Windows Installer Freezing

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ulrichard
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Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:45 am
Location: Switzerland
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Windows Installer Freezing

Postby ulrichard » Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:24 am

Hi everybody,

I have a strange situation where WindowsInstaller freezes.
The setup is special, in that it doesn't install anything to TARGETDIR, but only selects a TARGETDIR (on a network share) where the target executable is already present.
It then creates shortcuts to the target executable.

Now say I have an old version A and a new Version B of the product. And on the server share I have a folder A with the old version A and a folder B with the new version B.
If I point whichever setup (A or B) to folder A, the installer runs through.
But if I point whichever setup (A or B) to folder B, the installer freezes at "WindowsInstaller"

Before and after invoking the windows installer, I output debug messages (kernel32.dll->OutputDebugStringA) and indeed, I see the first message, but not the second one.
One core is fully occupied, but nothing will happen, even if I let it run over the night.

Sysinternals ProcessMonitor doesn't show me anything suspicious. The last file accesses go to %TEMP%\{3C6C8901-01E2-40F2-B11D-358B17D4404E} which contains some variable values that all look good.

I tried enabling debug output for Windows installer as described here: https://user.xmission.com/~legalize/msi/debugging.html But the file doesn't get written.

To reduce it, I commented out all the purple windows installer commands, and removed the custom translations from the InstallAware project. But the behavior is still the same.

Any more ideas how to debug that problem?

Rgds
Richard
http://www.pointline.com
http://www.paraeasy.ch
http://ulrichard.ch

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

Re: Windows Installer Freezing

Postby FrancescoT » Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:38 pm

Dear Richard,

It's not very clear to me what you are trying to do with the package.

Also, it is not clear to me if you are installing different versions of a same product ( but seems not ... because target folders are different).

Then, I don't understand why you are using your package using Windows Installer Engine, if in reality your package seems to create a shortcuts only.

Have you tried to do the same but using NATIVE ENGINE instead of MSI?

I suspect that the way you are doing doesn't respect the MSI rules (...I'm not totally sure, because it is not totally clear to me the approach you used).

Regards
Francesco Toscano
InstallAware Software

White Papers (HowTos) - http://www.installaware.com/publication ... papers.htm
Publications - http://www.installaware.com/publications-review.htm
InstallAware Help -F1 anywhere in the InstallAware IDE

ulrichard
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:45 am
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Re: Windows Installer Freezing

Postby ulrichard » Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:23 am

Hi Francesco,

thanks for the quick reply.
I probably should have mentioned, that I'm using InstallAware 9R2, which doesn't have a native engine.

The scenario is the following: We have a full installer, that installs our product on a server. The target folder is then accessible through a network share to the client machines.
On the client machines, the client installer is executed, which installs some runtime packages, and creates the shortcuts that point to the server share.

Rgds
Richard
http://www.pointline.com
http://www.paraeasy.ch
http://ulrichard.ch

ulrichard
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:45 am
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Re: Windows Installer Freezing

Postby ulrichard » Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:32 am

I found the problem.
In the main installer, I recently removed some obsolete functionality. So one variable got undefined, but a value that's no longer needed was still written to an ini file. This resulted in an entry like this in the ini file:
BasePath=$DOKVDIR$

Now, the ini file in question is read by the client installer during the user interview. Also the now obsolete value was read into a variable. But nothing was done with that variable.
So, the freezing behavior seems bizarre.
Somehow it was probably an infinite loop trying to replace DOKVDIR with $DOKVDIR$. But I don't understand why that's done for a variable that's not used.

Could someone please check if that problem still persists in the newest version of InstallAware? It just cost me two days.

Rgds
Richard
http://www.pointline.com
http://www.paraeasy.ch
http://ulrichard.ch

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

Re: Windows Installer Freezing

Postby FrancescoT » Mon Mar 11, 2013 9:22 am

Dear Richard,

I suppose exists something else causing your issue and also, it isn't clear to me what is your current script flow.

The Get INI File Settings command just reads the value and doesn't resolve the value as a variable, if stored with $DOKVDIR$.

honestly, it is not really easy to understand what your script exactly does.

If you can post a sample project that demonstrates your issue ... I'll be happy to verify it.

Regards.
Francesco Toscano
InstallAware Software

White Papers (HowTos) - http://www.installaware.com/publication ... papers.htm
Publications - http://www.installaware.com/publications-review.htm
InstallAware Help -F1 anywhere in the InstallAware IDE

ulrichard
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:45 am
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Re: Windows Installer Freezing

Postby ulrichard » Tue Mar 12, 2013 2:36 am

Hi Francesco,

Ok, here is the code to produce a minimal installer that freezes without any indication of what's going on, with InstallAware 9R2:

Code: Select all

Set Variable SomeVar to $SomeVar$
 
Set Variable PROGRESSTEXT to Installing $TITLE$
Set Variable SUCCESS to
Display Dialog: progress, use as progress dialog (non-modal)
 
Create Shortcut $SHORTCUTFOLDER$\Uninstall #TITLE# to $UNINSTALLLINK$
Apply Install (get result into variable SUCCESS)
Set Variable PROGRESS to 100
 
Hide Dialog


Rgds
Richard
http://www.pointline.com
http://www.paraeasy.ch
http://ulrichard.ch

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

Re: Windows Installer Freezing

Postby FrancescoT » Tue Mar 12, 2013 10:50 am

Dear Richard,

Of course, if you don't add the following lines, to obtain the SHORTCUTFOLDER path for the used Create Shortcut command, it doesn't work.

Code: Select all

Get Common Folder Location Start Menu->Programs Group into SHORTCUTFILESALL
Set Variable SHORTCUTFOLDER to $SHORTCUTFILESALL$\$STARTMENU$

However, it doesn't freeze with my test even leaving the as you posted... but obviously it returns an error.

Regards
Francesco Toscano
InstallAware Software

White Papers (HowTos) - http://www.installaware.com/publication ... papers.htm
Publications - http://www.installaware.com/publications-review.htm
InstallAware Help -F1 anywhere in the InstallAware IDE


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