10 replies to this topic

[Peter Bi]

Hi,

I am trying to add REINSTALLMODE=aums and REINSTALL=ALL into Property table
with Orca. But when I execute I got Internal error 2734, which in the
documentations say 'Invalid Reinstall mode character',  and both the values have been changed to 0, what's wrong with that?
When I execute setup.exe, I put 'REINSTALLMODE=vaums
REINSTALL=ALL ' into setup.ini in the line 'CmdLine=', it worked fine.

In the Property Manager table, there is entry 'ReinstallModeText' with 'omus' value,
will this conflict with the new entry?

Thanks,
Peter

[Stefan Krueger]

What exactly do you enter in the columns of the property table?

[Peter Bi]

Before execute msiexec /i myproj.msi, add the following lines using Orca to Property table:

Poperty                                          Value
==============================
REINSTALLMODE                        aums
REINSTALL                                   ALL

After execution, got the error 2734, and the lines were changed to:

Property                                          Value
===============================
REINSTALLMODE                       0
REINSTALL                                  0

[Stefan Krueger]

Hard to believe that a runtime error should change your msi file. Maybe it doesn't save the values properly, so at runtime Windows Installer sees 0 in these properties?
After saving, close and reopen the file in Orca to verify.
A log file of the installation might give additional hints.

[Peter Bi]

I know it's weried, maybe I did something wrong, but I don't know so far.

Now the error is gone, but the change of parameters value remains, weired!

I am using the first method (Upgrading by reinstalling)of www.installsite.org/files/iswi/Upgrading.html, what we want is that the user won't get any prompt (even there is a previous version or the same version isntalled), and each time the setup will run for install. I implemented this by putting "REINSTALLMODE=voums REINSTALL=ALL" into setup.ini file or from commandline. But if I add them into either Property table using Orca or into Property Manager, the install won't work, if there is one version installed, it will prompt to the user saying 'There is a version.....' and asked user to remove it.
My question is:  why they behave differently when put in setup.ini file or commandline and in Property table or in Preperty Manager? I expect they show the same behavior since both just pass/set the properties for the package.

In the paper, it also says Network-Image/Compress-all-files won't work for the method, why is that? My test showed that with this combination, it behave the same as Network-Image/Uncompress combination - the install run without prompting users if the parameters are passed through commandline (via msiexec.exe, here we don't have setup.* at all), but it will prompt users if they are passed in through Property table or Property Manager.

My feeling is that Property or Property Manager has something conflicting with the parameters, or interact with them, so they are not working properly. Is that right? But I don't know what that is and how to fix it.

[Stefan Krueger]

You can't set the "v" in REINSTALLMODE in property manager. the "v" causes MSi to load the new MSI file, instead of running the cached copy. Therefore you can't set it inside the package (because then it would be encountered when the package is loaded, which is too late).

The reason you can't use Network/compressed is that this produces one setup.exe that contains everything, including the setup.ini, so you can't write the REINSTALLMODE into setup.ini.

[Peter Bi]

Sorry I didn't make clear statement. I use 'aums' (see my second post) for Property table and Property Manager, and 'vaums' at commandline.

Should the settings (REINSTALLMODE::aums REINSTALL::ALL) behave equivallently with "REINSTALLMODE=vaums REINSTALL=ALL" in commandline? Why in my case only commandline works but the others not?

[Stefan Krueger]

No.
REINSTALLMODE::aums will run the cached (old) msi file.
Only REINSTALLMODE=vaums will run your new msi file. the "v" is required and must be specified on the command line (or setup.ini, which is essentially the same)

[Peter Bi]

Hi, Stefan,

Thanks for the help.

Due to the virus problem, I lost internet for the previous week.
Here is another problem which bothered me: I added a txt file to an existing component, when I used "REINSTALLMODE=vaums REINSTALL=ALL", the txt file was installed in the upgrade. But if I added a new component at the same time, so I used "REINSTALLMODE=vaums REINSTALL=ALL COMPADDLOCAL={guid for new comp}" commandline, the new component is added in the upgrade, but the txt file was not, is it supposed to happen? Can you give me some explanation on that?

[Stefan Krueger]

Did you place the new component in a new feature? You can't add a component to an existing feature, this will break the update. (You will be able to do this in MSI 2.0, which is currently not available)