Strange Installation Failure with OEM2023

[jm1]

Hello Community,

just recently, I faced some strange behaviour with our installer for our OEM 2023 application.

We are adding somma additional installers into the OEM installer, like demonstrated here:

How to inject additional installer into the AutoCAD OEM 2023 installer

When creating the installer for an AutoCAD OEM 2023 based application, the Installer Wizard is used to assemble all needed file into a single directory for publication. The resulting directory can (and should) be put into a Zip or Rar archive for distribution. With AutoSTAGE (Disclaimer: I am the lead developer for AutoSTAGE), we use WinRar to create a self-extracting archive, which is an executable that automatically extracts the files and runs the installation process when double clicked (or e…

When installing, the setup.exe is silently called with

setup.exe --silent --pf 000 --sn 00000000

This has run very consistently for at least the last year up until the most recend build.

Now, when trying to install this, I get the this error message:

******************** Install Summary ********************

Bundle: AutoSTAGE 2023 Education

Installation Failure in Bundle: AutoSTAGE 2023 Education
Application Name : AutoSTAGE 2023 Education
Package Name : AutoSTAGE Runtime
Error code : 2
Error Context: MSI (s) (24:88) [19:22:07:350]: Machine policy value ‘DisableUserInstalls’ is 0 MSI (s) (24:88) [19:22:07:354]: Note: 1: 2203 2: C:\Windows\Installer\inprogressinstallinfo.ipi 3: -2147287038 MSI (s) (24:88) [19:22:07:356]: SRSetRestorePoint skipped for this transaction. MSI (s) (24:88) [19:22:07:357]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer 3: 2 MSI (s) (24:88) [19:22:07:358]: Error: Failed to access database: %TEMP%\RarSFX0\Content\ADSKMaterials\CM\MaterialLibrary2023.msi MSI (s) (24:88) [19:22:07:358]: MainEngineThread is returning 2 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:07:358]: No System Restore sequence number for this installation. MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:07:358]: User policy value ‘DisableRollback’ is 0 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:07:358]: Machine policy value ‘DisableRollback’ is 0 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:07:359]: Incrementing counter to disable shutdown. Counter after increment: 0 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:07:359]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Rollback\Scripts 3: 2 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:07:359]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Rollback\Scripts 3: 2
Please explore possible solution from: Suche | Autodesk
Package Name : Autodesk Material Library 2023
Error code : 2
Error Context: MSI (s) (24:48) [19:22:06:846]: Machine policy value ‘DisableUserInstalls’ is 0 MSI (s) (24:48) [19:22:06:847]: Note: 1: 2203 2: C:\Windows\Installer\inprogressinstallinfo.ipi 3: -2147287038 MSI (s) (24:48) [19:22:06:849]: SRSetRestorePoint skipped for this transaction. MSI (s) (24:48) [19:22:06:849]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer 3: 2 MSI (s) (24:48) [19:22:06:850]: Error: Failed to access database: %TEMP%\RarSFX0\3rdParty%USERNAME%Edu\AutoSTAGE_2023_Education_Runtime_Installer_2.3.40.msi MSI (s) (24:48) [19:22:06:850]: MainEngineThread is returning 2 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:06:850]: No System Restore sequence number for this installation. MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:06:851]: User policy value ‘DisableRollback’ is 0 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:06:851]: Machine policy value ‘DisableRollback’ is 0 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:06:851]: Incrementing counter to disable shutdown. Counter after increment: 0 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:06:851]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Rollback\Scripts 3: 2 MSI (s) (24:D0) [19:22:06:851]: Note: 1: 1402 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Rollback\Scripts 3: 2
Please explore possible solution from: Suche | Autodesk
**************************** End ***************************

Usually, when replicating this, the error message just contains our AutoSTAGE msi component, but this particular error message also includes some Autodesk component, which should not call any exception to crash the installation. Strangely, the package name and error context is not matching and is exactly reversed.

Usually, up until the release from August 17th of this year, this is the regular (example) output:

******************** Install Summary ********************

Bundle: AutoSTAGE 2023 Trial

ODIS Installer (Core - Package)
Install State: INSTALLED
install summary
Start time : Fri Sep 29 17:40:46 2023
End time : Fri Sep 29 17:41:20 2023
Total time : 34sec

AutoSTAGE 2023 Trial (Core - Package)
Install State: INSTALLED
install summary
Start time : Fri Sep 29 17:42:12 2023
End time : Fri Sep 29 17:43:33 2023
Total time : 1min21sec

Autodesk Material Library Base Resolution Image Library 2023 (Core - Package)
Install State: INSTALLED
install summary
Start time : Fri Sep 29 17:41:54 2023
End time : Fri Sep 29 17:42:11 2023
Total time : 17sec

Autodesk Material Library 2023 (Core - Package)
Install State: INSTALLED
install summary
Start time : Fri Sep 29 17:40:45 2023
End time : Fri Sep 29 17:41:54 2023
Total time : 1min9sec

**************************** End ***************************

Has anybody also witnessed this behaviour?

I am kind of speechless about this very strange error message.

Thanks,
Jens

[shawn.g]

@jm1

Error Context: MSI (s) (24:88) [19:22:07:350]: Machine policy value ‘DisableUserInstalls’ is 0 MSI

Jens,
Very strange. I have not run into this yet. Were you able to narrow this down at all since?

[jm1]

Well, it took me a couple of days to figuere this out.

We used to supply a small application called AuStUninstaller.exe to our customers to make it very easy to uninstall all components of the application. For easy deployment, the AuStUninstaller.exe is wrapped into a self-extracting zip file, which extracts (during OEM install) the exe to the folder

C:\ProgramData\AutoSTAGE\Uninstall

for easy access to run the uninstaller in case of wanting to uninstall the application.

This has been working very well for at least two or three years. But recently, the Windows Defender decided that the self-extracting zip-file or the content is some kind of malware that needs to be quarantined. I have witnessed this behaviour first hand during installation.

The AuStUninstaller.exe is a small dotnet executable that basically calls the msiexec.exe for MSI install packages or any setup.exe for other types of applications with the proper arguments for uninstall.

                    /* new process */
                    var proc = new Process
                    {
                        StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
                        {
                            FileName = strFileName,
                            Arguments = strArgument,
                            CreateNoWindow = false,
                            UseShellExecute = false,
                            RedirectStandardOutput = true,
                            RedirectStandardError = true,
                        }
                    };

                    /* start process */
                    proc.Start();

Based on this, you (i.e. Windows Defender) could come to the conclusion that this could be some kind of malware, which it is not.

What happens next with the AutoCAD OEM ODIS installer is more in the realm of speculation: I think that the Windows Defender is quarantining the above mentioned file(s), resulting in a loose connection/link/reference with the ODIS installer, which this can’t handle, which results into the rather cryptic error message displayed in my first post.

I have removed the AuStUninstaller.exe self-extracting zip file from the installer. The OEM installer runs without any problem, which proves the point that this has been the source of the error.

[shawn.g]

Thanks for the update.
Shawn Golden
Microvellum