Packages randomly not installing

[jdyck]

Hey, I’m running into odd problems with InstaUp2Date…

Specifically, each time I build my image it seems to be missing different packages… When I look in the simple log files it indiates they are being installed, when I look at the more detailed one, it *sometimes* says “installer: The install failed (The Installer encountered an unknown error that failed the install. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance”

More often than the fail message though, I get indication that the package installed. But it isn’t on the final DMG.

Anyone else seeing this?

In trying to troubleshoot this, I renamed my HD (was named Macintosh HD, which was also the final DMG name, so wanted to make sure I didn’t have a conflict). I’d double check my installers, but honestly it’s different installers each time – so I’ll do one build and iMovie 06 for example will work fine, the next build it doesn’t. Also, my final DMGs all seem to be coming in around 9.53GB – is there some kind of limit on final size?

[jdyck]

I should also specify that I have a half dozen nested Catalog files, perhaps that is confusing the system…

For example, I have an MS-Office08 file that contains the main Office installer and all updates.

I also have separate iLife08, iWork08, StartupAndLoginScripts, BaseOS, StandardPlugins and a few others.

Perhaps this is not best practice?

[scr]

I am experiencing this problem also, but I am not using InstaUp2Date.

I did an InstaDMG build last night and here are are the log excerpts from the simple log:
[code]
Installing Burn 1.7u.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/5
Installing Burn 1.7u…..
Installing Pandora Connections.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/51
Installing Pandora SMB…..
Installing Pandora AFP…..
Installing Citrix ICA Client 10.00.601.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/6
Installing Citrix ICA Client 10.00.601….. [/code]

And the same from the verbose log:
[code]
Installing Burn 1.7u.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/5
installer: Package name is Burn 1.7u
installer: Installing at base path /tmp/instaDMGMount.5jskZI
installer: Preparing for installation…..
installer: Preparing the Disk…..
installer: Preparing Target Volume
#
installer: Preparing Burn 1.7u…..
installer:
installer: Installing Burn 1.7u…..
installer:
installer: Configuring Installation
installer: Validating package
installer: Writing files
installer: Writing files: 1% complete
#
installer: Writing files: 11% complete
installer: Writing files: 16% complete
#
installer: Writing files: 42% complete
#
installer: Writing files: 68% complete
installer: Writing files: 68% complete
installer: Writing files: 68% complete
#
installer: Writing files: 82% complete
#
installer: Writing files: 97% complete
installer: Writing package receipt
installer: Finishing Installation…..
##
installer: Finishing Installation
#
installer:
installer: The software was successfully installed…..
installer: The install was successful.
Installing Pandora Connections.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/51
installer: Package name is Pandora Connections
installer: Installing at base path /tmp/instaDMGMount.5jskZI
installer: Preparing for installation…..
installer: Preparing the Disk…..
installer: Preparing Target Volume
#
installer: Preparing Pandora Connections…..
installer: Running Installer actions
installer:
installer: Installing Pandora SMB…..
installer:
installer: Configuring Installation
installer: Validating package
installer: Writing files
installer: Writing files: 93% complete
installer: Writing package receipt
installer: Installing Pandora AFP…..
installer:
installer: Configuring Installation
#
installer: Validating package
installer: Writing files
installer: Writing files: 93% complete
installer: Writing package receipt
installer: Finishing Installation…..
#
installer: Finishing Installation
#
installer:
installer: The software was successfully installed…..
installer: The install was successful.
Installing Citrix ICA Client 10.00.601.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/6
installer: Package name is Citrix ICA Client 10.00.601
installer: Installing at base path /tmp/instaDMGMount.5jskZI
installer: Preparing for installation…..
installer: Preparing the Disk…..
installer: Preparing Target Volume
#
installer: Preparing Citrix ICA Client 10.00.601…..
installer:
installer: Installing Citrix ICA Client 10.00.601…..
installer:
installer: Configuring Installation
installer: The install failed
(The Installer encountered an unknown error that failed the install. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.) [/code]

The Burn 1.7u.pkg installed successfully according to the logs, but its not on my final image.
The Citrix ICA Client 10.00.601.pkg encountered an unknown error, but the pkg works fine if I install it manually.

Also, while we are on the subject. If you look at the simple log excerpt, the order is weird. InstaDMG installs 5, then 51, then 6. I have a total of 51 numbered folders in the CustomPKG folder in sequential order. Shouldnt 5 and 6 come before 10?

[jdyck]

Hmmm, thanks for responding…

While I’m glad to hear it’s not just me, it worries me that this is happening at all. It makes it hard to trust this methodology when you can’t know from build to build if everything will show up… My last 5 or so builds all have something missing (different thing each time), so wondering if I’ve run into a limit of some type? Perhaps with the SparseImages, or the instadmg script itself?

As far as the order though, I can offer a suggestion there: you need to name your folders 01, 02. 03, 04, etc. Sort order should be proper then. (If you have more than 99 PKGs to install, then you need to name your folders 001, 002, 003, etc).

[scr]

Thanks, I fixed up those folders.

I ran a build again last night and its as you say, pkgs that failed last time installed fine this time, but a couple of others were missing. The logs say nothing helpful other than “The install was successful” but they dont appear in my final dmg. Sorry I cant be of more help. I’m not sure how to troubleshoot this one. Has anyone else noticed this?

[Patrick Fergus]

I know the Citrix installer package tries to edit the OS bindings for .ICA files to be opened by the Citrix client.

I need to spend some time getting updated for the most recent rev of InstaDMG. Work is getting in the way of more work.

– Patrick

[samplem]

I’ve had pretty good success with PackageMaker 3.0.1 for various apps that were difficult getting into my dmg, jdyck. Apps like FireFox, RealPlayer, Fetch, FlashPlayer 9 and Stuffit Expander were not installing until I re-packaged them. The following script is just a look at my instaDMG run from start to finish w/ all the packages:

08:06:09 ######InstaDMG build initiated######
08:06:09 ######Mounting Mac OS X installer image######
Mounting the shadow file (/tmp/23063A1B-4F06-498B-BAE5-0A079696E736.dmg) onto the image.
Mac OS X installer image mounted
Running from cached image (./Caches/BaseImageCache/B95D8A83.dmg)
08:09:19 ######Beginning Installation from ######
Using Cached image, so skipping OS installation
08:09:19 ######Beginning Update Installs from ./InstallerFiles/BaseUpdates######
Installing MacOSXUpd10.5.5.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/BaseUpdates/01
Installing MacOSXUpd10.5.5…..
08:15:10 ######Beginning Update Installs from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG######
Installing SAV10.2.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/01
Installing SAV10.2…..
Installing AdbeRdr90_en_US_ppc.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/02
Installing Adobe Reader 9…..
Installing FlashPlayer10.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/03
Installing FlashPlayer10…..
Installing Install Shockwave Player 11_Slim UB.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/04
Installing Adobe Shockwave 11 Slim…..
Installing RealPlayer11.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/05
Installing realplayer…..
Installing FireFox3.0.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/06
Installing firefox…..
Installing Fetch5.3.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/07
Installing fetch…..
Installing stuffit12.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/08
Installing stuffitExpander…..
Installing Office Installer.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/09
Installing Microsoft Word…..
Installing Microsoft Word Help…..
Installing Microsoft Excel…..
Installing Microsoft Excel Help…..
Installing Microsoft PowerPoint…..
Installing Microsoft PowerPoint Help…..
Installing Microsoft Entourage…..
Installing Microsoft Entourage Help…..
Installing Microsoft Messenger…..
Installing Danish Proofing Tools…..
Installing Dutch Proofing Tools…..
Installing English Proofing Tools…..
Installing Finnish Proofing Tools…..
Installing French Proofing Tools…..
Installing German Proofing Tools…..
Installing Italian Proofing Tools…..
Installing Japanese Proofing Tools…..
Installing Norwegian Proofing Tools…..
Installing Portuguese Proofing Tools…..
Installing Portuguese (Brazil) Proofing Tools…..
Installing Spanish Proofing Tools…..
Installing Swedish Proofing Tools…..
Installing Core Components…..
Installing Clipart…..
Installing Equation Editor…..
Installing Microsoft Graph…..
Installing Office Converter Support…..
Installing Organization Chart…..
Installing Sounds…..
Installing Launch Setup Assistant…..
Installing Silverlight…..
Installing Required Components…..
Installing AutoUpdate…..
Installing Error Reporting…..
Installing Help Viewer…..
Installing Office Fonts…..
Installing Automator Actions…..
Installing Automator Workflows…..
Installing Dock Icons…..
Installing Office 2008 SP1 Update (12.1.0).mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/11
Installing Quit Microsoft Applications…..
Installing Office 2008 12.1.1 Update.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/12
Installing Quit Microsoft Applications…..
Installing Office 2008 12.1.2 Update.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/13
Installing Quit Microsoft Applications…..
Installing Office 2008 12.1.3 Update.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/14
Installing Quit Microsoft Applications…..
Installing Remote Desktop Connection.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/15
Installing RDC 2…..
Installing Error Reporting…..
Installing Help Viewer…..
Installing AutoUpdate…..
Installing Flip4Mac WMV.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/16
Installing QuickTime Components…..
Installing Web Browser Support…..
Installing Fusion.pkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/17
Installing Fusion…..
Installing iLife ’08.mpkg from ./InstallerFiles/CustomPKG/18
Installing Registration…..
Installing Registration…..
Installing Apple Intermediate Codec…..
Installing iLife Media Browser…..
Installing iPhoto…..
Installing iPhoto Additional Resources…..
Installing iMovie…..
Installing iDVD…..
Installing iDVD Themes…..
Installing GarageBand Application…..
Installing GarageBand Instruments…..
Installing GarageBand Loops…..
Installing GarageBand Loops…..
Installing GarageBand Magic Content…..
Installing iLife Sound Effects Loops…..
Installing iWeb…..
08:40:25 ######Correcting some generic installer errors######
Correcting symlinks that point off the disk
Closing programs that have opened files on the disk
Deleting Extensions.mkext cache file
Deleting cache files created during installations
09:10:07 ######Creating the deployment DMG and scanning for ASR######
Rename the deployment volume: InstaDMG
Create a read-only image
Scanning image for ASR: ./OutputFiles/08-10-28.dmg
ASR image scan complete
09:23:36 ######Cleaning up######
Ejecting images
Removing scratch DMG
09:23:37 ######InstaDMG Complete######

Try re-packaging and you should have better success on your next run.

[jdyck]

I may try repacking a few of them, but to be honest I’m not at all confident that’s the problem for the following reasons:
1. It’s never the same package(s) that fail – so far it seems completely random.
2. Some of the failed packages are things like iMovie 06 that are fresh from Apple and have worked numerous times before.
3. All of the packages have worked in the past at least once, and
4. Most of my packages were built in PackageMaker 3.03 (I had tonnes of problems with 3.0 crashing on me)

I just finished building a new dedicated InstaDMG machine (fresh install of OS X on an X-Serve with lots of HD space and RAM) and got the first build there started last night before I left. Will see if that made any difference, although I’m not sure why it would.

If the problem continues I”m going to pull out all of my more recent Packages and slowly add them to see if perhaps one Package is causing the issues, although, again, the complete randomness of it has me stumped.

[knowmad]

OK, similar issue here, just showed up last night.
I thought I was going nuts.
Office install that worked in the past stopped working, then it came back and another installer disappeared.
….
any ideas?
The only change I have made is that these runs were being done off of the install disks for the very newest MBook, and as such there might be SOMETHING that was not there in the past…. but thats all I have to go on.

[scr]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: jdyck[/u][p]I may try repacking a few of them, but to be honest I’m not at all confident that’s the problem for the following reasons:
1. It’s never the same package(s) that fail – so far it seems completely random.
2. Some of the failed packages are things like iMovie 06 that are fresh from Apple and have worked numerous times before.
3. All of the packages have worked in the past at least once, and
4. Most of my packages were built in PackageMaker 3.03 (I had tonnes of problems with 3.0 crashing on me)
[/p][/QUOTE]

Yeah, this is exactly it. Packages that I had trouble with before (like the Citrix ICA client) installed fine when I performed the next build, but something else was missing instead. Like jdyck, overall every package has worked at least once, but just never all in the one build. I use JAMF Composer to create my packages. I never notice this problem when I do small builds of around 10 pkgs, my main build train has around 45 pkgs in it at the moment.

[samplem]

I’ve found a couple of things that work quite well, 1) running the initial Mac OS X Install DVD first w/ the combo update first. Allowing InstaDMG to create the cache basea dn completing the run. Secondly going back after the run has completed to add the custom pkgs. I don’t have Composer yet, but it’s coming, for now packagemaker is working just fine and completing the installs for me.

One of the things I’m concerned about is not just the installation of the custom pkgs, but making sure that once pkgs that had to be re-pkg’s are opened and positioned correctly. The pkgs are installing into the apps folder a-ok, but a few of the apps from the re-pkg’ing are still compressed. I believe JAMF’s Composer extends a bit more flexibility beyond just installing a compressed app, and allows you to decompress the dmg and install it into the apps folder correctly. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

[scr]

Well I am still experiencing this problem. Its always different packages that fail, I have tried recreating these packages anyway but it made no difference. If I remove those packages, other random ones have a problem, one time after a build there was no failures! Its totally random!

In my most recent build there was an issue with createUser.pkg (which I downloaded from here) it created the user, but it didn’t create the whole home directory structure, the only folder in the homedir was Desktop.

I am at a loss as to how to fix this. If I cant rely on InstaDMG outputting a reliable image then I will have to revert back to the old manual way of making images. Can any of the devs weigh-in and provide me with some suggestions. I’d also be interested to know if the other people in this thread managed to solve their similar issues.

[knowmad]

on mine I found an interesting thing….. on the ones that did not install, which had changed since the last time I ran instadmg from working to not, I found the folder permissions were not allowing group and other to write.
testing the fix now.

[jdyck]

Knowmad,

Did you have any luck with the permissions issue? Did that seem to fix the missing packages? I’m still struggling with this and getting quite frustrated. Like someone above said, if you can’t trust the final image it kinda destroys this whole methodology. I’m getting completely random packages not installing – some application installs, others are more configuration installs – the app ones are usually fairly easy to notice that they’re missing, but the missing configs can be a pain to double-check.

Any other ideas greatly appreciated

Jeff

[jdyck]

Hey, I’m still fighting with this, but think I might have a hint anyway – have a build running right now so will soon have a better idea if it does the trick…

Here’s the things I’ve tried so far:

1) Downloaded fresh Instadmg onto brand new computer (an X-Serve that I have dedicated for building images, packages, etc).
2) Adjusted the permissions of the install folders as noted in a previous post.
3) Rebuilt a lot of the trouble installers (while it’s random, there do seem to be some that do this way more than others).
4) Rebuilt the trouble installers as 10.5 only flat packages.
5) Redid my catalog from multiple nested files to one long file, in case it was the nesting.

I thought 5 had done the trick, as on my second to last build only one application was missing, but then on the next build I had about 5 files missing. D’oh!

Today I imaged a MacBook with the most recent build, with the missing installs, and attempted to install one of the applications that was missing (Comic Life – a custom built package that installs the application and our site license). The strange thing was, although the installer ran fine, it did NOT install the application!

So I looked in the logs, which is when I noticed something very, very peculiar…

It installed the serial number file into /Library/Application Support…

But when it came to installing the Application, I get a whole bunch of messages like the following:

Dec 5 13:52:34 Macintosh payloadExtractor[1998]: Diverting “./Applications/Comic Life.app” to “/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 6/SketchUp/Resources/fr/helpcontent/tip/tips/images/artab_off_lcttext.gif”

Sure enough, if I burrow to the .gif file specified and double click it, up pops Comic Life. Not only that, but when I look around I see another ‘graphic’ file at 24MB, double clicking it opens ImageWell, another of the missing installs.

WTF?!? This needs to be investigated! So I look into it some more…

Using the pkgutil command line I got the computer to “forget” the Comic LIfe install, and then also deleted the Sketchup receipt and tried again… Same thing. I then looked into my install build file in PackageMaker and when I investigate my install, beside the Contents tab is a Components tab – it lists Comic Life and has a tick to “Allow Relocation”. I turned it off, rebuilt the installer, and tried again on the test machine – this time it worked fine.

I just rebuilt a few of my installers, turning off the “Allow Relocation” option, and am waiting for the final result. It may not be the issue, but certainly worth checking.

I’m also wondering if (at least in my case) the Google Sketchup installer is wonky? Not sure why else my installers would be throwing things into it’s files. Which does bring up a question, is anyone else with this issue using the Google Sketchup install? It’s a .mpkg installer, so perhaps that might be the issue as well… If this build doesn’t work, I’m going to remove the Sketchup install and try again.

Anyway, I’ll do some more testing and see if that resolves my issue, but in the meantime it is something for people to look at.
Will update more later next week.

[Author]

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