Software Deployment

Hi VBScab,
how did you create the CAB?
copying around in explorer definitely won't work, because you need to preserve the internal counters in the CAB and the MSI in sync.
CAB has now way to jump back in the sequence.
I would use a dummy MSI with only the tranformed entries in the file table and then use WiMakCab.vbs from the SDK.
Hope, this gives you some ideas.
Regards, Nick

Hi VBScab,
how did you create the CAB?I didn't, Wise Package Studio did. Quite why WPS doesn't take the parameter from the source MSI (in this case, to compress files into an internal CAB) and always creates an external one escapes me. Surely it would be better, if you HAVE to have a default, to use external, uncompressed originals? That's for a different thread, though :-)

copying around in explorer definitely won't work, because you need to preserve the internal counters in the CAB and the MSI in sync.
CAB has now way to jump back in the sequence.
I would use a dummy MSI with only the tranformed entries in the file table and then use WiMakCab.vbs from the SDK.
Gawd, this is going to be messy...if I've got to go to the trouble of pointing WiMakCab.VBS at the source (2 different ones) I may as well delete the whole shebango and start again.

Hi,
why don't you just delete the unwanted line in the Media Dialog of WPS?

Regards, Nick

As this is a transform for a vendor MSI I would forget the thought about having the transformed data into the vendor CAB and instead use another internal/external CAB (as you already have) for your added files or uncompressed external files.

nheim, I did that AND I made sure that the sequence number in the remaining row was correct for the files but STILL at install time I got errors for files missing from CABs which I could see (and extract!)

AngelD, I wasn't trying to get my files into the internal CAB, but to consolidate what ended up as 3 CABs into just one.

Now that I've started again from scratch, I'm there. I cannot for the life of my think why WPS makes it so hard...

I think Ed's comment says it all at the Altiris forums
http://forums.altiris.com/messageview.aspx?catid=19&threadid=43613&enterthread=y

Unfortunately, EdT had mis-interpreted my post. Repeating my response serves no purpose, other then cluttering up this thread :-)

A colleague just tested this for me (trying to see if this is an installation choice issue) and he got the same problem as I did originally. So I revisited the problem and it seems that that (i.e. editing the Media table) DOESN'T work for MSTs. The original CAB files remain untouched and running the MSI/MST produces the error to the effect that the files do not exist in the CAB (which, in this test case, is true).

So, for now, I'm working on the principle that if I need to add files to a compiled MST and I want just one CAB, I'll need to rebuild the MST. Great...

A final test with an MST, this time with the base MSI set to use external CABs (and set to use only one!), results in multiple CABs when files are added after compilation. And to clarify, yes, I *know* it will create a CAB additional to the MSI's one. What I'm complaining about is when I add another set of files, WPS creates yet ANOTHER CAB, instead of using the one it already used. Thus, as I mentioned, if you want only one CAB (where MSI has an internal CAB) or at worst two CABs (where MSI has an external CAB), you'll need to rebuild the MST unless you want to navigate through the long drawn-out process associated with using WiMakCab.VBS.

I just started using Wise 7 last week (I've used it a little before but this is the first project I've used it on) and I'm currently creating a transform for a vendor MSI. I added some files to the MST, compiled it, and as expected it created an external CAB. I then added some more files, compiled again, and it created a second external CAB. Yuk.

I fiddled around and have found a way to get Wise to recompile this transform so that it creates just one external CAB:

1. Delete the rows in the Media table which reference your new external CABs.
2. In the File table edit the Sequence column for the files you added to the MST. Change the value to 0 for all these files. If you are doing this in the Windows Installer Editor the cell will turn red.
3. Save the MST. It will re-create a single CAB.

Rock n roll baby.