Warning messages don't popup on windows 7

[makeijan]

When configuring packet deployment with "warn user" message - windows 7 client displays only a hidden message.
This behaviour is Interactive Services Decttion Service (UI0Detect) related.

This blog post may be helpful: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patricka/archive/2010/04/27/what-is-interactive-services-detection-and-why-is-it-blinking-at-me.aspx

[makeijan (makeijan)]

Hi,
I'm not a programmer myself, but you could find usefull this link:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/yvesdolc/archive/2009/08/20/do-you-still-use-the-messagebox-api-in-your-windows-service.aspx

[Kevin Williams (bthylafh)]

This happens to me when I've got the Server configured to ask for a tag and the OCS-NG-Windows-Agent-Setup file launched with /s and /now. Removing /s is sufficient to not cause this window to pop up.

[Heiko Helmle (hel)]

This makes "warn user" and "complete on user action" unreliable on any windows vista or 7 (or later).

Would it be possible to have download.exe communicate with the OCS Tray Icon? The Tray Icon runs in the user session and could display the message boxes (and communicate the answers back to the service and its children)

[makeijan (makeijan)]

Hi Heiko,
Your solution could be a workaround, but would force us to use OCS Tray (which I don't use actually).

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hello All,

Using an icon tray is the only solution for a service to display messages to user under Windows Vista and higher (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms683502%28v=vs.85%29.aspx). This is a Microsoft imposed way :-(

We are working on a communication dialog between download.exe and OCS Systray applet.

We plan to provide this feature in 2.1 release.

Cheers

[Tobias Arndt (tobias-arndt)]

Is there a release schedule for 2.1 available ? Would love to get popup functionality back as known under Windows XP. We are using this feature heavily as this is our software distribution system.

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hi.

Here is agent version 2.0.4.5, able to display deployment notification to user under Windows Seven and higher.

Could you please test on your environment ?

Regards

[Josh Stompro (u-launchpad-stompro-org)]

I just tried it on Windows 7 Pro 32 bit and ran into the following errors.

    NOTIFY_USER => OcsNotifyUser exit code is 3221225784
ERROR *** DOWNLOAD => Error notifying user for package <1340112759>, executing default action after 9999 seconds

Logs attached.

Josh

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Oups, forgot a compile option into project, so not working if original VC++ 2008 runtime version 9.0.21022.8 not present into system.

Currently, that's 9.0.30729.6161 which are provided with OCS agent 2.0.45 :-(

Could you please check replacing the file OcsNotifyUser.exe by the provided one ?

Regards

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hi Josh,

I've rebuild the agent to release 2.0.4.6 to fix this problem.

Could you please try it as address https://bugs.launchpad.net/ocsinventory-windows-agent/+bug/948172/+attachment/3246617/+files/OCSNG-Windows-Agent-2.0.4.6.zip ?

Regards

[Josh Stompro (u-launchpad-stompro-org)]

Hello Didier, Unfortunately i'm still running into problems. I installed the latest build you listed in post #10, and also tried replacing ocsNotifyUser.exe you included in post #9. Here is the error.

 DOWNLOAD => Notifying user for package <1340112759>
 NOTIFY_USER => OcsNotifyUser exit code is 3
ERROR *** DOWNLOAD => Error notifying user for package <1340112759>, executing default action after 9999 seconds

If you would like more info, please let me know. Thank you for working on this issue.
Josh

[Nachtfalke (alexander-wilke)]

Hi,

I tried this on Windows 7 Enterprise x64.

I got this:
===============================================
DOWNLOAD => Building package <1344075219>
 PACKAGE => Verifying fragment files of package <1344075219>
 PACKAGE => Checking free disk space for package <1344075219>
 PACKAGE => Building ZIP for package <1344075219>
 PACKAGE => Verifying ZIP signature for package <1344075219>
 DOWNLOAD => Package <1344075219> built successfully
 DOWNLOAD => Notifying user for package <1344075219>
 NOTIFY_USER => OcsNotifyUser exit code is 3
ERROR *** DOWNLOAD => Error notifying user for package <1344075219>, executing default action after 120 seconds
DOWNLOAD => Executing action <STORE> for package <1344075219>
 PACKAGE => Package <1344075219> successfully stored to folder <c:\>
 DOWNLOAD => Notifying user for package <1344075219> action end
 NOTIFY_USER => OcsNotifyUser exit code is 0
DOWNLOAD => Sending result code <SUCCESS> for package <1344075219>
===============================================

So the first warning message (Warn user) will not be displayed but the second one (Installation needs user completition) will be.

PS: Is there a timeout for (Installation need user completition) windows ?
PPS: The title of this Windows is not localized for german.

[henry (olivier-henry)]

hi,

I tried the 2.0.4.6 agent and indeed warning messages appear on Windows seven pro x64
By cons I still do not install the package that is on the job.

Nothing "launch" after the message, have you a solution?
Thank's for answer or solution

my download.log:

Starting OCS Inventory NG Package Download and Setup Tool on Wednesday, August 22, 2012 14:02:11.
DOWNLOAD => Running OCS Inventory NG Download Version 2.0.4.6
DOWNLOAD => Using OCS Inventory NG FrameWork Version 2.0.4.6
DOWNLOAD => Using network connection with Communication Server
DOWNLOAD => Using Communication Provider <OCS Inventory NG cURL Communication Provider> Version <2.0.4.6>
DOWNLOAD => Starting new period of 10 cycles
DOWNLOAD => Parsing directory <C:\ProgramData\OCS Inventory NG\Agent\download> for packages
DOWNLOAD => Package <1345635126> verified and added to process queue
DOWNLOAD => High priority 0 package found, removing lower priority package from queue
DOWNLOAD => Downloading package fragment <1345635126-1>
DOWNLOAD => Building package <1345635126>
DOWNLOAD => Executing action <LAUNCH> for package <1345635126>

but nothing Launch and the install not begin.

Thank's for your job, and if you have a solution, can you give me it ^^

best regards

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hi Henry,

Your problem is slightly different from this bug.

Could you please expose first your problem on support forums (http://forums.ocsinventory-ng.org) ?

Regards

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hi all,

I've made a mistake before publishing 2.0.4.6, i've added a bad syntax check after last deployment on my lab :-(

So, here is 2.0.4.7 release fixing this problem. Is it working for you ?

Regards

[Nachtfalke (alexander-wilke)]

Hi,

I tested this on Windows 7 x64 Enterprise and it is working. "WARN USER" is working and "NEEDS USER ACTION" is working.
Delay a package is working, too.

Both windows cannot display the german characters "Ää Öö Üü ß" (screenshot)

"NEEDS USER ACTION" is not localized for german language. (screenshot)

But the main part is working - great! :-) Good job!

[Nachtfalke (alexander-wilke)]

"NEEDS USER ACTION" window

[Nachtfalke (alexander-wilke)]

Not related to this bug but I found this part after installing the agent 2.0.4.7 on Windows 7 x 64 Enterprise (screenshot).

Windows advanced firewall is there, enabled but the rule was probably setup from earlier versions.

[Josh Stompro (u-launchpad-stompro-org)]

I can confirm also that it works on Windows XP and Windows 7 64bit pro. Thank you so much for working on this problem and fixing the issue.

 I wonder if Henry was referring to the fact that with the new client, no console output from install scripts is shown, so it isn't possible for the user to see any progress. Is adding back the console output, or some sort of "Throbber"[1] (a gui element that shows the user that the install is in progress) on the todo list?

I like how the Ubuntu software installer does this, you get a progress bar with the option to show the console output if you want. I realize that doing a progress bar for user generated install scripts isn't really possible, but something that just shows the user that an install is taking place, and gives them the option to view the console output would be useful.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throbber

Josh

[Nachtfalke (alexander-wilke)]

A progressbar would be nice or just an information window which tells the user "Installation is running in the background" with an option to minimiza that to the systray. And the systray icon will then have another color if a progress is running. And if the user is clicking on this systray icon the message windows with "Installation is running in the background" will popup.

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hi Nachtfalke,

About Firewall, that's because Windows firewall service is turned off, or yu're working on XP or previous, where Windows firewall is not able to handle outgoing connection. Setup try to add windows firewall rules on Vista or + to allow agent contacting server.

About "NEEDS USER ACTION" windows, the title cannot be changed, because it is the default application name which is used into message box.

To everybody, a progress bar is not possible, because most of software setup does not inform luancher about progress...

However, we could add a notifictaion windows saying "Install is in progress, please wait".

Regards

[Josh Stompro (u-launchpad-stompro-org)]

Didier, This is just wishlist thinking, but what if the client had an API so that an install script could inform it about the install progress. The installer could look for specific strings like.

OCS-Install: Enable Progressbar
OCS-Install: 20% - Uninstall old versions
OCS-Install: 50% - Installing new version
OCS-Install: Done

The install script that we create could just echo/print these statements at the appropriate locations.

If the installer didn't see OCS-Install: Enable Progressbar, it would just show the generic "Install in progress" notification.

But I know you probably want to resolve this ticket, so this sort of talk should go into a new enhancement request.
Josh

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hi Josh,

Do you think setup developer are going to do a special setup for OCS ? What about MS SCCM, or Novell Zenworks or WPKG ?

Yes, it is something possible, but only for dev building setup for OCS only :-(

However, you can register a blueprint.

Regards

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hi Nachtfalke,

About German special characters not well displayed, could you please send me file INFO of your package ? This file is located in package ID folder on admin console.

didier dot liroulet at ocsinventory-ng dot org.

Regards

[Nachtfalke (alexander-wilke)]

Hi Didier,

I sent you an E-Mail with the file.

[Didier Liroulet (dliroulet)]

Hi Nachtfalke,

As this is not related to to displaying message in Windows 7, I suggest to continue with German character on bug #785057, which seems to be the same problem.

I'm closing this bug because fixes is released on 2.0.5.

Regards