Tools -> Options -> Build

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Posted by: Sue Loh

If you have just done an install of Platform Builder, and opened it for the first time, and seen this dialog box:

(here is the text, to make it more likely that someone can search the web and find this article)  The setting for the Platform Builder global WINCEROOT is missing or invalid, so you cannot create an OS design or open a workspace.  To set WINCEROOT in the IDE, go to the Tools menu, choose Options, and then choose the Build tab.  In the Default OS Build Tree (WINCEROOT) box, enter a valid path and then choose OK.

What it's telling you is that you have done a "tools-only" install of Platform Builder, or you did a custom install where you disabled everything except the tools.   As far as I see it, there are only two reasons to do a "tools-only" install:

  1. Your image is coming from somewhere else.  Either your device already has a pre-loaded image or someone else has made you an image to download to your device.  [Or it could be you, building the image from a different PC.]  You can use a tools-only install to download and debug your device, but you will not be able to build any new images.  So you are safe saying "Don't show this message again" and dismissing this dialog box.  Because you don't need to build new images.
  2. You already have an OS tree that you did not get by installing Platform Builder.  That's actually how I operate most of the time, because we have our copy of the tree in source control.  I get my OS from source control and do Platform Builder tools-only installs most of the time.  If you're doing the same thing, then in this case what you want to do is dismiss the dialog, then go into Tools -> Options -> Build and set the WINCEROOT to the path that matches what you're getting from source control.  Whoever put your tree into source control can probably tell you what WINCEROOT value to use.  Then after you have pointed Platform Builder at that root, you can use that tree to build your images.

If you're not intentionally trying for one of these two things, then you may have set yourself up this way by mistake.  In that case, what you need to do is go back to the Platform Builder install and add at least one BSP to your installation.  Trying to find the value for WINCEROOT would be the least of your problems, because even if you find some path which makes the above dialog box stop showing up, you still won't be able to USE your WINCEROOT to do anything useful.  You won't be able to build images without an OS to build them from.