MSBuild: error MSB3147: Could not find required file 'setup.bin' [duplicate]

Question

I'm trying to use MSBuild (under CruiseControl) to build the installation for my .NET 4 app. The installation build should create a boostrapper to install the prerequisite (.NET 4 and Windows Installer 4.5 in this case), this is done using the GenerateBootstrapper Task.

Running MSBuild.exe project.msbuild.xml from the command line on a development machine, which has VS 2010 installed, works fine. Running on the build machine, which only has the latest Windows 7 SDK, fails with the error:

(ProductDistributions target) -> bootstrapper.xml(236,5): error MSB3147: 
Could not find required file 'setup.bin' in '<project path>\ProductDistributions\Engine'.

On the dev machines, I have a C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Engine folder containing a setup.bin file, but on the build machine there is no Bootstrapper folder inside C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1 (the 7.1 vs 7.0A is apparently because VS2010 installs 7.0A, but the standalone SDK is 7.1).

Also, on the build machine there is no 4.0 registry key inside HKLM\Software\Microsoft\GenericBootstrapper\, but the dev machines do have one containing a path string with a value of c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\

It looks like there's something I need to install on the build machine to add the Bootstrapper folder to "Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1" (and setup the registry keys), but I'm not sure what that is. Any idea what I need to get?

Or is there something else I need to get my installation build working?

Updated: I have this working at the moment by manually copying the 7.0A bootstrapper folder from a dev machine onto the build machine, and manually adding that path to the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\GenericBootstrapper\4.0 registry key. Which seems to work, but it seems like this can't be what I'm supposed to do to fix the problem. So I'd appreciate if anyone has a less-hacky solution to this.

Answer 1

According to this blog entry the bootstrapper files are installed during the .NET Framework SDK install. It also shows the registry entries that are searched to look for the bootstrapper directory.

You could try installing the .NET Framework SDK or manually set it up by copying the files and adding the registry entries.

Answer 2

I'm experiencing the same problem but hadn't tried manually copying over the files and hacking the registry although I've heard from other as well that they have also had success doing so.

In order to get a more real solution for this I've created a feature request on the Connect.Microsoft.com site to implement some type of minimal install of Visual Studio in order to provide for an easier way to set up a Build Server with the necessary development files. Please vote and/or comment on the feature request to help bring attention to this issue.