[FrankE9999]

I am trying do an unattended install of a program called Surfer which was developed by Intercon Associates Inc. This is a rather old program but we still use it.

I was able to run the install program and get a copy of the install files. I then ran the setup.exe with the /r option to create the setup.iss file. I copied the setup.iss to the install folder and everything works using the setup.exe /s option directly or running it from a batch file.

The problem is that when I try creating a executable file using IExpress or 7-Zip the program doesn't install. It seems that the system is deleting the files before the application starts installing.

I have tried running a batch file which calls the setup using the /s option. I have also tried using the following
start /wait setup.exe /s
start /wait setup.exe /s /w
setup.exe /s
setup.exe /s /w

with no luck. If I put a pause statement at the end of the batch file then everything works. I suspect that setup.exe is creating another process and the install files are being deleted before this process finishes but don't know how to fix this problem.

[maxXPsoft]

Perhaps try call it like this
cmd /C start /wait setup /s

Probably right setup calls something else then closes thus ending the batch.

[mazin]

If you are using a setup.iss file, consider using the switch -s instead of /s or /S.

If your setup.iss file is in the same directory of setup files, then -s is enough.

On the other hand, if you had no error messages when installing the app, then the problem is not related to the packer you used to create the SFX. However, I recommend WinRAR.

To be clear, this line is in your batch file:

start /wait %..%\....\...\SFXName.exe (with no switches)

In WinRAR, under "Run after extraction", type:

setup.exe -s

Here's a good example: http://www.msfn.org/...showtopic=16562

This post has been edited by mazin: 17 May 2004 - 03:51 PM

[FrankE9999]

The cmd /C start /wait setup /s command had the same effect.

WinRar worked but it didn't delete the install files. The other two applications deleted the install files so they failed.

I tried using the wait.exe command from the NT resource kit and this worked.

Surfer.bat
setup -s
wait 30
other code

In the end I didn't like any of the methods so I am simply using 7z to create an archive, uncompressing it to the temp folder during the install and running a batch file. In the last portion of the unattended install I clean out the temp folder so this works for me.

I chose 7z over zip and rar because I already have the command line version of 7z program on the unattended install CD, it had the best compression ration and it's free.

[FrankE9999]

I figured out how to get this working and am posting in case anyone else need this information.

First I found that many setup.exe files support the /SMS option which forces the application to keep the setup.exe process open until all child process complete.

Thus "Setup.exe /s /SMS" works correctly. I added this command to a batch file which does some other things related to installing this application.

Finally I compressed everything using 7Zip into a self extracting install. Using the command line version of 7Zip and a simple batch file allows me to rebuild the self-extracting executable any time I make changes.

Note that command line options specified with the self extracting 7Zip file are passed to the batch file. I use this feature and the sed (GNU UNIX) command to set the serial number in the setup.iss file before running the install on another application I am installing using this method.