[wpkg-users] Questions about offline mode and executing the wpkg service

[Rainer Meier]

Hi Dieter,

> But there is one issue I couldn't solve so far:
> Because we have several laptop users working offline from time to time the 
> offline mode of the wpkg client is an important feature for us. The 
> wpkinstall program offers this mode by testing the availability of a server. 
> But I have problems to configure it correctly. Whenever I set the network 
> interface of my Vmware instance to disconnected and reboot the computer the 
> wpkg service starts at the beginning and shows its dialogs. No user is able 
> to login until the maximum logon delay timeout is reached. Any tips on how to 
> fix this? ( ... please see my settings.xml and the Windows event log excerpt 
> I attached to this mail)

Probably Tomasz can help you here as he knows the WPKG client internals 
very well. As far as I know WPKG client sends TCP packages to port 139 
(SMB) of the server you select. If the connection attempt fails it will 
switch to offline mode. And I think it should not delay login at all in 
such case. However I can't tell you for sure since I don't use logon 
delay here due to the fact that most programs install just fine in the 
background even while the user is logged in. And especially in corporate 
environments there is some kind of "natural logon delay" - which means 
the time until the user enters hes password ;-)

Probably you can tell us which versions of WPKG and WPKG client you use. 
This would probably make debugging easier but I am sure Tomasz will 
follow up here.


> Another issue:
> Afaik it is not possible to use AutoIt scripts in my setup (correct?). Is it 
> possible to launch multiple instances of the wpkg service - one before the 
> login page and another one when a desktop is available? I assume with such a 
> configuration it should be possible to separate the normal install scripts 
> from the ones which need to execute an AutoIt script.

I think we already had a similar discussion. It might not work because 
all programs are run on a restricted (hidden) desktop and therefore the 
AutoIt scripts might wait forever for a certain window to appear (or is 
it just accepting that windows on the hidden desktop?). One would have 
to try this. I know that there are lots of AutoIt scripts out there for 
silent application installation. However I was never forced to use one 
as all my applications have silent switches or support other techniques 
to deploy them silently. I regard AutoIt as one of the very last options 
to take into consideration. Especially if the user uses the machine 
while AutoIt runs it is very prone to errors. So I do not recommend it.

However it is possible to run WPKG from your desktop - simply put a 
batch-file to the autorun folder which invokes WPKG. Warning: This only 
works if the user logging in has Administrator permissions.

Recently we outlined another possibility. WPKG can be run WPKG from the 
task scheduler. It allows you to run any task when the user logs on. I 
think it's even possible to run it with different permissions (e.g. run 
as SYSTEM user).

Just some hints...


> Thanks in advance for your help.

You're welcome. Thanks for using WPKG.


br,
Rainer