Installer Crashing without Logs

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mbond
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 9:37 am

Installer Crashing without Logs

Postby mbond » Wed May 05, 2021 3:28 pm

Background:
Our installer in IAx13 is around 500 MB in size (lots of files). We use Azure VM's (Windows 10) for testing our installs so as to prevent bad installs from messing up our personal machines. The only AV running is the built-in Windows Defender. We use single file compilation with compression set exactly in the middle of the slider. We have several other IA installers that were built with IAx7 that don't have this issue (we haven't updated them to X13 yet). This is a new installer and has never been in production yet.

Problem:
We are experiencing an intermittent issue when our install starts. The splash screen appears and decompression begins. Then the program just crashes (confirmed in Task Manager that it is not running anymore). Launching via command line and adding the /l=<path to log> parameter shows nothing in the log file. We have added our own logging to the top of the MSI code of the installer and that also shows nothing. So I can only conclude that neither Windows Installer nor our own coding within our installer is causing the issue.

It appears to happen more frequently when a user starts the install, then cancels out of it, then starts the same install again. It also appears to usually work the first time, but fail later (preventing repairs). For each of these instances, the same build of the install is used. However, we have done many builds, and are seeing the problem with all of them.

Initially, we reduced the compression strength from the default (3rd from the right side, if I member correctly) to the middle, which seemed to reduce the incident rate, but not eliminate it.

The Ask:
1) What are the system requirements for the different compression strengths? The UI gives requirements about compressing, but not decompressing, for most of them. Some don't mention any requirements. I need to confirm that our VM's meet these requirements.
2) I've seen others complain in the forums about similar sounding issues for many versions. I haven't seen any satisfactory results of figuring out the issue with any of them. Any progress in this area? Any definitive work-around/solution?
3) Any recommendations/best practices for dealing with very large installs like ours to prevent issues?

FrancescoT
Site Admin
Posts: 5360
Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:28 am

Re: Installer Crashing without Logs

Postby FrancescoT » Thu May 06, 2021 10:19 am

1# The compression UI reports the requirements for each one of the compression settings. When only Compression requirements are reported, it's intended that no specific requirements are required for decompression. Otherwise this is reported. For example:
comp_reqs.png
comp_reqs.png (5.41 KiB) Viewed 1640 times

I may suggest you to try using the default compression level (7th notch from left to right).
default_comp.png
default_comp.png (6.29 KiB) Viewed 1640 times

#2 Those you see on the forum are "99.99999... %" problems caused by an external process, and which are typically due an installed Anti Virus. Unfortunately in such cases there isn't any programmatic fix that can be applied.

#3 Based on the issue description, yours seems to be the typical anti virus side effect. The AV engine alters\damages the binary image of the detected file or of the In-memory process This can explain the behaviour you are reporting, including the fact that the log file doesn't get generated.

I don't recall exactly now, but I remember to have read that the Azure infrastructure may include addition security features. I may suggest you to check this out.

At any rate, nowadays a 500 Mb installer cannot be considered a very large installer. The default compression level (7th notch) should perfectly cover your needs.

You may also do some additional tests:

- Create a test project from scratch and generate a compressed setup package as it is (without specifying any property\setting or including any file). Then test the generated setup.exe on your VM.

- Do a test with running an Un-Compressed build of your setup package (build type: Uncompressed Directory Layout).

- Finally, it's absolutely correct to use a VM for testing purpose. This is the perfect choice in order to avoid possible problems that may be caused to the target os during the tests. However, I may also suggest you to try with setting up at least one VM hosted on a local enviroiment.
Francesco Toscano
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