command without parameters displays all environment variables, but be aware that this list is long.
Errors during the Release Copy Phase
Buildrel errors encountered during the Release Copy phase are generally a sign of inadequate hard drive space. During the Release Copy phase, the build system copies files to the release directory. It might be necessary to free up hard drive space or place the OS design folder on a different drive. Make sure that the new path to the OS design folder contains no spaces because spaces in the path or in the OS design name cause errors during the build process.
Errors during the Make Run-Time Image Phase
Errors encountered during this final phase in the build process generally result from missing files. This can happen if a component failed to build in an earlier step, but the build process nevertheless continued to proceed to the Make Run-time Image phase. Syntax errors in .reg files or .bib files can lead to this situation when the build system is unable to create the Reginit.ini file or Ce.bib file. Makeimg.exe calls the FMerge tool (FMerge.exe) during the build process to create these files, and if this fails, such as due to incorrect conditional statements, you encounter a make-image error. Another possible error is Error: Image Exceeds (
Lesson Summary
Platform Builder for Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 integrates with the build-logging system of Visual Studio 2005 to provide you with convenient access to status information, warnings, and error messages generated during the build process and tracked in Build.log, Build.wrn, and Build.err files. Depending on how you start the build process in Visual Studio, these files reside either in the %_WINCEROOT% folder or in a subproject directory, yet the actual location of the files is not important because you can analyze the content from these files directly in the Output window and the Error List window in Visual Studio. It is not necessary to open these files in Notepad or another text editor.
By analyzing build log files, you can gain a better understanding of the build process in general and build issues in particular. Typical build issues you might encounter occasionally are compiler errors, linker errors, Sysgen errors, build errors, and other errors generated during the Release Copy and Make Run-time Image phases. If a build error is related directly to a line in a source code file, you can double-click the message entry in the Error List window, and Visual Studio automatically opens the source-code file and jumps to the critical line. Other issues, such as buildrel errors due to inadequate hard drive space, require you to perform troubleshooting steps outside of the Visual Studio IDE.
Lesson 4: Deploying a Run-Time Image on a Target Platform
Having solved all build issues and successfully generated a run-time image, you are ready to deploy Windows Embedded CE on the target device. There are several ways to accomplish this task. The method you choose depends on the startup process you use to load Windows Embedded CE on the target device. There are several ways you can start a Windows Embedded CE 6.0 run-time image. You can start an image directly from ROM, in which case you must deploy the run-time image on the target device by using a ROM tool. You can also use a boot loader, and then either download the run-time image every time the device starts or store the image in persistent memory for reuse. Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 comes with generic boot-loader code that you can customize according to your specific needs. It is also straightforward to implement a third-party boot loader. Essentially, Windows Embedded CE can accommodate almost any start environment, and makes it easy to download new run-time images quickly and conveniently during the development cycle and for release to the end user.
After this lesson, you will be able to:
¦ Decide how to deploy a run-time image on a target device.
¦ Configure Platform Builder to select the correct deployment layer.
Estimated lesson time: 15 minutes.
Choosing a Deployment Method
In order to deploy a run-time image, you must establish a connection to the target device. This requires you to configure several communication parameters that determine how Platform Builder communicates with the device.
The Core Connectivity infrastructure of Windows Embedded CE supports various download methods and transport mechanisms to accommodate hardware platforms with varying communication capabilities. To define the communication parameters for your target device, open the Target menu in Visual Studio and select Connectivity Options, which displays the Target Device Connectivity Options dialog box. By default, Platform Builder provides a target device named CE Device in the Target Device list box, as illustrated in Figure 2-7, but you can also create additional devices with unique names by clicking the Add Device link.
Figure 2-7 Target Device Connectivity Options window
Download Layer
The Download list box and associated Settings button enable you to configure the download service used for downloading the run-time image to your target device. The Core Connectivity infrastructure supports the following download layers for deploying a run-time image:
¦ Ethernet Downloads the run-time image over an Ethernet connection. Use the Settings button to configure the Ethernet download service. The development workstation and the target device must be on the same subnet; otherwise, you cannot connect to the target device.
¦ Serial Downloads the run-time image over an RS232 connection. Use the Settings button to configure the port, baud rate, and other serial communication parameters.
¦ Device Emulator (DMA) Downloads the run-time image to a device emulator through Direct Memory Access (DMA). Use the Settings button to configure the device emulator.
