I was using CCS v5.1 M6 to build and evaluate the MAVRK system. I had imported the Basic_MAVRK_MSP430F5438_Template into CCS, and under THAT version, it built fine.
Under this (M8) version, CCS says "Nothing to build for project Basic_MAVRK_MSP430F5438_Template" after a Clean Project.
Not much to be done here. It simply DOES NOT work.