.NET 3.5 SP1 required for EF SaveChanges

Question

I have my .NET project target set to .NET 4 Full. It works well in Windows 7, 8 and 10.

When I try to use it in Windows XP while .NET 4 and SQL Express 2008 R2 is installed, a call to DbContext.SaveChanges() throws an exception saying

This functionality requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Please install .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 to use this functionality.

Once I install .NET 3.5 SP1 the error disappears. Considering the big size of .NET 3.5 SP1 installation pack (230 MB) what should I do now and why this even occurs? It's note worthy to say that I have also .NET 4.0 KB2468871 installed.

Full exception info:

An error occurred while updating the entries. See the inner exception for details.
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.InternalContext.SaveChanges()
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.LazyInternalContext.SaveChanges()
   at System.Data.Entity.DbContext.SaveChanges()
   at MyApp.Models.MyEntities.SaveChanges()


An error occurred while updating the entries. See the inner exception for details.
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Mapping.Update.Internal.UpdateTranslator.Update()
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.EntityClient.Internal.EntityAdapter.<Update>b__2(UpdateTranslator ut)
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.EntityClient.Internal.EntityAdapter.Update[T](T noChangesResult, Func`2 updateFunction)
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.EntityClient.Internal.EntityAdapter.Update()
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.<SaveChangesToStore>b__d()
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.ExecuteInTransaction[T](Func`1 func, IDbExecutionStrategy executionStrategy, Boolean startLocalTransaction, Boolean releaseConnectionOnSuccess)
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.SaveChangesToStore(SaveOptions options, IDbExecutionStrategy executionStrategy, Boolean startLocalTransaction)
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.<>c__DisplayClassb.<SaveChangesInternal>b__8()
   at System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.DefaultSqlExecutionStrategy.Execute[TResult](Func`1 operation)
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.SaveChangesInternal(SaveOptions options, Boolean executeInExistingTransaction)
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Objects.ObjectContext.SaveChanges(SaveOptions options)
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.InternalContext.SaveChanges()****


This functionality requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Please install .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 to use this functionality.
The statement has been terminated.
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning()
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.ConsumeMetaData()
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.get_MetaData()
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior, String method)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteDbDataReader(CommandBehavior behavior)
   at System.Data.Common.DbCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior)
   at System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.Interception.DbCommandDispatcher.<Reader>b__c(DbCommand t, DbCommandInterceptionContext`1 c)
   at System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.Interception.InternalDispatcher`1.Dispatch[TTarget,TInterceptionContext,TResult](TTarget target, Func`3 operation, TInterceptionContext interceptionContext, Action`3 executing, Action`3 executed)
   at System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.Interception.DbCommandDispatcher.Reader(DbCommand command, DbCommandInterceptionContext interceptionContext)
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.InterceptableDbCommand.ExecuteDbDataReader(CommandBehavior behavior)
   at System.Data.Common.DbCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior)
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Mapping.Update.Internal.DynamicUpdateCommand.Execute(Dictionary`2 identifierValues, List`1 generatedValues)
   at System.Data.Entity.Core.Mapping.Update.Internal.UpdateTranslator.Update()****

EDIT

Just found this sadly posts:

Does you application need to use inside the database any of the following: Geography, Geometry or HierarchyId types, CLR-based User Defined Types, Functions, Aggregates, Triggers or Stored Procs?

If not, then there's nothing stopping you from using .NET Framework 4 to implement your application and using SQL Server 2008 R2 Express with it. It will work just fine with .NET Framework 4, for as long as you don't try to use CLR-based objects inside the database.

Krzysztof Kozielczyk, Program Manager for SQL Server Express

And this

Does all SQL Server Express functionality work with .NET Framework 4 Beta 2?

No, there are few features that still require .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 or 3.5 SP1. These features will be disabled if .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 is the only .NET Framework on the machine, but will start working the moment .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 or 3.5 SP1 is installed.

The list of features that don’t work with .NET Framework 4 Beta 2:
The CLR data types geometry, geography, and hierarchyid.
The dynamic management views for assemblies and spatial objects.
The CLR user-defined types, functions, aggregates, procedures, and triggers.
Why some features don’t work with .NET Framework 4?

SQL Server Engine can only host one version of .NET Framework. In SQL Server 2008 it is .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. So hosting .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 in SP1 would mean that we no longer host .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. We simply don’t do this kind of breaking changes, since we try very hard to make sure that our Service Packs do not break any applications.

My app uses HierarchyId in its procedures but it's hidden from EF as it doesn't support it currently.

XP support has ended a year ago and .NET 3.5 SP1 was released six years ago. Please just update your environments. If you don't want to, you need to show more information that helps analyze _why_ your code needs this dependency. — CodeCaster, Mar 20 '15 at 12:30
@CodeCaster I believe the very question is why the code needs this dependency, as the `project target set to .NET 4 Full`. Apparently the issue is in the System.Data.SqlClient library that happens to remain mapped to an older version. — GSerg, Mar 20 '15 at 12:55
@GSerg hence my "more information" comment. Does it happen for every trivial modification (i.e. `dbContext.Foos.Add(new Foo()); dbContext.SaveCanges()` where `Foos` is a very simple table), or for one change specifically where more complex concepts are involved like Change Data Capture in SQL Server? Also as you can see in [Do you need both .net 3.5 and 4.0 installed or just .net 4?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2642301/do-you-need-both-net-3-5-and-4-0-installed-or-just-net-4), some people report having to explicitly also install 3.5 even though 4 is installed. — CodeCaster, Mar 20 '15 at 12:59
@CodeCaster, It happened with a simple save. Although currently I'm unable to reproduce the error on XP since SQL setup errors on .NET requirement upon install. I'm sure I had this issue on a machine (SQL was running and my app tried to call save and got this error) without .NET 3.5 installed. — Mohsen Afshin, Mar 20 '15 at 20:53

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '15 at 10:34

This dependency of .NET 3.5 is not in your code, it is in SQL Server Client reference libraries which expects .NET 3.5. I remember, installing SQL server management objects or any other .NET libraries to access SQL server needed .NET 3.5 even if .NET 4 was installed.

This is probably a bug in SQL Server libraries, which are part of SQL Server, someone just looked up .NET 3.5 but not set to .NET 3.5 or +.

Even if you set your project's target framework, it does not change third party library's dependencies.

There is no alternative of not installing .NET 3.5, the only alternative you can try is by uninstalling everything related to SQL Server Express older version and installing newer version 2014.

Orif Khodjaev · Answer 2 · 2015-03-27T21:14:15.263

Akash Kava's answer is great, I just wanted to add that a correct way to deploy your .NET applications includes installation of both .NET 3.5 and the latest 4.x version to prevent this kind of situations.

The reason is simple: .NET 2.0 up to 3.5 version use CLR 2.0

All .NET versions from 4 to the latest currently stable 4.5.2 use CLR 4.0

That is why .NET 4 does not replace all previous versions, so install both 3.5 and 4 to make all .NET applications and libraries compatible with the environment.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 28 '15 at 08:29

There's no definite answer to this problem but I found a workaround:

On Windows XP ship .NET 2 SP2 with your app and install it alongside .NET 4. SQL Server will try to load CLR2 and can find it via .NET 2. The download size of .NET 2 is nearly one tenth of .NET 3.5 SP1.
On Windows 7 forward, use SQL Server 2012 which uses CLR 4 installed by .NET 4. So neither .NET 2.0 or 3.5 SP1 is required.

.NET 3.5 SP1 required for EF SaveChanges

3 Answers3