Question Can't build/play after upgrading to 2020.3.6f1

I installed 2020.3.6f1 this morning via the Unity Hub after seeing the update notification in the editor. Upon opening any project that I had been working in 2020.3.5f1 in, I'm prompted to enter safe mode. Regardless of that or ignoring it and going into regular mode, I'm presented with two errors in the console:

Code (csharp):

1. Microsoft (R) Visual C# Compiler version 3.5.0-dev-20359-01 (8da8ba0c)
2. Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Not quite helpful. The editor log has got some more information: The files

Temp/UnityEngine.TestRunner.dll

and

Temp/UnityEngine.UI.dll

fail to build. The -stderr output says simply:

The system cannot find the path specified.

I can't seem to figure out what file it's referring to, nor how to satisfy what it's looking for.

I am using .NET DLLs, that were working just fine in 2020.3.5f1, and they haven't changed. I'm not sure if that is related or not.

I've attached a redacted version of the editor log to a post below.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Do you need Testrunner? if not remove the package.

For weird inscrutable reasons, Unity barfs lots of error-riddled packages into projects and they invariably fail, either immediately or in future upgrades.

Therefore it is always best to REMOVE any packages you don't need.

Testrunner is one of questionable value under the best of circumstances.

Best of all, your compile times become faster.

 

Removed it via package manager, restarted editor. And it's still trying to build it and failing.

Went to my smallest project, which is just one I use to manage a package published to a local NPM server, and stripped it down to the absolute minimum. Did a "Reimport All", and still, the same:

 

Okay, now I finished re-downloading and installing 2020.3.5f1 again, and I'm getting the exact same thing.

I'm truly lost now.

 

Edit: Here you go, it's attached to this post!

 

Here you go, attached both the 2020.3.5f1 and 2020.3.6f1 listings. Had to zip them because the uploader told me they were too large.

 

Will do. I'm out of the office for the evening, but should get to it tomorrow!

 

Okay. The temp files didn't exist, so I created my own response from the printout in the log and just used it.

So first, I just tried it 'dry' without the editor running. It definitely got some output, a 'file not found' for the file it was trying to create. Sure enough, I have no `Temp` directory, so I create one, and run it again.... and it built.



At this point, I'm incredulous.

I fire up unity thinking "well that couldn't be it", and sure enough, I get the prompt to enter safe mode, so I do, and sure enough, same two errors. I close the editor.

Restarting the editor, I still had the 'Temp' folder open in explorer from looking at it earlier, and it looked like this, as I was being prompted to enter safe mode:



Sure enough, both the DLLs it was trying to build, there and happy. So I hit enter safe mode anyways, but just as you'd guessed: same error.

This time I went and ran the compiler while the editor was running, using the UnityTempFile response files it had already generated.

No console output at all, and the DLLs are rebuilt fine:



The editor is still not pleased.

I tried manually adding /nologo, /reportanalyzer, and /warnaserror+ to the response files, but that didn't make a difference either. Still builds fine from the command line.

 

Good morning! I've sent traces along with uncensored logs and a bit of detail about them. Let me know if there's something else that might be useful!

Thanks again!

 

Realized I posted my reply yesterday from the wrong account, so here it is from this one:

The 'Project2' should be outside of any svn folder. (The actual project path still has "svn" in the path, but it's just got a git repo, no svn repo for it.) I can try and spool up another somewhere else too.

As for the second question, I'll go as far as to say maybe. The only things that hop to mind are Acronis Ransomware Protection that comes to mind. I did install https://mountainduck.io the other day, but I feel like It's been a few. I'm pretty sure it uses some sort of filter driver for how it presents in explorer. I'll see if disabling that or removing it has any effect.

And to update on that front:

Uninstalled mountain duck, and actually anything that was installed on or near 4/29 when I started having these issues. Still no dice.

As for an empty project... Well:

The too long; didn't watch is: new empty project, prompts for safe mode right after project creation. I have really upset something it seems.

 

In the latest updates:

- I've tried moving to 2020.3.7f1, still behaving the same.
- I've removed everything I could find on my machine that came with a minifilter, here's what's left:

Code (csharp):

1. PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> fltmc
2.  
3. Filter Name                     Num Instances    Altitude    Frame
4. ------------------------------  -------------  ------------  -----
5. bindflt                                 1       409800         0
6. FsDepends                              10       407000         0
7. WdFilter                               10       328010         0
8. storqosflt                              0       244000         0
9. wcifs                                   3       189900         0
10. CldFlt                                  4       180451         0
11. FileCrypt                               0       141100         0
12. luafv                                   1       135000         0
13. npsvctrig                               1        46000         0
14. Wof                                     9        40700         0
15. FileInfo                               10        40500         0
16. PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Based on quick googles all of them seem to be windows components, I think.

- Tried disabling defender real time protection.
- Tried running hub/unity/etc elevated. (Though I'm not sure if the way the Hub's method of starting processes propagates it's elevation.)

The last thing I've tried is: I copied the project to my home machine, and installed 2020.3.7f1 there... and it works just fine. So It's certainly something going on with my actual setup here.

I'm currently in the process of trying to get a good capture via Process Monitor to try and get more details about what's going on around the compilation process. The first look I'm seeing though, I'm seeing VBCSCompiler.exe calling createfile and several writefiles successful to actually create the DLLs, so I'm very confused at the moment!

I appreciate your help as I try and figure this out!

 

Well, I have a "solution", but I don't love it.

I did a repair install of Windows (the 'in place upgrade' that leaves everything where it's at) and that seemed to get me around it. I'm going to slowly install back some of the things I removed over the next couple of days and weeks and see if a particular install (specifically any that come with a minifilter) is one that triggers this behavior. In the meantime however, I'm at least back on track.