Visual Studio 2005 ERROR: An error occurred generating a bootstrapper: Invalid syntax.

Question

I'm working on VS 2005 and something has gone wrong on my machine. Suddenly, out of the blue, I can no longer build deployment files. The build message is:

ERROR: An error occurred generating a bootstrapper: Invalid syntax.
ERROR: General failure building bootstrapper
ERROR: Unrecoverable build error

A quick Google search brings up the last 2 lines, but nobody in cyberspace has ever reported the first message before. (Hooray! I'm first at SOMETHING on the 'net!)

Other machines in my office are able to do the build. My machine has been able to do the build before. I have no idea what changed that upset the delicate balance of things on my box. I have also tried all the traditional rituals i.e. closing Visual Studio, blowing away all the bin and obj folders, rebooting, etc. to no avail.

For simplicity's sake, I created a little "Hello World" app with a deployment file. Herewith the build output:

------ Build started: Project: HelloWorld, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------
HelloWorld -> C:\Vault\Multi Client\Tests\HelloWorld\HelloWorld\bin\Debug\HelloWorld.exe
------ Starting pre-build validation for project 'HelloWorldSetup' ------
------ Pre-build validation for project 'HelloWorldSetup' completed ------
------ Build started: Project: HelloWorldSetup, Configuration: Debug ------
Building file 'C:\Vault\Multi Client\Tests\HelloWorld\HelloWorldSetup\Debug\HelloWorldSetup.msi'...
ERROR: An error occurred generating a bootstrapper: Invalid syntax.
ERROR: General failure building bootstrapper
ERROR: Unrecoverable build error
========== Build: 1 succeeded or up-to-date, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

I am using:

• MS Visual Studio 2005 Version 8.0.50727.762 (SP .050727-7600)
• .NET Framework Version 2.0.50727
• OS: Windows XP Pro

Again, I have no idea what changed. All I know is that one day everything was working fine; the next day I suddenly can't do any deployment builds at all (though all other projects still compile fine).

I posted this on MSDN about a month ago, and they don't seem to know what's going on, either. See http://tinyurl.com/6mo6cb

Anyone have any idea what this is about?

Thanks! Shaul

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@Brad Wilson: Thanks, but if you read my original post, you'll see that I already did start an entire solution from scratch, and that didn't help.

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@deemer: I went through all the pain of uninstalling and reinstalling, even though I didn't have your recommended reading while waiting... and - Misery! - still the same error reappears. It seems that my computer has somehow been branded as unsuitable for doing deployment builds ever again.

Does anyone have any idea where this "secret switch" might be? HELP!!! :-o

Answer 1

If it doesn't build only on the one machine, then either you've managed to make that machine different, or the VS2005 install is corrupted. If you take the error message at face-value, then the problem is probably the latter. Try running the repair feature of the VS2005 installer, or failing that, reinstall VS2005. Ender's Game is a good book to read while you're waiting :-|.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, that error is the general catch-all error handler for setup projects. As a wild guess, I'd say that maybe the setup project got corrupted somehow, which is causing the "Invalid Syntax" error.

Try creating a new setup project and start by doing things one step at a time, and see if you can reproduce the problem (or, hopefully, avoid it altogether).

Answer 3

SOLUTION!
Thanks to Michael Bleifer of Microsoft support - I installed .NET 2.0 SP1, and the problem was solved!