Add systemstart task scripts to installer repo, fix bug #322

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T00:11:02Z

Fixes #106 -- should start at boot now.
These scripts are updated, and should be removed from the ka-lite repo... they do no good there!

commitmsg

Copy them, and instead of referencing the now defunct bin/windows/kalite.bat
script, use the included kalite.bat script in the ..\Python27\Scripts\ dir.

Copy them, and instead of referencing the now defunct bin/windows/kalite.bat script, use the included kalite.bat script in the ..\Python27\Scripts\ dir.

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T00:21:51Z

Check out this build to test it out!

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T00:22:00Z

@radinamatic let's give it a shot

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T00:43:22Z

Gottit! Downloading...

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T02:55:37Z

No luck, @MCGallaspy, at least on Windows 8:

I still get "Failed to create config file/option" alerts
Scheduled task is created correctly, and at least according to system, it is executed correctly too, but KA Lite does not run at startup.

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T13:59:25Z

Windows XP:

No "Failed to create config file/option" alerts
Scheduled task is created correctly, but KA Lite does not run at startup.

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T14:06:36Z

However, if I activate all three options and restart the machine, both KA Lite and server are started! :)

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T19:45:03Z

I still get "Failed to create config file/option" alerts

That's expected -- this only addresses the "start at boot" option

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T19:47:31Z

Windows 7 yields the same as result as 8: Scheduled task is created correctly, but KA Lite does not run at startup.

Under "Last Run results" it has (0x1) - not sure if that counts as "success", as it's different from tasks above it.

General

Triggers

Actions

Conditions

Settings

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T19:59:29Z

However, as noted before for XP, if I activate the "Run KA Lite when the user logs in" and restart, that task gives us the desired result (KA Lite is run at startup). Could this be a user problem?

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T20:12:28Z

if I activate the "Run KA Lite when the user logs in" and restart, that task gives us the desired result (KA Lite is run at startup).

Does it truly run when the system starts? Or just when that user logs in? I'm specifically trying to debug the "at system start" option. If the "when user logs in" options works ok, try logging in as a different user and seeing if it starts -- I do not expect it to.

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T20:14:22Z

You are probably right, I'll create another user (this one came with VM image by default), and check that out.

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T20:16:59Z

I'm attempting to install & replicate, but in the meantime it could be informative to run the script which the scheduled task is configured to run, to see if there is any error output.

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T20:40:50Z

Running (double clicking) kalite.bat opens and immediately closes the command prompt window, so to be able to see the output, I made a copy of the .bat file, edited it in Notepad adding @pause at the end and run it again. This is a output:

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T20:42:33Z

yeah, kalite.bat is meant to be run from the command line

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T22:07:55Z

Believe I know why, @radinamatic if you can confirm. During installation, we create the scheduled task using the script from this PR, which relies on expanding the variable %KALITE_SCRIPT_DIR%. But that variable is not expanded because the environment will not be updated until the setup exe exits. The result is a misconfigured scheduled task:

Note that the full path to the script is missing. Radina, can you confirm that post-installation, having checked the "start at system startup" option, that the scheduled task is misconfigured the same way it is here?

Don't use the external script, which relies on the expansion of KALITE_SCRIPT_DIR -- the env won't be updated until *after* the installer exits, so the scheduled task will be misconfigured. In the installer, create the task from the cmd line and fetch KALITE_SCRIPT_DIR directly from the registry.

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T22:34:36Z

My above "Actions" screenshot from W7 seems identical @MCGallaspy.
I restarted the W8 VM and this is what's inside the KA Lite task:

I'm gonna revert and do another fresh install, just in case I meddled with the above one.

radinamatic · 2015-12-18T23:03:41Z

After fresh install on W8, it seems the same as in your example @MCGallaspy:

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-18T23:53:46Z

Yeah, I see. I just submitted a patch, should be the latest build on bamboo. Let's try installing that one "fresh".

radinamatic · 2015-12-19T00:24:22Z

Ok, tomorrow I'll be testing build # 90 on all the machines, and report back! @MCGallaspy

Removes invalid option on removal, and suppresses prompt on add.

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-19T00:43:34Z

TODO: once this is merged, I need to modify the repos used on the build server.

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-19T01:01:46Z

Looking more closely at your screenshots, there's some bizarre options for the tasks (like only running when on AC power). Seems to be the default, however... Will address those here as well.

radinamatic · 2015-12-21T18:29:42Z

Win XP tested today with build #91, still no luck with start on boot... :(

windows/installer-source/KaliteSetupScript.iss

@@ -444,7 +444,7 @@ begin

            if StartupPage.SelectedValueIndex = 0 then
            begin
-                if ShellExec('open','guitools.vbs','4', ExpandConstant('{app}'), SW_HIDE, ewWaitUntilTerminated, StartupCode) then
+                if Exec(ExpandConstant('{cmd}'), '/C "schtasks /create /tn "KALite" /tr "\"{reg:HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment,KALITE_SCRIPT_DIR}\kalite.bat\" start" /sc onstart /ru SYSTEM"', '', SW_HIDE, ewWaitUntilTerminated, StartupCode) then


radinamatic · 2015-12-22T19:23:18Z

Regarding XP, though, seems that it's the only one that fills in the "Start in:" option of the "Actions" tab by default, from the script that you have in the installer, while Windows 7 & 8 have only the "Program/Script" option after the installation. So, a part from figuring out why that reg:HKLM fails to grab the value of KALITE_SCRIPT_DIR env var (and I did check, it is in the registry), try forcing the "Start in:" option, because it is mentioned on several places that I checked as a potential cause of scheduled task fail.

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-28T18:44:11Z

Looks like you've been busy, so I'm addressing comment by comment:

Re: #322 (comment)

The values enclosed in { & } should be expanded by IS -- but it seems they weren't. I'll double check. After installation finishes, what is the value of that registry key? You can check using regedit, and the path is given, i.e. the root key is HKLM, then System, etc, and you can follow it until you get to Environment.

radinamatic · 2015-12-28T18:48:12Z

If I recall well, the value of the registry key was the (correct) Python scripts path on that machine.

I'll fire up the VM and recheck.

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-28T18:56:09Z

I read up, looks like the registry value is set properly -- is it substituted correctly in the scheduled task on other version of Windows? In other words, does it fail to substitute only on XP?

You also mentioned that you added C:\Python27\Scripts to your PATH, and the scheduled task ran properly -- did you edit the scheduled task prior to changing the PATH value? In other words, there are four cases. Can you fill in the values in the table below?

	bad schtask	good schtask
Scripts dir in PATH	?	? .
*Scripts dir not* in PATH**	Does not work	?

Edit: By "bad schtask" I mean that the values in curly braces will not be substituted by Windows -- that's an error. They should be substituted by IS when the schtask is created during installation.

Edit edit: Substitution syntax for IS

radinamatic · 2015-12-28T19:10:05Z

Yes, registry value is set correctly on all versions (XP, 7, 8), and No, it's not substituted correctly in scheduled task, so Yes, task fails on all the versions.

I did not edit/add Python to the path, installer does that correctly, I just edited the task itself, substituting the unexpanded {...} in the task with C:\Python27\Scripts.

It might be in one of the links that I posted above, but there might have been a suggestion somewhere that in order for it to expand correctly, you must set the reg value type REG_EXPAND_SZ instead of REG_SZ.

radinamatic · 2015-12-28T19:21:30Z

Addendum to the above comment: C:\Python27\Scripts is added to the PATH IF the user ticks the appropriate checkbox during the installation. If they do not, or Python 2 is the sole one installed, it's not the problem, as it is taken by default. This only becomes a problem when there is a Python 3 in the mix too, and its path is added (see #296).

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-28T20:31:45Z

Okay, this latest commit should expand the constant if you picked the "Start at boot" option initially. We can test it out from this build: http://dungeon.learningequality.org:8085/browse/KL-KALITE016-WIN-93

radinamatic · 2015-12-28T22:10:07Z

Good news @MCGallaspy, so far it seems to be working on Windows 7, raising the Python process correctly upon restart... :)

I'll test on rest of the versions and report back!

radinamatic · 2015-12-29T02:38:39Z

We are not out of the woods just yet... :(

Build # 93 Worked flawlessly on Windows 7 & 8, but not on XP. Scheduled task seems OK (C:\Python27\Scripts is expanded correctly), but Python process is not raised, and server never starts. kalite.bat works when run from Terminal.

I've been at this for a while, can't figure out why. If you have any ideas, yell!

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-29T18:34:23Z

It may be the user that the scheduled task is run as (SYSTEM) -- if it works when you run as yourself, can you try opening a cmd.exe prompt as SYSTEM (this option should be available from the "Run as..." context menu when you right click) then running kalite.bat to see what happens?

Edit: It might be helpful to check the scheduled tasks log. You can find instructions for viewing it on XP here: https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/agent_view_log.mspx?mfr=true

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-29T20:17:26Z

Yeah, after experimenting with it I think the solution is to run the scheduled task as a different user on XP only -- looking in to it.

radinamatic · 2015-12-30T16:56:09Z

If I try to open cmd.exe prompt from the "Run as...", I don't get to choose SYSTEM, it's not available as an option. There is only "Administrator" user alongside the default VM user, and if I choose it, it demands a password that I'm unaware of (VM only offers password for the default user).

Scheduled tasks log shows the following:

"KALite.job" (kalite.bat)
    Finished 12/30/2015 8:29:37 AM
    Result: The task completed with an exit code of (1).

1 or 0x1 exit code implies incorrect or unknown function called, if I recall well. Could it be the that the argument start is not passed correctly? In XP it does not have a separate field in the task properties window as for 7 or 8.

MCGallaspy · 2015-12-30T18:13:59Z

I'm not sure what the error code precisely means without looking at the output of the script, which I'm not really sure how to do. However, I found that when the task is run as a different user (not SYSTEM) then it works without error.

radinamatic · 2015-12-30T19:24:31Z

True, if I change the scheduled task (or make a new one) with Run as: set for the default VM user, task is executed correctly, python process is raised and server starts on boot no prob...

So does that mean that for XP we'll have to configure the installer to run kalite.bat task set for the logged-in user?

MCGallaspy · 2016-01-04T23:19:38Z

@radinamatic okay, this should start the task in Windows XP. For XP only, the scheduled task is set to run as the installing user -- in this case it should be the admin, since the installer is run with elevated privileges. I'm afraid this might make upgrading on XP a little tricky, since it may mean moving files from one location to another. But for later versions of Windows, this should introduce no change. If this works well for a regular install, then I'll merge this and we can begin testing upgrade scenarios, with an emphasis on XP.

radinamatic · 2016-01-04T23:24:46Z

Ok, waiting on build # 94 to test this @MCGallaspy.

radinamatic · 2016-01-05T02:18:07Z

Build # 94 seems to be problematic only on XP, on Windows 7 installer finishes correctly, and starts the server Ok on restart.

MCGallaspy · 2016-01-05T18:54:08Z

Yeah, on XP it prompts the user for a password.

MCGallaspy · 2016-01-05T20:15:43Z

I'm disabling the start at boot option from the task tray program on XP. Shortly I'll remove the option from the installer.

MCGallaspy · 2016-01-05T20:59:14Z

@radinamatic I'm merging this so we can start working on #321.

Add systemstart task scripts to installer repo, fix bug

Add systemstart task scripts to installer repo, fix bug

c02c12a

Copy them, and instead of referencing the now defunct bin/windows/kalite.bat script, use the included kalite.bat script in the ..\Python27\Scripts\ dir.

MCGallaspy added the bug label Dec 18, 2015

MCGallaspy added this to the 0.16.0 milestone Dec 18, 2015

MCGallaspy added the has PR label Dec 18, 2015

Amend startup task scripts

0ea255e

Removes invalid option on removal, and suppresses prompt on add.

MCGallaspy mentioned this pull request Dec 19, 2015

Finally remove batch scripts; moved to installers repo learningequality/ka-lite#4771

Merged

radinamatic reviewed Dec 21, 2015
View reviewed changes

ExpandConstant required in setup script

ee6ad20

Create sched task as current user on XP during install

ce20f22

MCGallaspy mentioned this pull request Jan 5, 2016

Failed to create config file/option alerts on Windows installer #321

Closed

MCGallaspy added 2 commits January 5, 2016 12:19

Make add_systemstart_task conditional; disable on XP

bd49ff2

Add warning to installer about start at boot option on XP

86a94b0

MCGallaspy force-pushed the 106-start-at-boot branch from 7e6b3ee to 86a94b0 Compare January 5, 2016 20:31

MCGallaspy added a commit that referenced this pull request Jan 5, 2016

Merge pull request #322 from MCGallaspy/106-start-at-boot

abdad1e

Add systemstart task scripts to installer repo, fix bug

MCGallaspy merged commit abdad1e into learningequality:develop Jan 5, 2016

MCGallaspy removed the has PR label Jan 5, 2016

benjaoming mentioned this pull request Aug 2, 2016

KA-Lite server does not start on boot after option selected post installation #106

Closed

Add systemstart task scripts to installer repo, fix bug #322

Add systemstart task scripts to installer repo, fix bug #322

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