Repair or Change installation error

[ghazel]

BPO	1565509
Nosy	@loewis, @devdanzin, @tjguk, @zware, @zooba
Files	python.log.gz: log of installation process

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2014-09-29.20:12:22.359>
created_at = <Date 2006-09-26.05:34:50.000>
labels = ['type-bug', 'expert-installation', 'OS-windows']
title = 'Repair or Change installation error'
updated_at = <Date 2014-09-29.20:12:22.358>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/ghazel'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2014-09-29.20:12:22.358>
actor = 'zach.ware'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2014-09-29.20:12:22.359>
closer = 'zach.ware'
components = ['Installation', 'Windows']
creation = <Date 2006-09-26.05:34:50.000>
creator = 'ghazel'
dependencies = []
files = ['2157']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 1565509
keywords = []
message_count = 10.0
messages = ['29988', '29989', '29990', '84465', '84508', '85601', '85630', '227776', '227807', '227823']
nosy_count = 7.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'ghazel', 'ajaksu2', 'tim.golden', 'BreamoreBoy', 'zach.ware', 'steve.dower']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'low'
resolution = 'third party'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue1565509'
versions = ['Python 2.7', 'Python 3.4', 'Python 3.5']

[ghazel]

When I re-run the Python 2.5 final installer and
choose either Repair or Change options, it makes it to
the "Publish product information" step then says:

"A network error occurred while attempting to read
from the file:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\python-2.5
[1].msi"

The thing is, I saved the file as python-2.5.msi and
the file it mentions does not exist. If I copy python-
2.5.msi to python-2.5[1].msi, then run python-2.5.msi,
the installation works!

[loewis]

Logged In: YES
user_id=21627

Can you please run the installer with "msiexec /i <filename>
/l*v python.log", and attach a compressed version of
python.log to this report?

[ghazel]

Logged In: YES
user_id=731668

Attached is the python.log you asked for. Probably what
happened is the first time I installed it, IE called the
binary python-2.5[1].msi. Subsequently when I downloaded a
new one (because the old one was cleared from my IE cache
long ago) it looked for an installer with the old name
as "Package name retrieved from configuration data" would
indicate.

[devdanzin]

If Greg's diagnostic is correct, then it's either a WFM (uncommon use
case) or a matter of hard-coding the installer file name.

Closing as WFM, reopen if necessary.

[ghazel]

IE renamed the file for me. So this is not uncommon.

[devdanzin]

Greg,
I've never seen this problem being reported by another user, so ISTM
it's fair to use 'uncommon' (as in 'rarely occurring or appearing,
infrequent, occasional, unusual') to refer to it. Also, AFAIK, 'Repair
or Change' is rarely reliable.

But I agree that if we can fix this with a acceptable cost/benefit, we
should do it. If you can reproduce the issue with 2.6/3.0 (2.5 won't be
fixed anymore) and post details about it, we can argue about the
potential benefits (easy to trigger? what kind of harm does it cause?)
and compare them to the known costs (developer time, new bit of code to
maintain, etc.).

So I'm setting this to pending and will set to open/closed when we get
enough details to justify wanting to fix it or not, OK?

Thanks for reporting this and for you feedback :)

[tjguk]

Well it may be uncommon, but it's perfectly easily reproducible:
Just try to reinstall / repair from a file not called
python-2.5.2.msi. Maybe uninstall: haven't tried.
If Martin doesn't get there, I'll try to look at the log and
see if there's something straightforward which can fix it.

Obviously, there's an easy workaround: rename the file
you're running to "python-2.5.2.msi". So I wouldn't consider
it a major priority. Just a nuisance.

[BreamoreBoy]

I don't recall ever seeing a problem like this, but then I haven't used IE in years and don't intend using it now just for this.

[zooba]

Newer versions of Windows Installer (this looks like an XP issue...) will preserve a copy of the original MSI in a safe place, so this problem should not occur any more.

I vote to close.

[zware]

Steve Dower wrote:

I vote to close.

+1, and done.