Cannot run exe to debug DLL in VS.NET 2003 - Unable to start debugging. Unable to start program. - W

[Bob Rock]

Hello,

I'm using an executable (for which I do not have the source code nor the pdb
file) as the startup application to load a DLL I'm writing and need to
debug. If I try to debug the DLL I immediately get the error "Unable to
start debugging. Unable to start program XXX.exe". If I do "Start without
debugging" my startup application gets correctly executed. Is this problem
due to the fact I'm missing the debugging information for the exe??? The
VS.NET 2003 debugger seems to work fine (if I create for example a console
application I can debugging it without any issues). I also tried using
VS.NET 2005 and everything works as expected apart an initial notice that
the IDE could not find the debugging information for the executable. Is this
the issue with VS.NET 2003, is it the missing debugging info for the exe???
Any ideas?
Thanks.

Bob Rock

 

[Oleg Starodumov]

I'm using an executable (for which I do not have the source code nor the pdb
file) as the startup application to load a DLL I'm writing and need to
debug. If I try to debug the DLL I immediately get the error "Unable to
start debugging. Unable to start program XXX.exe". If I do "Start without
debugging" my startup application gets correctly executed. Is this problem
due to the fact I'm missing the debugging information for the exe??? The
VS.NET 2003 debugger seems to work fine (if I create for example a console
application I can debugging it without any issues). I also tried using
VS.NET 2005 and everything works as expected apart an initial notice that
the IDE could not find the debugging information for the executable. Is this
the issue with VS.NET 2003, is it the missing debugging info for the exe???
Any ideas?

Missing debug information should not cause this problem.

Is this executable native or managed? Same for dll?

Is there any additional explanation in the error message?

 

[Bob Rock]

Missing debug information should not cause this problem.

Is this executable native or managed? Same for dll?

Is there any additional explanation in the error message?

No additional info in the error message. I tried changing the startup exe to
any application like notepad or IE. I get the same exact result and message.
Anyway the original startup exe was a managed VB.NET 2002 compiled
application. But any exe leads to the same error.

Regards,
Bob Rock

 

[Bob Rock]

BTW, I'm using a windows 2003 R2 standard edition + visual studio 6 + visual
studio .net 2003 + visual studio 2005. Everything service packed to the
latest bits.

Bob Rock

 

[Oleg Starodumov]

What happens if you open that same executable as a new solution?
(I mean something like File | Open Solution and select the .exe)
Will it be possible to debug it (and the dll)?

Oleg

 

[Bob Rock]

What happens if you open that same executable as a new solution?
(I mean something like File | Open Solution and select the .exe)
Will it be possible to debug it (and the dll)?

Oleg

I do not have the source code for the original executable. Anyway, having
created a solution with a simple EXE that loads my DLL I can debug both the
EXE and the DLL . Still I cannot use an external executable as the startup
application for my DLL. This is most strange.

Bob

 

[Oleg Starodumov]

I do not have the source code for the original executable. Anyway, having
created a solution with a simple EXE that loads my DLL I can debug both the
EXE and the DLL . Still I cannot use an external executable as the startup
application for my DLL. This is most strange.

OK. So at least you have a workaround.

Also this narrows the problem down to the dll's solution.
Could you please list all settings on Project properties | Configuration Properties | Debugging
page?

Oleg