After hours of research on this topic, it seems to me that this has been going on for quite some time and there is still no easy way (or any way) to solve it. To say it quite bluntly, this is just frustrating!

I'm using 4.4.0 and the Starter Kit to develop my custom module. When I'm done, I pre-compile everything and for the purpose of testing whether the compiled dll will work, I

1. remove all source file under \App_Code for my module

2. remove all source file under \DesktopModules\MyModule and leave only .ascx files

3. copy all related DLLs (App_SubCode_MyModule.dll, App_Web_viewmymodule.ascx.caec4d82.dll) from the pre-compiled location to the \bin directory

4. remove entry in the section in web.config

then I try to access my page. For sure, I get this nasty error:

Error: MyModule is currently unavailable.
DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.ModuleLoadException: The file '/dnn440/DesktopModules/MyModule/ViewMyTest.ascx.cs' does not exist. ---> System.Web.HttpParseException: The file '/dnn440/DesktopModules/MyModule/ViewMyTest.ascx.cs' does not exist. ---> ...

Why is it still looking for the source? Why can't it find whatever type it's looking for in the pre-compiled dll which has been copied to the \bin folder?

And don't tell me this is a namespace issue because I have checked it more than a dozen of times and there's nothing wrong with it.

The only thing I can think of that could be problematic is my module (the .ascx file) has a form but that's about it.

I followed Michael Washington's article (Packaging and Protecting your DotNetNuke Module) and Shaun Walker's instructions on deployment to the dot and still, nothing works!

From where I can see, I don't think I'm the only one here with this problem and it's about time for somebody from the core team to show up here and tell us exactly what's going on and how to fix this problem.