Silent install failure on Windows 7 & 2008 (64-bit)

[rmathew]

I'm attempting to launch silent install for my .exe (built using InstallAnywhere 2009 SP2). The command I launch is :

C:\INSTALL\setup.exe -f installer.properties -i silent

For the Windows 7 and Win 2008 R2 (64-bit) environments, I can see the setup.exe process when i view Task Manager, however the installation process doesn't seem to go anywhere, just hangs indefinitely. The folder its supposed to create under "C:\Program Files\" also never gets created.


Here is the exception from the attempted install:

---------------------------

java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.zerog.ia.installer.InstallBundle.shouldRegister(DashoA10*..)
at ZeroGbu.a(DashoA10*..)
at ZeroGbu.a(DashoA10*..)
at ZeroGbu.b(DashoA10*..)
at ZeroGbu.a(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.IAStatusLog.setInstallWasStarted(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.Installer.install(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.a(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.a(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.Main.main(DashoA10*..)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(DashoA10*..)

---------------------


A couple observations:

1. If i remove the "-i silent" flag (simply running "C:\INSTALL\setup.exe -f installer.properties"), install works on both these OS.
2. If i launch a manual GUI install by double clicking the .exe, that works successfully as well.
3. Silent, console and GUI installs all work successfully on Windows 7 (32-bit)


Please let me know if

a. This is a known issue with IA 2009 SP2.
b. Theres something I'm doing wrong in the way i invoke installer.
c. There is a way to run a silent install in DEBUG mode.

Any help would be appreciated.

[pv7721]

I'm afraid that there is very hard to tell what is happening without seeing your project. Also, as there aren't too many ways of debugging a silent installation, first of all have you enabled the installation log? If yes, is there anything interesting there?

[rmathew]

To answer your question:

Yes, I have enabled the installation log. But the silent install doesn't even get that far. It fails with this ZeroG exception trace right at the top.

To enabled debug mode for silent install, i followed the procedure described here:
http://apst.stsci.edu/apt/IA/InstallAnywhere_6_Enterprise/manual/WebHelp/to_translator/common_solutions/troubleshooting_installers.htm

(Under "Debugging a 32-bit installer" section)

The output.txt debug file is what was created, and contains the exception stack trace I copied into my original post.

[rmathew]

To answer your questions:

Yes, installation log has been enabled. However, the install process fails at the very start, without even getting to the point of starting a log file.

I was able to set up debug mode for the installer in silent mode using instructions from the below link:

http://apst.stsci.edu/apt/IA/InstallAnywhere_6_Enterprise/manual/WebHelp/to_translator/common_solutions/troubleshooting_installers.htm
(Under "Debugging a Win32 installer" section)

The output.txt file created was the debug file from which the ZeroG exception stack trace was observed, and a snippet of the exception was pasted to the original post in this thread.

[rox163]

In your installer.properties add a line at the top "INSTALLER_UI=silent"
Then run C:\INSTALL\setup.exe -f installer.properties
Thats should work.

[rahulgupta]

You are passing the argument in wrong sequence.

some.exe -i silent -f your_proerty_file_path

[pv7721]

I've recently discovered that the two options are actually independent:
- if you run with only a -i silent parameter, the setup should populate its variables with default values
- if you use a -f installer.properties file, these variables are overridden with values from this file