asp.net templates are not visible or can't be installed in monodevelop in Ubuntu 16.04

[pratik19]

I've installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS(Xenial), monocomplete(4.2.1.102+dfsg2-7Ubuntu4) and monodevelop(5.10.0.872-2). But it doesn't have project template of asp.net projects. In fact the entire "Add New Project" screen looks entirely different from what is shown on official page("http://www.monodevelop.com/documentation/creating-aspnet-projects/")

I found a solution at "http://askubuntu.com/questions/770299/monodevelop-on-xubuntu-missing-asp-net". But it's not allowing me to install 5.10.0.871. I don't want to prefer to go for old version or an alpha version.

Even as mentioned in mono-documentation("http://www.mono-project.com/docs/getting-started/install/linux/#debian-ubuntu-and-derivatives"), I've also installed "mono-xsp4(4.2.-2build1)".

Is there any plan to fix this issue from Ubuntu side? or is there any better solution available?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Peder Chr. Nørgaard (pcn-w)]

This is a "me, too" comment. With a few more pointers and opinions.

The problem is a not-so-minor regression for the Ubuntu Xenial distribution - it is very close to be a showstopper for my company for upgrading from Trusty to Xenial. Monodevelop simply doesn't work with asp.net in Xenial. I would heavily recommend that the importance of this regression be increased. I would also like to assist in its solution, but whereas I know more that a little bit about building and maintaing debian packages, the complexity of the monodevelop package is a quite daunting ...

I can add that even though we only use LTS versions of Ubuntu for production we do try out the non-LTS versions - and this regression is between 15.10 Wily and 16.04 Xenial - monodevelop worked just fine with asp.net in Wily.

The problem is dead simple to reproduce, just take a Trusty or Wily monodevelop, create a new Web application solution+project - the one with a single button - build and run. Works fine, then move it to a Xenial monodevelop, fails.

You can get a whole load of useful information by simply googl'ing the error message string "error: The ASP.NET add-in is not installed.". Many different people, including some at Xamarin has observed the problem and commented on it.

Essentially, the consensus seems to be that the Debian/Ubuntu release of monodevelop 5.10.0.871-2 are missing some elements. One widely recommended solution seems to be to download the "debianized" version of monodevelop 5.10.0.871 from http://download.mono-project.com - its version is 5.10.0.871-0xamarin2. Installing that certainly solved the immediate problem for me - but I really prefer to work with a single, supposedly consistent, distribution.

Problem is that the -0xamarin2 is not that well integrated with Ubuntu Xenial - it seems more to be a kind of "generic relatively modern Debian/Ubuntu packaging". For a starter, the
sources to the -0xamarin2 simply fails build on a vanilla Ubuntu Xenial. Second, there are problems with the nunit integration.

I have spent some time studying the difference between the Ubuntu (-2) and the Xamarin (-0xamarian2) sources. Fortunately, both are using the same .orig.tar (which they should, of course, but it is nice to experience that packagers actually follow the conventions!).

Well, the differences are pretty big - a unified diff is about 3000 lines, and that is excluding the "Only in monodevelop-this-and-that" diffs. One major difference is that the ubuntu version seems to consistently go for targetframework 4.5 in the .csproj files, whereas the xamarin version uses many different framework versions. I speculate that in pushing the Ubuntu packaging to pure 4.5, it may have been necessary to cut a few corners, and one of those be ASP.NET.

Certainly one difference between the two packagings is in the file .pc/applied_patches where the Ubuntu has a new patch called "dont_bundle_aspnet_assemblies.patch" ... One of the things I intend to try out is of course to remove this patch and try a rebuild - I don't hold that much hope, however, the patch is probably there for a reason.

I (and my company) really need this problem solved eventually. It is n...

[Peder Chr. Nørgaard (pcn-w)]

Oh, by the way, the bug seems to be a duplicate of two other bugs, 1563090 and 1573918. All counted together, it does affect a considerable number of persons.

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Microsoft = Distrust = Unmaintained

(http://askubuntu.com/questions/10209/why-is-mono-so-controversial)

[Peder Chr. Nørgaard (pcn-w)]

I am happy to see that the importance of this bug has been upgraded.

I have tested what I wrote about earlier - the removal of the patch
.pc/applied_patches/dont_bundle_aspnet_assemblies.patch. It seems
to solve the problem - the monodevelop .deb I built from the modified
source actually allows debugging of asp.net applications.

But again, as I mentioned - the patch is probably there for a reason,
and I cannot safely claim that its removal does not have any negative
side effects elsewhere in the package.

[edward (deltorodata)]

i would be totally happy if the community would do more for the mono project... i do all my stuff in mono, cuz i love c#, but i just cannot use windows.