ILOK Win7x64 Stuck on Update

[s9dd]

I have a problem that is effectively holding my studio to ransom.

ILOK PACE updated today to 2.5.2, fell over halfway through, and is now stuck. None of my ILOK software works. I am 9hrs into this, having a bad time with clients as a result, and cannot find an answer.

It's stuck in a state between installs. Apart from the Interlok driver entry, there is nothing to evidence Pace in the Programs list so there is nothing to deinstall.

I have Googled extensively and tried all I have found. I have weeded the registry manually, weeded the file system manually, weeded the InstallShield GUID folders manually. All cleared down. MSIEXEC has been unreg and reregistered.

If I switch off AVG anti/virus, deactivate DEP and DUC, and run the install as administrator, it installs Bonjour (every time), then falls over claiming the install was interrupted. I cannot see a log file to investigate.

I have posted to ILOK.COM (who promise me emails but none have arrived).

I am royally stuck. I NEED to get this working ASAP. Please, if anyone has any ideas, can you post them here.

Many many thanks.

[s9dd]

I am cross about this. There is hardly any information online about unpicking this installer. Providing an installer log file is at least a courtesy, but should be a REQUIREMENT of all essential software for this precise reason.

Anyway - been for a walk to clear my head. If anyone has suggestions on how to get this working, I am happy to try again.

[albee1952]

Consider that you have not given us much info to go on. Based on some comments, I think you are on a Windows machine. What I would do is this: unplug any iloks. Go to Control Panel>Uninstall a Program>uninstall anything "ilok" and/or "Pace". then reboot. Download the latest iLok software(both the driver and the license manager) and run the installers. If they install(fingers crossed), connect the iLok(s) and open the manager and log into your account. Once there, do a Sync Repair on each iLok(Right-click on any iLok in the left column list). If that doesn't work, I hope someone else has some other ideas

[mesaone]

Let me also suggest that you roll back to a restore point, if you have one just prior to the botched update. I can't remember offhand if running the PACE installer triggers an automatic restore point, so you should check to see what points are available to you.

Once restored, uninstall the iLok manager, clean the registry, restart, and try installing the latest version.

[s9dd]

Thank you both for your ideas.

I wish it was so simple. The problem is that it is stuck between 2.5.0 and 2.5.2, with no uninstallable entries. If you reboot, unplug Iloks, remove/add drivers... made no difference. The older file claims newer ones are installed, the new one falls over on the install. Restore points considered... Reinstall Windows considered momentarily too if honest!

I have literally just found the technique that worked.

1. Go to the folder where you have unzipped the installer.
2. Right click, and create a short cut to the installer.
3. Open properties on the short-cut so you can edit the executable file command.
4. This software is essentially InstallShield (albeit renamed to confuse you) so you can add a debug parameter to the executable command. Mine reads:
"C:\Users\<userName>\Downloads\PACE LicenseSupportInstallerWin64\LicenseSupportInstall erWin64_v2.5.2_r29969\License Support Win64.exe" /debuglog"C:\DDsetupexe.log"
5. Execute that short-cut as Administrator.
6. Go to C:\ and open DDsetupexe.log in Notepad or equivalent
7. Digest the log mentally to see what's messed up, usually it'll be the last line of the file, or some earlier prerequisite
8. Locate the {guid-folder-name} in the C:\Users\<userName>\AppData\Local\Temp folder, noting the Guid from the debug file. In that folder you will find the "PACE License Support Win64.msi" file
9. Right click the .msi file, and try either "install" or "repair" - repair worked for me.
10. Reboot.
11. Wait, wait, wait - the service may not start immediately so check that it is running before you check if the program now works. I noticed the Icon was now back in full colour and seemed to run software again.
12. Re-enter your sign-in information and log in.

What a nightmare. 15hrs later. No help from Pace at all.

If people get stuck REMEMBER this is just "InstallShield" and you can append all kinds of command parameters to it for clues.

Notes
1) between each attempt I was disabling AVG,
2) running the helper program that clears down the installer (it's in the troubleshooting folder supplied by Pace)
3) rebooting
4) I was also using PerfectRegistry to correct Registry errors on each reboot.
I treated the driver install as a separate problem, and used the separate driver install to get that part working FIRST.

Amazing what a walk can do for your troubleshooting.

Thanks for ideas, hopefully my solution can help others.
Tomorrow I just need to catch up!
DD.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by s9dd

I have literally just found the technique that worked.

1. Go to the folder where you have unzipped the installer.
2. Right click, and create a short cut to the installer.
3. Open properties on the short-cut so you can edit the executable file command.
4. This software is essentially InstallShield (albeit renamed to confuse you) so you can add a debug parameter to the executable command. Mine reads:
"C:\Users\<userName>\Downloads\PACE LicenseSupportInstallerWin64\LicenseSupportInstall erWin64_v2.5.2_r29969\License Support Win64.exe" /debuglog"C:\DDsetupexe.log"
5. Execute that short-cut as Administrator.
6. Go to C:\ and open DDsetupexe.log in Notepad or equivalent
7. Digest the log mentally to see what's messed up, usually it'll be the last line of the file, or some earlier prerequisite
8. Locate the {guid-folder-name} in the C:\Users\<userName>\AppData\Local\Temp folder, noting the Guid from the debug file. In that folder you will find the "PACE License Support Win64.msi" file
9. Right click the .msi file, and try either "install" or "repair" - repair worked for me.
10. Reboot.
11. Wait, wait, wait - the service may not start immediately so check that it is running before you check if the program now works. I noticed the Icon was now back in full colour and seemed to run software again.
12. Re-enter your sign-in information and log in.

I have to admit, this is a couple steps beyond my own troubleshooting abilities, and I like to think I'm pretty good at figuring PC issues out. How did you get this info? Figured it out on your own, found it online?

[s9dd]

I went for a walk, and just started thinking about InstallShield as a piece of commercial software, instead of treating Pace as the "root of all evil"... Which they are not, obviously, but I just was VERY frustrated after repeatedly following the online advice and getting absolutely nowhere. I bumbled through a 2hr client session "talking" not recording, because nothing dependent on ilok was working. I survived, but...

So, thinking about InstallShield - it's a file copying tool and registry key editing tool. What else could it do? It essentially runs a script of commands, and that means there are variables. So, I figured, if I could work out how InstallShield can be run, it might have an API, or Configuration text file, and then I wondered if actually that installer might just be "Setup.exe" in disguise. Maybe I could overload the command to execute it?

So I stopped searching for Pace and ILok and looked for InstallShield command line parameters. Even if I could get it to be "verbose" instead of "silent" that would have been something. But I came across the debug switch. It was a wild guess that it would work, but desperate men do desperate things, right? Couldn't do any harm either considering!

With visibility of the install debug log, finding "Failed" in the file was not so hard. Some of those are false positives - it might fail because the file has already been copied, had they been fatal, the script may have stopped sooner. The fact it carried on, perhaps it was not so serious? Again guesswork.

Finding the individual install .msi was what I was really after. I wanted to find the one step that was failing, which by observation was After "Bonjour" and when it said "Running ISetup... configuring MSI". The last line of the debug file pointed to the step that was failing, and gave me the temp folder.

I have done enough work with Windows and Software generally to know that code is not essentially complex. Files, right place, permissions, config etc. Typically it's outside conditions that cause "happy path" software to fail. So when AVG is running it dies. Or when you are not Administrator. Stuff like that. It is really important to stand back from the problem and ask yourself, what is it likely to be trying to do, and what could it hit? Of course, you get wound up, and that's about the last perspective you get - hence going for a walk. Reset!

Pace probably have not envisioned ALL the reasons their script could fail on, and it probably hit something unexpected. That doesn't mean the script is wrong per se, it just means it Could fall over halfway. So I was trying to get it back to a virgin/preinstall state, somehow, or find a "repair". It was a blessing to see "repair" when right clicking on the MSI file.

I hope that helps? Manufacturers obscure a lot away from users, assuming they won't want/don't need to know. I get that motive. But as a skilled studio engineer with a lot of IT knowledge, I am in that camp of caring/being interested to know - and yesterday proves to me I NEED to know for when things mess up.

My request to manufacturers is to involve power users - not shut them out. Document what the installer is doing, add optional silent/verbose options. Always create that log file. Open source proved the value of community maintained code, and we'd all spend ALOT less time on forums and Google if we could get fixes into code ourselves for the benefit of the community, instead of having to wait an eternity for an "upgrade" from a single source. I think that would boost user commitment, not ruin it. But hey: if I ran the universe, right...? ;-)