Building an Installer Source Problem

[mje]

I'm trying to build a distribution, and as usual, the NI build keeps demanding disks with names which have no bearing on reality. I managed to locate two of the three required sources, but the last one I'm coming up with nothing.

It's now demanding "NI LabVIEW 2009 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Disk 1". I'm now sequentially going through every disk from Q12009 and later for the second time. None of seem to satisfy this requirement. It's beyond me why NI still can't figure out a way to include this stuff when I install the IDE to begin with. I hate having to track down these disks each time I add some feature to a build, especially when the names of the disks it asks for NEVER are the same as the names printed on the disks, and how quickly disks build up each quarter. It's a guessing game, and this time I don't know how to win.

Invalid location for "NI LabVIEW 2009 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Disk 1". Try again? My computer is one more dialog away from learning to fly...

[mje]

Bah, turns out it was asking for the SP1 download I did a while back. So I need to keep those around too? Rediculous. Never mind that as a development computer the stuff should already be on there...

Absolutely ridiculous. I can't believe the build scripts are still in such a condition.

[crossrulz]

I feel your pain. What I ended up doing was copying the distribution DVDs onto my hard drive and then install from my hard drive. The installer builder looks at the location of the installer at the place the function was installed from. So since I installed from my hard drive, the installer builder found the location and didn't give me a pop up. Only do this if you have plenty of hard drive space (for obvious reasons). Another option might be to copy the DVDs onto a server and install from there. Haven't really tried that yet.

[mje]

Well, after all that, it seems my installer has tripled in size. It went from a "reasonable" 366 MB (*cough*), and for some reason is now 998 MB. It contains my exe, along with the LVRT, NI DAQmx, and NI MAX.

I even went back and checked out previous versions of my code, sure enough, things that used to create 366 MB installers now magically create 998 MB ones. WTF?

Is there any way of poking around a built installer and seeing what's going on?

Edited July 6, 2010 by mje

[jgcode]

Well, after all that, it seems my installer has tripled in size. It went from a "reasonable" 366 MB (*cough*), and for some reason is now 998 MB. It contains my exe, along with the LVRT, NI DAQmx, and NI MAX.

I agree, maintaining a development PC with installers for every application you have to support is a nightmare.

For that reason I usually have to set up and maintain a Virtual PC.

I would take a stab in the dark that the size increase may have to do with DAQmx drivers.

There are now three versions - Full (~1.1+ GB), Config (~600MB) and Core (~150MB).

A while ago these where named differently (e.g Run Time 5) and whats installed in what version (e.g. MAX) has changed too.

The size of DAQmx is crazy too - Version 9.02f0 Full got up to 1.3+GB!

[mje]

There are now three versions - Full (~1.1+ GB), Config (~600MB) and Core (~150MB).

Ah, I was not aware of the different versions. That makes sense. It's possible a hardware configuration on my core development PC triggered a different DAQmx install, which automatically gets included in the build now. I'll have to play and see if I can force the minimal version to be included.

It's still a mystery though how the same source setting can produce two entirely different installers. This simply should not be. A source, is a source, is a source. If something external to the source dictates the resulting build, that something should be a part of the source. Near as I can tell, I don't have any control over whatever that "something" is in my build settings.

[jgcode]

Ah, I was not aware of the different versions. That makes sense. It's possible a hardware configuration on my core development PC triggered a different DAQmx install, which automatically gets included in the build now. I'll have to play and see if I can force the minimal version to be included.

It's still a mystery though how the same source setting can produce two entirely different installers. This simply should not be. A source, is a source, is a source. If something external to the source dictates the resulting build, that something should be a part of the source. Near as I can tell, I don't have any control over whatever that "something" is in my build settings.

Well, the installer should include whats selected in the Installer screen of the build spec.

I was guessing maybe a driver version changed between PC's (or over time) - which maybe isn't the case?

Please post what you find tho.