NI Update Service: communication problems

[YeOldeGeek]

I have found another issue with the update service. I have FieldPoint installed on my systems and the update service shows that an update to FieldPoint 6.0.11 is available. However I already have 6.0.11 installed and if I allow the update to download and attempt to install, it shows up as installed. MAX explorer shows that I have 6.0.11 too. This is true on two different computers. Since FieldPoint is working, it's not a big deal but I thought I'd make you aware of it.

[LaRisa]

Hi YeOldeGeek,

Can you tell me where you installed FieldPoint 6.0.11 from orginally? Did you get it in Update Service, from the August 2012 Device Drivers DVD, from the download page on ni.com, or somewhere else? I'd like to try reproducing this so we can figure out where in the update's display logic we're going wrong. In the meantime, if the update notification gets annoying, you can check the box that says "Do not display this update again."

Thanks! 

[YeOldeGeek]

Hi LaRisa,

I've been using FieldPoint since I first installed LabView 8.6 in 2008 I believe, so it's been updated several times in the past both from installation DVDs and by downloading the installer from NI.

I tried removing it in Control Panel and then restarting the computer and downloading and reinstalling it from update service but the result is the same. I also tried using the repair in the Windows control panel. Nothing I've tried changes the results.

I don't have any problem with it displaying in the update service since I know it works. I am seeing the same thing in a 32-bit XP Professional computer that I use as a target test system and my 32-bit Vista Professional laptop where I do development.

[LaRisa]

Hi joncook,

So the main error here appears to be: CryptAcquireContext returns 8009000b (NTE_BAD_KEY_STATE)

I found a couple articles from Microsoft that explain this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa379886(v=vs.85).aspx

NTE_BAD_KEY_STATE 0x8009000BL

The user password has changed since the private keys were encrypted.

http://www.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/microsoft.public.platformsdk.security/2004-02/0345.html

Is it possible that your admin changed the password for your user account? Or maybe the password was reset while you were already logged in or in the process of running Update Service? You could try logging off and back on, or changing your password yourself, before running Update Service again.

[LaRisa]

Hi YeOldeGeek,

I tried installing FieldPoint 6.0.10 and then updating to 6.0.11 via Update Service. Afterwards, the 6.0.11 no longer appears.

Since your system has a more complicated installation history, there's probably some old left-behind component that is making Update Service think FieldPoint isn't up-to-date.

Update Service determines what products are on your system by looking at GUIDs that NI products store in the Windows registry. It's possible that at some point the FieldPoint installer or uninstaller didn't clean up the registry entirely. If so, the FieldPoint product itself wouldn't have any issues, but Update Service would get confused.

I'd like to double-check whether this is something that happened specifically to your systems, or if it's something that other users with a similar installation history might run into. To help my investigation, can you please send me the following:

1.  An export of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\National Instruments\Common\Installer\Products from your Windows registry.
2.  A zip of your NI installation logs. On Windows 7 and Vista, these are in: C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\Installation Logs. On XP, I believe the path is: C:\All Users\Documents & Settings\Application Data\National Instruments\Installation Logs

Thanks so much!

[YeOldeGeek]

I have attached both documents for you from my XP machine. I hope it helps you.

[LaRisa]

Thank you very much! I found that the culprit is the FieldPoint 6.0.8f1 patch. Any user who ever installed that patch will have the same situation you're seeing. It should be easy to fix from our side of things. I just need to discuss it with the FieldPoint R&D team. We'll correct it in the next couple weeks, and then you won't see the 6.0.11 update anymore since you have 6.0.11 installed.

[YeOldeGeek]

Thank you too! I'm happy that I could help. I was getting ready to send you my logs from the Vista box but it seems that you don't need them. It's probably good too since that computer has a full installation and the registry keys portion is 20MB.

[joncook]

In my case the password has not been reset, but the domain has changed since I got this computer.  I was able to fix the problem by deleting the default key container and then running NI Update Service.  By the way, Microsoft discourages use of the default key container.  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alejacma/archive/2008/05/28/don-t-use-default-key-containers-if-possible.asp...

This is the code I used in the CVI interactive window to delete the default key container.

#include <windows.h>
#include <userint.h>
#include <Wincrypt.h>

static HCRYPTPROV hCryptProv = 0;

if (CryptAcquireContext(&hCryptProv, NULL, NULL, PROV_RSA_FULL, 0)==0){
    if (GetLastError() == NTE_BAD_KEY_STATE)
        CryptAcquireContext(&hCryptProv, NULL, NULL, PROV_RSA_FULL, CRYPT_DELETEKEYSET);
}else CryptReleaseContext(hCryptProv, 0);

I have read that I could delete the proper file under %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\ to delete the default key container, but since I didn't know which file to delete I came up with the code to delete the default key container.  Running the code did delete a file in that location.

[tobima]

Hello guys,

I'm currently trying to get a DIAdem 2011 installation work properly in China, but the updates always fail to download. For whatever reason (I suspect there is no ni-server anywhere near China) using NI-update-service the download speed is awfully slow (~1-2kb/s) and after some time, usually at 1% or 2%, the updater stops downloading and shows me a "communication problem" error. Could this be due to the very low transfer rate or is something else causing this problem? I need the updates LV2011SP1f2RTE and 2698 (NI-Sicherheitshinweis 5Q5FJ4QW) in German, but can't find a link to manuallay download it. I'm using NI-updater version 2.1.0.103.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!