Prompt users for reboot in unattended setup

[Ton_B]

My setup requires Miscrosoft Installer 2.0, no problem you think, because installaware provides a script wich checks the precence of this version.
So far so good.

My testing environment is Windows 2000, with no service packs installed!
Therefore the update script of MSI 2.0 has to be started.

If I run the installer in the normal mode, I'm prompted to restart the computer, bacause the Windows installer 2.0 has been installed.
After the computer has finshied his restart, the setup will resume, wich is perfect.

But!
When I run the setup in the Silend mode I'm not prompted to restart the computer, although the MSI has been installed and the actual setup has yet to be run.
Without re-starting my computer I then re-started the setup (also unattended) and the installation ran with no problems !

The questions:

1)
Is the reboot really necessary ?, and if so:

2)
Is it possible to prompt the user for the required reboot using the standard messagebox function (wich sets the variable "REBOOTNOW" to True or False)

Thanx!

Ton.

[MichaelNesmith]

Hi Ton!

I think the reboot is generally necessary, to prevent cryptic problems that might occur with other setups or even your own setup. However, if your testing has conclusively shown that it is safe to proceed, just customize your setup script and eliminate the reboot.

To reboot by default in silent mode, just set the default value of the variable REBOOTNOW to OK. This will take care of it for you. You could do this in your setup script or from the command line (former should be easier for end-users, and is safe to do).

[Ton_B]

Hi Michael,

Again thank you for your quick reply.

I've considered setting the REBOOTNOW variable to OK.
But it will create a problem.

The system administrator can push this setup at any time, so if a user has got some applications running, and the administrator forces the setup, the user will not be prompted for a reboot!
If I set the default value of the REBOOTNOW to Ok, it could cause applications to crach and even the loss of documents.

I beleive the best way to prevent this is to prompt the user that a reboot is required. (a reboot is also necessary after completing the general setup)

But I do not know how to prompt the user for this in the silend mode.

So the quiestion remains:

Is it possible to prompt the user for the required reboot in a unattended setup ?

[MichaelNesmith]

Well, in that case you can set the silent mode variable that controls silent mode in the setup script Please see the list of pre-defined setup variables in the help index.

[Ton_B]

Ok, this is what I've done:

In the pre-requistes section:

Code: Select all

Set Variable ACTUALMODE to $SILENT$
If Variable SILENT equals TRUE
  Set Variable SILENT to FALSE
End
//check MSI version, and if update needed, run update. and if so:
Messagebox 'Your computer needs to be restarted' into REBOOTNOW
If Variable REBOOTNOW equals OK
  Reboot Computer and Resume Setup
end

Set Variable SILENT to $ACTUALMODE$

[.... the rest of the code ....]



In this case the user will always be prompted for the restart.
So far so good.
After the user login, the setup resumes as expected, but the variable SILENT has been set to FALSE instead of the original setting.

I found the problem inside the registry (HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Currentversion\\Run\\) , The commandline parameter "/s" is nót present !

How can I solve this ?

Do I have to make the registry setting manually and replace the Reboot and Resume to just Reboot ?
And if so:
1) Can I just paste a string "/s" and the variable $CMDLINE$ to the registry ?
2) Is there a variable present in which the proper registry key is stored ?

Please advise

[Ton_B]

I've just updated IA form 5.0 to 5.2 and now it works !

I think the problem had someting to do with the missing first character of the CMDLINE variable (see topic http://www.installaware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=497)

Probably IA was unable to recognise just the letter 's' in the CMDLINE because the slash was missing '/s' and therefore the register key was without the '/s'
Because of the bugfix the slash is now present in the CMDLINE variable and can IA recognise it and the "/s" wil be added to the register key.