CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windows-installerinstallshieldcustom-action
Steven Edison
Steven Edison

Reputation: 527

MSI wrapping another Install

I'm using AdminStudio 2014 from InstallShield (embedded in Visual Studio 2013) and have a basic MSI Project. I've recently added WiX to my project for CAs.

The idea of the install is to wrap a vendor's drivers along with our additional files. To the end user it should seem like one install. My original attempt was to drop the vendor install files in my installdir in a sub directory and run a custom action on their install along with numerous needed command line parameters (including SILENT). However, the problem I ran into with this is that it sometimes returns an exit code of 1310 (Requires Reboot), which causes my checking of the exit codes to fail.

Let me say up front I'm still trying to completely understand some of the "In-Script Execution" and Sequences.

My second attempt was to write a function in c# to execute and catch the exit code, then set a property with the returned exit code, or simply set ISSCHEDULEREBOOT myself. However, I was running it deferred after InstallFiles since I was laying down the install to my install directory, and it seems I'm not allowed to set properties from a deferred CA, however (it's my understanding) I can't do it immediately, as the files aren't laid down yet until execution of the script (?). Catch 22.

I next thought of a prereq install before mine runs, but this wouldn't let me uninstall it during my uninstall (?).

I looked at Chained MSIs (against what appears much advice against them) but I'm provided a large CD-like media (multiple directories and files) from the vendor with a setup.exe and not an MSI that InstallShield seems to be looking for.

I have many CA's and other pieces that are all working fine. I'm sure these roadblocks I keep running into are due to my lack of understanding of the architecture and process. I've been working with a group of installs for the last 6 months or so, but know there is much to learn about the mechanisms.

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 249

Answers (1)

Christopher Painter
Christopher Painter

Reputation: 55601

WiX has a bootstrapper named Burn that handles chaining packages together for both Install and Uninstall. It's used by products such as Visual Studio.

InstallShield's version of this is Suite Installers. This is only available in InstallShield Premiere edition and I'm not sure if it's in the AdminStudio edition or not.

Upvotes: 1

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