VS2005 Beta2, CF .NET v2, PocketPC 2003 emulator & VPC - HELP!

[Lea]

Hi all

Bet others have asked but nothing seems recent.

How on earth do get the PocketPC 2003SE emulator to talk to VS2005 IDE
(all running within a VPC).

I've spent two days (nearly) and have finally admitted defeat! Please
help....

Here's what I've done so far...

1. Added LoopBack adaptor to the VPC (WinXP SP2) host as recommended
on the MS site (somewhere)

2. Set TCP/IP to obtain IP auto

3. Changed emultor settings to LoopBack adaptor from Ne2000

Still nothing!


3. Finally found ActiveSync 4.x and installed on VPC host OS and
followed instructions here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228845

failed - my Cradle option is greyed out...

Then tried
http://blogs.msdn.com/jeffabraham/archive/2005/05/10/416196.aspx

Still greyed out!!!


ARRRRGH...

VS2005 and emulation looks great and I can't wait to start developing
but NOTHING works in a VPC! nWhy I need VPC you may ask. Well I need
to develop applicatoins side by side in VS6 and VS^ and any .NET IDE do
not cohabit.


4. OK, so I simply set up a folder which both the host and Emulator
could see (the emulator sees it as the Storage Card) so for simple
testing I could simply add my output .exe and run it.

When my application runs the emulated PocketPC compains about an
incorrect version of .NET. How can the emulator PocketPC (Windows
Mobile 2003SE) that is shipped with VS2005 (ie .NET v2) not have .NET
v2 on board?

So how does one install CF .NET v2 on my emulator??

Sorry, lots of questions....but I'm really excited but REALLY
frustrated - am I pretty PC literate too!

Any help really appreciated.

Cheers
Lea

 

[Alex Feinman [MVP]]

One of the design points of the VS2005 device emulator was the ability to
work in VPC. It does.
It does not require a loopback adapter.
Do you think you could blow away the virtual machine and install afresh?
As for 2 version of studio living on the same machine - it works, I can
attest to that. Keep in mind that the studioo will be released on Nov 7
hence you may want to wait and simply install the RTM build on your main
system (not VPC)

 

[Lea]

Hi Alex

Thanks for the reply much appreciated.

"As for 2 version of studio living on the same machine - it works, I
can
attest to that. "

Uhm, I thought VS6 + VS .NET would not cohabit in one OS - I tried this
a long while ago mind you, I found that it was the MSDN help libraries
that were problematic - I think .NET MSDN even refused to install
period - maybe this has changed.

So I CAN install both VS6 + VS6 MSDN lib & VS2005 + VS2005 MSDN in one
OS?

"One of the design points of the VS2005 device emulator was the ability
to
work in VPC. It does.
It does not require a loopback adapter.!"

Mine doesn't :-( I guess ActiveSync is used - but this doesn't work in
my VPC either! Any tips - and not throwing away my VPC! I can easily
create a fresh VPC if this helps?

The focus of my activity is to produce a few glossy PocketPC screen
grabs to hook my company and so I'm creating a VERY simple PocketPC
2003 app (the emulator looks so swish, I'm sure this would do the
trick) but alas it's just not happening and the design time shots
aren't quite so impressive.

Cheers for any further pointers
Lea

 

[John Socha-Leialoha]

I've been using VS 2005 and the 2003 SE emulators inside of both Virtual
PC and VMWare. They both work fine. What you should be able to do is
select the emulator you want from the list of devices shown in the
Device toolbar, then click on the connect icon. This should fire up the
emulator and connect VS 2005 to the emulator.

I believe VS 2005 is using it's own transport mechanism to talk to the
emulator, so it doesn't require an active ActiveSync connection to the
emulator.

On another note, I switched from Virtual PC to VMWare because I found
VPC to be painfully slow, but VMWare is close to native speed.

-- John

 

[John Socha-Leialoha]

When my application runs the emulated PocketPC compains about an

incorrect version of .NET. How can the emulator PocketPC (Windows
Mobile 2003SE) that is shipped with VS2005 (ie .NET v2) not have .NET
v2 on board?

The Pocket PC 2003 SE emulator doesn't contain the CF 2.0 image because
there are no devices out there with CF 2.0 on them. So the emulator is
doing a good job of emulating a real device.

In fact, the WM 5.0 devices that are shipping now also don't have CF 2.0
loaded on them. I think it's going to be a little while before you see
CF 2.0 in ROM since device manufacturers are slow to pick up new
releases (they have very long test cycles, from what I've heard).

-- John

 

[Lea]

Hi John

Thanks for the reply.

I've tried everything in a VPC to establish coms but no joy. What VS
version are you using? I'm running Beta 2 - maybe I should try the
latest CTP?

Regarding CF2.0, so how does one place CF2.0 onto the emulator - or
does this happen automatically when VS connects for the first time? Is
there a full download from MS - I couldn't find it if there is!


Cheers
Lea

 

[John Socha-Leialoha]

I'm using the release candidate, which in the help box says
RTM.050727-2600. I'm an MSDN subscriber and downloaded this from MSDN.

As to CF 2.0, yes, Visual Studio automatically copies this to the
emulator and installs it.

-- John

 

[Lea]

Hi John

Well I ditched the VPC and you were quite right, VS 2005 coexists fine
with my VS6 fine - great! I'm glad I tried it now. VS2005 (July CTP
version) and the emulator just worked 'right out of the box' as they
say (IJW) !

One last quick question if you don't mind. I find that some things
with CF2 just don't work. Even the most fundamental ie:

this.textBox4.TextAlign =
System.Windows.Forms.HorizontalAlignment.Center;

Compiles with no complaints but fails to actually manipulate the text -
so how does one know what will work and what doesn't with pre release
versions? Any clues much appreciated.

Cheers
Lea

 

[John Socha-Leialoha]

One last quick question if you don't mind. I find that some things

with CF2 just don't work. Even the most fundamental ie:

this.textBox4.TextAlign =
System.Windows.Forms.HorizontalAlignment.Center;

Compiles with no complaints but fails to actually manipulate the text -
so how does one know what will work and what doesn't with pre release
versions? Any clues much appreciated.

Cheers
Lea

The Visual Studio 2005 help file for TextBox.TextAlign contains the
following in the Remarks section:

"Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows CE
Platform Note: In Pocket PC-based applications, a single-line text box
supports only left alignment. A multiline text box can be aligned on the
left, right, or center."

 

[Lea]

Yep, you're quite right. You have to carefully read the whole
documentation don't you. Surely the compiler/IDE can tell what's in
and what's out - frustrating! and there's no note in the help for
HorizontalAlignment Enumeration


Thanks for your help.
Lea