CCS/TMS320C28346: CCS V8 linker error #10296 Cannot open file.

Yes, that is the correct thread.

I have rebooted the PC numerous times since the transition to CCS v8 and this issue still reappears. During this period there have been times where CCS behaved properly but that is more the exception than the rule.

There is also another issue that we are seeing with the transition from v5 to v8 that may be related but I have not been able to tie the two together. CCS v8 is causing a memory leak with the host PC memory. Running CCS v8 for long periods causes the local PC memory usage to creep up, eventually using up all memory resulting in system low on memory errors and instructions to begin shutting down applications. The PC must be rebooted to clear this memory out. I have isolated this down to what appears to be two processes CCS v8 starts that CCS v5 does not. These are conhost.exe and cmd.exe. To stop conhost.exe you simply open Task Manager, select the process and and click End Process. This will restart each time CCS is launched so you must terminate it each time. cmd.exe is more difficult because it is cycling, starting and stopping. I have found that by going into the CCS menu Window->Preferences->General->Startup and Shutdown, disabling all of the plug-ins shown, stops the cmd.exe process. After these steps are taken the memory creep ceases. So far, these steps have not resulted in any adverse effects with my use of CCS.

On a couple occasions when I stopped the memory leak, I did not have the linker issue. But on other occasions I still did which is why I can't say definitively that the two are related.

Best Regards,

Ken

It is odd. There was be some process that is hanging on to the file. There could be other corruption with cached CCS data. Can you try the steps of cleaning out the IDE cache and also use a new workspace?

http://software-dl.ti.com/ccs/esd/documents/users_guide/ccs_troubleshooting.html#general-ide

The new workspace has been ruled out. This problem has been seen using several different workspaces.

I did try the IDE cache cleaning. First, I ran several cycles to make sure I repeatedly get the linker error and clear it. On the third cycle I added the -clean option to launch path for CCS and got the same results, still get the linker error after running the project in the debugger.

Just to expand on the environment, the host PC is running Windows 7 Enterprise, 64-bit OS, Service Pack 1. I should also mention there is Sophos security software installed with processes running in the background.

Hi Kevin,

Just checking up with you to see if you have had any luck with disabling the security SW.

Thanks

ki

Hello Ki,

Thank you for your patience as we work through this. Last week I was able to get the Sophos anti-virus software disabled. Tested using two different projects, one of which previously produced consistent linker #10296 errors. I could not reproduce the linker error. Right now, this implies a conflict between CCS V8 and the Sophos anti-virus software not seen when running CCS V5. Once I get the anti-virus software re-enabled I will test again to confirm this.

In addition, I still see the memory leak issue even with the anti-virus software disabled. This appears to be related to conhost.exe. If this process is terminated the memory leak stops. The problem is when running the compiler it starts and stops this process.

Ken

Thanks for testing with your anti-virus disabled. When you re-enable it, see if you can whitelist everything under the CCS directory.

As for the memory leak, can you try the below to see if that helps:

- Launch CCS 
- Open Preferences view 
- Select Code Composer Studio -> Advanced Tools -> Disk Usage 
- Set "Minimum disk space to keep free (in GB)" to 0 
- Apply and OK 

Thanks

ki

Still waiting to have the anti-virus re-enabled. I did try your suggestion regarding the memory leak. The value was set to 4GB, I changed it to 0GB. This change produced no noticeable impact. 

Ken

TI Support,

Last week IT re-enabled the Sophos anti-virus services on the PC. I immediately ran the two test projects that consistently produced the linker error and after repeated attempts could not reproduce the error. Suspecting that this may be due to the anti-virus software not having run through a full scan cycle on the disk I waited a few days. Today I reran the same two projects and now consistently get the linker error.

Ken 

It certainly looks like an issue with Sophos and the build tools. Did you try whitelisting all of the build tools and also the directories it would need access (subfolder where the executables would be written)?

Please clarify what you mean by "whitelisting".

Ken

Ken Walker said:

Please clarify what you mean by "whitelisting".

Many antivirus/security software allows you to specify files and directories to ignore when scanning. This is useful when a false positive is being detected with a particular file/folder. I would make it so that the whole CCS install folder (including all subdirectories) is whitelisted 

Thanks for the update Ken