MonoTouch: using embedded resx files on iPhone build - iphone

Question

I'm able to load and access resx files in Simulator builds of my iPhone app built using MonoTouch. The resx file entry in the csproj file looks like:
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="MapMenu\Resources\MapMenu.resx">
<Generator>ResXFileCodeGenerator</Generator>
<LastGenOutput>MapMenu.Designer.cs</LastGenOutput>
</EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>
The .resx file itself has an entry like this:
<data name="Main_Menu" type="System.Resources.ResXFileRef, System.Windows.Forms">
<value>Main Menu.mm;System.String, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089;Windows-1252</value>
</data>
and the generated MapMenu.Designer.cs file has this:
internal static string Main_Menu {
get {
return ResourceManager.GetString("Main_Menu", resourceCulture);
}
}
As mentioned above, calling the Main_Menu accessor works fine on the simulator. On the device, however, it produces:
<Notice>: Unhandled Exception: System.MissingMethodException: No constructor found for System.Resources.RuntimeResourceSet::.ctor(System.IO.UnmanagedMemoryStream)
<Notice>: at System.Activator.CreateInstance (System.Type type, BindingFlags bindingAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] args, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture, System.Object[] activationAttributes) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
<Notice>: at System.Activator.CreateInstance (System.Type type, System.Object[] args, System.Object[] activationAttributes) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
<Notice>: at System.Activator.CreateInstance (System.Type type, System.Object[] args) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
<Notice>: at System.Resources.ResourceManager.InternalGetResourceSet (System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture, Boolean createIfNotExists, Boolean tryParents) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
<Notice>: at System.Resources.ResourceManager.GetString (System.String name, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
<Notice>: at MapMenu.Resources.MapMenu.get_Main_Menu () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
Did a few sanity checks, and am wondering at this point if this really is missing functionality in Monotouch.
Thanks,

Answer 1

It looks like a bug in the linker that removes a constructor that is only called through reflection by the resource loader code. As a workaround, you can disable the linker (either using -nolink if you use mtouch directly, or by specifying the linker options in MonoDevelop.
Please file a bug.