InstallValidate errors are appearing on many users' systems.

[pwhoriskey1]

Hi. I'm having trouble nailing down a problem and am hoping someone can help me out.

Action ended 14:50:49: SetODBCFolders. Return value 0.
Action 14:50:49: InstallValidate. Validating install
Action start 14:50:49: InstallValidate.
Action ended 14:50:50: InstallValidate. Return value 3.
Action ended 14:50:50: INSTALL. Return value 3.

We use Installshield basic msi project to generate our installer. We log success and failure of our installations and have seen a serious increase in failed installations with our new release, most of which we are seeing fail on InstallValidate. In the cases we've seen, users can copy the .msi file the downlader has brought down and run it successfully. This points me toward the setup.exe we generate.
The setup.exe is set to require Administrator privileges as this is an per-machine installation. The only change we've made to the setup is we've added REINSTALLMODE=amus. I've only seen an InstallValidate error with this installer once on my own machine, though until I rebooted I was able to repeat the failure. While my machine was in this state I was able to install successfully by calling the setup with /V[ALLUSERS=1]. ALLUSERS is set to 1 in the .msi as well so I'm not sure why this would make a difference.
The installer is failing over 15% of the time with this release so I'm searching hard for a cause/solution. It has only been replicated that one time in house so it is hard for me to get/provide a lot of data. I'm hoping someone has seen this type of behavior before and can point me in a good direction. Thanks for any assistance.

[manomatt]

Hi,

"The InstallValidate action verifies that all volumes to which cost has been attributed have sufficient space for the installation. The InstallValidate action ends the installation with a fatal error if any volume is short of disk space."

Could you check the diskspace in the pc where this issue occurs ?

[pwhoriskey1]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. Yeah, the users can actually go into their temp area, pull the downloaded msi out to their desktops and run successfully from there so I think they must have space. The setup.exe should just run the prereq's (.NET3.5SP1, vcredist2010) and run the msi with the switches below:

ProductName="my product name" REINSTALLMODE=amus EX_INSTALL_STUDIO_ONLY=true /l* %TEMP%\MyInstallation.log

I've actually found a machine where the .exe produces the InstallValidate error but running the msi with those same command line items works. The only other thing I can think of is that the .exe also includes billboards. I don't think that should cause a problem though.

[pwhoriskey1]

Not sure if it helps:


[Info]
Name=INTL
Version=1.00.000
DiskSpace=8000 ;DiskSpace requirement in KB

[Startup]
CmdLine=ProductName="My Product name" REINSTALLMODE=amus EX_INSTALL_STUDIO_ONLY=true /l* %TEMP%\my_Installation.log
SuppressWrongOS=N
ScriptDriven=2
ScriptVer=17.0.0.714
DotNetOptionalInstallIfSilent=N
OnUpgrade=0
Product=my product
PackageName=my_Installer.msi
EnableLangDlg=N
LogResults=N
BillBoardType=2
UI=1000
DoMaintenance=N
ProductCode={5A632529-6248-4B8E-86B3-ECE9C7EA21C3}
ProductVersion=3.5.1.19458
LauncherName=my_Installer.exe
PackageCode={2475A060-1103-4FEC-9F83-5B0501F2E50B}

[Languages]
RequireExactLangMatch=0x0404,0x0804
RTLLangs=0x0401,0x040d
Default=0x0409
Supported=0x0409

[MsiVersion]

[SupportOSMsi11] ;Supported platforms for MSI 1.1
Win95=1
Win98=1
WinNT4SP3=1

[SupportOSMsi12] ;Supported platforms for MSI 1.2
Win95=1
Win98=1
WinME=1
WinNT4SP3=1

[SupportOS] ;Supported platforms for MSI 2.0
Win95=1
Win98=1
WinME=1
WinNT4SP6=1
Win2K=1

[SupportOSMsi30] ;Supported platforms for MSI 3.0
Win2KSP3=1
WinXP=1
Win2003Server=1

[Win95]
MajorVer=4
MinorVer=0
MinorVerMax=1
BuildNo=950
PlatformId=1

[Win98]
MajorVer=4
MinorVer=10
MinorVerMax=11
BuildNo=1998
PlatformId=1

[WinME]
MajorVer=4
MinorVer=90
MinorVerMax=91
BuildNo=3000
PlatformId=1

[WinNT4SP3]
MajorVer=4
MinorVer=0
MinorVerMax=1
BuildNo=1381
PlatformId=2
ServicePack=768

[WinNT4SP6]
MajorVer=4
MinorVer=0
MinorVerMax=1
BuildNo=1381
PlatformId=2
ServicePack=1536

[Win2K]
MajorVer=5
MinorVer=0
MinorVerMax=1
BuildNo=2195
PlatformId=2

[Win2KSP3]
MajorVer=5
MinorVer=0
MinorVerMax=1
BuildNo=2195
PlatformId=2
ServicePack=768

[WinXP]
MajorVer=5
MinorVer=1
MinorVerMax=2
BuildNo=2600
PlatformId=2

[Win2003Server]
MajorVer=5
MinorVer=2
MinorVerMax=3
BuildNo=2600
PlatformId=2

[0x0409]
0x0409=English (United States)
0x0411=Japanese
0x0401=Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
0x042d=Basque
0x0402=Bulgarian
0x0403=Catalan
0x0804=Chinese (PRC)
0x0404=Chinese (Taiwan)
0x041a=Croatian
0x0405=Czech
0x0406=Danish
0x0413=Dutch (Netherlands)
0x040b=Finnish
0x0c0c=French (Canada)
0x040c=French (France)
0x0407=German (Germany)
0x0408=Greek
0x040d=Hebrew
0x040e=Hungarian
0x0421=Indonesian
0x0410=Italian (Italy)
0x0412=Korean
0x0414=Norwegian (Bokmal)
0x0415=Polish
0x0416=Portuguese (Brazil)
0x0816=Portuguese (Portugal)
0x0418=Romanian
0x0419=Russian
0x0c1a=Serbian (Cyrillic)
0x041b=Slovak
0x0424=Slovenian
0x040a=Spanish (Traditional Sort)
0x041d=Swedish
0x041e=Thai
0x041f=Turkish
[my_Installer.msi]
CertKey=my_Installer.isc
Type=2
Location=http://hudson.myCompany.net//job/windows/2729/artifact/releng/build/output//iswebsbs/my_Installer.msi
CacheRoot=28
CacheFolder=Downloaded Installations
[Setup.bmp]
Type=0
[ISSetupPrerequisites]
PreReq0=Windows Installer 3.1 (x86).prq
PreReq1=Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86).prq
PreReq2=Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64).prq
PreReq3=Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.prq

[manomatt]

PreReq0=Windows Installer 3.1 (x86).prq
PreReq1=Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86).prq
PreReq2=Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64).prq
PreReq3=Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.prq


can you remove these pre requisites from the setup and try to install it and see if it works ?

[pwhoriskey1]

Tried pulling the prq's and it still dies on InstallValidate. The windows installer prq went away on it's own when I pulled the other 3. I wasn't sure what brand of installshield magic had it there in the first place as i do not include an msi engine with the installer.

This is a per-machine install so I'm wondering if there could be a permissions issue.?. I know InstallValidate checks permissions as well as files-in-use. Not 100% sure what else it checks. Good to know about the disk space.

[pwhoriskey1]

I added REINSTALLMODE to the property table of the msi and this caused the problem without using the setup.exe. For now I'm removing the REINSTALLMODE setting (to amus) from the installer and trying a different way to get files to overwrite. I'm still wondering though, because InstallValidate fails if permissions are insufficient, if there is some system policy or UAC setting that disallows the override of REINSTALLMODE. The setup.exe and the .msi both require admin so I'm not sure why this happens on some systems (about 25% of people who try out installer).

[manomatt]

thank you for still posting your findings here...
you have mentioned like "I added REINSTALLMODE to the property table of the msi" i reckon that you have added this property in the property table manually. this is not a proper way.

ICE40 defines:
ICE40 error:
REINSTALLMODE is defined in the Property table.
Description:
This may cause difficulties. Defining the REINSTALLMODE property in .msi file can lead to unexpected behavior. To fix this error, do not define this property.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa368963(v=vs.85).aspx

Also by default the REINSTALLMODE is "omus". try giving that in command prompt and see?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa371182(v=vs.85).aspx

[pwhoriskey1]

Thanks. I knew setting REINSTALLMODE in the property table was not recommended. I didn't know it would result in unexpected behavior. Changing REINSTALLMODE=amus to REINSTALLMODE=omus results in InstallValidate passing. (changed in the command line for setup.exe, that is. I've removed it from the property table)

[pwhoriskey1]

We took this out of the most recent release and aven on new installations the # of failures has dropped to less than 1%.