Tuner Issues

[CChong]

I have a MSI that I loaded up into my Tuner. I then set a path to the MST file and picked CREATE RESPONSE TRANSFORM

It ran my MSI and I answered all of my windows (next, ok, next etc......)
I then made 1 registry change and saved it.

I then ran the file with this syntax
C:\>msiexec /i "\\itlab02\apps\Utilities\dawn\msi\dawn.msi" TRANSFORMS="\\itlab0
2\apps\Utilities\dawn\msi\dawn.mst"


This worked and the MSI started but it DID NOT install in silent mode. It prompted me to hit Next, OK, Next etc....

How do I silnece that? And I thought that is what the Tuner was suposed to do but it is not doing it......yet.

Also, how do you prompt the end user with a dialog box, capture what they enter and then pipe that response into your script? I need to capture the users NAME and then use that in the script.

Thank you.
Matt
Matt@farallone.com

[RobertDickau]

Applying a transform doesn't turn an installation into a silent one; you'll still need to specify /qn at the msiexec command line:

msiexec /i product.msi /qn TRANSFORMS=product.mst


In your last paragraph, what "script" are you referring to?

[CChong]

Sorry, when I used the word "Script" I was thinking Wise Install Master scripts 🙂

I am trying to automate the installation of Palm Pilot 4.1. When you run the install it asks you for your User Name. I want to stop the install there, get the user name and then go on. If I use a /QN switch it will bypass that correct?

And palm pilot 4.1 has it's own MSI so I want to create a Transform file for it and just have it prompt the user for that one variable.

So do I need to create a custom dialog box or how do I do that?

Thank you very much for your help.

Matt
matt@farallone.com

[RobertDickau]

I'm not familiar with that specific installation, but if it's an MSI package, the user name should be stored in an MSI property, in turn stored in the transform file if you generated a response transform. Applying the transform along with the /qn switch to msiexec.exe should feed the captured value to the installer...

It's not easy, using MSI, to display only a single dialog box; would a custom action that reads the appropriate value of the user name from the target system, and then populates the corresponding MSI property with that value, work for you?

[CChong]

I posting this in the wrong section. It is a reply to this thread.

Yes, what you said should work. And it does not have to be Palm Pilot 4.1, it can be any MSI that prompts the user for there name.

But what Palm does is it creates a folder called c:\program files\%username%\.............
So you have to have the users name who will use this Palm.

So the user name is not in the MSI at runtime but gets put into a Property once it is entered. So I have to have the user prompted for their name, capture that, and then install the rest of the application.

Is that even possilbe with Tuner? I think I might be able to do it with Wise Install Master but that creates a EXE file and the company I am at wants all MSI files.

Thanks a lot for your help.
Matt

Matt@Farallone.com

[RobertDickau]

Well, it's not something you can easily do with Tuner (or with transforms, generally); do you know the name of the property in which the user's name is stored? (By default, MSI packages use USERNAME for this.) What do you want to happen during a silent installation?

[CChong]

It does not have to be 100% silent. All I need the MSI or MST to do is show the 1 dialog box that askes for their name.

When you run this MSI it asks all of the usual questions.
Welcome....
I agree to terms......
Install files to "Program files\location......."

Then is askes what is your name. I just want it to show that one prompt and nothing else.

Is that doable with this tool?


Thanks a lot.
Matt

[RobertDickau]

Originally posted by MattHH
Is that doable with this tool?

Well, it's "doable" in the sense that all the MSI database fields are exposed in the Table Editor view of Tuner, and one could modify the Dialog, ControlEvent, etc., tables to change the UI of the installer to show only one dialog box, but that might be more trouble than it's worth...

Another option is to create a custom action that displays a simple prompt and then populates the appropriate property, but then again that would require a bit of direct table manipulation.