Installer fails to open

[NickDay]

Hi,

We have an InstallAware 12 installer which installs files sourced from a server, something like:
Install Files Q:\Released…\Put into destination\*.* to $TARGETDIR$
Q is a mapped drive letter to a folder on a server.

This has been working fine for a long time.

Recently we moved the files which are to be installed to another server.

If I build the installer on one PC, it works fine.
If I build it on another PC, the installer apparently builds correctly, but when the installer is run, an error dialog is displayed before the installer is opened, at the ”verifying the contents of this setup package” stage:

InstallAware Wizard
Cannot start setup - the setup file may be corrupt, or you may have the wrong
password. If you downloaded this file, please download a fresh copy. If the file is
password protected, check your password and try again.

To be clear, this is not a web installation, and there is no password involved. The installer could be built without problems on this PC before the location of the ‘Q’ drive was changed.

I also notice that alongside the installer .exe in Relase\Single, there is an unexpected folder like this:

data
....my_product_name
........F0B03EB
............AD4BD153
................file(s)

containing the files to be installed. It looks like these are failing to be built into the installer for some reason.

If I build the installer on a different PC (the installer project is also on the same drive, “Q”), it works correctly.

If I eliminate all file installations, the installer can be opened correctly.
If I enable just the installation of a single file from the “Q” drive, it fails.

We have tried to eliminate file permissions and user account settings as being the cause of the problem, so far without success.

After two weeks of looking into this, I decided it’s time to see whether you have any suggestions for what to try next, please.

Nick

[FrancescoT]

Dear Nick,

... really strange!

did you try, with creating a dummy project from scratch, if the same can be replicated?

Regards

[NickDay]

Thanks for replying, Francesco.
A freshly-created installer project works OK.

However it does still get a "data" folder containing the files to be installed, alongside the installer executable, only if I build it on the "Problem" PC.
Previously, the existence of the "data" folder has been an indication that the installer .exe would fail to decompress.
I am hoping that even though the installer runs in this case, if we can make it not leave the "data" folder behind, that will solve the main problem.

Is the "data" folder familiar to you; maybe it is a temporary folder created when building an installer, which is normally deleted upon completion?
Does the fact that it's left behind after building the installer possibly indicate some problem with file permissions?

I did not say before, I'm using the Native Engine. But even if I don't, the "data" folder is still left behind.

Nick

[FrancescoT]

Dear Nick,

the data folder is created at compile time and subsequently, it is embedded with the generated exe.

yes, it could possibly indicate some problem with file permissions.
However, It is strange that it only denies the permission to delete that folder.

You could also try to generate your build output to a different folder ... to verify if exist a folder permission problem.

Last but not least, I may suggest you to verify if any Anti Virus application is possibly causing your issue.

Regards

[NickDay]

> You could also try to generate your build output to a different folder ... to verify if exist a folder permissions.

Thank you Francesco, that worked. Building the installer onto the local PC rather than onto a remote folder via a mapped drive is OK. In general though, use of mapped drives with InstallAware12 has been fine, so the problem appears to be related to our file permissions on the new server. [I also tried a fresh installation of InstallAware12 on a different PC; that failed to build a working installer too.]

Although I could make our installer projects build to a location on the local PC, I would have lack confidence in using InstallAware with installer projects on remote folders. So we will continue to try and find the file permission problem. Maybe a later version of InstallAware than 12 will display an error message if it cannot complete the installer build.

Thank you again,

Nick

[NickDay]

Hi Francesco,

For the record, we are now pretty convinced this is not simply a file permissions problem, and we wonder whether there is an oddity in InstallAware 12 regarding handling of remote paths.
I have eliminated mapped drive letters as the cause -- it also fails with a direct path to the remote PC, \\pcname\foldername\...

To recap, the installer I build is 'corrupt' in the following circumstances (where Q and P are mapped drive letters, and the installer project itself is always on Q):

a) if I install anything from Q:\ (but it's OK if I install only from P:\)
or
b) if the built installer is written to Q:\ (but it's OK if it's written to P:\)
or
c) if the installer is built on PC1 or PC2, which has a new InstallAware12 installation (but it's OK if built on the older, slower, PC3)

Or, I have just discovered:
d) of the five available compression settings (0-4), it fails on the lower three (0,1,2, where 0 is 'no compression), but works on the top two (3 and 4).
This, at least, is a change we can make without changing our build architecture or using the slower PC3.

INTERESTINGLY, if I go to my freshly-made dummy installer project, which I mentioned on the 26th March, and which works OK -- and set it to 'no compression', and build an installer, it fails to open.
This leads me to think that this is the cause of the problem. Compression levels 0,1,2 fail and 3 and 4 work (numbering the positions of the 'slider' in the obvious way).

Would you like me to email you a copy of the project, to see whether you can reproduce it?

Regards,
Nick

[FrancescoT]

Dear Nick,

Yes, of course you can send the project to me (support@installaware.com) ... if possible, try to send a very minimal project.

However, currently I can only use IA 18.

Regards

[NickDay]

Thank you Francesco,
I have emailed you a tiny project including an 'broken' installer for you to try if possible.
Best regards,
Nick

[FrancescoT]

Yes, I received your file.

I let you know.

Regards

[NickDay]

It looks like I spoke too soon when I said that setting compression to the 4 or 5 (top) setting overcame the problem. Although in that case the installer opens correctly, and appears to run correctly, installing files, shortcuts, etc., I soon discovered that all the files installed are zero size, and the installer executable is much smaller than expected. Building the installer on another PC, as before, is successful.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Nick,

... in this case I believe your problem has nothing to do with the project ... but instead with your machine settings (probably).

Regards

[NickDay]

Hi Francesco,
It looks like we have at last resolved this issue. At the time it was failing, I was building the installers on a remote PC, logged in with as a particular user. I have tried logging in as a different user and building and installer; that worked fine, no data folder left behind and as far as I have seen so far, the installer works as expected. I think there was a file access issue which was not being reported as an error during the build by InstallAware12.
Thanks for your previous assistance with this; I thought you'd like to know how it was finally resolved.
Best regards,
Nick

[FrancescoT]

Dear Nick,

I am happy you finally solved.

Regards