failure to install as startup script

[rbos]

I have a copy of eviews 7.0.0.1 (according to the eviews 7.exe file details after installing but before patches) that I'm trying to install on win7 amd64, and two patch files provided to me by the Econ department dated last year. I see there's a new one, I guess I will apply that instead once I can resolve this.

Getting the silent install working was straightforward; record an ISS response file, play it back. It works correctly when I run it as myself, but when I run it as part of our maintenance routine (startup script calling installers as the SYSTEM user with admin privileges), the installer "succeeds" (exit code 0) and does not install the program in "c:\program files (x86)" or anywhere else:

Executing command: ('"[redacted]\eviews\7.0.0.1\INSTALL\Setup.exe" -s -f1"[redacted]\eviews\7.0.0.1\eviews7-install-x64.iss" -f2\\[redacted]-eviews-install.1.log -verbose -SMS').
DEBUG : Command in installation of EViews 7 returned exit code [0]. Success.

I have two patch files for it, but they don't apply since the initial program hasn't installed. Oddly, they ALSO exit with errorlevel 0.

Any suggestions?

[rbos]

It seems to install correctly when I give myself a SYSTEM account shell and then run the updater routine exactly as it runs during startup.

[rbos]

Here is the log file from a failed attempt.

[InstallShield Silent]
Version=v6.00.000

Yep, that's it.

[rbos]

I tested it again as the SYSTEM user (this time fully removing my previous attempt) and it failed.

2013-01-30 09:24:58, ERROR : Could not process (install) EViews 7.|Failed checking after installation.

[rbos]

with a bit of experimentation, removing -SMS may have fixed it, sigh. Copypasted from a previous package. In theory it's supposed to tell InstallShield to not spawn the setup as a background process, but maybe it's doing something stupid.

I'm going to kick a few computers into maintenance and see if they install now.

[rbos]

No, that didn't do it, three computers' startup installation failed. It took about 60 seconds to do so, though, so it's doing SOMEthing..

[rbos]

minor complaint:

Removing the program does not entirely remove %PROGRAMFILES (x86)%\eviews7:
C:\Program Files (x86)\EViews7\abank32.dll
C:\Program Files (x86)\EViews7\Docs
C:\Program Files (x86)\EViews7\EDX_35
C:\Program Files (x86)\EViews7\Docs\EViews 71 Supplement.pdf
C:\Program Files (x86)\EViews7\Docs\EViews 72 Supplement.pdf
C:\Program Files (x86)\EViews7\EDX_35\EdxMagellan.dll
C:\Program Files (x86)\EViews7\EDX_35\EdxMagellan.XmlSerializers.dll
C:\Program Files (x86)\EViews7\EDX_35\Interop.EViewsEdx.dll

[rbos]

Another complaint, probably not critical: It doesn't appear to be possible to replay a completely silent uninstall. It asks the user if they want to uninstall despite using a response file.

[rbos]

To summarize, in general, manual installation succeeds as SYSTEM user or admin user, automated installation via startup script fails. It failed a couple times as SYSTEM user, manual install - I've been doing repeated uninstall/reinstall on the test machine and it works consistently.

Trying to come up with a set of circumstances under which it fails consistently.

[rbos]

Perhaps the eviews installer is boneheadedly requiring some kind of interactive mode?

[EViews Steve]

As far as we know, our customers haven't had problems using the install script during login to perform the installation -- many of our corporate customers do this.

However, I've never heard of anyone using the SYSTEM account to perform the installation, so maybe you should try an actual user account to run the login script to see if it's a permissions issue with SYSTEM.

Another suggestion is that you can manually install EViews quite easily with just a few file copies, a few registrations, create a shortcut, etc., depending on what type of EViews license you are using (the easiest being an EViews concurrent license model where you're using an EViews License server). If you'd like instructions on how to do that I'd be happy to provide that info.

Steve

[rbos]

I'm installing in a computer lab with ~200 machines, so doing it manually would not be my preference. Similarly for a logon script, since we don't use roaming profiles and a user cannot count on having the same computer twice.

Anyone who uses a startup script to install software is using the SYSTEM user (%USERNAME% would be set to "computername$"), so it's possible people don't know that they're using it.

[EViews Steve]

Another thing I should mention is that there were a few fixes made to our installer some time ago in order to improve the stability of our installer during recording and playback. I would suggest you try downloading the latest version of our CDROM, and then making a new recording.

Steve

[rbos]

The econ department has a license server set up, and when I install the software manually it uses it just fine. Even if I install it manually with the automated installer. The important factor seems to be that I'm logged in with an interactive console of some kind, but I could be wrong about that.

[rbos]

Okay, I'll give it a shot with the newer media, thanks.