Extraction of web media _sometimes_ fails

[Christoph Schneegans]

I've created a quite simple setup, with .NET Framework 1.1 as prerequisite, built as Web-based EXE, so the release contains the files "microsoft .net framework 1.1.7zip", "microsoft windows installer 2.0.7zip" and "my-project.exe". The setup is localized to English and German, and I really did not expect any problems. In fact, it runs fine with English and German versions of Windows XP SP2. (We use Virtual PC.) However, it horribly fails with a Spanish version if Windows. During the extraction of the .NET files, I get the following message _sometimes_:

Code: Select all

Retry Extraction?

Extraction of installation data downloaded from the web has failed. What would you like to do?

o Download a fresh copy of the installation data.
o Try to extract the existing download data again.

If you choose Cancel, setup will exit. Your existing download data will be preserved.

This does not happen always, but in the majority of cases. During my last attempt, I got the message when the extraction was at 1%. Then I selected the "Try ... again" option. The extraction process was repeated, and failed again at 99%. I chose "Try ... again" for the second time, and now the extraction succeeded.

As stated above, this behavior is absolutely not deterministic, and I'm about to go mad. Has anyone else experienced such a behavior?

[MichaelNesmith]

Which version of InstallAware?

[Christoph Schneegans]

The version is 6.151.

[MichaelNesmith]

Try to put together a minimum project which illustrates the issue, provide as many details as you can on the Spanish Windows you are using - such as the user account name, user rights, etc. - and email it to support.

[ken rentz]

With Swedish windows XP sp2, we are having the same behavior using 6.0 sp2.090606. We have German support personnel, that have never reported an issue, so I assume it works fine there. All of the files are located on the media, so there should be no problem with accessing the files.

[Christoph Schneegans]

Well, it's good to hear that I'm not alone with this problem.

It seems that with the highest compression, this problem occurs less often. Nevertheless, it still occurs _sometimes_.

Could you tell me how the "Documens and Settings" folder is named with Swedish Windows installations? In most languages, it only contains ASCII characters, but e.g. in Spanish, it also contains non-ASCII characters. I think there's might be a correlation.

[ken rentz]

The path on my setup is:

C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data

My testing is on a VMWare image that our QA department created from a Swedish install from the MSDN CD's Some of the folders under documents and settings are definitely not English 'Skrivbord'?, so I'm fairly sure that what I'm testing on is an accurate reproduction of the systems that our customers are using.

[ken rentz]

I forgot to mention that compression does seem to affect this. An earlier install had minimal compression, and it hangs %100 of the time. A newer install with maximum compression only fails about 75%. Unfortunately, even with compression, some of out web media files are over 100 meg in size.

[ken rentz]

I just received a support escalation that the same problems are occurring on Spanish versions of the OS also.

I don't have ready access to a copy of this flavor of OS, do you happen to have any additional info about any bad characters and any workarounds?