Install Materials HELP!

[Pieter Bastemeyer]

Downloaded the zip with materials from http://www.accurender.com/page/material-libraries to my server. Unzipped the .msi installer file to the same directory. Trying to install the library fails. See attached screen dump. It is probably the double slash which is screwing up the path....

I unzipped the file anew onto the desktop, but the computer somehow 'remembers' the path, and when trying to install from the desktop, the installer still is trying to get to the server: \\NASLite-11\Disk-1\Files\PieterB\AccuRender nXt\Materials

This path is wrong! It should be:

X:\Files\PieterB\My Downloads\McNeel\Accurender nXt\Materials\nXtMaterials_20110218

'X' also could be \\NASLite-11\Disk-1\Files\PieterB\My Downloads\McNeel\Accurender nXt\Materials\nXtMaterials_20110218

Anybody a clue?

I will download the package anew, also onto the desktop, and see what happens.

UPDATE:

Downloaded and unzipped unto the desktop; same result. The installer keeps looking for a network path.

Also rebooting doesn't change anything. & couldn't find any reference to the installer path in the registry.

Pieter Bastemeyer

[Pieter Bastemeyer]

After trying to solve this annoying problem in a sophisticated way - not being successful - I installed the package on my laptop, copied the folder to my server. A quick workaround. The only thing missing is the desktop link icon to open the directory directly.

I would like to know whether the problem is rooted in the .msi, or in my OS (XP), or both.

Pieter Bastemeyer

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

As far as I know the installer is working fine.  Sometimes when there's a hiccup during an install this sort of thing can happen-- although I haven't heard about it happening for the material libs.

Usually uninstalling the thing takes care of it.  If you want to keep exploring this I can help you uninstall and force a clean install.  Otherwise we can just leave it.  The libraries are also provided in zip format without an installer.

[Pieter Bastemeyer]

Thanks, Roy. I think you misread my post: nothing is installed. So it will be hard to uninstall something. The installer couldn't handle the file from the Network Attached Server.

The installer was downloaded to the server and install started from that location. That was apparently a mistake. The strange thing was that installing from the desktop afterwards wasn't possible, because msiexe remembered the path to the server. I couldn't get rid of that path. So if you know a simple way to clean that, be my guest.

PB

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Nope-- I understood.  The problem is probably that Windows thinks something is installed (whether you can see it or not.)

My best guess on what happened is that just by running the installer and having it fail-- Windows now has some garbage in its database re: this install package.  When you went to install it for a second time, it noticed that the same version of the product was there and ran what's called an update installer, which probably requires the old files.  This is pretty typical of how windows installer gets itself in a pickle.

It's not going to hurt anything to leave it alone since you've now got the materials.  However, we can fix this if you want-- it will likely involve a forced uninstall as I said.  If we go this route I'll probably need to consult with the guy at McNeel who wrote the installer first.

[Pieter Bastemeyer]

The question is, why McNeel used the .msi, instead of the good old .exe file. Never had any problem installing from the network with .exe files.

Anyway, I would appreciate if this would be cleared up, meanwhile enhancing my Windows knowledge.

Thanks!

[Dale Fugier]

Hi Pieter,

Most Windows Installer packages have a .MSI extension. Some do have .EXE extensions, but Windows doesn't care about the extension.

As Roy mention, the is a more than likely chance that Windows is holding onto some data from the failed installation. To clean this up, I would try to uninstall (even though you say the install failed.

There are a few ways to uninstall an MSI package. 

• If you have access to the original MSI used for the installation, you can simply right click it in Windows Explorer and select Uninstall. You can do the same by command line: msiexec /x filename.msi /q
• Just got to mention the normal approach though it is obvious - go to Control Panel and uninstall from there.

If the MSI package does not want to uninstall, do a force install with the MSI using msiexec’s Repair Options. After that you can uninstall the MSI and go back to the good state.

• msiexec /i /fe your_installer.msi

If all else fails, try using Microsoft FixIt.

• http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall

Good luck.

 -- Dale

[Pieter Bastemeyer]

Thanks a lot. Very helpful. Gonna try it later.

Pieter