Newbie Question - Deploying slipstreamed .Net framework

[steveO]

Hi,
I'm evaluating IA Studio and was wondering how to go about distributing a slipstreamed install of the .Net runtime (this will install .Net + .Net SP1) as a single exe file. I have the patched Microsoft msi and a folder structure containing all required files. In similar situations until now I would have put everything into a winzip SFX and run the msi after extraction. What is the best alternative to do this using IA,
Thanks,
SteveO

[sinan]

Steve

This is an interesting question. Do you have a single MSI file, that is already updated to install Service Pack 1? Or does Service Pack 1 reside in a seperate file?

What you want to do is make sure you're getting the best compression. If your Service Pack 1 file is seperate, then I'd say use InstallAware to install v1.1 of the FX, and then install your Service Pack 1 file on top of that. This will give you very good compression.

If the Service Pack 1 setup is integrated into the FX MSI, so there is only 1 MSI file to install, then it gets a little tricky. You will want to:

1) Decompress all CABs, and recompress them using "stored" compression,
2) Decompress the MSI streams, and then recompress them using "stored" compression,
3) Install the MSI from InstallAware using the (Un)Install MSI Setup plug-in.

This will assure that you have the best compression possible. If compression is not an issue, I'd just say run the FX installers silently from the main InstallAware setup, but that's just wasting space.

Please let me know if you need more help with this.

[steveO]

Hi Sinan,
I have a single msi file with external files in two folders (Program Files and Win). When the msi is run this will install the .Net framework to the correct service revision (SP1) as a single install. Can you explain how to do steps 1 and 2. I've already got the files extracted from the original FX msi and merged with SP1. What I'm not sure of is how I can get them back into a single exe or msi (with no external files) using IA. Regarding step 3 is it Ok to call an msi from another msi or can this pose problems in the event of self repairs etc.
One final question...does IA provide the ability to create transform files. If so we could ditch our dependency on Wise and move to IA,
Thanks,
Steve

[sinan]

Steve

Why don't we do this - can you upload your updated FX installer to a web server inside an archive...and I'll go ahead and create a template project that installs it, and put it up here in the sample scripts section. FX 1.1 SP1 has been getting a lot of requests so I'm sure a lot of users will appreciate this.

InstallAware does not support creation of transforms, however you may install any MSI from InstallAware with any set of options (without needing explicit transforms), and no conflicts will occur at any time. And if you are spawning an InstallAware setup itself, remember you have full access to the command line from your setup script, and you may customize your setup behavior a lot easier than with transforms.

Sinan

[steveO]

Hi Sinan,

Unfortunately our security people don't allow external access to our website. The install is 20M zipped. Can I upload to your site or alternatively chunk it into 4 x 5M files and mail to you?

Thanks,
Steve

[sinan]

You can FTP the files right to one of our workstations:

ftp://mimarsinan.no-ip.info

Logon anonymously, and upload the file. Let me know when its done, so I can take a look at it.

[steveO]

Sinan, I've uploaded the slipstreamed file (netfx.zip). You will need to look in the registry to verify successful installation of SP1 for dotnet 1.1(as per http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318785&sd=msdn) as apparently MS has confirmed a bug where it still displays Net Framework 1.1 in Add/Remove Programs,
Thanks,
Steve

[sinan]

Thanks for the slipstreamed installer. There does appear to be one problem with this, however: it will not install on top of an already existing installation of .NET 1.1. Do you know of a particular set of command line parameters that will get it to install on top of .NET 1.1?

Other than that, we've actually expanded the .NET Installer plug-in to offer three choices - 1.0, 1.1, and 1.1 SP1. As soon as we've found a way to make 1.1 SP1 compatible with existing 1.1 installs, we'll release it.