DIFx driver install fails on system without 8.3 name support

[OlafKober]

Dear InstallAware!

We recently had some trouble with installation of Windows drivers using InstallAware 18.07, caused by disabled 8.3 filename support on certain customer Windows systems.

We install our custom Windows drivers via the DIFx plugin available in InstallAware. With script code similar to the following:

Code: Select all

~InstallAware Clipboard Data~
~DIFx Driver Install~
~{4C970FAA-E0CA-4013-9885-E42192D9C1BD}~
~$TARGETDIR$\driver\apds1.inf,TRUE,FALSE,TRUE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,TRUE,FALSE,TRUE,,,USB_FAILED,USB_REBOOTREQUIRED~
~mDIFxIDE.dll\mDIFxEXE.dll~


Most of the time this works perfect, but recently we had some customers complaining that our setup pops up an error message (refer to attached image) instead of installing the Windows drivers.

We were able to reproduce this behavior by disabling the 8.3 filename alias support in Windows. Refer to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... long_names and https://support.microsoft.com/kb/121007.

Searching the forums I did found some other users having problems with 8.3 file names, so here are my questions:

Is this a issue related to only the DIFx plugin or is this a general issue with InstallAware?

Is this fixed in the most recent InstallAware version (X2 - 19.07)? No? Any plans to do so?


Thanks
Olaf

[FrancescoT]

Dear Olaf,

honestly, we are not informed of any issue related with 8.3 file-name support using DIFx plugin.
Anyway, I'll try to replicate the same steps you used.

Let me check it!

Regards

[FrancescoT]

Dear Olaf,

I am not able to see any error with the DIFx driver plug-in.

I have done several verification with enabling/disabling 8.3 name support (from CMD prompt -> fsutil 8dot3name set C: 0 or fsutil 8dot3name set C: 1) , but I haven't found any problem to install a x86 or a x64 driver on the respective x64 or x86 targets.

Honestly, I have the feeling that probably your problem has a different source.
If you could send me a very minimal project that replicates the issue, I'll be happy to verify it.

Last but not least, I used IA X2 to verify what you reported and eventually, you could use the IA X2 trial to verify if anything changes.

Let me know.

Regards

[OlafKober]

Hi Francesco!

Thanks for your reply!

Based on your input, I did some additional testing and can say that InstallAware X2 doesn't fix the issue, meaning I can observe the exact same behavior in X2 (19.07).

Maybe I should have been more precise about how we install our drivers in my first post. I think important is the fact that we copy our drivers (*.inf, etc.) into the program files folder (aka. TARGETDIR) and call DIFx Plugin with a path to that program files folder. Since, most of the time this is a long path with spaces, short name alias support is required on the Windows system.

When running our setup on a clean Windows 7 x86 VM with 8.3 name support disabled (fsutil 8dot3name set C: 1), I got following dialog poping up (screen1).

screen1.png (146.97 KiB) Viewed 6639 times

Screen2 shows the command line arguments of x86DPInst.exe

screen2.png (138.68 KiB) Viewed 6639 times

So my conclusion is that InstallAware, properly the DIFx plugin, supplies short paths to the x86DPInst.exe utility.


I can send you a small setup for reproducing the problem. Please, provide me with an e-mail address.

Regards
Olaf

[FrancescoT]

Dear Olaf,

please use support@installaware.com .

Regards