MonoDevelop fails to compile VB (Vbc: pathToTool parameter cannot be null)

Question

I'm trying to use MonoDevelop to compile Visual Basic in Ubuntu. I've installed MonoDevelop 4.2.2 as instructed in this thread from "ppa:ermshiperete/monodevelop". However I cannot build the sample Visual Basic project. With the following error:

/opt/monodevelop/lib/mono/4.5/Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets: Error: Error executing task Vbc: Argument cannot be null.

Parameter name: pathToTool (Test)

I'm clearly missing some setup to build VB projects, any ideas how I can get them working?

I've tried:

• Reading the mentioned VB targets file doesn't show obviously where I should define a pathToTool parameter and I'm not exactly sure the Visual Basic tools it's referring to are even installed (though I don't know where to look.)
• Using a VM with Visual Studio. This works but it's annoying.
• Using a better programming language; colleges choice.

Answer 1

I use openSUSE 13.1 and installed MonoDevelop 5.0.1 from "Mono:Factory" repository. These are the steps I used to solve the problem in my case:

NOTE: You can jump to step 3 if you do not want to use the "MSBuild build engine" which is described in step 3.3

1. Make a backup copy of "/usr/lib/mono/4.5/Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets" and then open it as root:

   sudo kate /usr/lib/mono/4.5/Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets

   or

   sudo gedit /usr/lib/mono/4.5/Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets

2. In section "vbc" change the last parameter "ToolPath" to the directory where vbnc is located:

3. Change some configuration of the "Project" in MonoDevelop if you face this error:

   error VBNC2017: The library 'Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll' could not be found.

4. In MonoDevelop go to menu "Project\YOURPROJECTNAME Options"

5. In "Build\General" set "Target framework" to "Mono / .net 4.0":

   Target framework: Mono / .net 4.0

6. • In "Build\Compiler" set "Additional compiler arguments" to "-libpath:YOUR-PATH-TO-MONO-4.0"

   Additional compiler arguments: -libpath:/usr/lib/mono/4.0/

7. In case you get the above mentioned error, again, go to "Build\General" and under the section "Build Engine" uncheck the "Use MSBuild build engine ..."