[GRASS-windows] notes on updating GRASS via native installer onwindows vista......

[Marco Pasetti]

Hi Darren,

>1) I didn't know that there is no need to uninstall (Marcus - I did it 
>before your note!!)- can this be added to the installation notes of the 
>page in the link above (or did I >just miss it)?

no, you did not miss that, there isn't. I added that information here 
http://grass.osgeo.org/grass63/binary/mswindows/native/README.html#Binary%20Release%20History 
(see last item). I decided to not put it in the installation notes because 
it may not work if installed on a WinGRASS release (6.3.0-RC, -1 or -2). I 
will add it.

>2) I uninstalled GRASS first (from icon on start menu) and also ran a 
>registry clean but the new install still detected an old version???? Does 
>this mean there are >"bits" of GRASS floating around that are not 
>uninstalled properly?

it may be caused by the user control limits on Vista. To be sure, uninstall 
GRASS, open the registry (run regedit), search for GRASS in 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE; if present, it means that the uninstall process 
didn't have the rights to access the registry and perform the task

>3) I have never managed to run the installation with the North Carolina 
>sample dataset, install just stalls (South Dakota / Spearfish  is 
>fine)...maybe something to do >with the tar / gzip stuff ??

did the installer download the file but not extract it? or did it neither 
download it?
writing the script I had lots of problems with the untar section, that took 
me 4 days (!!) to fix it! ... but finally I fixed it, so I think that it 
could be another "limit" caused by the Vista UAC system or the Vista (or 
whatever) firewall running on tour system

>4) I have a dial up connection so saved the setup .exe (didn't run it). 
>First time I tried to run the setup (from the saved file) it didn't work (I 
>know this as the new >windows command line feature wasn't added to the 
>start menu). The setup went through the full process (automatically 
>detected previous version etc see note >above) but did not seem to install 
>/ update full features. Then I tried running the setup .exe again as 
>administrator (right clicked on the .exe, run as  administrator)- >now 
>setup worked fine (probably - I haven't checked all I was doing 
>before)....Is it worth adding a warning about user account control to the 
>install info?

well, I actually added a warning about the UAC, and I tested it on Vista 
Home... and it works! maybe there's something different in the Professional 
release that I don't know...

>5) I'm not sure if it is necessary to restart for the install to "take 
>effect"?

definetely not

well, I'm afraid about all that problems you encountered, I tried to 
"desiggn" the installer as best as possible, to let it work on both XP (Home 
and Pro) and Vista... what I can suggest you, when you run GRASS, is to 
disable the UAC; it's not a good suggestion, actually, but I can tell you 
that I needed to disable  it (I do hard jobs on my system, and I definetely 
cannot be "warned" and "asked" for permission for every low level task I 
permorm on it)... and I'm pretty happy! I also disabled the built-in 
firewall and used an external (third part) one... and all works fine. But 
there's another issue: I'm pretty sure that the UAC system causes other 
crashes or bugs on Vista (see, for example, )

Finally, try to uninstall GRASS giving to /GRASS/Unisnstall-GRASS.exe the 
administrator permissions, and then install GRASS giving the same to it, 
plus the permission (from your running firewall) to access the internet, and 
tell me what happens.

Regards,

Marco