How to merge two msi files into one installation

[y2k]

I have two msi files which are related (one is Acrobat Reader, antoher is
East Asian fonts for Acrobat Reader). I want to deploy both at the same
time, using Group Policy. I tried doing an admin install for both to the
same location, but that didn't help. I also tried doing a nested msi, but
that didn't work either (althougth I see now that this has been deprecated
anyway). is there any way at all I can "merge" these somehow? All I want to
do is run the main acrobat reader msi and then somehow call the second one.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

I have come across this problem before. Software called SPSS v14. They
released the main software, then a patch, then a hotfix, but instead of
supplying MSP files, they only supplied "client" MSI files.

I tried an Admin install, and although the binaries would udpate, the
things like registry keys did not work.

In the end I simply chained the three damn things together using
ECMAScript, and put error checking after each.

--
Gerry Hickman (London UK)

[y2k]

Gerry, thanks so much for your reply. I was beginning to think I was the
only one with this problem :-) I think maybe "chanining" them together might
not be such a good idea anyway as it would probably cause problems when
removing them.

Can I ask you one other question? Seing that an MSI file is a database, how
does it store other files, like dll's etc? If I do an admin install of the
East Asian fonts (there's just an MSI file, no other .cab files etc) then I
end up with some reg and font files also. So where do these come from?

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

> Gerry, thanks so much for your reply. I was beginning to think I was the
> only one with this problem :-) I think maybe "chanining" them together might
> not be such a good idea anyway as it would probably cause problems when
> removing them.

Yes, I forgot to mention this. I had to create an uninstaller that
uninstalls them in exact reverse order. It's worth getting used to this,
as you can use it for other software later.

When ever I install anything these days, I always do a test uninstall
_before_ I roll it out to the network. I got caught out with Flash 8
when it's uninstaller would throw up a modal dialog even if MSI was
running silent.

> Can I ask you one other question? Seing that an MSI file is a database, how
> does it store other files, like dll's etc?

I don't know, I think sometimes they are embedded in the MSI itself, and
other times they can reside in an external CAB file.

[y2k]

Thanks again for the replies.

> I had to create an uninstaller that uninstalls them in exact reverse order

I'm not really a hardcore programming guy - so when you say you created an
uninstaller, was this an MSI or an executible?

Thanks for the tip abotu the test uninstall too. Good to know as we're
starting to rollout more and more apps here using Group Policy instead of
manual installs.

[y2k]

[Nick Heim]

Hi y2k,
are we talking about this stuff here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrasianfontpack.html
?
If yes, be aware, that they do not install with Reader 8.
You have several approaches to this:
1. Just chain this MSI's up in one GPO.
2. Put them in a Transform with copy/paste using ORCA.
(you need to copy the Component, Directory, Feature,
FeatureComponents, File, Media, MSIFileHash and Registry tables).
3. Use nested installs, but this is not supported by MS anymore.
4. You could use a MSI Tool like Wise and open the Reader MSI file,
create a new transform and add the files
and regkeys to it. That's similar to P:2, but Wise would do some MSI
stuff for you.
5. You could make Merge Modules of the font pack MSI's and add them to
the Reader MSI. See:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367783.aspx

Hope, this gives you some ideas.
Regards, Nick

[y2k]

Thanks for the reply Nick, just one or two questions:

> If yes, be aware, that they do not install with Reader 8.

How do you mean exactly they don't install with reader 8? You mean they
don't install automatically? I've downloaded the East Asian fonts for
Acrobat 8 and installed it manually - so it does work. Think maybe I
mis-understood something here?!

>1. Just chain this MSI's up in one GPO.

How do you mean exactly by "chain" them up in one GPO? I've noticed
recently (after a bit of googling) that they generally get installed in the
order they were added into the MSI anyway. Is that what you mean? ie add
them into the GPO in the order they should be installed?

>2. Put them in a Transform with copy/paste using ORCA.

You mean I can put stuff in the transform to call another msi after the
first one is finished? Or have I missed something here too?!

Thanks for the link on the MSM modules. That should come in useful
sometime. Sorry about all the questions, and thanks for your patience, but
this is the kind of stuff that you don't learn in Class Rooms, and it's only
now that we've finally started pushing out applications via Group Policy
instead of manually installing them that I'm coming across this stuff

Thanks again

[Nick Heim]

Hi y2k,
where did you get "East Asian fonts for Acrobat 8"? Can you give me
the link, please.
Maybe i missed the actual version, so get on hold with question 1.
The chaining in the GPO work pretty well. I use it all the time. That
would be easiest.
And if there are built in dependency in a MSI, it fails and tries to
install at next reboot.

> >2. Put them in a Transform with copy/paste using ORCA.

Here, i meant, alter all the necessary tables in the main MSI, e.g.
adding files and reg keys.
You have to know the structure of a MSI quite well, to do it like
this.

Regards, Nick

[y2k]

Hi Nick,

Sorry for the late reply, I had to leave this for a few days while I worked
on some other stuff. Sorry, the font pack is called Japanese Font Pack (or
something like that) - not East Asian font pack as I said. However, it's for
version 8 not 7. As far as I remember, I didn't download it from a link, I
just installed Adobe Reader 8, checked for updates and then grabbed the file.

Anyway, I done your suggested method or merging those tables into the
original MSI and then adding the files into the MST. It worked a treat,
thanks so much - really appreciated. The main reason I wanted to deploy them
together is because if the japanese font pack failed, then users wouldn't be
able to view japanese pdf's until next time they restarted ... which they
woudln't accept !!

One final question - the files from the Japanese Font pack, which I put into
the mst - would it be possible to put them into a cab file instead? Or
preferably into the existing cab file (the one that the adobe reader uses for
installation). Would the msi require much more editing to do that?

Thanks again for your help, and to Gerry too. Much appreciated.

[y2k]

I partially figured out how to do this. I extracted the Data1.cab file from
the Japanse Fonts installer, and then created a new Data3.cab file, and
changed the media table. But it doesn't seem to work. Anyway, I thought
seing that it's not really related to the initial issue, I created a new
post. Thanks again for your help on this