Software Deployment

I did a printer driver the same, couldn't get it to appear any way other than with restart, and used a few tools before found what was missing, Masai editor worked.

could you tell me what the problem was and how yu solved it?


Arthur

Do exactly above....but after you create your msi....move the stop and start service sequence to allow the services to to react correctly. Just move the install sequence up...and the deferred section down and it should work.

If this doesnt work then let me know and I'll try here for you and see how it goes.

Thanks,

stopping and starting the spooler at the end worked with both programs,
i am using landesk's own builder for repackaging and i noticed that
pdfcreator http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ did a lot of things in
the registry is there some kind of "cleaning tool" for landesk's .cfg files and if
not is there some kind of "save to delete" guide ?

Greetings,

Arthur

Hello,

I have the same problem. I use Wininstall LE2003. After creating the package and manually stopping and starting the print spooler service I still don't get a CutePDF printer device. What am I doing wrong? How do I restart the service from within the MSI package.
Please help...

Patrick

PatB...I dont use Wininstall soall I can advise is to look for a services tab and usually in there you can select or add a service to the install.

Select Service and Stop/Start

The service name you need to add is "Spooler" and select stop/start on both install and uninstall.

MSIMaker, thank you for your answer.

I've found the services tab, however, when during deployment the service wants to restart I get the announcement that I'm not authorised. Strange, I'm logged in as Administrator, maybe because it is linked to LocalSystem? How to deal with this

Another problem is that after the deployment I can't use the newly created PDF printer.
Once again I get an announcement that I'm not autorised to use the printer.

Already I've excluded the following params from the registry before snapshotting:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\HardwareProfiles

What am I doing wrong?

Dont exclude any hardware keys in the registry during the capture....you most likely might need them.

How are you deploying the msi? AD or is the user going to install it themselves?
Have you set your workstations to "Install with Elevated Rights" for your installations?

Normally the msi will stop the service and then install the files and reg keys and then restart the service. Once the service restarts the pdf printer is seen and added.

The Windows Installer service can stop and start most services itself.....so thats not an issue. If you are getting an error about the service during the install then you may have to set Elevated rights in order for it to work correctly.

Perhaps tell me more about the environment and I might have an answer for you.

PatB try this.

Create a clean machine
Start a capture and capture everything in total from the install.
After the capture finishes you will have a delta. Now put that aside wipe the machine clean and create a new clean machine.
log in as admin and place the delta files and reg keys into their place.
Stop and start the spooler service or reboot.

The PDF printer should be there and working. If it isnt then the delta is incorrect and you will never get it working from there. Try capturing with Wininstall or SMSInstaller and see what the diff is.

Once you have the delta working......then strip out the rubbish and package the rest. Set the service to stop and restart and hocus pocus....you got it.

Most ppl make the mistake of trying to fix an msi that isnt working when in fact its the fileset or a missing reg key that causes it and not the package itself. Make te delta work and the packaging is the simple part.

Hi MSIMaker,

Deployment is done through GP.
I've created a new package with no exclusions, the following happens:
when i manually reinstall the package and give the following command in a
DOS prompt: net stop spooler and the net start spooler(otherwise the package won't
install cause of the LocalSystem which is attached to the service)
the PDF printer comes up fine. However, when I want to view the properties I get
an error that the driver is not installed. When I view the package wit WinInstall LE2003,
the files in the WINNT\Spool folder are present.

What I forgot to tell you is that I replace the computername object in the MSI package with the following property: [ComputerName]
Otherwise the computername on which the package is created wil appear in the registry instead of the computer's own name. Maybe I have to adjust more properties?

I didn't thought this wasn't going to be easy, but I'm out of ideas.
The last thing that i wan't to do is installing this fine piece of software manually!!!

MSIMaker, Postbus,
do you have an working MSI for this package? I know asking for an MSI is the easy way, but perhaps I find the differences between an functional MSI and mine...

Hello


I got problems too with Sourceforge.net´s PDFcretor.
I have mad an msi which installs fine but when i tries to convert any doc it gives me a errormsg in popupbox, shown in red here.

Errormsg: lblerror(0)
modul: modRunAsUser
Procedure: RunAsUser
Line: 0


Anybody got a clue or solution?

Most grateful for help

Best regards Niklas

Niklas,

Is the PDF printer and port installed and working? Is it in the printer list?

You can test this 2 in ways.

Go to Printers and right click in the Printer list window and select Server Properties.
Select Add Port and you should be presented with a list of ports available to install and Sorgeforce.net PDF port should be in the list. If it isn't then the port isn't installed correctly.
Click Cancel and dont add a port or if the PDF port is there add a port and select My Documents for the location. Click OK
Now add your PDF printer to this new port and do a test print.

If it test prints ok then your original port has an issue.

Software used: Wininstall 8.5

Run discover with advanced options to include hardware specific registry.

Configure the package to install per machine only.

Set Spooler service to start during start service action and to stop during stop service action.

Create a custom action:
C:\windows\system32\rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "CutePDF Writer" /f C:\windows\inf\ntprint.inf" /r "CPW2:" /m "Apple Color LW 12/660 PS" /z /u

This custom action is to make use the Apple postscript driver to work with cutepdf and install the cutepdf printer. If the packaging software does not allow custom action, the above action can be run from a script independently after the msi package has been installed.

Configure the custom action to run on first sequence, set its sequence to run right after install finalize.

I have a working solution for making a CutePDF MSI Installer.

I highly reccomend using a virtual machine and undo disks for your testing on this as it saved me days worth of time.

use winINSTALL LE 2003 (it's free for those who dont know)

boot to a clean (patched) install on your virtual machine browse to the network location where you have Discover.

For the Before Scan, follow the prompts, making sure to REMOVE the exclusions to the HKLM\System\*, HKLM\Software\*, and HKCU\Software\* paths
You also need to make sure REMOVE the exclusion to the System32\* folder

Install the converter program, and then the CutePDF installer

ReRun Discover.

Open the MSI in the WinINSTALL Console.
remove the shortcut for the uninstall app (it's installed with an MSI, the other app will just cause problems)
remove any registry values that are not contained under the following locations (in case you did something extra that Discover cought):

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
HKLM\Software\
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\


Then go through each and every registry location where you see the Printer Port listed (CPW2:) and note that most of them will be replaced with CPW[WIPROP00000001]

Change that to CPW2[\:] for EVERY place that it's not listed as CPW2:

Then go to the HKLM\Win..nt\....\DsSpooler\ key and change the enterys where it lists your computer name with [ComputerName] for each of the 3 cases (uNCName will be set to "\\[ComputerName]\CutePDF Writer"

Change to install mode to machine ONLY and require reboot after install, and then manually add the following registry value to the following location:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\RunOnce

CutePDF Writer Install REG_SZ C:\windows\system32\rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "CutePDF Writer" /f "C:\windows\inf\ntprint.inf" /r "CPW2:" /m "Apple Color LW 12/660 PS" /z /u


Then compress your package, and reset your virtual machine (assuming you have made sure to move the files off the virtual machine first)

Install the package, say yes to reboot, when it boots back up, you should have a CutePDF printer installed.

Thanks for the tips accent

In most cases you will not want to have a reboot so You will still have to stop and restart the print spooler as part of the install and avoid the reboot by doing this.

Also Winstall will not capture the ini files correctly. Their is at least one ini file in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3 folder that you need so make sure you do a quick search as part of the Discovery process.

First I like to thank all those who posted in this topic, especially accent.

I still had problems trying to get this to work. For those that are still trying to get this going I've discovered a working solution.

I'm using Wise Packager 5.0
I also tried with WinInstallLE 2003

Here are the Registry Keys that are required.
I acn't be bothered going through the setup capture, accent has a great solution.

HKCU
Software/MS/WinNT/Current Version/
Devices
PrinterPorts
HKLU
Software/Acro Software
Software/MS
System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Print
Environments
Monitors
Printers

Make sure under the monitors folder you have the Driver REG_SZ cpwmon2k.dll

Thanks for Accent. I used your method and it works.

However, it needs to have administrator right to run the following commands
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\RunOnce

CutePDF Writer Install REG_SZ C:\windows\system32\rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "CutePDF Writer" /f "C:\windows\inf\ntprint.inf" /r "CPW2:" /m "Apple Color LW 12/660 PS" /z /u

Also, it created a printer queue called CutePDf (copy 2) which is the correct one.

this should work

use winINSTALL LE 2003

boot to a clean machine

Run Disco

while running Disco REMOVE the exclusions to the HKLM\System\*, HKLM\Software\*, and HKCU\Software\* paths
You also need to make sure REMOVE the exclusion to the System32\* folder

Install the converter program, and then the CutePDF installer

Re Run Disco for the after snap shot



Open the MSI in the WinINSTALL Console.

Change to install mode to machine ONLY


remove the shortcut for the uninstall app (it's installed with an MSI, the other app will just cause problems)
remove any registry values that are not contained under the following locations (in case you did something extra that Discover caught):

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
HKLM\Software\
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\

go through each and every registry location where you see the Printer Port listed (CPW2:) and note that most of them will be replaced with CPW[WIPROP00000001
Change that to CPW2[\:] for EVERY place that it's not listed as CPW2:



Go to the services control you need to add a service and call it "Spooler" and select stop/start on both install and uninstall.

Then go to the HKLM\Win..nt\....\DsSpooler\ key and change the enterys where it lists your computer name with [ComputerName] for each of the 3 cases (uNCName will be set to "\\[ComputerName]\CutePDF Writer"


Go to Hkey_Localmachine\system\currentcontrolset\control\printer\environments\windows NT X86\Drivers\version 3\Cute PDF writer
Change the following strings to reflect

Value Data
Configuration file PSSUI.DLL
Data File CUTEDFW.PPD
Driver PSCRIPT.DLL
Help File PSCRIPT.HLP



Then compress your package,

Hi

Too with PDFCreator, we are need to keep the uninstall keys of the original package. Because, with regmon i saw that the Inno Setup keys are visited when i created a padf document.

I have a light problem with my package it is that I must to carry out two impressions in pdf the first time so that that functions. I use wise

Thanks for your help

Eric

I have an almost working MSI. It installs all the files and registry entries and the pdf printer shows up and is ready for printing but for some reason it tells me that there are no drivers installed. Anyone have any ideas?

I was able to follow goodsnapper's excellent instructions with three exceptions. Under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Printer\Environments\Windows NT X86\Drivers\Wersion 3\Cute PDF writer

The "Configuration File" value should be "PS5UI.DLL", not "pssui.dll".
The "Data File" value should be "CUTEPDFW.PPD", not "cutedfw.ppd".
The "Driver" value should be "PSCRIPT5.DLL", not "pscript.dll".


If you are getting a "printer driver not installed" error, this should solve it!