01088: BBj revision 5 Install FAQ

Title:

BBj revision 5 Install FAQ

Description:

Q: When I run the install on Unix, it runs in console mode even if I’m in a GUI session. Is this correct? 

A: The unxi.sh launcher script will check to see if the DISPLAY environment variable is set. If it is not set, the launcher will assume that you’re in a console session and will run the installer in console mode. If you are in a GUI session, setting the DISPLAY variable should solve the problem. For example, execute: export DISPLAY=:0.0 


Q: I’ve got a Java version 1.4 and a Java version 1.5 on my system. The installer always picks the 1.4 version, even though I’d rather it chose the version 1.5. How can I change this? 

A: The installer attempts to find the best Java available on the system via a series of platform hints. Various pieces of information are taken into consideration when determining which version of Java will be chosen. It’s likely that your PATH or JAVA_HOME environment variables point to the older version of Java, which affects the version of Java that will be used during the install. You can influence this decision process by setting the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the desired version of Java. Note that the JAVA_HOME variable should be set to the actual home directory of Java – not the bin directory where the java executable resides that’s underneath the base directory. 

Alternatively, it’s possible to force the selection of the JVM via a command line parameter to the installation: 

-is:javahome <Java home directory> 

This additional parameter specifies the home directory location of the JVM that should be used for the installation. The JVM that resides in the specified directory must be one of the JVMs supported by BASIS; otherwise this command line option has no effect. Example: 

Windows.exe -is:javahome “C:/j2sdk1.4.1_01” 


Q: How can I tell what JVM the installer is using? 

A: The installer displays the path of the JVM that it’s using in the Welcome Screen, which is shown at the beginning of the installation. 


Q: I ran the install, but there were errors during the installation process. How can I tell what went wrong? 

A: After the install, there should be log files for the installation process in the <TARGETDIR>/_inst directory. These logs detail information regarding the JVM decision process, the file copy routine, errors that occurred during the installation process, and an overview of the process in general. 


Q: When I check or uncheck the available components in a custom install, the CPU usage is high and the installer seems to be very sluggish. Is this normal? 

A: This is a known issue and we’ve reported it to InstallShield. 


Q: I’ve downloaded the BASIS IDE, but it’s not installed during a typical install, and when I goto a custom install it’s not listed as one of the available components. 

A: The BASIS IDE requires that a Java Development Kit (JDK) be installed in order to work properly. If the installation detects and uses a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) instead of a JDK, then the installer will not make the BASIS IDE component available. If you do have a JDK available on the system, you can influence the installer’s choice of JVM’s by setting the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the JDK home directory. 


Q: When I first ran the install, it installed normally. On subsequent installation attempts, the install proceeds very slowly and uses all of the CPU cycles. Why is this? 

A: This problem has been isolated to having an existing vpd.properties file from a previous install. There’s a problem with InstallShield in that subsequent installs (without first uninstalling the original) will take 10-20 times longer. The best remedy is to always uninstall before reinstalling. As a last-ditch effort you can rename or remove your existing vpd.properties file. Under Windows this file is kept in the Windows directory. On other operating systems it’s kept in the home directory of the user that installed BBj. Note that this is InstallShield’s registry file, and therefore is shared between all products that use InstallShield. Removing the file should only be done as a last resort as it may interfere with other products that are installed on the system. This problem has also been reported to InstallShield. 


Q: How do I uninstall BBj on Unix – do I just do an ‘rm -rf’ of the directory? 

A: The new InstallShield based installation includes a full-blown, cross-platform, GUI/CUI componentized uninstaller. You can launch the uninstaller under Windows from the normal “Add Remove Programs” Control Panel applet. Under other operating systems the uninstaller is located in the “<BBj-Install-Dir>/_uninst” directory and should be named “uninstaller.bin”. This is the preferred method of removing the product as it maintains the InstallShield registry’s entries as to which products are installed at what revision and where. While doing an ‘rm 
-rf” will remove the product, it will result in an out of synch vpd.properties file which can result in future installation complications. 

Q) Whenever I try to install a previous version of BBj, the installation program says that it cannot install a previous version of the product over a more recent version. How do I revert back to a previous version? 

A) In order to install a previous version, the more recent version must be completely uninstalled first. To do this, run the uninstallation routine from the Windows Add/Remove programs Control Panel applet, or from the uninstall script in the <BASIS HOME DIRECTORY>/bin directory. If a normal uninstallation is not possible (for example, if the product was removed via a ‘rm’ on UNIX), then you must remove or rename Installshield’s VPD files in order to proceed with the installation of the previous product. On Windows, rename the “C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Universal” directory to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Universal.backup”. On UNIX, rename the directory via ‘mv ~<username>/InstallShield ~<username>/InstallShield.backup’ where <username> corresponds to the user account that BBj was installed from. After renaming the appropriate directory, you ought to be able to proceed with the installation of the previous product. 

Last Modified: 11/16/2007 Product: BBj Operating System: All platforms

BASIS structures five components of their technology into the BBx Generations.