currently I'm working on a Installshield based setup. The setup itself is a basic MSI Project. During the setup we have to deploy MS SQL Server Express Edition depending on the user selection. For this purpose we tried to use the feature prerequisites for MSI Redistributables. The project itself seems to be OK and Installshield generates the setup file.
The generated setup file does not work as expected though. The setup starts normally and the user can change destination path and so on. As soon as the User presses Install Button the setup executes the installation of SQL Server Express Edition which finishes successfully. After this step the setup tries to restart the MSI package again. This call fails because the setup cannot find the msi package on the local disk.
I looked into the log file of the installation and the installation process. The secret behind the Feature Prerequisites is some magic between the Setup.exe and the embedded MSI package. It seems that the MSI package quits the installation and setup.exe installs the SQL Server Express Edition on the local system and tires to resume the installation:
Setup --> Extract MSI to Temp\GuidA\package.msi --> Execute Temp\GuidA\package.msi --> Installation of the package starts --> The msi package detects the needed prerequisite and setup.exe resumes --> Setup.exe installs SQL Server Express Edition --> Setup.exe restarts the msi installation process --> Execute Temp\GuidB\package.msi
At this step the error occurs since the path Temp\GuidB\package.msi does not exist on the system. Therefore Windows Installer prompts me to select the path where it can find the msi package for the installation.
Note: The setup works on the machine where the setup package has been created because the path temp\guidB\package.msi exists on the system. It does not work as soon as i copy the setup to a second PC and start it there.
What do I have to do in order to get the feature prerequisites working as expected? From my point of view it seems that the feature prerequisites aren't 100% stable yet.
If your main package is compressed into setup.exe, please make sure you've set the Cache MSI Locally option to Yes. The only other scenario I would expect this to hit is an uncompressed setup.exe running from a multiple-disc installation. Do either of these cases match your scenario? In either one, it should only apply to cases where a prerequisite requires a reboot; it doesn't exit and reinitialize the main install unless a reboot is necessary.
