Cannot compile .NET CF project containing Design time attributes without Visual Studio?

Question

I'm working on a .NET Compact Framework 3.5 app. I have an automated build machine that does not have Visual Studio installed, and all has been fine.

I'm trying to a a new solution containing control projects that have DesignTimeAttributes.xmta files. MsBuild on the build machine is failing with cannot find file, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\SDK\v3.5\Bin\genasm.exe.

I've tried manually adding this directory and it's contents from my dev box to the build machine, but now I'm getting

c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets(67,9): error : genasm.exe(1) : error There was an error reading arguments. Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.CompactFramework.Build.Tasks, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. Done executing task "BuildAsmmeta" -- FAILED.

Before I struggle further with this, I thought I'd ask if anyone else out there has gotten a CompactFramework project with design time attributes building on a machine without Visual Studio?

Answer 1

You think need to install the Windows .NET Framework SDK on your build machine to obtain the tools that come with Visual Studio.

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update

Since you stated you installed all SDKs you could check %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.1\Bin\SetEnv.cmd for any quirks in the PATH settings. I discovered some inconsistencies there for an x64 environment.

Answer 2

Filburt: I've already installed the Windows SDK, the .NET SDK, and the CF SDK. I realize now that "all has been fine" in the original question doesn't make that clear.

None of the SDK's installed anything into the Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0 directory.

I've given up and installed VS at this point, but thanks for the answer.