Problem with Custom Action Server Process?

[hill_t]

One of my users is having problems with his install and when I look at his configuration I can see that some things did not get setup correctly. If I search for the custom action in the install log I get the below information. Has anyone seen this before and no why it would be happening? It only happens for this particular user and even though the action returns success I can tell that it does not does not execute any of the code. It is an InstallScript action if that helps. Thanks for any responses.



MSI (s) (14:6C): Doing action: MyCustomAction
Action start 12:10:32: MyCustomAction.
MSI (s) (14:D0): Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSI3C.tmp, Entrypoint: f6
MSI (s) (14:D0): Lost connection to custom action server process. Attempting to regenerate.
MSI (s) (14:E8): Generating random cookie.
MSI (s) (14:E8): Created Custom Action Server with PID 2260 (0x8D4).
MSI (s) (14:24): Running as a service.
MSI (s) (14:24): Hello, I'm your 32bit Impersonated custom action server.
Action ended 12:10:33: MyCustomAction. Return value 1.

[chandrasarat]

Any update on this issue. Even I am hitting with this problem. Finally it throws in 1603 MSI error... Can any one give me work around other than cleaning temp all common 1603 work arounds...


Thanks
Sarat


One of my users is having problems with his install and when I look at his configuration I can see that some things did not get setup correctly. If I search for the custom action in the install log I get the below information. Has anyone seen this before and no why it would be happening? It only happens for this particular user and even though the action returns success I can tell that it does not does not execute any of the code. It is an InstallScript action if that helps. Thanks for any responses.



MSI (s) (14:6C): Doing action: MyCustomAction
Action start 12:10:32: MyCustomAction.
MSI (s) (14:D0): Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSI3C.tmp, Entrypoint: f6
MSI (s) (14:D0): Lost connection to custom action server process. Attempting to regenerate.
MSI (s) (14:E8): Generating random cookie.
MSI (s) (14:E8): Created Custom Action Server with PID 2260 (0x8D4).
MSI (s) (14:24): Running as a service.
MSI (s) (14:24): Hello, I'm your 32bit Impersonated custom action server.
Action ended 12:10:33: MyCustomAction. Return value 1.

[samir18]

Even i m facing a similar kind of a problem incase you have found a solution to it or a work around do let me know.

[hill_t]

I never found any reason for this, nor any fix or work around. Luckily I have not run into this problem again.

[SJackson]

Has anyone ever found out what causes this?

We've been having problems with an Installscript MSI built using InstallShield 11 whereby condition checks and property retrievals suddenly start failing about mid way through an installation when deployed on some machines, whereas the same MSI deployed to a different machine works perfectly.

The target machines are Windows XP (SP2) based and have, to all intents, identical images up to the point of deploying our MSI.

Having compared an MSI log from a machine that is failing with one where the installation succeeds the most noticble difference between the two is the following sequence occuring in the failed log about 2/3rds the way down:-



MSI (s) (AC:D8) [19:08:51:707]: Lost connection to custom action server process. Attempting to regenerate.
MSI (s) (AC:F8) [19:08:51:707]: Generating random cookie.
MSI (s) (AC:F8) [19:08:51:707]: Created Custom Action Server with PID 3008 (0xBC0).
MSI (s) (AC:F4) [19:08:51:769]: Running as a service.
MSI (s) (AC:F4) [19:08:51:769]: Hello, I'm your 32bit Impersonated custom action server.



This seems to suggest that the msiexec owner process has created a brand new com server to run the custom actions that follow. Im guessing that the MSI properties set in the original com server process will not be visible in this newly created one, thus causing our installscript to fail fairly spectacularly on some of these machines during install.

Does anyone know any more about what causes msiexec to do this?

[gamith]

I am also facing the same issue. I get the error Lost connection to custom action server. Can some one throw some light as to why this is happening?

In Windows XP:
Action start 12:16:44: NmExpertDialogManager.
MSI (c) (B4:A8) [12:16:44:315]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\DOCUME~1\navaneem\LOCALS~1\Temp\MSIB39.tmp, Entrypoint: DLL2
MSI (c) (B4:A8) [12:16:44:315]: Lost connection to custom action server process. Attempting to regenerate.
MSI (c) (B4:E0) [12:16:44:346]: Cloaking enabled.
MSI (c) (B4:E0) [12:16:44:346]: Attempting to enable all disabled priveleges before calling Install on Server
MSI (c) (B4:E0) [12:16:44:346]: Connected to service for CA interface. Action ended 12:16:45: NmExpertDialogManager. Return value 3.

And in Windows 2003 I get the following error with the same setup:
MSI (c) (A0:8C) [18:13:03:388]: Doing action: NmSetLocalizationParams Action
18:13:03: NmSetLocalizationParams. Action start 18:13:03: NmSetLocalizationParams.
MSI (c) (A0:D0) [18:13:03:404]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\MSI16.tmp, Entrypoint: DLL3
Action ended 18:13:06: NmSetLocalizationParams. Return value 3.

[Kike Izquierdo]

I am also having the same problem with all types of custom action, although the return value is 1. I get the message "Lost connection custom action server process. Attempting to regenerate."

Does anyone have any ideas?


I am also facing the same issue. I get the error Lost connection to custom action server. Can some one throw some light as to why this is happening?

In Windows XP:
Action start 12:16:44: NmExpertDialogManager.
MSI (c) (B4:A8) [12:16:44:315]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\DOCUME~1\navaneem\LOCALS~1\Temp\MSIB39.tmp, Entrypoint: DLL2
MSI (c) (B4:A8) [12:16:44:315]: Lost connection to custom action server process. Attempting to regenerate.
MSI (c) (B4:E0) [12:16:44:346]: Cloaking enabled.
MSI (c) (B4:E0) [12:16:44:346]: Attempting to enable all disabled priveleges before calling Install on Server
MSI (c) (B4:E0) [12:16:44:346]: Connected to service for CA interface. Action ended 12:16:45: NmExpertDialogManager. Return value 3.

And in Windows 2003 I get the following error with the same setup:
MSI (c) (A0:8C) [18:13:03:388]: Doing action: NmSetLocalizationParams Action
18:13:03: NmSetLocalizationParams. Action start 18:13:03: NmSetLocalizationParams.
MSI (c) (A0:D0) [18:13:03:404]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\MSI16.tmp, Entrypoint: DLL3
Action ended 18:13:06: NmSetLocalizationParams. Return value 3.