DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old driver when doing a major upgrade

[James Johnston]

Hi,

As some of you have probably noticed, there has been some discussion
recently regarding problems with DIFxApp causing rollbacks.  I did some more
investigation and was able to reliably reproduce the issue and come up with
a very good idea on what is causing the problem.  All investigation was done
with the version of DIFxApp included with Windows DDK version 7600.16385.1;
note that this will also reproduce with the version included with WiX 3.0 /
3.5.  It was done on a clean Windows XP SP2 virtual machine with .NET
Framework 2.0; however we have observed the same problems on Windows 7.

As far as I can tell, this is a bug in the DIFxApp DLLs and/or the WiX
extension for DIFxApp.  If anyone knows some good workarounds, or how to
report this to the proper channels and get it fixed it would be much
appreciated!  From what I can tell, there exist situations in any DIFxApp
setup program doing an upgrade where if the user cancels the setup at a
certain point (or there is an error in the installation of the new product)
then the user's system will be hosed and they would be unable to uninstall
the product without some involved technical support.

If the bug can't be fixed or worked around, I don't see how DIFxApp is
suitable for use in a commercial product that needs to support upgrades
(i.e. all products).  And since DIFxApp isn't open source, I can't go in and
just fix the problem.  Very frustrating!

The problem is that DIFxApp does not restore the system to a correct state
after a failed major upgrade when installing the new product/driver.  The
following sequence of events on a product will reproduce the problem when
doing a major upgrade:

1.  RemoveExistingProducts action is started to uninstall the old product.
The following actions run in the context of uninstalling the old version of
the product/driver.
2.  MsiProcessDrivers runs to schedule the MsiUninstallDrivers action.
3.  MsiUninstallDrivers runs and successfully removes the old driver from
the computer.
4.  MsiCleanupOnSuccess runs and does its cleanup tasks.
5.  RemoveExistingProducts action is completed successfully.  The following
actions run in the context of installing the new version of the
product/driver:
(note that at this point the system has been completely purged of the old
driver)
6.  MsiProcessDrivers runs and schedules the driver installation.
7.  MsiInstallDrivers runs to install the new driver.  Suppose this new
driver installation is NOT successful.  In this example, an unsigned driver
was used and so the user was asked whether or not to install it.  The user
declines.
8.  The setup is now in a failing state because MsiInstallDrivers wasn't
able to load the new driver.
9.  MsiRollbackInstall runs but does nothing since the new driver wasn't
installed.
10.  The setup concludes by continuing to rollback all other changes
(installed files, etc.).  The old version of the product is now supposedly
in place as it was before, since canceling a Windows Installer setup should
roll back all changes that were made since the start of setup.
11.  At this point, DIFxApp should run MsiInstallDrivers again to install
the old driver that was previously uninstalled, but it does not.

At this point, DIFxApp should have restored the old version of the driver as
part of a rollback.  Unfortunately, it does not.  The resulting state of the
DIFx portion of the computer is as if an uninstall had been performed.  No
DIFxApp keys exist in the registry for the old driver, even though the old
version of the product is still installed.  The old driver is not in the
driver store, either.  This results in a frustrating experience for the user
when they try to uninstall.  The MsiUninstallDrivers requires the presence
of DIFxApp registry keys for the component in the registry and when it does
not find these, it results in an error and a failed uninstall.  Also,
because the system is in an incomplete state, the user isn't able to use the
hardware device either, since the driver was uninstalled and never restored
as part of the rollback.

While signing the driver would have obviously "fixed" the problem in this
case, this is not the root problem.  The root problem is that DIFxApp does
not install the old driver as part of a rollback when the installation of
the new product fails.  For example, merely clicking the "Cancel" button at
any time after RemoveExistingProducts has completed will reproduce the
problem.  This was tested and reproduced by canceling setup after the
DIFxApp registry keys were removed by the uninstallation of the old product
(by constantly pressing F5 to refresh in Registry Editor).  After the
upgrade setup was canceled at that point, I was unable to uninstall the old
product.

I have included excerpts from the MSI log file taken during the major
upgrade, as shown below.  I also showed the log file entry that shows up
when trying (and failing) to uninstall the old product.

Notes on reading the log:
 * Some information was sanitized; for example the GUID of the driver
component is shown as "{driver component GUID}" because I removed the actual
GUID from this public e-mail list.
 * Large portions of the log file were removed; only relevant data was
included.  Line numbers are sometimes indicated as "Line XYZ:".
 * If lines were removed, this is indicated by "<.hundreds of lines.>"

Best regards,

James Johnston

Log files below.

Attempts to uninstall after upgrade:

DIFXAPP: ERROR 0x2 encountered while opening persistent-info key for
component '{driver component GUID}'
DIFXAPP: UninstallDriverPackages failed with error 0x2
DIFXAPP: RETURN: UninstallDriverPackages() 2 (0x2)

Upgrade:

Line 226:  Action start 22:26:17: RemoveExistingProducts.
<.hundreds of lines.>
Action 22:26:22: MsiProcessDrivers.
Action start 22:26:22: MsiProcessDrivers.
DIFXAPP: ENTER: ProcessDriverPackages()
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'Component' is 'MyDriverComponent'
DIFXAPP: INFO: Component state 0x3 -> 0x2
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'ComponentId' is {driver component GUID}
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'Flags' is 10
DIFXAPP: INFO: component path is
DIFXAPP: INFO: user SID of user performing the install is
'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: creating
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\DIFxApp\Components\{driver component GUID} (User's
SID: 'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003') ...
Action 22:26:22: MsiUninstallDrivers.
Action start 22:26:22: MsiUninstallDrivers.
MsiUninstallDrivers:
Action ended 22:26:22: MsiUninstallDrivers. Return value 1.
DIFXAPP: RETURN: ProcessDriverPackages() 0 (0x0)
Line 460:  Action ended 22:26:22: MsiProcessDrivers. Return value 1.
<.hundreds of lines.>
Action 22:26:28: MsiUninstallDrivers.
DIFXAPP: UninstallDriverPackages()
DIFXAPP: 'CustomActionData' property 'DIFxApp Version' is 2.1.
DIFXAPP: 'CustomActionData' property 'UI Level' is 5.
DIFXAPP: 'CustomActionData' property 'componentId' is {driver component
GUID}.
DIFXAPP: 'CustomActionData' property 'flags' is 0xA.
DIFXAPP: 'CustomActionData' property 'ProductName' is My Product.
DIFXAPP: 'CustomActionData' property 'ManufacturerName' is My Company.
DIFXAPP: INFO: user SID of user performing the install is
'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: opening
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\DIFxApp\Components\{driver component GUID} (User's
SID: 'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003') ...
DIFXAPP: INFO:   ENTER:  DriverPackageUninstallW
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Uninstalling driver package
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\productbus.inf...
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Successfully removed 'C:\WINDOWS\INF\oem8.inf'.
DIFXAPP: INFO:   No devices found for
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\productbus.inf
uninstall.
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Driver store entry
'C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\productbus.inf'
removed.
DIFXAPP: SUCCESS:Uninstall completed.
DIFXAPP: INFO:   RETURN: DriverPackageUninstallW  (0x0)
DIFXAPP: INFO: driver store
'C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\productbus.inf'
uninstalled.
DIFXAPP: INFO: deleted add remove programs key for
'C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\productbus.inf'.
DIFXAPP: A reboot is not needed to uninstall the driver package '{driver
component GUID}'.
2186:  DIFXAPP: RETURN: UninstallDriverPackages() 0 (0x0)
<.hundreds of lines.>
Action 22:26:49: MsiCleanupOnSuccess.
Action start 22:26:49: MsiCleanupOnSuccess.
DIFXAPP: ENTER: CleanupOnSuccess()
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'Component' is 'MyDriverComponent'
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'ComponentId' is {driver component GUID}
DIFXAPP: INFO: user SID of user performing the install is
'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: opening
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\DIFxApp\Components\{driver component GUID} (User's
SID: 'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003') ...
DIFXAPP: RETURN: CleanupOnSuccess() 0 (0x0)
8765:  Action ended 22:26:49: MsiCleanupOnSuccess. Return value 1.
<.hundreds of lines.>
9332:  Action ended 22:26:50: RemoveExistingProducts. Return value 1.
Action 22:26:51: MsiProcessDrivers.
Action start 22:26:51: MsiProcessDrivers.
DIFXAPP: ENTER: ProcessDriverPackages()
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'Component' is 'MyDriverComponent'
DIFXAPP: INFO: Component state 0x2 -> 0x3
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'ComponentId' is {driver component GUID}
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'Flags' is 10
DIFXAPP: INFO: component path is C:\Program Files\My
Product\Product-CDM-Bus\
DIFXAPP: INFO: user SID of user performing the install is
'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: creating
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\DIFxApp\Components\{driver component GUID} (User's
SID: 'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003') ...
Action 22:26:52: MsiRollbackInstall.
Action start 22:26:52: MsiRollbackInstall.
MsiRollbackInstall:
Action ended 22:26:52: MsiRollbackInstall. Return value 1.
Action 22:26:52: MsiInstallDrivers.
Action start 22:26:52: MsiInstallDrivers.
MsiInstallDrivers:
Action ended 22:26:52: MsiInstallDrivers. Return value 1.
DIFXAPP: RETURN: ProcessDriverPackages() 0 (0x0)
9402:  Action ended 22:26:52: MsiProcessDrivers. Return value 1.
<.hundreds of lines.>
Action 22:27:14: MsiRollbackInstall.
Action 22:27:14: MsiInstallDrivers.
DIFXAPP: ENTER: InstallDriverPackages()
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'DIFxApp Version' is '2.1'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'UI Level' is '5'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'componentId' is '{driver
component GUID}'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'componentPath' is 'C:\Program
Files\My Product\Product-CDM-Bus\'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'flags' is 0xA.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'installState' is '2'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'ProductName' is 'My Product'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'ManufacturerName' is 'My
Company'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: user SID of user performing the install is
'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: opening
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\DIFxApp\Components\{driver component GUID} (User's
SID: 'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003') ...
DIFXAPP: INFO:   ENTER:  DriverPackageInstallW
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Copied 'productbus.inf' to driver store...
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Copied 'productbus.cat' to driver store...
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Commiting queue...
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Copied file: 'C:\Program Files\My
Product\Product-CDM-Bus\i386\ftd2xx.dll' ->
'C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\i386\ftd2xx.dll'
.
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Copied file: 'C:\Program Files\My
Product\Product-CDM-Bus\i386\FTLang.Dll' ->
'C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\i386\FTLang.Dll'
.
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Copied file: 'C:\Program Files\My
Product\Product-CDM-Bus\i386\ftdibus.sys' ->
'C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\i386\ftdibus.sys
'.
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Copied file: 'C:\Program Files\My
Product\Product-CDM-Bus\i386\ftbusui.dll' ->
'C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE\productbus_some_big_guid_here\i386\ftbusui.dll
'.
DIFXAPP: WARNING:Skipping copy of file ftd2xx64.dll. File is referenced in
productbus.inf but not listed in section .
DIFXAPP: ERROR:  Invalid signature. Possibly rejected by user. (Error code
0x800B0110: The certificate is not valid for the requested usage.)
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Removed driver package from store.
DIFXAPP: INFO:   Successfully removed '{driver component GUID}' from
reference list of driver store entry ''
DIFXAPP: INFO:   RETURN: DriverPackageInstallW  (0x800B0110)
DIFXAPP: ERROR: encountered while installing driver package 'C:\Program
Files\My Product\Product-CDM-Bus\productbus.inf'
DIFXAPP: ERROR: InstallDriverPackages failed with error 0x800B0110
DIFXAPP: RETURN: InstallDriverPackages() 2148204816 (0x800B0110)
Action ended 22:27:18: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.
Action 22:27:18: Rollback. Rolling back action:
Rollback: MsiInstallDrivers
Rollback: MsiRollbackInstall
DIFXAPP: ENTER: RollbackInstall()
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'DIFxApp Version' is '2.1'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'componentId' is '{driver
component GUID}'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'flags' is 0xA.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'installState' is '2'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'ProductName' is 'My Product'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: 'CustomActionData' property 'ManufacturerName' is 'My
Company'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: user SID of user performing the install is
'S-1-5-21-1644491937-2147298945-839522115-1003'.
DIFXAPP: INFO: This was the component where the install failure occurred.
The rollback for this component must have already occurred at the time of
failure. No need to rollback again
DIFXAPP: ERROR: Rollback failed with error 0x2
10938:  DIFXAPP: RETURN: RollbackInstall() 2 (0x2)


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[Quinton Tormanen-2]

Thanks for digging into this further. The support e-mail for DIFx Tools
is [hidden email]. I have received responses over the years from
different people, but never any resolution to my problems. If that
e-mail address is no longer valid, then I can give you the addresses of
the specific people that replied. Please keep me posted on what you find
out.

--Quinton

-----Original Message-----
From: James Johnston [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 3:46 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
driverwhen doing a major upgrade

> Hi,
>
> As some of you have probably noticed, there has been some discussion
> recently regarding problems with DIFxApp causing rollbacks.  I did
some more
> investigation and was able to reliably reproduce the issue and come up
with
> a very good idea on what is causing the problem.  All investigation
was done
> with the version of DIFxApp included with Windows DDK version
7600.16385.1;
> note that this will also reproduce with the version included with WiX
3.0 /
> 3.5.  It was done on a clean Windows XP SP2 virtual machine with .NET
> Framework 2.0; however we have observed the same problems on Windows
7.
>
> As far as I can tell, this is a bug in the DIFxApp DLLs and/or the WiX
> extension for DIFxApp.  If anyone knows some good workarounds, or how
to
> report this to the proper channels and get it fixed it would be much
> appreciated!  From what I can tell, there exist situations in any
DIFxApp
> setup program doing an upgrade where if the user cancels the setup at
a
> certain point (or there is an error in the installation of the new
product)
> then the user's system will be hosed and they would be unable to
uninstall
> the product without some involved technical support.
>
> If the bug can't be fixed or worked around, I don't see how DIFxApp is
> suitable for use in a commercial product that needs to support
upgrades
> (i.e. all products).  And since DIFxApp isn't open source, I can't go
in and
> just fix the problem.  Very frustrating!
>
> ...

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[James Johnston]

Seeing as how this seems to be a fundamental problem with DIFxApp not
handling all the upgrade possibilities well, I was curious to see how other
products do things and so I ripped apart some MSIs in Orca.  I was looking
to see if DIFxApp was set up the same way (CustomAction table).  I also
inspected the placement of the RemoveExistingProducts action since after my
previous e-mail I believe that this plays a critical role in whether this
corrupted system state may occur.  Since I haven't seen any other indication
or documentation on the Internet (a Google search for RemoveExistingProducts
and DIFxApp reveals little), I thought it would be useful to report my
findings so others can see what some commercial software is doing.  My
findings:

All products using DIFxApp place MsiProcessDrivers and MsiCleanupOnSuccess
actions in the normal places.  CustomAction types are always the same.  I
identified the program used to compile the MSI by looking at the self-named
custom actions each install tool tends to create (e.g. InstallShield has its
own DLL with tons of custom actions).

Refer to
http://jpassing.com/2007/06/16/where-to-place-removeexistingproducts-in-a-ma
jor-msi-upgrade/ to better understand the placement of
RemoveExistingProducts action.  Examining this table leads me to believe
that placement between InstallInitialize and InstallFinalize is the best
place, since a canceled setup will always leave the old version on the
computer, no matter what.  But this doesn't seem to work with DIFxApp due to
its bug, as previously noted.

My product (with the rollback problem):  Compiled with WiX and uses DIFxApp.
RemoveExistingProducts is placed after InstallInitialize.  According to the
previous link, a failure at any time (uninstall or reinstall) results in
only the old version remaining: leaving system state exactly as it was
found.  Unfortunately, as previously noted, a bug in DIFxApp prevents this
from happening.

Apple Mobile Device Support (included with iTunes; presumably their iPod
drivers, etc.).  Compiled with WiX and uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts
is placed after InstallFinalize.  Probably the DIFxApp bug is not a problem
here, because the new version is installed before the old version is
uninstalled.  An error in the new version setup (from DIFx or other source)
would still leave the old version and its drivers untouched.  An error in
the old version uninstall would leave the new version & its drivers
untouched.  According to the table at the above link, the pitfall is that if
the uninstall fails, then BOTH versions of the product remain installed on
the computer.  This seems like a very inconsistent, illogical state to be
in; I can imagine that there could be some issues with a lot of products
(including mine) if this were to happen.  (Perhaps an MSI expert can
convince me otherwise?  Otherwise, I wonder if Apple's software can get
itself in a bad way if I click Cancel at just the right moment.)

Microsoft LifeCam (webcam driver).  Don't know what compiled this; I didn't
see any obvious indications.  It uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts is
placed after InstallInitialize.  It therefore appears to be in a very
similar configuration as with my product, and I believe it would leave the
user's DIFxApp state inconsistent if the upgrade was canceled at just the
right moment.  It is interesting to note that the MSI file is wrapped by a
bootstrapper: the MSI itself throws no UI.  The bootstrapper does NOT
present the user with a Cancel button.  Perhaps this is a reason why?

Oracle VirtualBox (virtual network drivers).  Compiled with WiX and uses
DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts is placed between InstallValidate and
InstallInitialize.  This seems like the best place to put it.  Uninstall
happens first, so there's no possibility of having both versions at the same
time.  If the uninstall fails, then the old version remains.  If the install
fails, then nothing remains on the computer (i.e. the old version is not
reinstalled).  I don't see how this DIFxApp bug would be a problem in this
scenario since the old version isn't reinstalled.

Western Digital SmartWare (some proprietary driver for external hard drive).
Compiled with Advanced Installer and uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts
is placed between InstallValidate and InstallInitialize, like with
VirtualBox.

HP OfficeJet 8500.  Compiled with WiX.  RemoveExistingProducts is placed
after InstallInitialize so I suspect their installer has the same bug.

Intel Network Connections driver, MS Virtual PC 2007, and VMware Workstation
7:  these products use Windows Installer but have proprietary, non-DIFxApp
custom actions for installing drivers.

Logitech webcam driver, Dell V310 printer driver, NVIDIA graphics drivers,
ATI Radeon graphics driver, Intel HD graphics driver, Intel DH55HC drivers,
Intel HD Audio drivers:  these products did not appear to use Windows
Installer for installing the drivers.  (Some drivers had MSI files for
helper/utility programs but did not have the MsiDriverPackages table so I
conclude they do something else).

Best regards,

James Johnston

-----Original Message-----
From: Quinton Tormanen [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 17:53
To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.
Subject: Re: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
driverwhen doing a major upgrade

Thanks for digging into this further. The support e-mail for DIFx Tools is
[hidden email]. I have received responses over the years from
different people, but never any resolution to my problems. If that e-mail
address is no longer valid, then I can give you the addresses of the
specific people that replied. Please keep me posted on what you find out.

--Quinton

-----Original Message-----
From: James Johnston [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 3:46 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
driverwhen doing a major upgrade

> Hi,
>
> As some of you have probably noticed, there has been some discussion
> recently regarding problems with DIFxApp causing rollbacks.  I did
some more
> investigation and was able to reliably reproduce the issue and come up
with
> a very good idea on what is causing the problem.  All investigation
was done
> with the version of DIFxApp included with Windows DDK version
7600.16385.1;
> note that this will also reproduce with the version included with WiX
3.0 /
> 3.5.  It was done on a clean Windows XP SP2 virtual machine with .NET
> Framework 2.0; however we have observed the same problems on Windows
7.
>
> As far as I can tell, this is a bug in the DIFxApp DLLs and/or the WiX
> extension for DIFxApp.  If anyone knows some good workarounds, or how
to
> report this to the proper channels and get it fixed it would be much
> appreciated!  From what I can tell, there exist situations in any
DIFxApp
> setup program doing an upgrade where if the user cancels the setup at
a
> certain point (or there is an error in the installation of the new
product)
> then the user's system will be hosed and they would be unable to
uninstall
> the product without some involved technical support.
>
> If the bug can't be fixed or worked around, I don't see how DIFxApp is
> suitable for use in a commercial product that needs to support
upgrades
> (i.e. all products).  And since DIFxApp isn't open source, I can't go
in and
> just fix the problem.  Very frustrating!
>
> ...

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[Rob Hamflett]

I appear to be looking at the same problem.  I was able to reproduce it by hitting 'cancel' near the
end of an uninstall and letting it rollback.  After that uninstallation failed.  Performing a repair
fixed things.  Did you email the difx team at the email address Quinton suggested, and if so, did
you ever hear anything back.

Thanks,
Rob

On 10/12/2010 20:37, James Johnston wrote:

> Seeing as how this seems to be a fundamental problem with DIFxApp not
> handling all the upgrade possibilities well, I was curious to see how other
> products do things and so I ripped apart some MSIs in Orca.  I was looking
> to see if DIFxApp was set up the same way (CustomAction table).  I also
> inspected the placement of the RemoveExistingProducts action since after my
> previous e-mail I believe that this plays a critical role in whether this
> corrupted system state may occur.  Since I haven't seen any other indication
> or documentation on the Internet (a Google search for RemoveExistingProducts
> and DIFxApp reveals little), I thought it would be useful to report my
> findings so others can see what some commercial software is doing.  My
> findings:
>
> All products using DIFxApp place MsiProcessDrivers and MsiCleanupOnSuccess
> actions in the normal places.  CustomAction types are always the same.  I
> identified the program used to compile the MSI by looking at the self-named
> custom actions each install tool tends to create (e.g. InstallShield has its
> own DLL with tons of custom actions).
>
> Refer to
> http://jpassing.com/2007/06/16/where-to-place-removeexistingproducts-in-a-ma
> jor-msi-upgrade/ to better understand the placement of
> RemoveExistingProducts action.  Examining this table leads me to believe
> that placement between InstallInitialize and InstallFinalize is the best
> place, since a canceled setup will always leave the old version on the
> computer, no matter what.  But this doesn't seem to work with DIFxApp due to
> its bug, as previously noted.
>
> My product (with the rollback problem):  Compiled with WiX and uses DIFxApp.
> RemoveExistingProducts is placed after InstallInitialize.  According to the
> previous link, a failure at any time (uninstall or reinstall) results in
> only the old version remaining: leaving system state exactly as it was
> found.  Unfortunately, as previously noted, a bug in DIFxApp prevents this
> from happening.
>
> Apple Mobile Device Support (included with iTunes; presumably their iPod
> drivers, etc.).  Compiled with WiX and uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts
> is placed after InstallFinalize.  Probably the DIFxApp bug is not a problem
> here, because the new version is installed before the old version is
> uninstalled.  An error in the new version setup (from DIFx or other source)
> would still leave the old version and its drivers untouched.  An error in
> the old version uninstall would leave the new version&  its drivers
> untouched.  According to the table at the above link, the pitfall is that if
> the uninstall fails, then BOTH versions of the product remain installed on
> the computer.  This seems like a very inconsistent, illogical state to be
> in; I can imagine that there could be some issues with a lot of products
> (including mine) if this were to happen.  (Perhaps an MSI expert can
> convince me otherwise?  Otherwise, I wonder if Apple's software can get
> itself in a bad way if I click Cancel at just the right moment.)
>
> Microsoft LifeCam (webcam driver).  Don't know what compiled this; I didn't
> see any obvious indications.  It uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts is
> placed after InstallInitialize.  It therefore appears to be in a very
> similar configuration as with my product, and I believe it would leave the
> user's DIFxApp state inconsistent if the upgrade was canceled at just the
> right moment.  It is interesting to note that the MSI file is wrapped by a
> bootstrapper: the MSI itself throws no UI.  The bootstrapper does NOT
> present the user with a Cancel button.  Perhaps this is a reason why?
>
> Oracle VirtualBox (virtual network drivers).  Compiled with WiX and uses
> DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts is placed between InstallValidate and
> InstallInitialize.  This seems like the best place to put it.  Uninstall
> happens first, so there's no possibility of having both versions at the same
> time.  If the uninstall fails, then the old version remains.  If the install
> fails, then nothing remains on the computer (i.e. the old version is not
> reinstalled).  I don't see how this DIFxApp bug would be a problem in this
> scenario since the old version isn't reinstalled.
>
> Western Digital SmartWare (some proprietary driver for external hard drive).
> Compiled with Advanced Installer and uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts
> is placed between InstallValidate and InstallInitialize, like with
> VirtualBox.
>
> HP OfficeJet 8500.  Compiled with WiX.  RemoveExistingProducts is placed
> after InstallInitialize so I suspect their installer has the same bug.
>
> Intel Network Connections driver, MS Virtual PC 2007, and VMware Workstation
> 7:  these products use Windows Installer but have proprietary, non-DIFxApp
> custom actions for installing drivers.
>
> Logitech webcam driver, Dell V310 printer driver, NVIDIA graphics drivers,
> ATI Radeon graphics driver, Intel HD graphics driver, Intel DH55HC drivers,
> Intel HD Audio drivers:  these products did not appear to use Windows
> Installer for installing the drivers.  (Some drivers had MSI files for
> helper/utility programs but did not have the MsiDriverPackages table so I
> conclude they do something else).
>
> Best regards,
>
> James Johnston
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Quinton Tormanen [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 17:53
> To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.
> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
> driverwhen doing a major upgrade
>
> Thanks for digging into this further. The support e-mail for DIFx Tools is
> [hidden email]. I have received responses over the years from
> different people, but never any resolution to my problems. If that e-mail
> address is no longer valid, then I can give you the addresses of the
> specific people that replied. Please keep me posted on what you find out.
>
> --Quinton
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Johnston [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 3:46 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
> driverwhen doing a major upgrade
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> As some of you have probably noticed, there has been some discussion
>> recently regarding problems with DIFxApp causing rollbacks.  I did
> some more
>> investigation and was able to reliably reproduce the issue and come up
> with
>> a very good idea on what is causing the problem.  All investigation
> was done
>> with the version of DIFxApp included with Windows DDK version
> 7600.16385.1;
>> note that this will also reproduce with the version included with WiX
> 3.0 /
>> 3.5.  It was done on a clean Windows XP SP2 virtual machine with .NET
>> Framework 2.0; however we have observed the same problems on Windows
> 7.
>>
>> As far as I can tell, this is a bug in the DIFxApp DLLs and/or the WiX
>> extension for DIFxApp.  If anyone knows some good workarounds, or how
> to
>> report this to the proper channels and get it fixed it would be much
>> appreciated!  From what I can tell, there exist situations in any
> DIFxApp
>> setup program doing an upgrade where if the user cancels the setup at
> a
>> certain point (or there is an error in the installation of the new
> product)
>> then the user's system will be hosed and they would be unable to
> uninstall
>> the product without some involved technical support.
>>
>> If the bug can't be fixed or worked around, I don't see how DIFxApp is
>> suitable for use in a commercial product that needs to support
> upgrades
>> (i.e. all products).  And since DIFxApp isn't open source, I can't go
> in and
>> just fix the problem.  Very frustrating!
>>
>> ...
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Learn learn about native support for PL/SQL,
> new data types, scalar functions, improved concurrency, built-in packages,
> OCI, SQL*Plus, data movement tools, best practices and more.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdev2dev
> _______________________________________________
> WiX-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Learn learn about native support for PL/SQL,
> new data types, scalar functions, improved concurrency, built-in packages,
> OCI, SQL*Plus, data movement tools, best practices and more.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdev2dev

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[hidden email]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users

[Rob Hamflett]

I emailed [hidden email] and received this response.
"AFAIK, Difx doesn’t do anything to explicitly support RemoveExistingProducts.  The scenario
described on that page would require it to rollback a partial install of a new driver and the
previous uninstall of the old driver.  The limited functionality in the rollback mechanism of DIFx
does not support that."

So it looks like there isn't going to be a fix for this.

Rob

On 11/03/2011 14:00, Rob Hamflett wrote:

> I appear to be looking at the same problem.  I was able to reproduce it by hitting 'cancel' near the
> end of an uninstall and letting it rollback.  After that uninstallation failed.  Performing a repair
> fixed things.  Did you email the difx team at the email address Quinton suggested, and if so, did
> you ever hear anything back.
>
> Thanks,
> Rob
>
> On 10/12/2010 20:37, James Johnston wrote:
>> Seeing as how this seems to be a fundamental problem with DIFxApp not
>> handling all the upgrade possibilities well, I was curious to see how other
>> products do things and so I ripped apart some MSIs in Orca.  I was looking
>> to see if DIFxApp was set up the same way (CustomAction table).  I also
>> inspected the placement of the RemoveExistingProducts action since after my
>> previous e-mail I believe that this plays a critical role in whether this
>> corrupted system state may occur.  Since I haven't seen any other indication
>> or documentation on the Internet (a Google search for RemoveExistingProducts
>> and DIFxApp reveals little), I thought it would be useful to report my
>> findings so others can see what some commercial software is doing.  My
>> findings:
>>
>> All products using DIFxApp place MsiProcessDrivers and MsiCleanupOnSuccess
>> actions in the normal places.  CustomAction types are always the same.  I
>> identified the program used to compile the MSI by looking at the self-named
>> custom actions each install tool tends to create (e.g. InstallShield has its
>> own DLL with tons of custom actions).
>>
>> Refer to
>> http://jpassing.com/2007/06/16/where-to-place-removeexistingproducts-in-a-ma
>> jor-msi-upgrade/ to better understand the placement of
>> RemoveExistingProducts action.  Examining this table leads me to believe
>> that placement between InstallInitialize and InstallFinalize is the best
>> place, since a canceled setup will always leave the old version on the
>> computer, no matter what.  But this doesn't seem to work with DIFxApp due to
>> its bug, as previously noted.
>>
>> My product (with the rollback problem):  Compiled with WiX and uses DIFxApp.
>> RemoveExistingProducts is placed after InstallInitialize.  According to the
>> previous link, a failure at any time (uninstall or reinstall) results in
>> only the old version remaining: leaving system state exactly as it was
>> found.  Unfortunately, as previously noted, a bug in DIFxApp prevents this
>> from happening.
>>
>> Apple Mobile Device Support (included with iTunes; presumably their iPod
>> drivers, etc.).  Compiled with WiX and uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts
>> is placed after InstallFinalize.  Probably the DIFxApp bug is not a problem
>> here, because the new version is installed before the old version is
>> uninstalled.  An error in the new version setup (from DIFx or other source)
>> would still leave the old version and its drivers untouched.  An error in
>> the old version uninstall would leave the new version&   its drivers
>> untouched.  According to the table at the above link, the pitfall is that if
>> the uninstall fails, then BOTH versions of the product remain installed on
>> the computer.  This seems like a very inconsistent, illogical state to be
>> in; I can imagine that there could be some issues with a lot of products
>> (including mine) if this were to happen.  (Perhaps an MSI expert can
>> convince me otherwise?  Otherwise, I wonder if Apple's software can get
>> itself in a bad way if I click Cancel at just the right moment.)
>>
>> Microsoft LifeCam (webcam driver).  Don't know what compiled this; I didn't
>> see any obvious indications.  It uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts is
>> placed after InstallInitialize.  It therefore appears to be in a very
>> similar configuration as with my product, and I believe it would leave the
>> user's DIFxApp state inconsistent if the upgrade was canceled at just the
>> right moment.  It is interesting to note that the MSI file is wrapped by a
>> bootstrapper: the MSI itself throws no UI.  The bootstrapper does NOT
>> present the user with a Cancel button.  Perhaps this is a reason why?
>>
>> Oracle VirtualBox (virtual network drivers).  Compiled with WiX and uses
>> DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts is placed between InstallValidate and
>> InstallInitialize.  This seems like the best place to put it.  Uninstall
>> happens first, so there's no possibility of having both versions at the same
>> time.  If the uninstall fails, then the old version remains.  If the install
>> fails, then nothing remains on the computer (i.e. the old version is not
>> reinstalled).  I don't see how this DIFxApp bug would be a problem in this
>> scenario since the old version isn't reinstalled.
>>
>> Western Digital SmartWare (some proprietary driver for external hard drive).
>> Compiled with Advanced Installer and uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts
>> is placed between InstallValidate and InstallInitialize, like with
>> VirtualBox.
>>
>> HP OfficeJet 8500.  Compiled with WiX.  RemoveExistingProducts is placed
>> after InstallInitialize so I suspect their installer has the same bug.
>>
>> Intel Network Connections driver, MS Virtual PC 2007, and VMware Workstation
>> 7:  these products use Windows Installer but have proprietary, non-DIFxApp
>> custom actions for installing drivers.
>>
>> Logitech webcam driver, Dell V310 printer driver, NVIDIA graphics drivers,
>> ATI Radeon graphics driver, Intel HD graphics driver, Intel DH55HC drivers,
>> Intel HD Audio drivers:  these products did not appear to use Windows
>> Installer for installing the drivers.  (Some drivers had MSI files for
>> helper/utility programs but did not have the MsiDriverPackages table so I
>> conclude they do something else).
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> James Johnston
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Quinton Tormanen [mailto:[hidden email]]
>> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 17:53
>> To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.
>> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
>> driverwhen doing a major upgrade
>>
>> Thanks for digging into this further. The support e-mail for DIFx Tools is
>> [hidden email]. I have received responses over the years from
>> different people, but never any resolution to my problems. If that e-mail
>> address is no longer valid, then I can give you the addresses of the
>> specific people that replied. Please keep me posted on what you find out.
>>
>> --Quinton
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: James Johnston [mailto:[hidden email]]
>> Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 3:46 PM
>> To: [hidden email]
>> Subject: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
>> driverwhen doing a major upgrade
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> As some of you have probably noticed, there has been some discussion
>>> recently regarding problems with DIFxApp causing rollbacks.  I did
>> some more
>>> investigation and was able to reliably reproduce the issue and come up
>> with
>>> a very good idea on what is causing the problem.  All investigation
>> was done
>>> with the version of DIFxApp included with Windows DDK version
>> 7600.16385.1;
>>> note that this will also reproduce with the version included with WiX
>> 3.0 /
>>> 3.5.  It was done on a clean Windows XP SP2 virtual machine with .NET
>>> Framework 2.0; however we have observed the same problems on Windows
>> 7.
>>>
>>> As far as I can tell, this is a bug in the DIFxApp DLLs and/or the WiX
>>> extension for DIFxApp.  If anyone knows some good workarounds, or how
>> to
>>> report this to the proper channels and get it fixed it would be much
>>> appreciated!  From what I can tell, there exist situations in any
>> DIFxApp
>>> setup program doing an upgrade where if the user cancels the setup at
>> a
>>> certain point (or there is an error in the installation of the new
>> product)
>>> then the user's system will be hosed and they would be unable to
>> uninstall
>>> the product without some involved technical support.
>>>
>>> If the bug can't be fixed or worked around, I don't see how DIFxApp is
>>> suitable for use in a commercial product that needs to support
>> upgrades
>>> (i.e. all products).  And since DIFxApp isn't open source, I can't go
>> in and
>>> just fix the problem.  Very frustrating!
>>>
>>> ...
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --
>> Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Learn learn about native support for PL/SQL,
>> new data types, scalar functions, improved concurrency, built-in packages,
>> OCI, SQL*Plus, data movement tools, best practices and more.
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdev2dev
>> _______________________________________________
>> WiX-users mailing list
>> [hidden email]
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Learn learn about native support for PL/SQL,
>> new data types, scalar functions, improved concurrency, built-in packages,
>> OCI, SQL*Plus, data movement tools, best practices and more.
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdev2dev
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Colocation vs. Managed Hosting
> A question and answer guide to determining the best fit
> for your organization - today and in the future.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/internap-sfd2d

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[James Johnston]

I certainly understand that supporting this properly might require
non-trivial amounts of work for the DIFx team.  They'd probably need to add
significant additional logic for reinstalling the old driver during a
rollback, for example.  However, excuses like this really shouldn't cut it
because at the end of the day, they break core, commonly-used functionality
in Windows Installer.

DIFxApp is intended for bundling drivers with applications.  Applications
are not frozen in time, and are continually updated to fix bugs and add new
features.  Users must upgrade applications.  I'm guessing that is probably
the reality for 99% of the people on this mailing list who use WiX.
RemoveExistingProducts is the publicly documented, supported method of doing
this in Windows Installer.   The DIFxApp team has stated that upgrades are
not supported via RemoveExistingProducts.  Suppose we make the statement
that a setup platform (like Windows Installer) is broken if application
upgrades (e.g. major upgrades) do not work.  We can then make the statement
that DIFxApp breaks Windows Installer, because it does not support Windows
Installer's method of upgrades.

What is their proposed alternative for upgrades if not
RemoveExistingProducts?  Ask the user to manually uninstall the old version,
and then install the new one?!?  Realistically that is not a user-friendly
solution and makes the setup look unprofessional.

The workaround I found of placing RemoveExistingProducts between
InstallValidate and InstallInitialize only makes the issue less severe.
Placement of RemoveExistingProducts in this position is far from ideal,
because if the user presses "Cancel" after the old product is uninstalled,
then they will be left with no product at all on the computer (they would
have to manually reinstall the old version).  That violates one of the core
design principles of Windows Installer, which is that it's supposed to be
transactional and setup should be an all-or-nothing proposition.  Pressing
"Cancel" should *always* roll back the computer to exactly how it was before
setup was begun - that includes restoring old versions of the software.
       
The fact that Microsoft's hardware division is distributing MSI files
susceptible to this bug is interesting.  Other OEMs are doing it too.  It
wasn't just me that fell into this trap.  In my opinion, if DIFxApp doesn't
support commonly-used built-in Windows Installer actions then they need to
document this in MSDN with big, bold letters so that setup authors don't
fall into this trap which appears to be so easy to fall into, and so time
consuming to debug!  This is something that needs to be front page and
center in the documentation for ANY DIFxApp-related documentation (e.g. the
WiX extension, the DIFxApp documentation in MSDN, other setup authoring
programs that build on MSI/DIFx, etc).  I'll bet most setup authors using
DIFxApp are also using RemoveExistingProducts because they didn't know they
weren't supposed to do that.  Every setup I examined had
RemoveExistingProducts and was either affected by the bug, or the setup
authors found my workaround on their own, or got lucky.  (Any maintainers
for WiX documentation want to add this to the DIFx extension documentation?
I wouldn't know where to start with this process.)  Perhaps if enough people
complain, they will fix the design fault in DIFxApp.

General rant:  this is just another example of Microsoft products not
working well together.  For a marketing campaign slogan of "better
together", they seem to be doing rather poorly at that at times.  There
seems to be an acute lack of viewing the big picture when looking at small
details like this.  A second example:  I recently had the misfortune of
having to implement drag-and-drop support in our application.  Who knew
dragging and dropping a simple bitmap could be so complicated?!  Try
implementing simple drag-and-drop code for a bitmap in C# / .NET / WinForms.
Then try dragging/dropping to/from Microsoft Word.  Hint: it won't work.
This is because MS Word only supports device independent bitmaps, while .NET
only supports device dependent bitmaps.  I reported this issue to the Visual
Studio team:
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/652248/.  And
they said they won't fix it: it is by design.  I guess they figured it would
be enough to impose a requirement that other programs also support DDBs.
The Microsoft Office team is apparently isolating themselves from customers
because I found no place to properly report a bug like I did in Visual
Studio (they probably want more of my money first before any form of two-way
communication can begin).  Maybe they think it is enough to require that
other programs support DIBs.  Classic example of pointing the finger at the
other party, I guess.  And yet, at the end of the day - drag-and-drop
between two flagship Microsoft products does not work.  It's another example
of not seeing the big picture and refusing to do anything about it when
customers try to point this out.  It's very frustrating to deal with.
(Heck... if one of those two products was open source, I would have
seriously considered fixing it and submitting a patch...)

James

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Hamflett [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 08:00
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
driverwhen doing a major upgrade

I emailed [hidden email] and received this response.
"AFAIK, Difx doesn't do anything to explicitly support
RemoveExistingProducts.  The scenario described on that page would require
it to rollback a partial install of a new driver and the previous uninstall
of the old driver.  The limited functionality in the rollback mechanism of
DIFx does not support that."

So it looks like there isn't going to be a fix for this.

Rob

On 11/03/2011 14:00, Rob Hamflett wrote:
> I appear to be looking at the same problem.  I was able to reproduce
> it by hitting 'cancel' near the end of an uninstall and letting it
> rollback.  After that uninstallation failed.  Performing a repair
> fixed things.  Did you email the difx team at the email address Quinton
suggested, and if so, did you ever hear anything back.

>
> Thanks,
> Rob
>
> On 10/12/2010 20:37, James Johnston wrote:
>> Seeing as how this seems to be a fundamental problem with DIFxApp not
>> handling all the upgrade possibilities well, I was curious to see how
>> other products do things and so I ripped apart some MSIs in Orca.  I
>> was looking to see if DIFxApp was set up the same way (CustomAction
>> table).  I also inspected the placement of the RemoveExistingProducts
>> action since after my previous e-mail I believe that this plays a
>> critical role in whether this corrupted system state may occur.  
>> Since I haven't seen any other indication or documentation on the
>> Internet (a Google search for RemoveExistingProducts and DIFxApp
>> reveals little), I thought it would be useful to report my findings
>> so others can see what some commercial software is doing.  My
>> findings:
>>
>> All products using DIFxApp place MsiProcessDrivers and
>> MsiCleanupOnSuccess actions in the normal places.  CustomAction types
>> are always the same.  I identified the program used to compile the
>> MSI by looking at the self-named custom actions each install tool
>> tends to create (e.g. InstallShield has its own DLL with tons of custom

actions).

>>
>> Refer to
>> http://jpassing.com/2007/06/16/where-to-place-removeexistingproducts-
>> in-a-ma jor-msi-upgrade/ to better understand the placement of
>> RemoveExistingProducts action.  Examining this table leads me to
>> believe that placement between InstallInitialize and InstallFinalize
>> is the best place, since a canceled setup will always leave the old
>> version on the computer, no matter what.  But this doesn't seem to
>> work with DIFxApp due to its bug, as previously noted.
>>
>> My product (with the rollback problem):  Compiled with WiX and uses

DIFxApp.

>> RemoveExistingProducts is placed after InstallInitialize.  According
>> to the previous link, a failure at any time (uninstall or reinstall)
>> results in only the old version remaining: leaving system state
>> exactly as it was found.  Unfortunately, as previously noted, a bug
>> in DIFxApp prevents this from happening.
>>
>> Apple Mobile Device Support (included with iTunes; presumably their
>> iPod drivers, etc.).  Compiled with WiX and uses DIFxApp.  
>> RemoveExistingProducts is placed after InstallFinalize.  Probably the
>> DIFxApp bug is not a problem here, because the new version is
>> installed before the old version is uninstalled.  An error in the new
>> version setup (from DIFx or other source) would still leave the old

version and its drivers untouched.  An error in

>> the old version uninstall would leave the new version&   its drivers
>> untouched.  According to the table at the above link, the pitfall is
>> that if the uninstall fails, then BOTH versions of the product remain
>> installed on the computer.  This seems like a very inconsistent,
>> illogical state to be in; I can imagine that there could be some
>> issues with a lot of products (including mine) if this were to
>> happen.  (Perhaps an MSI expert can convince me otherwise?  
>> Otherwise, I wonder if Apple's software can get itself in a bad way
>> if I click Cancel at just the right moment.)
>>
>> Microsoft LifeCam (webcam driver).  Don't know what compiled this; I
>> didn't see any obvious indications.  It uses DIFxApp.  
>> RemoveExistingProducts is placed after InstallInitialize.  It
>> therefore appears to be in a very similar configuration as with my
>> product, and I believe it would leave the user's DIFxApp state
>> inconsistent if the upgrade was canceled at just the right moment.  
>> It is interesting to note that the MSI file is wrapped by a
>> bootstrapper: the MSI itself throws no UI.  The bootstrapper does NOT
>> present the user with a Cancel button.  Perhaps this is a reason why?
>>
>> Oracle VirtualBox (virtual network drivers).  Compiled with WiX and
>> uses DIFxApp.  RemoveExistingProducts is placed between
>> InstallValidate and InstallInitialize.  This seems like the best
>> place to put it.  Uninstall happens first, so there's no possibility
>> of having both versions at the same time.  If the uninstall fails,
>> then the old version remains.  If the install fails, then nothing
>> remains on the computer (i.e. the old version is not reinstalled).  I
>> don't see how this DIFxApp bug would be a problem in this scenario since

the old version isn't reinstalled.
>>
>> Western Digital SmartWare (some proprietary driver for external hard
drive).
>> Compiled with Advanced Installer and uses DIFxApp.  
>> RemoveExistingProducts is placed between InstallValidate and
>> InstallInitialize, like with VirtualBox.
>>
>> HP OfficeJet 8500.  Compiled with WiX.  RemoveExistingProducts is
>> placed after InstallInitialize so I suspect their installer has the same
bug.

>>
>> Intel Network Connections driver, MS Virtual PC 2007, and VMware
>> Workstation
>> 7:  these products use Windows Installer but have proprietary,
>> non-DIFxApp custom actions for installing drivers.
>>
>> Logitech webcam driver, Dell V310 printer driver, NVIDIA graphics
>> drivers, ATI Radeon graphics driver, Intel HD graphics driver, Intel
>> DH55HC drivers, Intel HD Audio drivers:  these products did not
>> appear to use Windows Installer for installing the drivers.  (Some
>> drivers had MSI files for helper/utility programs but did not have
>> the MsiDriverPackages table so I conclude they do something else).
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> James Johnston
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Quinton Tormanen [mailto:[hidden email]]
>> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 17:53
>> To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.
>> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the
>> old driverwhen doing a major upgrade
>>
>> Thanks for digging into this further. The support e-mail for DIFx
>> Tools is [hidden email]. I have received responses over the
>> years from different people, but never any resolution to my problems.
>> If that e-mail address is no longer valid, then I can give you the
>> addresses of the specific people that replied. Please keep me posted on

what you find out.

>>
>> --Quinton
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: James Johnston [mailto:[hidden email]]
>> Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 3:46 PM
>> To: [hidden email]
>> Subject: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old
>> driverwhen doing a major upgrade
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> As some of you have probably noticed, there has been some discussion
>>> recently regarding problems with DIFxApp causing rollbacks.  I did
>> some more
>>> investigation and was able to reliably reproduce the issue and come
>>> up
>> with
>>> a very good idea on what is causing the problem.  All investigation
>> was done
>>> with the version of DIFxApp included with Windows DDK version
>> 7600.16385.1;
>>> note that this will also reproduce with the version included with
>>> WiX
>> 3.0 /
>>> 3.5.  It was done on a clean Windows XP SP2 virtual machine with
>>> .NET Framework 2.0; however we have observed the same problems on
>>> Windows
>> 7.
>>>
>>> As far as I can tell, this is a bug in the DIFxApp DLLs and/or the
>>> WiX extension for DIFxApp.  If anyone knows some good workarounds,
>>> or how
>> to
>>> report this to the proper channels and get it fixed it would be much
>>> appreciated!  From what I can tell, there exist situations in any
>> DIFxApp
>>> setup program doing an upgrade where if the user cancels the setup
>>> at
>> a
>>> certain point (or there is an error in the installation of the new
>> product)
>>> then the user's system will be hosed and they would be unable to
>> uninstall
>>> the product without some involved technical support.
>>>
>>> If the bug can't be fixed or worked around, I don't see how DIFxApp
>>> is suitable for use in a commercial product that needs to support
>> upgrades
>>> (i.e. all products).  And since DIFxApp isn't open source, I can't
>>> go
>> in and
>>> just fix the problem.  Very frustrating!
>>>
>>> ...
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -------
>> --
>> Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Learn learn about native support for
>> PL/SQL, new data types, scalar functions, improved concurrency,
>> built-in packages, OCI, SQL*Plus, data movement tools, best practices and

more.

>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdev2dev
>> _______________________________________________
>> WiX-users mailing list
>> [hidden email]
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --------- Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Learn learn about native
>> support for PL/SQL, new data types, scalar functions, improved
>> concurrency, built-in packages, OCI, SQL*Plus, data movement tools,
>> best practices and more.
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdev2dev
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
> Colocation vs. Managed Hosting
> A question and answer guide to determining the best fit for your
> organization - today and in the future.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/internap-sfd2d

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[jjbean]

I don't think there's much the DIFXApp team can do to make the lib foolproof/robust.

I'm pretty sure that DIFXApp is simply a wrapper around the win32 setupapi API.
I've used both for the last few years.

In many cases, I've found that even when using the win32 api directly, it's not possible to rollback uninstalled drivers, the exact behavior is very platform dependent. In many cases, the api returns "reboot required", at which point there is no chance of reinstalling the driver in the same session. This can be because the driver service was marked for deletion, so SCM will deny recreating the service until after a reboot.

I'd be very surprised if DIFXApp can work around this.

[Thomas Svare]

I believe that's it.  We opened a case with the DIFXApp team on this issue last year and got a will not fix response but no real explanation.  Thank you!

Thanks,
Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: jjbean [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 3:27 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [WiX-users] DIFxApp does not properly rollback to the old driver when doing a major upgrade

I don't think there's much the DIFXApp team can do to make the lib
foolproof/robust.

I'm pretty sure that DIFXApp is simply a wrapper around the win32 setupapi
API.
I've used both for the last few years.

In many cases, I've found that even when using the win32 api directly, it's
not possible to rollback uninstalled drivers, the exact behavior is very
platform dependent. In many cases, the api returns "reboot required", at
which point there is no chance of reinstalling the driver in the same
session. This can be because the driver service was marked for deletion, so
SCM will deny recreating the service until after a reboot.

I'd be very surprised if DIFXApp can work around this.



--
View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/DIFxApp-does-not-properly-rollback-to-the-old-driver-when-doing-a-major-upgrade-tp5821359p6538903.html
Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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Why? It contains a definitive record of application performance, security
threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes
sense of it. IT sense. And common sense.
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[Bob Arnson-6]

On 01-Jul-11 15:27, jjbean wrote:
> In many cases, I've found that even when using the win32 api directly, it's
> not possible to rollback uninstalled drivers, the exact behavior is very
> platform dependent. In many cases, the api returns "reboot required", at
> which point there is no chance of reinstalling the driver in the same
> session. This can be because the driver service was marked for deletion, so
> SCM will deny recreating the service until after a reboot.

The best solution possible is to stop and unload your driver, if at all
possible. Otherwise, the closest you'll be able to get is to force a
reboot, even in the case of a rollback.

--
sig://boB
http://joyofsetup.com/


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Why? It contains a definitive record of application performance, security
threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes
sense of it. IT sense. And common sense.
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