suspend all builds product for now, hopefully to get a fix soon?

Posted by RujithAnand on 7/5/2010 at 9:00 AM

I am also facing the same issue. Works fine in IDE but not through command line, our countinous integration/automated build is broken now. I think it was bad idea to upgrade to VS2010. Tried the following workaround
1. copying dependecies to same location as vdproj. Didnt help much just that the error message changed from "ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project" to "ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object xyz.DLL' cannot be determined."(xyz.dll is present)
2. Editing vdproj file - didnt help (Also not a practial workaround as whenver you reload the proj the issue will reapper_
3. As an alternative tried the InstallshiedLE - thats crashing the VS IDE iteself when you click on the tree. I saw y a connect bug for that.

Thinking of reverting back to bit more stable VS2008 now :(. Seems like MS is going to remove setup project from VS soon. Did you manage to figure out the issue, is there going to be any hotfix soon ?

Regards
RAnand

Posted by Imm0rt4l1 on 6/30/2010 at 7:59 PM

Copying dlls to the directory where vdproj is located works for me. Thanks.

Posted by Microsoft on 6/29/2010 at 11:04 AM

While the workaround of removing all entries under the "Files" tag will work for some users, it will not work for all setup projects, because it will have the side effect of removing manually added files.

For users who are willing to modify their .vdproj, and for whom the original workaround we suggested didn't work (i.e. putting dependent files next to the .vdproj), another workaround is to remove only files under the "File" tag in the .vdproj which are dependencies, i.e. files for which the "IsDependency" property equals "11:TRUE". However, keep in mind that if you later make changes to your .vdproj, and save the .vdproj after building (or refreshing dependencies), the dependencies will be placed back into the .vdproj, and the workaround will need to be applied again.

Posted by jdw-75 on 6/25/2010 at 5:17 PM

I just wasted 4 hrs on this. For me, I had to manually remove all entries to envdte.dll and its sister file dte80a.olb, these were dependencies that VS detected. Removing them from the vdproj seemed to fix it. Of course they keep getting readded but at least I can get my msi built :(

Is there not an option to just turn off the dependency detection - I know what my stuff depends on.

Posted by Les Arnott on 6/25/2010 at 4:43 PM

Are we going to see a hot fix for this bug (before the next SP)?

Posted by Microsoft on 6/25/2010 at 2:29 PM

We realize this issue is causing a lot of inconvenience. Please bear with us as we try to move forward in our investigations. Thank you for your patience.

First, for us to be effective in helping you, we need the repro projects. So far, we have applied the workaround in all repro solutions and it worked. If the workaround does not work for your scenario, please attach a repro project for us to investigate. This would help a lot.

For the DeskDrive project, we were able to build both setup projects (x86 and x64) with success after applying the workaround.

Posted by Johan Spännare on 6/22/2010 at 10:27 PM

Read and try my solution.

Best reg
Johan

Posted by Mike Ward - Ann Arbor on 6/22/2010 at 11:57 AM

It's not clear from your response if you were able to build the setup programs in the DeskDrive project. I'm aware the setup programs are not included in the configuration. I build them explicitly as needed.

Posted by Hamid Shahid on 6/22/2010 at 6:42 AM

Hi,

I have tried the workaround and it is not working for me either. I have plenty of files in the Detected Dependencies section and have copied each one of them in the same folde as the vdproj file. Still getting the same error.

There is a detected dependency for Microsoft.Net Framework. Does it mean I have to copy the entire contents of Microsoft.Net folder into the vdproj directory as well?

Posted by Johan Spännare on 6/20/2010 at 11:12 PM

I tired to put the output file "PBS.Service.EXE" in the same folder as vdproj before i posted this questions. But it diden't resolve the issue.

Best reg
Johan

Posted by Microsoft on 6/18/2010 at 11:05 AM

Two things can be done:
1) Redirect the build output of your dll project to the same directly as vdproj and always build the dll first before building the vdproj
2) Manually check in a built copy of the dll in the same directory as the vdproj

Posted by Johan Spännare on 6/18/2010 at 3:57 AM

What to do with project references like (primary output) ?

ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object 'Primary output from PBS.Service (Active)' cannot be determined.

Best reg
Johan

Posted by Microsoft on 6/17/2010 at 5:45 PM

The workaround is to put all the files under the "detected dependencies" dropdown next to the .vdproj. And do this even for dependencies that you have excluded.

Now there is an easier workaround for this problem. Instead of placing the actual dependent files in the same directory as the vdproj, you can create empty files with the same name for all the dependent files in the same directory as the vdproj. The point is to have something there so the paths can be resolved correctly.

For the DeskDrive project, we are able to build successfullly both on the command line and in the IDE. Note that both setup projects were skipped when building the solution because they were not selected to build every time. So you have to enable building them in Configuration Manager.

We recognize this is a bad regression. Your participation is important and we appreciate all the responses that we have received so far. This will build a strong case for us to fix this bug in the next release (probably in SP).

For those who have validated the workaround, please reply back with your results whether it works or not. If it doesn't work, please attach the project and we will investigate.

Thank you.

Posted by Mark Lavine on 6/12/2010 at 5:51 PM

I am having this same problem when I attempt to do a devenv build of a setup file from the command prompt. I am not sure I understand the work around, is it saying that I should place every dll that I build in the same folder as the vdproj file? I have a very large installer (around 250 dll files) and I am not about to modify the path of every single one just to geta solution building. Do we know when this will be fixed? This is a horrible problem, and is directly effecting my work. As it stands right now I will probably have to revert my entire upgrade to vs2010 due to this bug.

Posted by Mike Ward - Ann Arbor on 6/12/2010 at 8:04 AM

I'm not able to build my setups in the IDE as well. I've attached the project (DeskDrive.zip)

Posted by Microsoft on 6/9/2010 at 10:20 AM

The dependent assemblies have to be in the current directly before the vdproj build starts. Two things can be done:
1) Redirect the build output of your dll project to the same directly as vdproj and always build the dll first before building the vdproj
2) Manually check in a built copy of the dll in the same directory as the vdproj

Posted by Microsoft on 6/9/2010 at 10:20 AM

Posted by Gabest on 6/9/2010 at 1:51 AM

Hm, what if my main project is a native c++ windows exe and it depends on another project in the solution which happens to be a c++/cli dll? How can I workaround that?

Posted by Microsoft on 6/4/2010 at 9:58 AM

That's great news. Thanks for verifying the workaround. The issue has nothing to do with the individual assemblies. It is the way that setup projects are resolving the path of the dependencies.

For others who are having this issue, if the workaround is not working for you, please attach your project/solution for our investigation.

Thank you.

Posted by learnerplates on 6/4/2010 at 1:36 AM

I have managed to get mine to compile.
i dropped all assemblies from
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SDK\VisualStudioIntegration\Common\Assemblies\v4.0
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SDK\VisualStudioIntegration\Common\Assemblies\v2.0

into same directory as my .vdproj file.

I'm currently trying to narrow down which assemblies are causing the break.

I have also used the new "Embed Interop Types" property on as many interop assemblies as possible (this did not help).

I fixed up all references to point to VS2010 SDK by hardcoding the paths in the csproj files using HintPath e.g. <Reference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.8.0, Version=8.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" >
     <HintPath>$(ProgramFiles)\Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SDK\VisualStudioIntegration\Common\Assemblies\v2.0\Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.8.0.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>

I also set the "Exclude" property to false on all the assembly dependencies in my Setup project, this didin't help either.

Posted by Microsoft on 6/3/2010 at 2:39 PM

We have applied this workaround to the attached project and it was able to build successfully. For those that are not working, there might be other issues that are causing the failure and possibly require a different workaround.

For those of you that are having troubles with the workaround, can you please attach your project/solution and name it to something unique so we know which to reference when we investigate.

We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and very much appreciate your help in investigating this issue.

Posted by pcKPMG on 6/3/2010 at 1:44 PM

I've tried both the suggestions and they do not work. I've opened a support ticket for this as well. This is really annoying because all of our projects with setup packages are broken now.

Posted by adml on 6/3/2010 at 7:51 AM

Will the workaround still operate correctly when the dependency is a TLB that's generated into an interop DLL on the fly?

Posted by learnerplates on 6/3/2010 at 2:09 AM

I have a similar issue.
When building from devenv on the commandline I get an error but with no mention of what dependancy!!!! :

------ Rebuild All started: Project: Setup, Configuration: Release ------
ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project.
========== Rebuild All: 26 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

Here's my command:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC>devenv /Rebuild Release C:\src-VS2010\Installers.sln /project C:\src-VS2010\Developer\Install\Se
tup\Setup.vdproj /projectconfig Release

Posted by Microsoft on 6/2/2010 at 3:21 PM

Apologies for the delay and thank you all for your patience. We confirmed that this is indeed a bug in setup projects and we've identified the root cause of this issue. In the meantime, the workaround is to place the dependency assemblies from the referenced project(s) next to the .vdproj, and check them in there. Once that's done, the setup project will know where to find the assembilies while refreshing dependencies, hence the build errors should go away. Please give that a try and let us know if it works for you.

Thank you.

Posted by Lukyn.cz on 5/31/2010 at 7:19 AM

I have the same problem when I´m building *.msi via TFS 2010 (InvokeProcess)
Any solution?

Lukyn

Posted by Gabest on 5/14/2010 at 6:50 AM

Same problem here, it started happening in VS2010 RC, and RTM still does the same. I'm using the IDE and each time I restart/reload the solution it fails until I do a right click, refresh dependencies on "detected dependencies". Sometimes I get the "operation could not be completed" dialog box which confuses visual studio to the point that it cannot even be closed cleanly. Before RC it worked fine, for RC I have even rebuilt the whole setup project from scratch.

Posted by Dmitry Kaloshin on 5/13/2010 at 10:31 AM

I have the same problem but it is resolved if I right click on Detected dependencies and select "Refresh dependencies" in VS IDE. How can I refresh dependencies via command line?

Posted by Microsoft on 5/3/2010 at 6:08 PM

Thanks for all the feedback. We're looking into this issue.

Posted by Foxbat121 on 4/28/2010 at 10:11 AM

Same problem. I have 3 setup projects, a merge module project with no dependency on other projects, a 32-bit msi project pulling outputs from other .NET projects in the solution and a 64-bit msi doing the same thing. Only the 32-bit msi failed with the exact same error. 64-bit msi project works without problem.

Posted by Matthew Watson on 4/26/2010 at 6:17 AM

I'd just like to say that we're getting the same problem. Can build fine from within the IDE, but running devenv from the command line gives us "ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project." with no additional information (it doesn't give us a DLL name or anything).

Needless to say, this has completely screwed up our automated release builds. It's actually a major problem for us.

Posted by AdamRobertson on 4/26/2010 at 2:25 AM

I get exactly the same issue, although I don't get informed which DLL is causing the problem. The first time I run the build interactively I get this:

------ Rebuild All started: Project: Designer Setup, Configuration: Release ------
ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project.

If I re-run the build interactively it works. However I always get the initial problem when I run the build from the command line.

Posted by Microsoft on 4/25/2010 at 8:04 PM

Thanks for your feedback. We were able to reproduce the issue you are seeing. We are routing this issue to the appropriate group within the Visual Studio Product Team for triage and resolution. These specialized experts will follow-up with your issue.

Posted by adml on 4/22/2010 at 2:15 PM

Like SamWarwick, within the IDE, I get the error once, then everything works after a rebuild. With devenv.com, it always throws this error.

Posted by adml on 4/22/2010 at 2:13 PM

Also running into this issue. It's totally broken our automated build system for setup projects. Ridiculous :(

Posted by EMSDeveloper on 4/21/2010 at 6:35 AM

Thanks for the quick response! :)

I've attached a .zip file that contains a setup project and the files for the installer. You can either use mine or create an empty setup project. Just add the DevEnvTest.exe file in the File System Editor (which will automatically add the "Keyoti" .dlls that is references). It will build fine in the IDE, but fail on the command line.

I've attached a screen shot of the results I am seeing.

Thanks!

Posted by Sam Warwick on 4/21/2010 at 2:14 AM

I'm having a similar problem. When I first attempt to build the setup in the IDE I get the error 'Unable to update the dependencies of the project'. I dont get any further clues to what is causing the problem. However, if I attempt the build a second time it works. Running from the command-line doesnt work, even after a second attempt.

Posted by Microsoft on 4/20/2010 at 10:10 PM

Thanks for reporting the issue.
In order to fix the issue, we must first reproduce the issue in our labs. We are unable to reproduce the issue with the steps you provided.

Could you please attach a zipped project file to this feedback through our site to help us reproduce the issue?

Thanks again for your efforts and we look forward to hearing from you.
Visual Studio Product Team

Posted by Foxbat121 on 4/28/2010 at 11:57 AM

I found the cause in my build and work around. The bug is triggered by a interop assembly to a system COM component that needs to be build on-the-fly every time the specific .NET project is built. The problem is Visual Studio Deployment project can't determine the full references to such interop assembly. Hence the error.

To work around this issue, I manually generated Interop assembly using tlbimp.exe and checked in the interop assembly instead of letting Visual Studio to generate on the fly. It is a preferred way to do so anyway. After this change, my DevEnv command line build no longer fails.

Posted by Brian Codde on 6/17/2010 at 12:23 PM

I also had this bug in a setup project that had a dependency on an interop assembly, luckily for me its a project that is not updated very often. We use installshield for all other installers. My workaround was to remove the project from my release build configuration, and check in the msi to source control. Since this builds in the IDE, whomever makes changes to the project can simply rebuild and check in the updated msi.

Hoping a hotfix for this comes out soon.

Posted by Johan Spännare on 6/21/2010 at 11:07 PM

Manually edit your .vdproj file. And remove everthing in the "File" tag.

Example:

        "File"
        {
        }

Tried this on two systems now and it seams to be working.

Remarks: DON'T checkout you vdproj file in VS2010 IDE, it vill break your solution and you need to redo this step.

Best reg
Johan Spännare

Posted by Ludovic Dubois on 9/28/2010 at 5:36 AM

Automate the process of Johan with the following line before compiling your solution:

    <FileUpdate Files="MySetup.vdproj"
             Regex='".*"\s*(\r*\n*)*\s*\{[^\}\{]*(\{[^\}\{]*\{[^\}]*\}[^\}]*\}[^\}]*)?"Exclude"\s*=\s*"11\:TRUE"[^\}]*\}'
             ReplacementText=" "/>

You have to import MSBuildCommunityTasks:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>

Posted by PAULL on 3/29/2011 at 7:36 AM

Interestingly, I was at my wits end when I found this hotfix. I was getting a problem with vs2010 sp1 where dependent dlls were not getting copied to the right folders - when I manually copied them it wouldn't build, when I left "project output" to its own devices, it didn't copy even direct dependencies because they were also referenced from assemblies from other folder. When I applied this hotfix on top of sp1, the problem went away.

Posted by Richard Dingwall on 3/29/2011 at 8:49 AM

Ludovic: thanks for the regex. Found a small bug tho, should be:

<FileUpdate Files="@(InstallerProjects)"
Regex='".*"\s*(\r*\n*)*\s*\{[^\}\{]*(\{[^\}\{]*\{[^\}]*\}[^\}]*\}[^\}]*)?"Exclude"\s*=\s*"11\:(TRUE|FALSE)"[^\}]*\}'
ReplacementText=" "/>

(was missing FALSE values)

Posted by Richard Dingwall on 4/26/2011 at 8:20 AM

The regex above doesn't work, it's taking out other sections too. Using this one (less elegant) for now

<FileUpdate Files="Myproject.vdproj"
            Regex='"File"[^\b]*"FileType"'
            ReplacementText='"File"
        {
        }
        "FileType"' />

Posted by SoulFireMage on 3/2/2012 at 8:59 AM

"File" tag in the vdproj file again, only it seems simple path enumeration was missing?!
Here is the simplistic thing I did-with each error.

Find:

"SourcePath" = "8:SOME.DLL"

Replace with:

"SourcePath" = "8:\\\\CDONE\\Setup\\Some Full Install\\Folder\\SOME.dll"

Fixed the problem.

Building setup project in devenv.com command line fails, works in IDE by EMSDeveloper