Remko Weijnen's Blog (Remko's Blog)

About Virtualization, VDI, SBC, Application Compatibility and anything else I feel like


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Today I needed to script the installation of IBM System i Access for Windows (formerly called IBM Client Access).

With older versions of this client (up to 5.4) you could use the -r (record) installer switch to record the install in a setup.iss file but version 6.1 uses an MSI based installer.

IBM offers the client in a 2 DVD download but you probably only need the first dvd (dvd 1 has both the x86 and x64 installers, dvd 2 has the ia64 installer) which is a whopping 3,5 GB download.

Inside the download (a zip) is an iso file of which you will only need the files in the root and the Image32 or Image64a folder.

Inside the image folder are subfolders names MRI29xx where xx is a language identifier:

The following Identifiers are used: Read the rest of this entry »

  • 1 Comment
  • Filed under: Altiris, script
  • 6,324 views

    Altiris offers a Master Return code, a very usefull feature that is not used often I think. In this article I will explain why I find them usefull and we will implement a Master Return code for Installations that require a reboot.

    A Master Return code can be consired as a Global Action handler, whenever a job returns a specific error/return/result code this Global handler will be called (unless you override it in the job with another action).

    A perfect usage for a Global Action handler is installing MSI files that need I reboot. If you do nothing the system will be rebooted after the successfull installation and your job will return as failed with error 3010.

    Microsoft documents that 3010 means ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_REQUIRED: A restart is required to complete the install. This message is indicative of a success.

    To prevent the reboot we can pass REBOOT=ReallySurpress to the MSI but we still need to indicate to Altirs that 3010 actually means Success and that we need to reboot.

    Read the rest of this entry »

  • 2 Comments
  • Filed under: Altiris
  • 11,427 views

    After doing an unattended installation of the Citrix Online Plugin it was not possible to launch a Published Application.

    It would just give the error mesage: “citrix online plugin could not launch the requested published application”.

    Even though the installation finished without errors and the logfiles indicated no failure at all I was able to fix it by using 2 steps described in CTX123761.

    First install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package SP1 and the (re)deploy the Online Plugin adding a Transform called transform_notstrict.mst which can be found in the aforementioned KB Article.

  • 0 Comments
  • Filed under: Altiris, Citrix
  • 2,284 views

    Today I needed to package an applications that I was told was very simple. If I hear something like that my first thought is always “hmmm”.

    So I prepared a machine to build the package and followed the instructions which were to go to a specific URL and download the package (probably an ActiveX control from there).

    I opened the URL and immediately got an error message:

    The specified LICD is not available

    The error message 0x80004005 is not very helpfull since it stands for E_FAIL (winerror.h).

    Read the rest of this entry »

    5,015 views

    I was cleaning up some old data on my Hard Drive when I found a program I wrote about a year ago.

    At that time I was doing a project where I was deploying a Windows 2008 based Citrix Environment.

    I wanted to get rid of the new Personal Folders or User’s files icon on the Desktop and replace it with the familiar My Documents icon.

    Personal

    These settings are stored in the Registry under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{folder’s GUID}\ShellFolder.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    4,271 views

    As you probably know there are several different Folder Views in Windows Explorer:

    ExplorerView

    The Explorer keeps tracks of the last used View per Folder in the registry in the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags. This KB article sort of desribes this functionality.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    2,072 views

    Yesterday I was packaging an application called Kluwer Juridische Bibliotheek. When the user first starts this application a screen with the License Conditions pops up and it must be accepted:

    KluwerEULA

    I always try to remove such things as I don’t think it’s necessary for every user to accept it.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    1,142 views

    A few weeks ago I turned on my old Commodore Amiga A1200 which had been stored for 15 years or so.

    The idea was that my kids can use it as a game computer but tonight I couldn’t resist and I played some of the old games.

    Do you remember International Karate+?

    ik

    It’s still a very nice game to play with excellent gameplay even though it seems that my Suzo Arcade joystick has had it’s best time (Luckily I have a 2nd one somewhere but I can’t find it).

    I also noticed there is an online flash based clone of International Karate+.

    It’s not’s as good as the real thing especially in the gameplay but it’s done very well.

    1,237 views

    The previous post reminded me of my all time favourite knowledge base article from Compaq titled: “Where do I find the “Any” key on my keyboard?

    It’s still in archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/20070627063024/http://www29.compaq.com/falco/detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2859

  • 0 Comments
  • Filed under: General
  • 2,925 views

    Just had a good laugh while reading Microsoft KB article 2258090:

    When you try to copy a file that is larger than 2 GB over a Remote Desktop Services or a Terminal Services session through Clipboard Redirection (copy and paste) by using the RDP client 6.0 or a later version, the file is not copied. And, you do not receive an error message.

    Wow, did you ever (attempt to) copy such a large file in your Remote Desktop Session?

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