Re: Root Windows install query

Hi Tom,

Tom Roberts wrote:
> On Windows, I see that Root can be installed either via a standard .MSI
> installer, or via a tarball (using Cygwin). I am interested in the former.
>
> I am trying to prepare a Windows installer for my own open-source
> program, and have been having problems related to the Microsoft VC++
> Runtime .DLL-s.
>
> First: How do you create that .MSI package? We have been trialing a
> program called "Advanced Installer" which creates it, but are not
> completely happy with it (too many rather artificial limitations).

We use WiX, MS's one and only sourceforge project. Check wix.sf.net. It's featureful but horrible to maintain (needs XML as input), so we have a set of scripts + a Makefile + a program that create the WiX config file. We needed a fully scriptable solution for it to work as a Makefile target.

> Second: how do you expect users to know enough to obtain the VC++
> runtime .DLL-s? I see they are available on the "Root Download" webpage,
> but in my experience many Windows users won't be able to figure out
> what's wrong (MS doesn't help, giving users no clue why the program
> won't run). In my tests on 6 different Windows systems, 4 already had
> them but 2 did not.

We haven't had many users (two?) that ran into this problem and told us. Presumably because most of them install MSVC, too, to be able to compile their code, e.g. using ACLiC. But you're of course right; they should be part of the installer. I'll change that, maybe even for the next release.

> Any help or suggestions on building a Windows installer would be
> appreciated.

WiX does it all, but it's hard to setup. If you can use a GUI, you could try Click-Through, which is a GUI add-on to WiX, and presumably a lot easier to use. Or even the MSVC add-in Votive. They're all available at wix.sf.net.

Good luck!
Cheers, Axel. Received on Mon Feb 05 2007 - 00:18:15 CET