Name: pa48320 Date: 05/06/2002

There is a discrepancy in how the silent installation of 1.3.1_03 is handled versus the interactive installation. If the following value is set in the registry,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\CurrentVersion=1.4

then the interactive 1.3.1_03 install proceeds and installs the _03 JRE. However, if the same key above is present and the _03 install is called silently, then the install will fail. The only work around is to change CurrentVersion=1.4 to CurrentVersion=1.3 or delete the string value from the registry.

For users deploying updates via SMS, Tivoli, or other silent deployment mechanism, this will result in problems on all systems that have the registry key and value above. The silent install will fail in all cases and the log file for the silent install gives no indication that there was a failure. It exits with a status code of 0 which indicates success.

To replicate the problem, uninstall all JREs from the system. Go into the registry and delete the JavaSoft key under HKLM\Software. As a sanity check, go to the installed location of the JREs and delete any files left behind -- there should be none.

Install the 1.4 JRE. Go into the registry again and verify that

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\CurrentVersion=1.4

is set. Run the self extracting 1.3.1_03 executable with the following command line "<exename> -s -a -s" to launch it silently. Wait a couple minutes or bring up task manager to watch when the process has been completed. Check the registry, file system, and Add/Remove programs. 1.3.1_03 isn't listed.

Go back to the registry and change

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\CurrentVersion=1.4

to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\CurrentVersion=1.3

Re-run the self extracting setup silently again. Wait a couple minutes or bring up task manager to monitor the process. When the process is completed check the registry, file system, and Add/Remove programs. This time you *will* find that the 1.3.1_03 JRE was installed.

Uninstall 1.3.1_03 from the system. Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\CurrentVersion

and make sure that it equals 1.4.

Re-run the self extracting executable but this time do not use the silent switches. The install will proceed normally and complete without error. Check the registry, file system, and Add/Remove programs. You will find that 1.3.1_03 was successfully installed.
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