I've had problems creating a new install package that contains a chained MSI.
Initially I created a new install package with a chained MSI that was streamed into the installer. This approach worked fine, but I soon realized that I wanted the install package to actually be external so the user could run certain pieces of the install separately.
I changed the configuration so that chained MSI would be stored externally and updated the Installation (run-time path) to point to a relative path starting with [SourceDir]. I signed all of the EXE and MSI files (for both the main and chained MSI projects) and tried the installation again; this time the installation failed.
I then tried two additional things: (1) For the chained MSI the Compression setting was changed from "compressed" to "uncompressed" (I saw on another thread that this might be a potential solution), but the changed MSI installation still failed. (2) Next, I updated the MSI using ORCA and changed the path in the ISChainPackage table from "[SourceDir]Package1\Package1.msi" to the actual location of the installation (e.g. "C:\Temp\Package1\Package1.msi"). This allowed the chained MSI to install properly.
I looked in the MSI log (see attachment) and the [SourceDir] property appeared to be set correctly, so I'm not sure why the installation is failing.
Any help on figuring out why the chained MSI is not installed when the [SourceDir] property is used would be greatly appreciated.
