msp install fails under server 2008 but succeed under server 2003

Question

Salutation WIX users,

I've encounter a weird issue with one of our patches recently and I'm really lost. Tried to understand the problem for 3 days and still nothing so I'm sending my question your way with hopes someone might see something. It concerns the hotfix 7 of a build that has already seen 6 successful patches ( .msp ) so it had functional hotfixes before.

When I install the build followed by that hotfix on, let's say a windows server 2003, everything seems to install itself correctly. However under a server 2008 the installation fails with the error message :

"Error applying patch to file C:\Config.Msi\PT1E0D.tmp. It has probably been updated by another mean and can no longer be modified by this patch."

After looking in the log it seems to be related to the dll Coveo.ces.web.search.dll installed under the folder bin ( and not the copy in the GAC ). But I mean, nothing should have changed since the original installation.

I would think it is due to the windows installer version that is used ( 3.0 under server 2003 and 4.0 under server 2008 ) but I haven't found anything that would support that.

I've encountered that error once before and it was due to the fact that we were installing 2 identical files in the GAC that were overwriting each other but in that case, it never happened on the first hotfix (always the second) and it did not vary depending on the system.

The PCP files are pretty similar as the msi built to generate the msp. I've compared the failing hotfix 7 log with a successful installation of hotfix 6 and here what I think are are the major differences around the dll Coveo.ces.web.search in chronological order and If you need the complete log just ask and it will be my pleasure to send it to you.

Thank you for your help, NickL

Answer 1

So my question fell into the bowels of obscure stuff people dont' know... Yeah ! So the problem arose again, something similar that at first seemed unrelated since it 's the opposite scenario. When installing under a server 2008 system I encounter no problem but when I install under a 2003 server I encounter the same problem.

"Error applying patch to file NAME. It has probably been updated by another mean and can no longer be modified by this patch."

I did some research and found my unanswered question on stack overflow. Bummer.

I didn't give up (I don't have much choice) and after some days doing more research I found the following :

Delta Patch might fail on Legacy Operating systems with this error - It has probably been updated by other means, and can no longer be modified by this patch.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2545078

It answered the question about the failure being under server 2003 (We are indeed using MSI 5.0). After manually fixing the msp it worked. It's a pain but it fixes it.

Then when paying more attention while reading here's what it says :

"Target Vista and later operating systems. Legacy operating systems would require a separate patch created with earlier patch creation resources. Patches created with the earlier resources will also exhibit similar problems on the Vista and later operating systems and is beyond the scope of this article."

The best solution to completely solve this problem is to use whole files instead of binary patches.

So if you ever have trouble with something similar I hope that solution will help you. ( And sorry, if I did not found my own unawsered question I would probably never have taken the time to update it :). )

NickL