Debugging without ActiveSync -unable to get Visual Studio 2005 to cooperate

Hi all,

I've been trying to debug a Windows CE 5.0 based device with VS 2005. Since this device doesn't have a full serial port or USB client port available, I've turned to debugging without ActiveSync (I did try merging in some AS partnership information from another device into the registry, but haven't quite gotten AS to connect.)

I've used the instructions pointed to elsewhere, e.g.

http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdteam/archive/2005/04/28/413304.aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228708.aspx

However, there appears to be no manual startup server option -- VS 2005 seems to insist that ActiveSync be used as the Startup Server/Bootstrapper. When I try to connect after following the above instructions, it always tells me "ActiveSync is not installed" (or something like "could not connect with ActiveSync" when I do have AS installed). It appears that this bootstrap info is configured in some XSL files for CoreCon 1.0 (I tried manually manipulating the bootstrap settings in the files, to no avail).

I did verify that it works fine with VS 2003 using the Smart Device Authentication Utility. I'm suspecting that it would work fine with VS 2005 as well if it would get past trying to use ActiveSync as the startup server.

Has anyone else encountered this problem I've found only one other mention of it, with no resolution.

Thanks,

Adam

Thanks for the response. As I wrote in my original post, though, after following those instructions (the "standard" instructions for debugging without ActiveSync), connecting to the device always fails, with a message complaining that "ActiveSync is not installed" (or when I do have it installed, that it is not able to connect via ActiveSync).

So even though you are *supposed* to be able to debug without ActiveSync, my VS 2005 installation does not seem to know this. I can't figure out how to convince it not to try to use ActiveSync as the Startup server. I've tried this on a couple different machines, one that didn't have Platform Builder 5.0 or VS 2003 on it, just in case there was any conflict, but always the same result.

Has anyone seen this I'm assuming there must be some issue with my CE image -- It happens so readily, I just can't see how it wouldn't happen to many people unless it is something specific to my CE OS configuration. But if so, I simply don't know what component or setting my image might be missing.

--Adam

Hi,

I would suggest trying manual bootstrap steps on a clean WinCE5.0 device by soft/hard resetting it. If it still didn't work, answers to the following questions will help in trouble shooting the problem:

1. When you run conmanclient2.exe, is it exiting immediately or keeps running

2. When you run cmaccept.exe, is it exiting immediately or after few minutes (around 3min)

If the answer to either of the above questions is "Yes", you haven't copied cpu matching binaries to your device.

Another thing you might want to check is whether you can ping your WinCE5.0 IP address from your VS05 desktop machine.

Device binaries copied to WinCE5.0 must from the same VS version using which a connection attempt is made. For example, copying VS05 beta binaries and later trying to connect from VS05 RTM (build 50727.42) will fail.

Thanks

Siva

Thank you Siva and Anand.

I am able to ping the device, telnet to it, etc. But, as you both describe

1) conmanclient2.exe and cmaccept.exe exit immediately -- they do not remain running. I'd not recognized this problem earlier.

2) Running a packet sniffer on the desktop, I can see that the packets being sent from the desktop to port 5655 are not being accepted. (This seems consistent with the above -- I suppose that conmanclient2 is supposed to listen on that port, but is not running.)

The question becomes, then, why are they not running The versions of the binaries do *seem* to be correct, as far as I can tell. I took them from the CoreCon path specified in the instructions linked to above -- they are dated 9/23/2005, which matches the dates of my other VS 2005 install files (I've never had a VS 2005 beta on this machine). The only other conmanclient2.exe's on my machine are elsewhere in my Wince500, and are dated much earlier (from 2004). And I took them from the ArmV4i target directory, which matches my target device. (I also generally see an CE error message if I run a binary which is not built for the correct processor.)

My conclusion, then, is that there is some component or setting they require that is not present in my OS image. I encountered a post or two regarding dependencies for TCP/IP debugging, and had included everything they listed (I'll look them up again to double check). Does anyone know what component(s) I might be missing (Note that I have been able to connect with VS 2003, so it seems like it would have to be some new requirement for the VS 2005 conmanclient2 and cmaccept.)

Thanks,

Adam

Another note: I have the bootstrap files built directly into the OS image. I don't expect this is a problem, but I have also tested it by copying them over cesh with a kitl based image, and it made no apparent difference.

Hi,

Conmanclient uses Power notifications so that it can shutdown when battery is low. Currently, conmanclient2 will fail to run if the OS doesn't support power management.

Thanks

Siva