Logged Execution File Problem

[lansmank]

When running an install with logged execution turned on, while the installer is running, the file gets to about 625kb, and when the installer displays the text installing the application, the log file is deleted. Is this a common occurance and is there a way to prevent this from happneing?

[sinan]

No, not unless as part of your setup you are deleting the log, that is.

[lansmank]

I put in the traditional debugging messageboxes to see when i'm losing the file and it's during the Apply Install (get result into variable SUCCESS) line of code. I think i'm also getting a logged error about not having sufficient access rights to start the MSI Installation/uninstallation (this taken from the file a second or so before it's deleted). I'm logged in as an administrator on my laptop with full access rights to everything on the system, so i'm not quite sure where that's coming from. The application appears to install correctly, although i'm also trying to install a version of the msde which is not apparently installing. I don't know if the two issues are connected (I think they are), but i'm not sure if I should address the msde install in a seperate thread.

[sinan]

The log file cannot be created before Apply Install. In fact, the log file would be available only after Apply Install. So I'm not sure how you manage to find a log file before Apply Install executes, as the log file contains the log of actions that happen during Apply Install.

As for your other question, the answer depends completely on how you're trying to install MSDE, so I can't comment on that without more information.

[lansmank]

I sent the output of the logfile to notepad as it's being generated. I wait until the file size reaches 600k and then start sending copies out to notepad until the file is deleted, then take a look at the last version that makes it to notepad.
I'm trying to install a version of the MSDE from the extracted files from the MSDE2000A.exe file that's downloadable from microsoft. I've included all of the files from the extract as support files and have added a Run Program command in the installer script that occurs just before the Apply Install line of code. This run program points to the Setup.exe with a few command line arguments to tell the MSDE how to install the particular instance of sql. If you have any other examples of how to install the MSDE as a coordinated part of an application setup, I'd appreciate any help.

[sinan]

That sounds about right. Perhaps you can send me your project and script file so I can take a look at it.

[lansmank]

I think I figured out the MSDE problem. I moved the Run Program code to execute after the Apply Install line of code in the installation script and now the MSDE Installation fires up just fine.

[Linuxman]

lansmark,

Could I talk you to giving me some details of how you installed MSDE. I have an .msi that I use to install MSDE. However, I have to install it with a custom command line, and I am not sure how to do that in this installation program, it keeps receiving an error right at the end of the installation. However, if I go and install normalling on the machine it works fine.

[lansmank]

Ok, just to FYI my final findings about this issue, here goes:

The execution of the MSDE has nothing to do with occuring before or after the Apply Install command, the whole thing has to do with the sequencing of when things happen in the install script and having a better understanding of this. To run the MSDE install, i included all of the necessary files as support files, and then reference the Run Program command of the setup.exe path to the $SUPPORTDIR$, which is available throughout all phases of the wizard to files that are designated as support files, not just during the Apply Install portion. I had originally pointed my Run Program command to files that were copied into the support directory with the Install Files command, and those files weren't moved there until the Apply Install command had been executed.

I had to overcome a another MSDE issue that may or may not be relevant to this thread, when installing a named instance of MSDE, the Sql Server service for this instance is installed to start automatically at bootup, but it is not started as a result of the installation, so you need to make sure that you get the service started in the wizard if you need to execute any scripts against the MSDE instance (ie creating a database and tables, etc.) Once the service was started, all of the Sql Server scripts were able to connect to the db and execute just fine.

Hope this helps!

[sinan]

Ah, great! Seems like it was a timing issue. Glad to hear its been resolved.