Software Deployment

Hello folks!

As of the time of this post, this is the latest version of RealPlayer Enterprise. The versioning is different from the consumer player. This version should correspond to v11 of the consumer player. (Just FYI.) Also, I am not sure if this has to do with the repackaging part or the delivery of the application. Forgive me if this is the wrong thread to have posted this issue. With that...

I have created a silent installer with the RealPlayer Configuration Tool v2.1. (It is not an MSI. It is Real's home-grown format.) The installer works great. It installs the player silently. No problems there. We invoke the installer via a batch file run by Altiris. The following command cues the install:

start /w RealPlayer_Custom_Install.exe
I then created a batch script to remove the software and here is where things go funny. First of all, the batch script works fine when double-clicked by an admin user. It also will successfully complete from within an Altiris package, running under the system account's privileges ONLY if a user is logged-in when the job runs. In a completely unattended setting, such as a scheduled push overnight when no one is logged into the computer, the same Altiris package running the same uninstall script will hang indefinitely every time. Here is the uninstall command that I am using:

"%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Real\Update_OB\r1puninst.exe" "RealNetworks|RealPlayer|6.0" -all -s
While the job is running and no user is logged in, I can remotely view the Task List and I see that r1puninst.exe process is loaded but I am not sure what else to look for. Nothing seems out of the ordinary to me. It just runs and never completes. If I end the task, the job completes successfully.

If I am logged into the machine while the same uninstall job runs, I see 2 or 3 windows during the process but none of them ask me for any input. When the job finishes, the Altiris Reboot warning appears and it continues on its way as it should.

On the Altiris side, the Task is set with the option "Requires User Input." This is supposed to expand the environment within which the batch fike runs to look more like a real, interactive user session, rather than a slimmed-down, behind the scenes, system account session. Altiris recommends having this checked always. I have tried it unchecked and there was no change in behavior.

Can anyone offer any ideas as to why I see this behavior or how I might take a closer look at what is going on without logging into the machine? It's got me pretty well stumped! :)