I have built a WIX project which installs and starts services. For the release version it all seems to work fine but for the debug version I get "insufficient privileges to start service". Any clues why this is happening?
Using .net/Visual studio.
JD.
In my experience this error message is always misleading. Typically it's actually a fault of the service exe. With the messagebox displayed, go to a dos prompt and run the EXE. You'll most likely see a stack trace get displayed. If you see a File Not Found Exception then you are probably missing a dependency. Any other error and it's likely to just be a problem with the code.
Typically when integrating a new service into my installs I will set it to start automatically but not author any specific start events. This lets me work the kinks out with the developers before wiring it up fully into the installer.
Most probable cause: It works on computers that have (or have had) Visual Studio installed, because it means they have debug version of run-time libraries installed as well. It does not work on computers without Visual Studio.
Related
I've been debugging for a quite while the Windows Service I've been working with without any noticeable problems. I used to install it thourgh the installutil command and I was able to debug it (followed this MSDN tutorial).
Deploying the service to the production server meant so much pain in order to pack all dependencies, so I was encouraged to deploy it through some kind of installer.
Which one? "Quick and dirty" solution: Visual Studio installer
Everything is running fine until the point I needed to debug the installed server as I have been doing until now. I attach the Windows Service process but the debugger isn't stopping at my breakpoint.
What am I exactly missing?
While I was writing the question, I asked myself how did I configured the build properties. For my surprise, it was set to release.
I changed it to debug, uninstalled the service, installed it again and I finally had my service being debugged.
Bear in mind I always installed the service right-clicking on the project's name and clicking into "install". Seems this takes the installer placed on the specified build config.
Thing is this service is supposed to be installed uniquely on a production server. I was supposed to deploy always the release version in order to be completely clean and optimised, so I guess I will have to keep swapping this option, at least for my own workspace.
And yes, my installutil was pointing to debug build.
I develop C# applications using VS 2010 Ultimate.
Usually, those applications run for long time, without user interaction and, of course, they usually have bugs inside.
Unfortunately, often the application crashes randomly and you just can't reproduce the error. Also sometimes I only have the message "The application has stopped working" with no more informations.
I can install Visual Studio on the machine of the customer, but I can't let him run VS and compile/start the source code in debug mode! What I need is to start VS after the application was started and crashed. It seems to be possible to do this, in fact when an exception happens at runtime, Windows ask you "do you want to debug with VS?", but if I answer YES, then VS starts but simply I can't see the source code (it is on the pc as well), thus I can't inspect the row of code that is causing the exception. VS just tells me "source code not available". Actually, I can't imagine how Windows could start VS and know where the source code of the crashed application is!
Does anyone knows how does this debugging scenario is intended to work, and how to configure it??
Thanks a lot,
Simone
Windbg debugging tool solves the purpose.
Take dump of the process state and start analyzing with windbg. It gives you the exception information
To debug from an already-running Visual Studio instance, select the "Debug" menu item, then "Attach to Process..."
Next, select the executable from the list, press "Attach" (or double-click), and you are now debugging the application. When you select "Yes" and Windows says that source code is not available, this most likely means that the PDB wasn't able to be loaded, so make sure that you have loaded the symbols for the module by examining it in the "Modules" window pane.
If you want to catch errors while running compiled program, you should use some sort of logging mechanism. These days you don't have to write it on your own, there's a great opensource logging engine designed for .NET applications, it's called NLog. It's capable of saving logs into files, emails, console or database, pretty much all you can want :).
Hope this helps :)
I come to you because I'm desperate. I've developed a GTK# application in C# with the latest MonoDevelop. It's built for .NET framework 4.0 / x86, and the only external library it uses is the official Mysql .Net connector. It's meant to run under Windows XP.
It's the first application I make with this IDE. I was very happy with the results and the development time, but the deployment is a real headache.
It works perfectly on the development machine. The debug is clean. Everything's okay.
Then, as I couldn't find any information about the deployment, I installed a clean XP to try it and see what do I should install on the client's machine.
I've installed the SP3, .NET 4.0 and copied the release package with all the DLLs mentioned in the build log (that made it work outside the MonoDevelop in the development machine). But I'm getting a "the application has encountered a problem and needs to close" error, with no exception, in kernel32.dll, offset 0012aeb.
I've tried to install the .NET 3.5 before the 4.0, updated IE (just in case...), copied more GTK# and Monodevelop DLLs to the exe's folder, installed the Mysql .NET connector, installed Mono 2.8... But nothing. Still getting that unexplained error.
Google and StackOverflow searches didn't help me. I've researched and tried a lot of things in the last twelve hours or more without moving from this machine.
Do you have any advice? What can be causing it? Is there any way to debug the exe (without installing VS...)? Does anyone know what are all the dependencies of this kind of executable?
WinDbg can help you figuring some JIT trouble...
Even though it aint intuitive and require skills, Worth a try. might pop something up.
If it's meant to run under Windows, then you should probably compile it with the Visual C# compiler.
However, more related to your problem - get a debugger in your deployment machine and run the application on it. This is the best way to figure out the problem because we really can't guess it.
Mono Application Deployment Guidelines
There are several options to installing Visual Studio on your production machine, one of them is the Remote Debugging Monitor. It does not require a Visual Studio installation. You can copy the files from your development machine to your server. I've got them under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger.
You can also use it for Remote Debugging of a Project Built Locally.
I have a problem when I try to Run published Application. When I Run Release or Debug Version from VS (key F5) everything work well. So I try to publish my application (no problem). After this I Installed application by oneClick installer. Instalation was finished without problem, but when I try to run this installed application, I only see message: Program has Stop Working.
Please, does anybody know where should be a problem? It´s really wierd, I suppose, when the application run correctly from VS, then it Should run after installing to!? Or am I wrong?
Or is there some option to reset Publish settings in Visual Studio?
Thanks a lot!!!
It depends how you have ClickOnce setup, but the main reason this happens is the ClickOnce system encounters an error while checking for updates or running the .application from the remote location.
It should give you the option to see a log of the problem (or at least the nasty temp file it threw it in).
From here you can determine the problem ClickOnce is having.
Most Common Problems I would Suspect:
The User's having trouble communicating thier auth token / credentials to the web server the ClickOnce app is on.
There's another web-related issue downloading the app manifest or .application from the server
Group / Local Policy Problems
Broken install in on local machine's ClickOnce somewhere causing it to have problems overwriting on disk or finding an appropriate location to setup the clickonce package.
Broken install in on local machine's ClickOnce causing a GUID Conflict (I.e. your app and the broken install can't be upgraded, but share the same GUID)
Antivirus / Firewall blocking access to the web component from the executable clickonce deploy.
These are all the problems I've encountered with ClickOnce and the reasons we've primarily moved away from it to a Wix style installer.
I have been working on an application using .NET 4 and c# in Visual Studio 2010 Express. It's purpose is to watch a directory and import any documents it finds into our imaging system.
I included an installer class which provides the information needed by installutil.exe.
So to install locally, I build the solution, and then at command line:
installutil.exe MyProjectExecutable.exe
Which installs it as a service. This works fine in my development environment.
To deploy to the test environment, I use the same method:
installutil.exe MyProjectExecutable.exe.deploy
Except of course the executable has a second extension, .deploy. This is the way the application is published by Visual Studio. Everything works up tot his point
Here is the problem: once I have done this, I run the service and it starts properly, as indicated in the log file. However, once it detects files in the directory, the service will not do anything with them and will eventually crash. The only way I can tell it has crashed is to look in the windows Event Viewer. It will show the message:
"An unhandled win32 exception occurred in MyProjectExecutable.exe.deploy [4108]. Just-In-Time debugging this exception failed with the following error: Debugger could not be started because no user is logged on."
Two questions:
1) What could be causing this
2) Am I going through the correct steps to install a windows service, or is there a better way?
Both environments have .NET 4 installed.
In both environments I am placing the same documents in the import directory.
In both environments the service runs under the Local System account.
If my question reflects a lack of C# experience, my apologies in advance.
subscribe to AppDomain.UnhandledException Event
Are you watching a directory under 'Documents and Settings?' You mention that you're running under Local System, but is that in the C# code or in the Services Panel?
Start->Run
services.msc
< Find your App >
Right-click, Properties
Log On Tab
Log On As
This Account
< Plug in a user / pass with permissions >
In my experience this it is always a security problem. Check the rights that the service running user has. Can it access the folders you are monitoring and make the needed changes?
I have found the problem. in the config file, the listen directory was "c" whereas it should have been "C". Until now, I didn't think Windows was case-sensitive. Thanks for the help guys.