silent install problem

[ridch01]

I'm having some trouble with the silent install. I had the "Always generate response file" checked, and successfully installed the product and created installer.properties.
Next, I disable the "always generate response file" and rebuilt. I copied over the installer.properties generated earlier and tried to run "installer -i silent -f c:\installer.properties".
In the windows task manager, I can see installer.exe run for a while. However, it never installs my product and I haven't found any log or error files.

If I use my installer.properties and run through a regular install, I can see the valid values being used. So, I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong here. Any ideas?

[ridch01]

I have since found out that I can use use "install.exe -r some.file" to save my response file. This still doesn't work for me.
Other problems: CHOSEN_INSTALL_SET does not get set by the response files. I have manually updated the generated response files to select the correct ones.

What about license agreements? I have not seen this in the response file.

I also added INSTALLER_UI=silent (so I don't have to pass -i silent).

Now, my install.exe uses about 100% cpu on my test box. I let it run for 15 minutes. It never installs the product and I can't tell what it is doing.
I guess I'll have to stick in some logging to my installer.

[ridch01]

I am not able to get logging/tracing to work with the silent install. I created a new thread.

I'm stuck on this. I'm not sure what else to do to troubleshoot it.
From the Windows task manager, I can see a few things happening - but it's difficult to tell exactly what. Install.exe eventually stops - but I don't know why or what it did.

[ridch01]

I still have not made any progress on this. I may need to contact Macrovision support. I think my company has a "pay-per-incident" policy, so I was hoping some kind soul had already encountered this problem. I will keep this issue updated with what I find.
One of the reasons we chose IA was the silent install ability. Many of our clients demand this. At this point, I am not able ot make it work and have no clue why.

[pv7721]

Would it be possible for you to post your project and your response file?

[ridch01]

I am not able to post the install script (do to restrictions from my employer). I can quickly summarize what it does (if it helps). Note: I only have a GUI installer and currently only support Windows (with eventual support for Unix platforms).
1. Welcome screen describing the product.
2. You select a configuration to install (which has branches in the install script). There is an agent piece, a manager piece, and an option to install both the agent and manager.
3. There is a license agreement screen.
4. A screen to enter the destination directory.
5. If it's an agent, we need to know the name of a Manager system to report to. (there will eventually be a way to verify this exists - but currently I just write this to a log file)
6. All 3 configurations prompt for database credentials. We then use JDBC to perform database configuration.
7. If a Manager or Both, it prompts for Tomcat information (port, username, password). It eventually updates Tomcat with this information.
8. After copying files, I register a few binaries as Windows services and start the services.

I've examined the response files generated. A few areas I do not see get populated.
1. I don't see the license agreement acceptance checked. This was one of my suspicions as a possible problem.
2. I don't think it stamps the configuration (Agent, Manager, Both). I think I manually added this during troubleshooting.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I added many steps to the script to write out to a debug text file. The file is never created for a silent install. So, #1 and #2 (under response file) do not seem so plausible to me.

[pv7721]

Then I'm afraid that the only thing left for you to do is try to simplify your installer (i.e. remove things from it) in order to try to isolate the problem (find out what exactly causes the silent installer to end prematurely).

On the other hand, what you should know about the silent mode is that it skips all panels, so for instance the EULA is implicitely accepted (I'm not sure what exactly did you expect to find in the response file when it comes to this).

[purcellk24]

Ok a couple of questions.
1. Do you have Silent UI mode enabled? Check the InstallerUI/Look&Feel/GeneralUISettings tab.
2. Have you tried adding a "Output Debug Information" action in with letting it write to a log file?
3. Have you tried to get your installer to run in debug mode even when running silently?

Don't worry about the LicenseAgreement screen acceptance being checked during a silent installation. It is assumed that it is because during a silent installation nobody can read it anyways.
You are right about the CHOSEN_INSTALL_SET writing out to a response file. I think even if you manually add it to your response file, you may need to add a simple custom action to make sure it really is set.

Can you post a simple sample project that replicates your problem?

[ridch01]

I did find out the problem last night. I'm reluctant to admit it though. I did not have the box checked to allow silent install. I will not give an account of how much time I spent troubleshooting and cursing about the problem...