[wpkg-users] Thanks for everything - WPKG is nice but it still needs improvement

[Steve Handy]

You know Rainer this conversation between you and I is starting to get a little out of hand and scope if you want to be honest. I came to you for help and yet I am getting reprimands and a lot offensive comments. If you are not going to communicate in a professional manner, then please don't communicate with me at all. I can certainly find help via different channels.

Your documentation on wpkg.org needs to be specific. When visitors first arrive they aren't going to looking for the wpkg.org /help. They are going to be looking at the wiki which is posted. If it was clearly stated which are flags, which are commands, then no confusion would have existed on my part.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rainer Meier [mailto:r.meier at wpkg.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 1:17 PM
To: Steve Handy
Cc: 'Leon Hedding (ICT)'; wpkg-users at lists.wpkg.org
Subject: Re: [wpkg-users] Thanks for everything - WPKG is nice but it still needs improvement

Hi Steve,

Steve Handy wrote:
> Here is the log file you requested. By the way, the documentation on the flags DOES NOT specify that /synchronize is a command. Only a flag. This explains the mistake I made earlier when you specified that I wasn't following the documentation closely in your earlier email.

You are right that the word "command" is not used - I was mistaken by that. But wpkg.js /help clearly writes:

[...]
Frequently used parameters (package operations, you need to chose one) [...] /synchronize [...] Optional parameters (usually defined within config.xml) [...] Rarely used parameters (mainly for testing) [...] /force [...]


So it is referred as "package operations" instead of "command".
Additionally I don't know which part of "you need to chose one" is so hard to understand. Anyway, this is not important to solve the problem.
You have been pointed to the fact that you need to specify /synchronize or any other "operation" in conjunction with /force. While the /force in cojunction with /synchronize seems to be broken (according to error report, had no time to verify yet).

The file you attached is a package definition. Not the requested log file. So again I request you to send the full execution log file. Look at config.xml to see where it is stored by default. Please send a full verbose log of the wpkg-run which is initiated when Firefox is actually not installed.
Please also send a snapshot of wpkg.xml found at %SystemRoot%\system32\wpkg.xml.

Additionally I had a look at the package definition. I see that it defines that either one of the uninstall entries have to be there:
- Mozilla Firefox (2.0)
- Mozilla Firefox (2.0.0.13)
AND
- %PROGRAMFILES%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe needs to be in place.

You could verify these conditions manually after removing Firefox. Check if the uninstall entries are correctly removed. Checks without logical conditions need to evaluate true. Therefore in your case FF is considered not to be installed if either one or both of the uninstall info are missing or if firefox.exe is missing.

...

but hey, I think I see the problem. Firefox recently changed the silent flags from "-ms" to "/S". At least I am using the /S flag within my unattended.cmd.

So you might try the attached Firefox.xml file. If I am right here we could have seen this from the log file. WPKG tries to re-install Firefox each time it is run but fails to do so as it will either fail or simply stuck in the background waiting for the user to press "OK" on a message box which shows that you're using a wrong switch.

br,
Rainer