Kevin,
Thanks for the detailed response. I have asked them if they can update their packaging... I am still waiting for an answer.
The install requires no interaction at all(no clicking, no typing)... it's just a bloody old installer that thinks the whole world wants to look at it installing a few files!
Cheers,
Florian
-----Original Message-----
From: Moser, Kevin [mailto:Kevin.Moser@nordstrom.com]
Sent: 16 July 2013 17:50
To: chef@lists.opscode.com
Subject: [chef] Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: not so quiet installers
If this is win7/2008/2012 over WinRM and the installer is opening windows into an interactive shell then I think unfortunately from what I can tell/know you are not going to like the answer. The WinRM service is running without the ability to interact with the desktop meaning no GUI windows... I suppose you could probably change the WinRM service to let it interact with the desktop but that sounds pretty wonky/dangerous and would require you to log in to the box to fix. Boo, no knife winrm.
The other issue you would run in to even if you could get the interactive desktop is when/how/what pops up, how do you respond, is it the same windows, same order, etc every time? Sounds like it would be a pretty fragile implementation.
I'm not sure I have a good answer for you, I have all sorts of ideas/theories running in my head but not sure if any of them would work and they'd all be ridiculously complicated.
Any leverage to be able to go back to the vendor and push on them a little to make it right? Perhaps find a competitor that has a good installer and suggest that they do it like them.
Kevin
On 7/16/13 1:27 AM, "Florian Hehlen" Florian.Hehlen@mri-group.com wrote:
All,
I think I didn't explain my problem very well. My fault.
I do not need to be able to automate user key strokes. The install runs
without user input but still wants to take over the screen and display
all sorts of dialogs. My belief is that this requirement for an
interactive session is the problem.
I believe that what Kevin outlines below is exactly our problem,
although we are not running our chef client with the Local System
account. We are running it through knife winrm (remote invocation).
Cheers,
Florian
-----Original Message-----
From: Moser, Kevin [mailto:Kevin.Moser@nordstrom.com]
Sent: 15 July 2013 19:23
To: chef@lists.opscode.com
Subject: [chef] Re: Re: Re: not so quiet installers
Does "SendKeys" require an interactive logon? If so then you need to
be careful how you set up your scheduled task or service. We run our
chef-client as Local System so interactive logon becomes difficult to
nonexistent.
On 7/15/13 8:56 AM, "Adam Edwards" adamed@opscode.com wrote:
Nathaniel, I've heard about a product that allows you to send
customizable window messages to installers as a way to "fix" this. I
can't remember the product name though.
You could probably implement such a solution by hand if needed -- just
launch the installer from a vbscript / jscript using wshell and then
use "sendkeys" from wscript/wshell to send input to the installer.
It's very sad, but if you can't control the quality of the installers
you get, this is the best solution that I can think of.
-Adam
On 7/15/13 6:34 AM, "Nathaniel Eliot" temujin9@t9productions.com wrote:
http://www.autohotkey.com/ might fit your need.
Cheers,
--
Nathaniel Eliot
T9 Productions
On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 7:19 AM, Florian Hehlen
Florian.Hehlen@mri-group.com wrote:
Hi,
Has anyone struggled with windows based installers that cannot run
in a truly quiet mode. I have one old vb6 installer that just hangs
because it can¹t run without user input but it needs a GUI based
session! I have looked at some tools that can convert old
installers to MSIs but with little success. If it was just the
question of manually converting one installer I would just bite the
bullet and do it. But we still have a vendor that delivers such crap!
Cheers,
Flo.
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