I've been looking around for someway of installing certain aspects of Mozilla through a silent install (as opposed to the -ma -ira switches) and I've found it here: http://acd.ucar.edu/~fredrick/win2k/mozilla.html - I've actually modded it a bit because it's quicker just to set the default install type to "0" (Browser only) than to customize the existing default if you just want the browser. Obviously if you want multiple components, follow the rest of his guide, which also shows you how to change the default Mozilla prefs.

Further down in the config.ini, locate this:And comment out the QFA (unless you want it).

Then finally just set your system.cmd/RunOnceEx.cmd to run "setup.exe -ma -ira" from the mozilla folder.

Hi Spad!

Oh, very nice, indeed! I don't have time to apply your hints to my system now, but thanks a lot in advance, I guess they are very useful for me.

Thanx spad

very useful - shall try it out now.
I used to just copy the installed directory previously, but that way, I wouldn't get the registry entries. I suppose this way I can.

Would this also work for Firefox??

Thank you! Very usefull!

The same method should work for firefox/thunderbird as well, since it uses the same installer.

I have just tried it. Sadly Firefox 0.8 bluntly ignores the Run Mode=Silent and Auto flags....

Thanks for testing. And too bad it didn't work :'(

It is such a pity. Recently my Internet Explorer 6 gave up its java capabilities overnight and I wasn't able to fix it. I didn't want to reinstall XP just yet so I started using Firefox, which I had installed for quite a while now - I just never used it. I really fell in love with Firefox in the last few days and a silent install like Mozilla (supposedly) would have been beautiful because the config.ini allows a very neat way to install and maintain plug-ins (which wouldn't be possible with a home made msi). The only flaw in my new browser of choice... no silent install...

I never understood why people just didn't create a SFX archive from the ZIP download.....
I'll look into the installer....


well now.....wasn't too hard...
Replace the setup.exe included with Firefox and replace it with the one frmo Mozilla. Then it should work.... (as a note, your screen may go alittle crazy, but maybe it's because I tested it on Win98 )

That's what I WAS doing and AM doing... (sfx) Only this method could have turned out to be better and easier...

Oh wow... I never thought of that....

I'm gonna try that right away...

HORRAY! It works! Firefox installs silently...
The only thing that failed is the installation of the plugins which i fiddled carefully into CONFIG.INI...

all their sizes are 1025?

No, but the sizes given in the other components don't make sense... Its not the XPI file size not the number of files in the archive...etc... Slipstreaming extensions into Mozilla is still a mystery.

Oh yeah, I also found the first bug. Using the Mozilla installer the Firefox browser ist't added to the Add/Remove Programs list and the uninstaller isnt copied over for some reason...

huh.....
well, then back to the drawing board....

did you use the 1.6 setup? or the 1.7?

I used the 1.6 installer because it is a stable build. Maybe we should try the 1.7...

dunno

The installer file versions for 1.6 and 1.7RC3 are the same.
I have to report that now Mozilla DOES show up in the add/remove programs dialog (as Mozilla Firefox 0.8). Maybe I was just too tired and overlooked it yesterday or the machine needs a reboot before this shows in the add/remove section...

I'm still working on slipstreaming extensions into the installer and any help towards that is greatly appreciated...

EDIT:
Firefox shows up in add/remove programs when NONE of the slipstreamed extensions in config.ini fails. Should one of these extensions fail to install, Firefox is installed correctly nontheless but the script aborts and the uninstaller isn't copied over to the installation directory and NOT added to the add/remove section.

Hey Alanoll,996 & Bashrat!
carry on with the good work.

Looks like we are just 2 days of discussions away from *FORCING* this beast (moz installer) to work for us. My wishes are with you :tongue:

I believe the Mozilla one works fine....

the only problem is the components/plugins....and that was some custom ones he included, not the presets.....

But I don't like Mozilla the monolithic browser-cum-email, WAAAAHHH!!!!!

And I'm sure even "The only problem" will be solved soon.

hi guys, tried using the mozilla 2.1.6 setup.exe on a firefox 0.9 installer... it seems to work with that as well... i just executed the setup.exe from mozilla using the -ma -ira arguments.

anyhow, as with Alanoll, the screen went crazy and refreshed like crazy during the silent installation.

i was wondering, have i installed it properly?

also, looking at the config.ini file of the firefox installer, i saw these lines at the first part of the file:

it defaults to Normal, but even as I entered silent, when i run setup.exe without any arguments, im being prompted to enter where to install firefox. (kinda the same effect as using -ma -ira arguments.

@edmoncu

You have to use BOTH the -ma -ira variables AND the Run Mode=Silent string in config.ini. It will then istall all silently...

@996: i realized, modifying some settings under the config.ini file within the firefox 0.9 installer changes the behavior of the installation. im just unsure how it effects the installation process altogether... with some modifications of the config.in file, i was able to simply double click on the setup.exe and it bypassed all dialogs... except that it pauses at the part where it is installing the Quality Feedback Agent.

here are some settings i altered:

SOME or ALL dialogs?

Well I just checked again and it is working here using this way:

• start the firefox installer
• find the temp_ns folder somewhere in your temp files
• copy its contents to a safe location
• cancel & quit firefox installer
• do the same with the mozilla 1.7 installer
• copy mozillas setup.exe (file version 1.0.0.2) to the location you copied the firefox files to, replacing the original one (or rename it beforehand)
• open config.ini and set run mode to "Silent", save it
• from the command line run setup.exe -ma -ira
• it installs silently

You can disable the quality feedback agent QFA in config.ini also but check if it works first...

hmm, nice.
here though, i was able to skip using mozilla's setup.exe by combining the modified config.ini with an autoit script.

here's my autoit script:


i also attached the modified config.ini file i used to install firefox.

it seems that the autoit script refuses to control the behavior of firefox installation when run on the unattended cd. it just stops at the last dialog...

whats up about firefox 0.9 unattended? :-) edmoncu, any improvements?

improvements? site rendering has been faster than firefox 0.8, as well as the ability to import IE cookies, rather than just favorites.

lol .. good thing that we can now import cookies!

I meant .. is there a way to silently install firefox 0.9 now? :-)

sure theres a way, make your own installer , as i did, i used setup factory, but if u dont wanna pay, u can use many other freeware programs..

also, u can use installrite & it will make u the installer

regards

i used install rite for Cursor XP, and the software didnt work on my unattended CD.. maybe i did it wrong.?

yep, u must have done it wrong, works flawlessly for CursorXP here

Hey,
weren't we using the mozilla 1.7's "setup.exe" ?
And isn't firefox 0.9 based on moz 1.7 ?
therefore, isn't the moz 1.7 installer included with ff 0.9 win32 ?

So there should be no problems for unattending it, right?
Dudes, tell me if the above inferences are right - and if unattending firefox/thunderbird has really become simple enough as to be done by me (until now, I was just copying the installed folder over).

@996: If you check the file version of Firefox's setup.exe (in 0.9) it is also 1.0.0.2.

So, since firefox already has 1.0.0.2 for a setup, I followed your directions, but still didn't get the silent install working.

]Bonkers[

Is there any way to prevent the screen from flashing during the installation method sumarized by 996?

-Marticus

@Bonkers

I'm sorry to hear it isn't working for you. As I read your post I tried my procedure yet again from scratch and it worked.

I used the Firefox 0.9 windows installer and the Mozilla 1.7 RC3 windows installer to extract the exe from.

As you pointed out, both setup.exe files have the same file version (1.0.0.2) but they are indeed different files. They have different icons and a comparison of the files revealed over 200.000 differences:

@996: So today I gave your method a go, and suprise, it worked. I was a little surprised but also thankful .

Thanks for all the help.

]Bonkers[

@all

I ask pardon for my barefaced question, but what's actually wrong with just copying the ZIP-filed Mozilla?

my2001 it is not wrong for you do so. people just want to be able to use the installer because it creates the right registry entries and shortcuts for firefox. At least thats what i gather from this thread. mooj made an autoit script for firefox and thunderbird using the installer(s). You could try that way if ya want. Later.

Yeah, I assumed that, too. I guess people just tend to prefer installers because they look good. But seriously, what's so "right" with those registry settings created by the installer? Just wondering. I mean, Mozilla also runs absolutely problem-free when just copied. It's only Sun Java Plugin which needs one single registry key to get installed properly, but that key can easily be imported by a tweak.

Exactly.
And the Flash plugin wants to see a registry entry as well.
So, if that's what these apps want, that's what we'll give 'em.
I do the same - copy the installed (zip) firefox & make the registry entries through .reg files.

And in the foreseeable future, I will continue the same; maybe until a bug-free (universally proven to work) method to set it up using the installer evolves.

@my2001 and/or prathapml: could you plz post those .reg tweaks? That would definetely save other people (incl. me ) some time!

And here I thought I was the one that told 996 what to do.....blast, people never see that

The switching of the isntallers works fine, as all the "setup.exe" is is a stub loader for the config.ini to gather it's settings to install with. My guess is that the installer is a custom build, and they didn't bother changing version number, but they did tinker with it a bit.


Has anyone tried hexing the installer to find the offset for the switches?

It was indeed Alanoll who gave me the idea to try the Mozilla installer on Firefox. Thus he deserves the credit for it.

Issues remaining unsolved however are XPI extension installations via Firefox's config.ini (or any other way of installing Firefox extensions silently and unattended).
Any help with this issue is greatly appreciated.

Why hexing the installer when it works just fine this way? The files have more than 200.000 differences...

well, I mean if you find where the switches are in the firefox you may be able to enable them, and have a native installer for it.

I'll look into the XPI's.

The installer seems to just help in uninstalling the Mozilla components. Now, the prospect of removing Mozilla is something I don't expect (I would just delete the relevant folder and over-write it with the newer version). So, I don't need the uninstall logs/.EXE/registry-entries.

Since the installer method is so painful, and doesn't really offer much of a benefit over the (simply-copy-files-over) method, I do the below:

1. I install Mozilla firefox & thunderbird
2. In the respective locations - C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox & C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Thunderbird.
3. I then delete all the unnecessary files that I find in those folders (uninstall, etc.)
4. I configure the defaults to the way I want (edit the .JS files in the installed folder).
5. I install any plug-ins/updates/add-ons that I want to the Mozilla suite.
6. Then, I just copy away the entire "C:\Program Files\Mozilla\" folder elsewhere.
7. Then, use winrar SFX or similar to make an archive (of that folder) which will silently extract itself to "%programfiles%".
8. I already have the necessary links in my uA CD (either extract at ".\%allusersprofile%\Start Menu" or place the .lnk files at "$OEM$\$Docs\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Mozilla").
------------------

Then, during the uA install process, the following things happen:
1. The above archive extracts itself.
2. A set of registry entries (which are needed to make the browser add-ons install correctly, and for XP's "Internet" new Start_Menu program) are applied.
3. All other plugins setup are executed (flash 7 player, etc.)
-------------

@ Bâshrat the Sneaky
Here's my (required) mozilla related registry entries in an attachment to this post.

Well it looks like if you want the new XPI files to be installed by default they would have to be listed under [Setup Type0] & under [Component $Title_Name$] the XPI's "Attributes" should be some thing like "SELECTED|VISIBLE|IGNORE_XPINSTALL_ERROR" I haven't tested this.

Examples

Im going to try this with .9.3
Are the registry settings the same just change:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox 0.9.1]
to
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox 0.9.3]

ill post results.

I ended up making a inno setup exe (7-Zip compression Yay!!) for firefox using the zip file version and reg entries. Works wonderfully for me.