"0 bytes loaded from System"

[Jonathan Gilbert]

Hello,

I work for a company that sells .NET software and have recently been
tasked with handling support issues to do with our update system,
which I wrote. Since the updater is the first thing that runs when the
desktop icon is clicked, I also get unrelated issues, and one that has
been coming up repeatedly is the following exception while trying to
instantiate an XmlSerializer:

System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for
'IQ.Core.UpdateFoundation.Dispatcher.DispatchRequest' threw an
exception. ---> System.BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or
assembly '0 bytes loaded from System, Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its
dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect
format.
File name: '0 bytes loaded from System, Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' --->
System.BadImageFormatException: Bad IL format.
at System.Reflection.Assembly.nLoadImage(Byte[] rawAssembly, Byte[]
rawSymbolStore, Evidence evidence, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean
fIntrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(Byte[] rawAssembly, Byte[]
rawSymbolStore, Evidence securityEvidence)
at
Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeGenerator.FromFileBatch(CompilerParameters
options, String[] fileNames)
at
Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeGenerator.FromSourceBatch(CompilerParameters
options, String[] sources)
at
Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeGenerator.System.CodeDom.Compiler.ICodeCompiler.CompileAssemblyFromSourceBatch(CompilerParameters
options, String[] sources)
at
System.CodeDom.Compiler.CodeDomProvider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(CompilerParameters
options, String[] sources)
at System.Xml.Serialization.Compiler.Compile(Assembly parent,
String ns, XmlSerializerCompilerParameters xmlParameters, Evidence
evidence)
at
System.Xml.Serialization.TempAssembly.GenerateAssembly(XmlMapping[]
xmlMappings, Type[] types, String defaultNamespace, Evidence evidence,
XmlSerializerCompilerParameters parameters, Assembly assembly,
Hashtable assemblies)
at System.Xml.Serialization.TempAssembly..ctor(XmlMapping[]
xmlMappings, Type[] types, String defaultNamespace, String location,
Evidence evidence)
at
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.GenerateTempAssembly(XmlMapping
xmlMapping, Type type, String defaultNamespace, String location,
Evidence evidence)
at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer..ctor(Type type,
XmlAttributeOverrides overrides, Type[] extraTypes, XmlRootAttribute
root, String defaultNamespace, String location, Evidence evidence)
at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer..ctor(Type type, Type[]
extraTypes)
at IQ.Core.UpdateFoundation.Dispatcher.DispatchRequest..cctor()

In attempting to debug this issue, I wrote, on the client's machine, a
tiny test application whose only statement was the creation of an
XmlSerializer, and when I attempted to compile it using the C#
compiler installed on the client machine as part of the .NET
Framework, I found that CSC.EXE produces no output at all:

C:\testxml>csc test.cs

C:\testxml>csc /?

C:\testxml>csc

C:\testxml>

I rooted around to try to find the cause, and one of the other things
I tried was running WCF's ServiceModelReg utility, and that produced
similar output, receiving an error from somewhere within the
framework:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication
Foundation>ServiceModelReg.exe /i
Microsoft(R) Windows Communication Foundation Installation Utility
[Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Communication Foundation, Version
3.0.4506.4037]
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Error: Could not load file or assembly '0 bytes loaded from System,
Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or
one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an
incorrect format.

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication
Foundation>

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling .NET, using both .NET's own
uninstaller and the removal tool that Aaron Stebner put on his blog,
but to no avail. The above symptoms persist with no change.

Has anybody seen this before or know what the problem is? So far, we
have only succeeded in solving the problem on a single client
workstation, and the "solution" was a complete reinstallation of
Windows.

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

[Jeroen Mostert]

I work for a company that sells .NET software and have recently been
tasked with handling support issues to do with our update system,
which I wrote. Since the updater is the first thing that runs when the
desktop icon is clicked, I also get unrelated issues, and one that has
been coming up repeatedly is the following exception while trying to
instantiate an XmlSerializer:

System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for
'IQ.Core.UpdateFoundation.Dispatcher.DispatchRequest' threw an
exception. ---> System.BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or
assembly '0 bytes loaded from System, Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its
dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect
format.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919825 is not your scenario, but it might
have the same root cause (an invalid assembly generating a misleading error
message). The trouble is figuring out which assembly. Try using procmon
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx) to identify
the failing assembly as it's being loaded. You can use peverify.exe to check
if it's valid. It might be your own assembly, being corrupted as it's
downloaded.

However, if a complete reinstall of the .NET Framework doesn't help and it
also affects .NET software other than your own, this suggests no single
assembly is the problem. Reboot into safe mode and see if the problem still
occurs. File-system filter drivers like the ones installed by antivirus
programs can prevent successful file access. Process Monitor should be able
to see this as well, though it may not be as obvious.

 

[Jonathan Gilbert]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919825is not your scenario, but it might
have the same root cause (an invalid assembly generating a misleading error
message). The trouble is figuring out which assembly. Try using procmon
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx) to identify
the failing assembly as it's beingloaded. You can use peverify.exe to check
if it's valid. It might be your own assembly, being corrupted as it's
downloaded.

However, if a complete reinstall of the .NET Framework doesn't help and it
also affects .NET software other than your own, this suggests no single
assembly is the problem. Reboot into safe mode and see if the problem still
occurs. File-systemfilter drivers like the ones installed by antivirus
programs can prevent successful file access. Process Monitor should be able
to see this as well, though it may not be as obvious.

Thanks for this information. With it, and armed with the stack trace
in the original post, I wrote a simple test app:

CodeDomProvider provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("C#");

CompilerResults results = provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(
new CompilerParameters()
{
GenerateExecutable = true,
GenerateInMemory = false,
IncludeDebugInformation = false,
OutputAssembly = "Test",
},
@"using System;

class Test
{
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine(""It worked!"");
}
}");

This returns without errors, but as soon as I access the
CompiledAssembly property of the CompilerResults object, I immediately
get:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly
'file:///C:\Tes
tApp\Test' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file
specified
..
File name: 'file:///C:\TestApp\Test'
at System.Reflection.Assembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String
codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint,
StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean
forIntrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String
codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint,
StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean
forIntrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(AssemblyName
assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark,
Boolean forIntrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(AssemblyName assemblyRef,
Evidence assemblySecurity)
at System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerResults.get_CompiledAssembly()

This brings things into clarity; the error is that CSC is not working,
and the "0 bytes loaded from System", in which the filename is wrong,
is merely a symptom of this.

I will follow up if/when I discover why CSC isn't working.

Thanks for your suggestions. Disabling anti-virus software and running
in safe mode will be the first things I try next.

Jonathan

 

[Jonathan Gilbert]

This brings things into clarity; the error is that CSC is not working,
and the "0 bytes loaded from System", in which the filename is wrong,
is merely a symptom of this.

I will follow up if/when I discover why CSC isn't working.

Thanks for your suggestions. Disabling anti-virus software and running
in safe mode will be the first things I try next.

I investigated installed anti-virus software on the machine and
discovered that it had "Additional Guard" installed -- a fake anti-
spyware program that is itself malware. It had added a program
compatibility entry in the registry with the effect of preventing any
program named CSC.EXE from running (along with ~700 others). After
running Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, which removed all of these,
CSC.EXE began working again, and the related errors in calls into
CodeDom (and XmlSerializer, which uses CodeDom) went away. The machine
is once again working properly.

Thanks for your help,

Jonathan