Group Policy depolyment fails on Windows XP

[lukas.neumann]

Hello Installaware,

I have created an MSI package through Group Policy Wizard - I supplied /l=C:\log.txt parameter into the wizard to enable logging. The package is assigned to all machines in my domain (set to install on log on) and I can see in the gpresult.exe that the policy is sucessfully applied to all machines.

On Windows XP boxes, I can see that the package gets executed (it is shown for few tens of seconds prior the login screen) and there is the following entry in the event log:

Windows Installer reconfigured the product. .... Reconfiguration success or error status: 0

However, nothing is is installed and the IA log does not contain anything useful:

<InstallAware>
<SupportDir>
</SupportDir>
<SetupSplash>
<StubSize>
</StubSize>
<StubData>
</StubData>
<GlobalLists>
<CachedSupportDir>
</CachedSupportDir>
</InstallAware>

If I execute the package manually using

msiexec /i \\server\apps\mypackage.msi /qn

from the command prompt, I get the same behaviour (nothing is installed, log file is empty), although I am not sure IA should support this syntax...

Weirdly enough, all the Win 7 machines get the package installed through GPO without any problems.

Can you suggest further steps to troubleshoot this issue? (I already tried to regenerate the license file as suggested somewhere on the forum, without any luck).

Thank you
Lukas Neumann

[FrancescoT]

Dear Lukas,

seems that fails due some system requirements ( ... i'm just supposing... without the code it is not so easy)

Can you try to put some dialogs ( .. or Write to File command) in your script ... in order to try to localize where it fails?

Regards

[lukas.neumann]

Hello,

I can't display any dialogs (the app is running through Group policy when there is no UI), I could try to place Write To Text instructions but my installer is very long so this would be an enourmous effort for me. I don't think that this is due to system requirements because manually the setup works fine.

Is there any way how to actually force IA to write something in the log file?? This is the whole point of having a logged exectution functionality, that you wouldn't have to write the logging yourself.

Thanks
Lukas Neumann

[FrancescoT]

Dear Lukas,

I repeat... I really suspect that exist something at the very beginning of your script (missing variable and/or incorrect assignment) or with system requirements causing the issue.

The use of "/l=log" parameter forces the log generation ... but because your log does not contain anything useful, means that the setup fails just after initialization. That's the reason why your log doesn't start.

With the only informations that you give me and without your project, it is quite difficult for me to help you.

First try the following:
- what happens if run your setup silently without converting it to MSI?

Regards.