Beta Channel: Cycle 9 Feature Release

BrendanZagaeski · January 10

This thread has now been closed to direct all further updates about this release onto the latest announcement:

https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/89257/stable-channel-cycle-9-feature-release/p1

Please see https://releases.xamarin.com/release-candidate-cycle-9-rc6-refresh/ for the details about this release, including the steps to update or downgrade as needed.

This version contains a number of known issues that are under investigation. Additional bug reports are welcome!

Bug reports wanted!

Please file a quick bug report using the "Cycle 9 Preview" new bug form if you see any suspicious behavior in these versions that you wish to report.
- If you get any errors when using the form to submit, please select the All Products option and choose the desired product.
Comment in this forum thread if your question is not related to a suspicious behavior after download, but instead one of the following:
- You notice an error in the Release Blog post.
- You have trouble downloading one of the installer packages.

EDIT Jan 18: Update link to Release Blog post for new versions.
EDIT Jan 24: Update link to Release Blog post for new versions.
EDIT Jan 31: Update link to Release Blog post for new versions.
EDIT Feb 07: Update link to Release Blog post for new versions.
EDIT Feb 14: Update link to Release Blog post for new versions, and change "after installation" to "after download".

TomSoderling · January 11

Is there any way to use this Cycle 9 release with Visual Studio for Mac? Or must you use Xamarin Studio?

glat2 · January 11

Please check private bug #51323. Even on 4.3.0.550 build, with VS2017RC the Mac Agent Window does not open on italian localized installations of VS2017RC. I don't know about other languages. Switching to english it opens. It has to be fixed before release.

TomPeer · January 11

@BrendanZagaeski

I found a solution for my problem with version 4.3.x.x, described here:

https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/comment/239082/#Comment_239082

The problem is in the Android-SDK, especially in the "android-sdk\tools\proguard\bin\proguard.bat".

I have to change this line:

java -jar "%PROGUARD_HOME%"\lib\proguard.jar %*

to this:

java -jar "%PROGUARD_HOME%\lib\proguard.jar" %*

After this change all works fine, like in version 4.2.x.x.

NMackay · January 11

This Cycle9 beta install killed my Xamarin VS2015 Enterprise (SP3) setup (on my home PC thankfully...Win10 Pro x64).

Trying to download the stable installer to see if I can rescue the VS install

Basically it doesn't recognise the Android and iOS projects and you can't even go into the Xamarin section in VS2015 properties.

NMackay · January 11

Restoring to Xamarin.VisualStudio_4.2.0.719 and then installing latest stable fixed my environment.

MHLD · January 12

@NMackay , you are not the only one.
I'm having the same issue.

stevefoxover.5931 · January 12

I still have a lot of issues with Forms Previewer. Could you guys do some more docs and blog posts on Forms Previewer. A walk through of how do you get a complicated form to render without errors in Forms Previewer would be nice. Also using Visual Studio instead of on a Mac.

NMackay · January 12

@stevefoxover.5931

Good shout, they are far far to focused on Mac, gets pretty frustrating after a while.

MHLD · January 12

@NMackay I restarted Visual Studio a couple of times and then the projects loaded normally

NMackay · January 12

@MHLD

I did that and even cleared the VS2015 component cache several times but it was totally broken, I restarted 4-5 times.

MHLD · January 12

I'm trying to use Forms Previewer but either the preview does not appear, or a message appears saying "your assemblies are out-of-sync with the installed Xamarin.ndroid version".

DaveY · January 13

Seeing these comments I am unsure as to try out the beta or not.

DaveY · January 16

No comments....more concerning

AndyMartin.6838 · January 17

Is Multi-Process debugging supposed to allow us to debug iOS Message Extensions? I selected RunItem on my message extension using the simulator. It opened iMessages (though it did not open my message Extension). I went to my message extension, but none of my breakpoints were hit. In the IDE, it shows the stop button, so I'm assuming it is connecting.

JamesHancock.1360 · January 17

What version is in the latest vs.net 2017 rc? And how would we update to this?

AuriRahimzadeh · January 18

Created new project with latest beta and it wouldn't compile. Forms Previewer wouldn't show, either. Strange?

region IStoreManager implementation

    object locker = new object();
    public async Task InitializeAsync()
    {
        MobileServiceSQLiteStore store = null;
        lock (locker)
        {

            if (Client?.SyncContext?.IsInitialized ?? false)
                return;

            var path = "syncstore.db";

** //path = Path.Combine(MobileServiceClient.DefaultDatabasePath, path);
**

Had to remove the line above in iOS StorageManager.cs to compile. Error was DefaultDatabasePath didn't exist in MobileServiceClient. Maybe you've fixed this already since Sunday. Even though it's beta, I feel the templates should build out of the box before you ship.

AuriRahimzadeh · January 18

Repro steps for above comment:

Create a new cross-platform app, making sure to select Host in Azure.
Try to compile.

PierceBoggan · January 18

@AuriRahimzadeh: Thanks for letting us know! We already have a PR open to fix this issue with the templates (including adding a PCL option) and also cleaning up the actual File->New wizard UX. Look for it in an upcoming C9 refresh.

BrendanZagaeski · January 18

What version is in the latest vs.net 2017 rc? And how would we update to this?

Due to the new way that VS 2017 RC installs extensions, that will for now depend on the release dates of the latest VS 2017 RC. Each new VS 2017 RC will include approximately the latest Xamarin Cycle 9 update that was available before the RC publication. The pace of updates to the VS 2017 RC updater feed is a bit slower than the pace of updates to the Xamarin updater channels, so there will be a bit of a delay between the 2. (This should mostly only be a noticeable issue during this preview phase of Cycle 9 when new builds are coming out fairly often.)

Work is separately under way to figure out the best approach to allow users to install specific individual versions of Xamarin in VS 2017 RC (for example, if a user wishes to install a build that is not available on the VS 2017 RC updater feed). To give some little estimate, I suspect the recommended approach for that might not be decided until around the time of the Cycle 9 Stable release or a little after.

AuriRahimzadeh · January 19

@PierceBoggan said:
@AuriRahimzadeh: Thanks for letting us know! We already have a PR open to fix this issue with the templates (including adding a PCL option) and also cleaning up the actual File->New wizard UX. Look for it in an upcoming C9 refresh.

Thanks, Pierce. I know it's beta. I feel like that kind of bug should have been kept alpha until fixed, though. It seems like a show-stopper out of the box.

Any ideas when that will be fixed? Is there a workaround? I imagine many want to try what's described in the release post.

AuriRahimzadeh · January 19

There I go complaining... VERY much looking forward to seeing the results of the team's incredibly hard work!

glat2 · January 19

I had hard problems (see closed bug #51323) by using the original VS2017RC release (v4.3.0.459). Now you released the v4.3.0.598 with correction for the bug and I can't install it in VS2017RC. Before the 598 all versions could be installed in VS2017RC. When can we've a working Xamarin in VS2017RC?

Please see bug #51323. It's a real pain to work without opening Mac Agent connection window.

JamesHancock.1360 · January 19

Please fix the mess that is iOS icon setting so that you can reliably just fill them all in and it just works when publishing to the app store. I've spent more than a day messing around trying to get this right and still failing.

If I add one of the right aspect ratio it should automatically fill in all of the items of that size and scale all items smaller than that size but the same aspect ratio automatically and name everything exactly correctly per iOS silly guidelines. Instead you even have to fill in the same size over and over again and it prompts to overwrite every time when it should be renaming the imported file relative to the item that is in question.

DaveHunt · January 19

@glat2 said:
I had hard problems (see closed bug #51323) by using the original VS2017RC release (v4.3.0.459). Now you released the v4.3.0.598 with correction for the bug and I can't install it in VS2017RC. Before the 598 all versions could be installed in VS2017RC. When can we've a working Xamarin in VS2017RC?

Please see bug #51323. It's a real pain to work without opening Mac Agent connection window.

@BrendanZagaeski said:

What version is in the latest vs.net 2017 rc? And how would we update to this?

Due to the new way that VS 2017 RC installs extensions, that will for now depend on the release dates of the latest VS 2017 RC. Each new VS 2017 RC will include approximately the latest Xamarin Cycle 9 update that was available before the RC publication. The pace of updates to the VS 2017 RC updater feed is a bit slower than the pace of updates to the Xamarin updater channels, so there will be a bit of a delay between the 2. (This should mostly only be a noticeable issue during this preview phase of Cycle 9 when new builds are coming out fairly often.)

Work is separately under way to figure out the best approach to allow users to install specific individual versions of Xamarin in VS 2017 RC (for example, if a user wishes to install a build that is not available on the VS 2017 RC updater feed). To give some little estimate, I suspect the recommended approach for that might not be decided until around the time of the Cycle 9 Stable release or a little after.

TomPeer · January 20

There is a new windows version listed on your release blog Xamarin Studio (Mac 6.2.0.1757), (Windows 6.2.0.1742), but it is not shown in beta or alpha update channel.

BrendanZagaeski · January 20

There is a new windows version listed on your release blog Xamarin Studio (Mac 6.2.0.1757), (Windows 6.2.0.1742), but it is not shown in beta or alpha update channel.

Thanks for the heads-up. I notified the team, and they have now fixed up the metadata so the update should appear on Windows.

glat2 · January 25

@BrendanZagaeski said:

What version is in the latest vs.net 2017 rc? And how would we update to this?

Due to the new way that VS 2017 RC installs extensions, that will for now depend on the release dates of the latest VS 2017 RC. Each new VS 2017 RC will include approximately the latest Xamarin Cycle 9 update that was available before the RC publication. The pace of updates to the VS 2017 RC updater feed is a bit slower than the pace of updates to the Xamarin updater channels, so there will be a bit of a delay between the 2. (This should mostly only be a noticeable issue during this preview phase of Cycle 9 when new builds are coming out fairly often.)

VS 2017 RC updater feed is not a bit slower. It's VERY slower. From first release we've got the 4.3.0.459 which, I repeat, does not open the Mac Agent connection window. We need a faster update because we're stuck from mid of november with this bug.

BrendanZagaeski · January 25

The dependency of Xamarin on the VS 2017 RC update feed is a new level of integration for Xamarin into VS, and because it is new, it is still evolving. But the closer integration will have advantages over time as it matures.

During this time when Xamarin Cycle 9 is still in preview status, please continue to use VS 2015 (or earlier) with Xamarin Cycle 8 in cases where the Cycle 9 previews or VS 2017 RC cause trouble. Thanks!

BradChase.2654 · January 26

So i updated to try out cycle 9 and Droid compiles and runs just fine. But iOS cant compile. I am getting these errors:

Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error CS0433 The type 'TypeBuilder' exists in both 'Mono.CSharp, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0738eb9f132ed756' and 'mscorlib, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e'

AND

Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error CS0433 The type 'FieldBuilder' exists in both 'Mono.CSharp, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0738eb9f132ed756' and 'mscorlib, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e'

Any idea on how to fix this?

EDIT: Ive downgraded back to 8 and now I cant connect the mac agent.. it just spins and disappears...

FIX: A temporary workaround was to create an extern alias like so:

#if __IOS__
extern alias monocsharp;
using emit = monocsharp::System.Reflection.Emit;
#else
using emit = System.Reflection.Emit;
#endif

That worked for me

BradChase.2654 · January 27

Well I take it back, while with that fix iOS runs, Droid runs fine in debug but once you build a release it just bombs right out. So any way to find out why it crashes? The new release 8 is just fine on both.

jpozo20 · February 1

I downloaded the .MSI installer for the latest beta 4.3.0.621, and it seems the installer doesn't have the option to install in Visual Studio 2017, while the previous beta 4.3.0.550 did.

Something changed?

JamesHancock.1360 · February 1

You can't install anything but what is integrated into vs.net 2017 for xamarin anymore. The last build of vs.net 2017 also removed any vestiges of the interface for this as well. All new servicing will be done through the installer, which means far less updates probably until they figure out how to do beta/alpha.

DirkWilhelm · February 10

@BrendanZagaeski

I just tried updating my VS2015 to the new RC5 in the Beta Channel. The download completes, but when i hit the install button, the installation is not started.

RobertMcLaws · February 14

@BrendanZagaeski I am having the same issue as @DirkWilhelm.

BrendanZagaeski · February 14

I just tried updating my VS2015 to the new RC5 in the Beta Channel. The download completes, but when i hit the install button, the installation is not started.

I missed the chance to test with the previous "RC 5" from last week, but I just tried quickly for updating to today's "RC 6" (4.0.3.738) and the Install button had the expected behavior in VS 2015 Update 3 (14.0.25431.01) in my test environment: it successfully launched the .msi installer (as cached in %LOCALAPPDATA%\MonoDevelop-4.0\Cache\TempDownload).

I tested the behavior of the button in the current Stable Channel version (4.2.2.11) as well as the preceding RC version of Cycle 9 (4.3.0.621 from January 31).

If you continue to see the issue, please file a quick bug report using the "Cycle 9 Preview" new bug form, being sure to include as many details as possible (and especially anything that might be unique to your environment). Thanks in advance!

DirkWilhelm · February 14

@BrendanZagaeski @RobertMcLaws

I was able to fix that by deleting the contents of the download directory at \Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\MonoDevelop-4.0\Cache\TempDownload and then checking for new updates

ravero · February 15

After this latest update (RC6) I'm having issues with iOS in Xamarin Studio.

Every time I try to rerun the app on the simulator after some changes to the code, the App opens on the simulator and immediately close without trowing any exception or showing any error on the log.

Cleaning and Recompiling makes the App run but it never loads the Storyboard, just a plain white screen.

Every time I need to recompile the code I need to clean the project, close Xamarin Studio, the Simulator, open it again and then the run the App again, so it works.

TilemahosBitsikas · February 16

Hi i would like to ask why bug fix for bug 45116
https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/show_bug.cgi?id=45116
is not included in Xamarin Studio 6.2
https://developer.xamarin.com/releases/studio/xamarin.studio_6.2/xamarin.studio_6.2/
although its target version is C9
and do you know the xamarin version that is going to fix it
thank you

BrendanZagaeski · February 16

why bug fix for bug 45116
https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/show_bug.cgi?id=45116
is not included in Xamarin Studio 6.2
https://developer.xamarin.com/releases/studio/xamarin.studio_6.2/xamarin.studio_6.2/

In short, the behavior you are seeing might be slightly different from Bug 45116, so if you might be able to submit a new bug report with a test case, steps to replicate, and the other usual details for the remaining problematic behavior on the latest Beta Channel versions of Cycle 9, that would be perfect.

Background info: analysis of the presence or absence of the commit in the current versions

The commit mentioned on the bug report is in the public repository:

https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios/commit/0c43ddc6153cdfc01d81896669e62cb52b83b5b5
The current version of Xamarin.iOS on the Beta channel is 10.4.0.121, which corresponds to commit 9d6e1ab1bb358a94f31fcb5e143f0338e65310ae.
runtime/runtime.m can be used as an example location to spot-check. From the log history on that file it can be seen that Xamarin.iOS version 10.4.0.121 does include commit 0c43ddc6153cdfc01d81896669e62cb52b83b5b5 "Disable managed exception marshaling when the debugger is attached.":

https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios/commits/9d6e1ab1bb358a94f31fcb5e143f0338e65310ae/runtime/runtime.m

(In case it's helpful as additional context, Xamarin Studio does not reference the xamarin-macios repository at the source code level. It only interacts with Xamarin.iOS once both are installed on the same end user system. So the important package to update to get the commit mentioned on Bug 45116 is Xamarin.iOS.)

BrendanZagaeski · February 22