LabVIEW
"Additional installers" location after using NI Package Manager
So at the moment I have managed to somehow delete all of my cached installers used when creating installers for exe's. (Yes it was a bonehead move, I don't want to talk about it 🙃)
I have LV2018 and 2020 installed. As best as I can remember I installed 2018 originally from a thumb drive but have updated it online several times, not to mention DAQmx or VISA drivers that got installed from who knows where. Basically... my "original installation media" is gone to the sands of time.
So, though I'd have preferred to install this using 2018, I decided to try installing it using LV 2020, but the Build Installer box is still asking for installation media. As best as I can remember I installed it using NIPM, so where do I tell it to go looking for installation media? I may have downloaded some ~5 Mb file from ni.com that triggered a larger download for LV2020 in NIPM, but either way I never downloaded a large installation file from anywhere.
What do I need to do to either 1- tell my builder to check with NIPM for the additional installers or 2- get NIPM to redownload my installation media somewhere I can find it?
(So protip learned from my bonehead move... don't delete your C:\National Instruments Downloads folder in its entirety if you ever want to build an installer again! Turns out those files aren't just taking up space! Also stay out of your cache folders... they exist for a reason!)
I haven't actually used a DVD for years- I usually use the downloadable installers, and sometimes the USB drive. Unfortunately that means I have a mix of installer locations, some from downloads and some from physical media. The times I have used physical media I have often installed updates from ni.com as well, so I don't know if those would still be "valid" anymore.
I've submitted a support ticket to NI but haven't heard back yet. I'll post here once I find a solution to straight NIPM installs.
So unfortunately NI support hasn't been able to understand my request yet and I'd really like to avoid reinstalling LabVIEW from physical media here...
Does anyone know more about the nipkg format used for NI Package Manager? Is there a way to let the application builder use the nipkg files saved by NIPM for its "original installation media"?
This is incredibly frustrating- you try to use NI Package Manager to install NI software, and there is literally zero information online about using the app builder when installed this way. This guide: https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019OIGSA2&l=en-US
gives you instructions for paths for every way *except* using NIPM.
@JoshuaP wrote:
I was under the impression that app builder would just use the NIPM cache of packages that get stored under C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\packages anytime you install a package.
Do you see the packages in that location?
Yes, there are a ton of packages in that location, and I'd have expected there was a cache somewhere, but I get this dialog when I try to build my app:
All I have selected here is the LV2020 64-bit runtime engine and DAQmx 20 runtime. I tried giving it both the package directory you linked and \ProgramData\National Instruments\MDF\ProductCache and it didn't accept those locations.
I fully, freely admit I likely have some corrupted LV installation or that some file got deleted somewhere, but the frustrating part is that your post (thank you by the way!!) is the ONLY place online that mentioned that 1- yes, NIPM *should* be able to use cached installers and 2- this is the location that should have the files you need. Simply knowing that NIPM *should* work this way is information that means it's probably my computer, which means it's fixable!
Seriously thank you for this nugget of information... it's giving me something to work towards 🙂
And as an update... it looks like all of the dependency errors are related to my DAQmx installation, as the installer WILL complete if I disable the DAQmx runtime installer.
OK, we're getting close! With the clues that it *should* use cached packages, and doing some poking, it looks like my LV2020 installation was done via NIPM but my DAQmx was done via some other method that I can't recall.
Removing the DAQmx runtime installer let me build an installer, so I did a "repair" on my DAQmx installation via NIPM, which successfully cached its installer. Now I have a much more limited list of "additional media":
It seems I have those things installed on my machine, but *not* via NIPM. Progress!
Also, it appears the installers are cached to C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\MDF\ProductCache.
