Visual Studio

What works

• Loading an existing solution file
• editing files
• using auto-completion in the editor
• compiling the solution
• running the generated application.

The solution file was generated by CMake.

The application (http://alice.loria.fr/software/graphite) uses Python, Qt and OpenGL and has custom build rules (it is a rather complicated project, therefore many features of VisualC++ were tested).

I installed both Cmake, Python and Qt in the same wineprefix as Visual C++ 2008.

What does not

• I did not manage to create a new project from scratch (not a problem if you use CMake)
• The debugger does not work.
• Sometimes Visual Studio gets stuck while compiling, and needs to be killed and restarted (but there is a workaround, see 'additional comments / mspdbsrv' below)
• During installation, the Application Data folder for Microsoft Document Explorer and Visual C++ Express cannot be created (some dialog boxes pop-up), but it is easy to fix by creating it manually (see 'additional comments' below).

Workarounds

What was not tested

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

Installation ============ To install it, I followed the following protocol: (0) install winbind aptitude install winbind (debian) It is needed by the 'PDB' (Program Data Base) mechanism used by MSVC's compiler. (1) get winetricks from the repository svn checkout http://winetricks.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/src/ (2) install dotnet3.5 sp1 export WINEPREFIX=.local/share/wineprefixes/VS2008sp1 chmod 755 src/winetricks src/winetricks -q dotnet35sp1 Note: there will be two dialog boxes with messages that .NET 2.0 SP1 and .NET 3.0 SP1 could not be uninstalled, but it does not seem to be a problem. (3) Download Visual Studio SP1 CDROM image (see links on the left of this webpage) (4) as root: mount -o loop -t udf VS2008ExpressWithSP1ENUX1504728.iso /mnt (5) as normal user (take care!!): wine /mnt/VCExpress/setup.exe It will complain twice: "The Application Data folder for... could not be created" but it is easy to fix. (6)create the directory: C:\Users\\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0 (I have no idea what the 'Document explorer' is, we should probably create a directory for it also) (7) replace $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/windows/system32/msvcp90.dll with the one from http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?msvcp90 (8) with winecfg, set 'msvcp90.dll' as 'native,builtin' (9) before starting Visual C++ (or anything that uses the command line compiler), make sure mspdbsrv.exe is running by starting: wine $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ Visual\ Studio\ 9.0/Common7/IDE/mspdbsrv.exe -start -spawn -shutdowntime -1 I needed steps (7) and (8) to run the generated application: the 'msvcp90.dll' shipped with wine makes my application crash. Both the initial release and the SP1 work (from the CD Images, I did not try the network installer). For the initial release, you will need to install dotnet3.5, and for the SP1, you will need to install dotnet3.5 sp1 (using a winetricks checked out from the SVN). More comments ============= I did not manage to install .net 3.5 with versions 1.5.10, 1.5.11 and 1.5.12 of wine (some problems during XPS installation in .net 2.0 sp1).

Make sure you operate on a clean 32-bit WINEPREFIX (~/.wine)!

Prerequisite installation by using 'winetricks' script

Winetricks will take care of all needed installation prerequisites and work around some problems. To install it, follow the instructions in the link.

If you intend to install VS 2008 SP1 you need .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Winbind component

Make sure you installed 'winbind' component with your distribution package manager.

This is needed for the -Zi option of the compiler, and other mechanisms that handle 'PDB' (Program Data Base) files.

Debian:

Fedora:

Never run wine as root (su, sudo)! Wine doesn't require to be run as root!

You will screw your WINEPREFIX and possibly other things up. If you have run Wine as root you need to:

and then run winecfg to set Wine folder structure back up. If you used winetricks script as root you might also need to:

Again: Just run wine as regular user and all should be fine.

This is Bug 9158. Only happens with online-installer version (not retail from .ISO image). Use the following workaround in console:

This is Bug 21259. 

Workaround: start 'mspdbsrv.exe' manually before visual C++, with an 'infinite' timeout.

You can create a shell script that starts both mspdbsrv.exe and VCEXpress.exe, if mspdbsrv.exe is already running, it will be ignored the second time it is invoked.