How to configure installer to span multiple disc

[ree]

Thanks, Damon.
I've got everything setup on my side. Next, is to try out your tweaks in the builder to make this work.
Please let me know when you are ready for me to try this out.

Thank you so much for your time and working with me on this effort.

[damon]

I'll try and hack on this this week, but my week is REALLY busy with Relay for Life coming up, and I'm trying to get the 1.2.13 finally nailed down so that I can get 1.3 in alpha. You're on my list though, so be patient with me, and I promise I'll get you something as soon as I can. 0-]

[ree]

Hi Damon,
I hope you reached your target on Relay for life. I hope my contribution helped a little.
I know you had a busy week, and I am hoping you could give me something to try this week if you can, please.
Thank you so much!

Ree

[damon]

I will get you taken care of this week. Probably tomorrow night will be a good night for me to take a look, so look for something on Thursday morning. I might get to it tonight, but it's my turn to put my son to bed, so I don't know. 0-]

[damon]

This is turning out to have a few more steps than I originally thought, which is pretty typical. 0-] The problem is in the interaction between the unpack process and the install process. The unpack is doing the actual work, so it needs to be able to switch discs and mount the new archives. The install process is the one that handles messages and interaction with the user. These two processes weren't really built for two-way communication, so they're not setup to handle this.

It's not a hard problem to solve, just one I need to think about the best way to do it. I've got a handle on it, so I'm still hoping to get you something this week. The good news is, once I'm done, your stuff should just work with the setup you have now. The installer will notice that the next file it's trying to install is missing and automatically prompt for another disc, and once inserted, it will mount that disc and continue on.

[damon]

Check that. I figured out a really easy way using what little message passing there already was between the processes. I just committed the change, and it should show up in the hourly at the top of the hour.

All you need to do to make things work properly is name your file groups after what you want them called when the message is displayed: Disc 1, Disc 2, etc... You'll get a message that pops up asking for the correct disc when it is needed.

I don't know how this is going to play in a large installer, so I want you to test for me as soon as you can. It SHOULD be fine because the list of files to install is built up one file group at a time, so it shouldn't try to install one file from each group and end up jumping around the discs or anything. It should install all of one disc and then ask for another and then another.

That's the hope anyway. Build your separate archives and then either burn them to a disc, or just go into the output directory and rename each file temporarily. When the installer can't find the archive to mount for a particular file, it will prompt you to "insert" that disc, and then you can just rename the file back into place.

Let me know what you come up with. 0-]

[ree]

Thank you so much for all your help.
I grabbed the latest hourly build and tried this out. I am using the original project I provided you it has 3 File Groups.
After the build it only created 1 file output, the *setup.exe file. Is there a configuration switch to let the builder know to treat each File Groups as different install archives?

[damon]

Under your platform settings, set Build Separate Archives to Yes. This will build a single setup.exe and an archive file for each file group in your project.

[ree]

Thanks, Damon.
Ok, I've been testing the new feature and it was able to create separate ijc files for each archive.
First, I tested the install in the same folder and just renamed the other ijc files and renaming them as the installer asked for them.
This worked great!

Second test I did is created an iso out of each ijc files, with the first ijc file going with the setup.exe and an autoload script.
Using a VM, I inserted the first CD and it automatically executed, installed the current CD and asked for the next one. This went well up to the last CD.
I have install install scripts that executed after the install, they all executed fine. And then it goes to "Building uninstall", this is the part where it never finished.
Have an idea what's going on?

[damon]

I'd have to look at the code, but it might be that the installer is reading some file out of the VFS (virtual file system) layer, and because the installer is back on disc 1, it's failing. Try moving the uninstaller build up before installing the files. It won't actually change anything since the files being installed doing get inserted into the uninstaller until the end.

Give that a shot first. There a few other options to fix this as well. I can check for the installer, and if it isn't there, ask them put Disc 1 back in the drive. Or, I can do the building of the uninstall pieces upfront before we ever install the files.

I'll have to look into it, but I'm curious if just moving the Install Uninstaller action will work first. I'd rather not have to do anymore surgery to the code at this point if I can avoid it. 0-]