Systems Management

I'm having trouble upgrading a Java Runtime Environment 1.5.0_03 package deployed via Group Policy. The installation worked fine, using a self-made transform based on the advice in the Package Knowledge Base. One thing about that transform is that it sets the WEBSTARTICON property from 1 to 0; according to Sun's website, that property shouldn't even exist in Java 5 packages.

However, now I'm trying to upgrade the package automatically to u4, and found that u3 won't deinstall on system startup, when the installation policy is applied. Instead, it will hang indefinitely without any system activity. I've looked at the running processes, and there is always one JAVAWS and one JAVAW, neither of which is consuming any CPU time. To me, that looks as if the unattended deinstallation was running some interactive thing that waits for a user response.

If I kill the JAVAW process, the deinstallation proceeds normally and the upgrade package installs fine. I haven't yet tried to upgrade that again.

Interactive deinstallation works fine, but that isn't a real option to me, because the problem doesn't disappear on reboot. The machine will just retry the deinstallation, unless it is started in Safe Mode or without network.

I'm sure someone here knows how to fix this. I don't think my transform has anything to do with it, but I'm willing to learn otherwise.