Installing Internet Toolkit - Mac OS X

[sth]

When I try to launch the installer for the Internet Toolkit 6.0 (Version lists as 8.20), the installer refuses to launch and throws an error into my console log.

Volumes/ASL_FALL06_ExDev/LabVIEW Internet Toolkit/MacOSX/Internet Toolkit 6.0/Contents/MacOS/Internet Toolkit 6.0[20643] Launch failed with error code -2857 (cfragCFragRsrcErr) for application /Volumes/ASL_FALL06_ExDev/LabVIEW Internet Toolkit/MacOSX/Internet Toolkit 6.0/Contents/MacOS/Internet Toolkit 6.0
Nov 30 15:48:14 sthMac /Volumes/ASL_FALL06_ExDev/LabVIEW Internet Toolkit/MacOSX/Internet Toolkit 6.0/Contents/MacOS/Internet Toolkit 6.0: launch failed with error code -2857 (cfragCFragRsrcErr) for application /Volumes/ASL_FALL06_ExDev/LabVIEW Internet Toolkit/MacOSX/Internet Toolkit 6.0/Contents/MacOS/Internet Toolkit 6.0\n

Even copying the installer to a hard disk and trying to install from there gives the same error (with a different path).

Corrupted DVD? Nope, this happens on two different installation DVDs. DVD is labeled "NI Academic Site License Fall 2006", labeled Windows 2000/XP but Lo and Behold it has Mac OS X and Linux installers on it!!! Part #501448A-093

As added pointer there is a file at the top level of the package that is of zero length and has no resource fork either!!! A SWAG (Scientific Wild A** Guess) would be that somehow the resource forks got transferred to a winders machine to make the DVD and were deleted. Rant below would have fixed that!!

NOTE: OS X, 10.4.8 & LabVIEW 8.20

<RANT>
LabVIEW has used inferior installers since the "drag installer" of long ago. Now using the MindVISION VISE is not much better! Using the native installer is trivial to make robust packages that install very well. *SOME* groups at NI get this. The folks who put together the VI Analyzer toolkit did it right!!
</RANT>

[NIJanell]

Hello STH,

This is interesting - thanks for letting us know.  Since reading your post, I have tried installing the internet toolkit from our network server and from the CD titled NI Academic Site License LabVIEW Toolkit CD for Macintosh - both with success.  That is part #501448A-123.  As a workaround, I would highly suggest trying to install the toolkit from that CD.

I will try and install it from the Extended Development Suite DVD first thing Monday morning - have a great weekend!

Janell R | Applications Engineer

[sth]

Yes, thanks, I found it on that CD, I should have remembered it is under "enterprise toolkit". Since that CD is dated "Toolkits_May_04" it still works. A little old but if you look in the package contents the corrupted zero length file that is on the DVD, is an alias on the Mac. It has been corrupted in the transfer to DVD. If you file a CAR on this, please let me know the number for tracking. Thanks for finding the work around so quickly.

Do you know if the to versions of the toolkit are the same? There was a bug in the old Mac version and I was hoping it was fixed in the new one. Or if there is a new one. I guess I will dig out my patches and post a bug report.

Thanks, Have a great weekend!

-Scott

[NIJanell]

Hello Scott,

Yes - the two versions are the same - they should both be version 6.0.  This was reported to R&D (443GEQK8) for further investigation.

As far as the installation on that DVD - I was able to reproduce your issue, but it is expected behavior.  The DVD was created to be used with Windows only.  If you place the disc in a Windows machine, you will notice that it pops-up an installer - however, on a Mac, you must browse through the DVD to find this alias file, meaning that the installer itself never runs.  To prevent this issue, you can consult the documentation at the front of the academic site license which will direct you to the correct disc for Mac toolkits.

Happy Holidays!

Janell R | Applications Engineer

[sth]

So on that DVD all the Mac installers and the linux files that are in the directories labeled Mac and linux are not really there? 🙂

Now why would a windows only installer need all the Mac and Linux files?

[Darren]

I'm just guessing here, Scott, but I imagine they simply copied the contents of the Internet Toolkit CD to the DVD...the Internet Toolkit CD contains the installers for the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of the toolkit.

-D

[NIJanell]

Yep Darren, you are exactly right.

[sth]

Darren,

That was my guess as well. The corruption comes since the copy was not done "correctly" and one of the Mac files had a resource fork stripped. There are ways to copy and burn a DVD in a compatible manner. It was not done here. This gets back to my constant gripe about the installer technology used for the various toolkits. Some use installer vise (ugh), some may still use the classic drag installer (but I hope not!) and some use the built in OS X installer that seems to work much better. Since the windows folks use the built in MSI installer files, the Mac files should use the OS X installer which would automatically deal with this "resource fork" problem.

But that would require that NI be consistent about packaging toolkits. Not going to happen. 🙂

[Chris_Cilino]

This was reported to R&D (# 443GEQK8) for further investigation.

This notification posted for tracking purposes.

Chris C