6 replies to this topic

[JoeThompson]

I have a CD-R that I have formatted as follows:
BUILD_01
 Disk1
BUILD_02
 Disk1
 :
BUILD_XX
 Disk1
etc.

Using Windows Explorer, I navigate to the Disk1 folder of the build I want to install.  I double click on Setup.exe or XXX.msi and run through my UI sequence.  Then halfway through the execute sequence, I have a force reboot.  The system reboots but Windows Installer gets one of two errors:
"This installation package could not be opened.  Contact the vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package"
or
"The system cannot read from the specified device"

This only seems to happen on certain computers.  Also, if I copy the entire Disk1 directory from the CD to the computer, it seems to work fine.
What could be happening?  Has anyone else experienced this?

I am using ISDev 7.02 and targetting W2K machines.

Thank you,
Joe

[rbrinda]

First reason could be that the .msi file has an empty subject field or Revision summary field. If this is not the case, then the error, "This installation package could not be opened.  Contact the vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package" will occur if your .msi file is in a novell network location and you are trying to access it through a Novell client? For some reasons, MSI doesnt work well if the .msi resides in a Novell network. But it works if you have that network location mapped to some drive.

Hope this helps.

[JoeThompson]

I don't quite understand how to check these.  I right click on the XXX.msi file and select properties.  I see the summary tab and there is a subject.  As far as the Revision summary field, I don't know where to check this.
If these were problematic, why would it go through most of the installation until machine was rebooted?  As I said before, this is just running off a CD - not a Novell network.  I think it may have something to do with the CD drive not being ready on some machines as it works on others.

Thank you,
Joe

[rbrinda]

Okay, do you have this follg. structure in the same CD?
BUILD_01
Disk1
BUILD_02
Disk1
:
BUILD_XX
Disk1
etc.

What is your release configuration for each Disk then? Did you choose "Network Image" or the "CD-ROM" for the Media type in the release config? What version of MSI Engine that you are using?

I've encountered some disk problems with my setup but my installation is just a single install spanned to 2 cds and not due to having many msi files.

Thanks.

[JoeThompson]

I just have one CD.  The reason for the directory structure is to save space on the CD.  Each build, I create a new directory and copy my disk1 folder to it.  The installation is setup for a CD-ROM image.  I am using MSI 2.0 (the one that comes with ISDev 7.02).  

Thanks,
Joe

[rbrinda]

I do not know if this would help you solve your problem, but its better to check if the volume label for the CD is same as the one that you have given for your individual .msi setup in your release configurations. If you have chosen the automatic spanning option, then the default would be DISK1 and this same label should be given when you create the CD.

Hope this helps.

[JoeThompson]

Well I tried 3 things at once:
I labeled a new CD Disk1
I only put the contents of one build on the CD (i.e. no Build_01, Build_02, etc)
I closed the disc so no future sessions could be written to it.
One of those things fixed the problem but I'm not sure which.  I tend to think it may be that some machines were having trouble with the multi session CD.  I don't know how that would explain it being able to see the directory to start with but not after a reboot though...

Thanks for the input,
Joe