Package load failure (vs2008) - even after reinstalling TF explorer

Question

I started getting this error when opening vs.net2008(sp1)

I reinstalled TFS, rebooted, it worked, then bombed out again, I even tried reinstalling sp1 and tfs but it just won't work

also

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/vs2008sp1beta/thread/32362ce4-d59d-481c-a7f5-3fe65dfe4147/

solution from 'etienne' does not work as there is no "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Editors" folder

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LaCie drives. Failing when you need them most."La" meaning "Terrible", "Cie" meaning "customer service"

Answer 1

Hi Adolf, 

Thanks for your post.

As this issue relate to install VS 2008, I moved it to VS Setup and installation forum for the better response.    

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John Qiao [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 2

Hello Adolf,

Could you please offer me the detailed error messages you got when you open VS2008SP1? I would like to know which package in your VS2008 failed to load.

In my opinion your issue is more related to VS2008, maybe have little relationship with the TFS and Team Explorer. Please try the following commands to open VS2008 to avoid some packages or add-ins.

  1. Try running devenv /ResetSkipPkgs in Command Prompt to avoid loading problem packages.
  2. Try running devenv /Safemode in Command Prompt to see if you can apply it correctly.
  3. Reboot the machine into Safe Mode. This can isolate some third party application/driver's interference.

If you still get the same errors even though with the above options, please try to repair or reinstall your VS2008+SP1.

Thanks.

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Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 3

I reapplied SP1 and also TF explorer, multiple times in various orders (also with a regclean for good measure)

So I ran "devenv /ResetSkipPkgs"

When I loaded the solution, I saw this in the output window [show output from: source control - team foundation]

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
This solution is offline.  [Team Foundation Server: http://blah.blah.com:8080/]
The solution was offline during its previous session and will remain offline.

Next I went to 'view - team explorer' and clicked on 'connect to an existing'

The details were blah.blah.com with the correct project already selected

Clicking OK

Appears to work

Shut down and restart vs using normal link

Open same project

Output window still shows:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
This solution is offline.  [Team Foundation Server: http://blah.blah.com:8080/]
The solution was offline during its previous session and will remain offline.

Also when trying to open any of the files shown in 'source control explorer', the following error is displayed

but I am able to run the report

also--

trying to make it 'go online' caused the 'solution explorer' pane to freeze up but the rest of vs.net still worked ok

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LaCie drives. Failing when you need them most."La" meaning "Terrible", "Cie" meaning "customer service"

Answer 4

Hello Adolf,

Thanks for the reply. I am sorry I still feel confused about your issue. Based on your above description, it seems that you get errors when you open one source controlled project or solution. Upone you open that project or solution you get the error dialog says that:

This solution is offline.  [Team Foundation Server: http://blah.blah.com:8080/] The solution was offline during its previous session and will remain offline.

And as far as I know that the cause of your issue is that the team project your solution connected to is offline. Please have a double check on that TFS server to see if it is accessable. In addition, what version of TFS are you using? TFS2010 or TFS2008? If you are using TFS2010, in order to connect it with VS2008, you need to install the following components with the correct order:

• Install Team Explorer 2008
• Install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (This will upgrade both VS2008 and Team Explorer 2008 to SP1)
• Install VSTS 2008 Forward Compatibility Update

If my understanding is incorrect, please correct me.

Thanks.

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Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 5

I think there were 2 issues at play. One of which may have been interfering with the other.

Basically the solution may have been

 - reinstall TFS

 - reinstall SP1

 - "devenv /ResetSkipPkgs"

Then

the 'offline' issue was fixed my making changes to the registry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\TeamFoundation\Servers\blahblah.com 

changing offline = 0 and autoreconnect = 1

(when vs.net is closed)

Thanks for your help!

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LaCie drives. Failing when you need them most."La" meaning "Terrible", "Cie" meaning "customer service"