Unattended Installation on Remko's Blog

Cannot create shell notification icon error during unattended install

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:52:33 +0000

I was troubleshooting an unattended installation of a particular application. The install seemed to hang right away so I figured it was presenting some kind of message (error?).

Using a Window Spy tool I made the setup process visible and saw the following message:

The unattended install was supplied by the vendor and apparently they use InstallAware.

The setup tries to create a Tray Icon, probably a setup progress indicator, but this fails because there is no shell running (the installation is pushed from a deployment server).

Script to install SNMP

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:22:26 +0000

In my project the monitoring group required that SNMP was installed and configured on all servers.

I wrote scripts for Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 that I deploy from my Altiris Server.

This is the script for Windows 2003:

batch Download

@echo off
rem Install SNMP

rem Create Sysoc Answer File
echo [NetOptionalComponents] >InstallSNMP.txt
echo SNMP = 1 >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo. >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo [SNMP] >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Accept_CommunityName = MYCOMMUNITY:Read_Only >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Any_Host = No >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Community_Name = "MYCOMMUNITY" >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Contact_Name = "MYCONTANT" >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Limit_Host = MYIP >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Location = "MYLOCATION" >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Send_Authentication = Yes >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Service = Applications, Internet, End-to-End, Physical, Datalink >>InstallSNMP.txt
echo Traps = THETRAPIP >>InstallSNMP.txt

Sysocmgr.exe /i:\windows\inf\sysoc.inf /u:\Windows\Temp\InstallSNMP.txt /r

Kofax VRS Unattended Install

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:53:39 +0000

Recently I needed to create an Unattended Install for an application that uses a piece of software (for scanning) called Kofax VRS.

This Kofax software comes with an .msi file but there was no documentation on the install options.

In fact it didn’t seem like the Vendor anticipated on an Unatttended Install.

I browsed in the msi file using Microsoft’s Orca tool and tried some of the properties I found in the public properties table.

Another packaging challenge

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 09:15:37 +0000

Another post on something that happened last week, this time it’s about a Java based Application again.

This particular application wanted to download three DLL’s from the Webserver to the Java bin directory.

This presents us with several issues on a multi user server such as a Citrix of Terminal Server:

The user does not have write permissions in this directory
If we we give the user write permissions here what happens when the DLL's are in use by another user?

I assumed that if I preinstalled the DLL's the application wouldn't try to overwrite them but that didn't work.

Then I monitored with Process Monitor if the Application wrote some kind of check file but at first I didn’t find anything.

So I decided to use the CorrectFilePaths shim to redirect the DLL’s to the user’s homedirectory (see Using the CorrectFilePaths shim to redirect an ini file to a writable location for an explanation).

Troubleshoot CorrectFilePath shim

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:42:03 +0000

A few days ago I was packaging an application that was writing an INI file in the application directory.

If you have read my earlier article, Using the CorrectFilePaths shim to redirect an ini file to a writable location, then you will probably think: create a nice shim and redirect that ini file!

But this application had a few challenges, the first being that it writes %COMPUTERNAME%.INI. The application’s developer probably assumed that a user is bound to one pc and that no other user’s use that pc.

To solve it we we need to catch all possible computer names (it would be nice if the CorrectFilePaths shims was able to accept wildcards and environment variables).

But it doesn’t so it means we have to add a parameter for each possible computer name. In my case that was doable because I have only 8 Citrix servers.

So I created a Fix using the Application Compatibility Manager as described in my previous post.

However it didn’t work, so I started to trace what happens.

Java Webapplication, certificates and Citrix

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:23:47 +0000

Yesterday I created an Unattended Installation of a webapplication. Of course it was “just a web link” and the application vendor usually says: you don’t need to install it just go the URL and that’s it.

The reality is usually that you go to the URL and need to install several (ActiveX) components and maybe other dependencies such as Java.

While a user may have the permissions for this on his own pc, on a Citrix or Terminal Server environment this is highly unlikely.

So we need to package and pre-install this for the users.

Nothing special so far but this particular application had some special things that were interesting enough to blog about.

So let’s start with what happened, I visited the URL of an application called Centric Key 2 Financien.

First I got a few popups with Certificates that needed to be accepted:

The application’s instructions say that the user must accept this and set the “Always trust content from this publisher” checkbox.

Fixing Applications: The Next Step

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:39:55 +0000

Lately I wrote a few articles about fixing bad applications using Compatibility Shims. If you didn’t read them yet, here are the links:

I also described that you can install an Application Compatibility Database using the sdbinst command.

At first I just took a script task in my Altiris Server to deploy the database using sdbinst -q <dbname> but later on I got a better idea.

Another Oracle Error

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:26:20 +0000

My collegue that is working with me on the current project was packaging another application that uses Oracle.

The interesting thing about it is that he ran into the same error I did: the Oracle client tries to create (and access) an Object in the Global namespace.

Redirect Global Object to Local Objects (aka fix that bad app!)

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:34:11 +0000

Today I was working on Unattended Installation of an Application called SmartDocuments.

The application seemed to behave nicely on a Multi User (Citrix/Terminal Server) environment: it writes user configuration to the user part of the registry and writes configuration files in a user accessible path.

When testing with a normal user account I ran into a problem though, I got an Oracle ORA-01019 error message:

The English message is ORA01019: unable to allocate memory in the user side.

Modify Internet Explorer 8 MUI Pack to install a single language

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:10:22 +0000

Today I wanted to install the Dutch Language pack for Internet Explorer 8, the Dutch language comes as part of the Windows Internet Explorer 8 MUI Pack (in my case the version for Windows Server 2003 SP2).

If you install the MUI Pack you will always end up with all 35 (!) languages installed. This behaviour is the same as the language pack for Internet Explorer 7 that I wrote about earlier (see Modifying Microsoft Updates and/or hotfixes)

The solution is really the same as for the IE7 language pack: you modify the inf file (in my case update_srv03.inf) but if you run update.exe it will refuse to use your modified inf file:

So we need to patch update.exe to accept your modified version!

Unattended Installation of IBM WebSphere MQ

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:50:14 +0000

Today I needed to create a silent install for IBM WebSphere MQ, in my case version 6.0.2.10.

I started by reading IBM’s documentation: WebSphere MQ Unattendend (silent) Installation which desribes that we can create a response file using the SAVEINI parameter.

So I recorded a response file and tested the install using the USEINI parameter as indicated by the documentation.

However the installation failed producing only this error message:

Using the CorrectFilePaths Shim with Visual Basic Applications

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:14:44 +0000

Earlier today I wrote about Using the CorrectFilePaths shim to redirect an ini file to a writable location and believe it or not the next application I was working with today needed a nice shim as well.

This one was a little more complicated and that’s why I am writing a second post about it.

I am not sure if this is actuall documented somewhere but a Shim is not applied to Applications or DLL’s that reside in the system directory.

The application in question here is a Visual Basic 6 application which uses the VB6 runtime, msvbvm60.dll which resides usually in %systemroot%\system32.

We need to do two things if we want to apply the shim to msvbvm60.dll:

Using the CorrectFilePaths shim to redirect an ini file to a writable location

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:52:01 +0000

Today I needed to package an application called PlesirReality and I noticed that it wrote an ini file into the program directory (in my case D:\Apps\PlesirReality).

I looked into this ini file (areastate.ini) and it writes user settings in there, like the last position of the window etc.

We can see this easily with Process Monitor:

This presents us with several problems:

The first problem is that the user does not have write permission in this directory so upon application exit we get an ugly error message:

We could “fix” this by giving the user write permissions to this directory or even to this specific file but here comes the seconds problem:

On a multi user environment like Citrix or Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Services it means that when one user exists he will he save his settings for all users.

And then we have a third problem:

When a users starts the application on another server he will not get the expected settings because each server will have it’s own copy of this ini file.

Unattended Installation of the Oracle Client

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:20:48 +0000

Last week I needed to an unattended installation of the Oracle Client, in my case version 10.2.0.1.0.

Oracle has a record switch that allows you to record an installation and generate a response file using: setup -record -destinationFile response_file_name. This is documented here.

When you are finished you can use this response file to perform the unattended install, eg setup -silent -responseFile response_file_name.

There is a problem though, the installer (setup.exe) launches a java based installer and immediately returns.

This was a problem for me since I cannot deploy a dependant application if the Oracle install hasn’t finished yet.

I did some googling and found a lot of questions about this subject and saw a common resolution where a script is watching a certain file that is creating when the installation has finished in a loop.

I figured there should be a better wait so I to a closer look at the installer with Ida Pro. I noticed that setup.exe launches another exe. called oui.exe (Oracle Universal Installer) which in turn launches Java.

Packaging an ActiveX Component: Easy?

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:19:18 +0000

Today I needed to package an applications that I was told was very simple. If I hear something like that my first thought is always “hmmm”.

So I prepared a machine to build the package and followed the instructions which were to go to a specific URL and download the package (probably an ActiveX control from there).

I opened the URL and immediately got an error message:

The error message 0x80004005 is not very helpfull since it stands for E_FAIL (winerror.h).

Packaging an application – Auto Accept the EULA

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:10:03 +0000

Yesterday I was packaging an application called Kluwer Juridische Bibliotheek. When the user first starts this application a screen with the License Conditions pops up and it must be accepted:

I always try to remove such things as I don’t think it’s necessary for every user to accept it.

Packaging an Application that uses the BDE

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:12:58 +0000

Today I needed to package an application that uses the Borland Database Engine (BDE).

The BDE is a database engine/connectivity component commonly used in Delphi and C++ Builder applications. It has been deprecated since 2000 when it was replaced by dbExpress.

But it’s still widely used so you may still find applications that require the BDE.

In my environment I already have a package for the BDE itsself. But the application I needed to package today, needs to have an Alias addded.

This is usually done manually by going into the BDEADMIN control panel applet or by copying the file where BDE saves the aliases (IDAPI32.CFG).

Here is a screenshot of the Alias my application needs (it uses an Interbase database):

I didn’t like the copy approach and didn’t even consider the manual option so I wrote 2 little tools.

Unattended Visual J# Install returns error 4122

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:53:30 +0000

This means you are installing the wrong edition, eg x86 version on an x64 OS.

All available version are listed on the MSDN Visual J# Redistributable Packages page.

Citrix and Java JRE Versions

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:41:33 +0000

If you have ever installed Citrix Presentation Server/XenApp or one of the management consoles then you have probably dealt with Java versions.

Citrix is very picky about the Java version so it’s usually best to initially install the Jre version that is delivered with the product.

In my case however I needed to install the CMC for Xenapp 5 on Windows 2003, it requires JRE 5.0 Update 9 but this version was undesirable.

So I tried to install the CMC with the current JRE version (1.6.0_22 at this time) but it makes the Installer exit immediately: