Summary
When trying to launch the uninstaller of an InstallAnywhere installed product on a target system, one might see an error with a Stack Trace.Symptoms
When trying to launch the uninstaller of an InstallAnywhere installed product on a target system, one might see a Fatal Application Error "This Application has Unexpectedly Quit - Invocation of this Java Application has caused an InvocationTargetException. This Application will now exit. (LAX)" with a Stack Trace similar to the one below:
java.lang.StackOverflowError
at java.lang.AbstractStringBuilder.append(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.StringBuffer.append(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.util.VariableManager.h(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.util.VariableManager.b(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.util.VariableManager.f(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.util.IAVariableStringResolver.a(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.util.VariableManager.a(DashoA10*..)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.util.VariableManager.a(DashoA10*..)
If the uninstaller is set to generate a debug log, then one might as well see something similar to the following in the log:
Did not detect installvariables.properties file
Configuring user interface...
WARNING: COULD NOT FIND VALUE FOR KEY: Installer.installLog.withWarnings
Loading externalized properties
ExternalPropertyLoader: unable to invoke: UninstallIntroAction.setStepTitle(String)
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.util.ExternalPropertyLoader.c(DashoA10*..)
?
Caused by: java.lang.StackOverflowError
at java.lang.AbstractStringBuilder.append(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.StringBuffer.append(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.util.VariableManager.h(DashoA10*..)
There could be other reasons that might lead to a similar exception as the one shown above that are not covered in this KB article.
Cause
The Create Uninstaller action creates the uninstaller, which is installed in the $USER_INSTALL_DIR$ location under the Uninstall folder (by default, the uninstall folder is named ?_$PRODUCT_NAME$_installation?). There is a file in this folder called ?installvariables.properties?, that is created as soon as the installer completes and exits. This file contains a list of the IA variables in the installer, with their values as the installer exits. If this file is missing from the uninstall folder, launching the uninstaller will show an error similar to the one above.
Resolution
You can check to see the reason the ?installvariables.properties? file is missing from the directory or why it is not created when the install completes. You can also verify in the install log whether or not the install completed successfully and if there were any issues at install time that may have lead to the missing file.Additional Information
For more information on how to generate a verbose debug install log, see the following KB article: Generating InstallAnywhere Log for Install, Uninstall, and Build in InstallAnywhere 2011 And Later
