Nodejs installation fails when trying to install visualstudio2017-workload-vctools

[svdHero]

System

• Version: 14.5.0
• Platform: Windows Server 2012 R2

What steps will reproduce the bug?

1. Download latest Nodejs version here: https://nodejs.org/dist/v14.5.0/node-v14.5.0-x64.msi
2. Install the msi
3. Choose the option to install additional tools
4. Confirm the execution of the installation script
5. Wait until installation fails

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

Always fails at last step when Chocolatey trys to install visualstudio2017-workload-vctools. No condition required.

What is the expected behavior?

Installation just works and finishes without errors.

What do you see instead?

The error message:
Chocolatey_Error.txt
hinting at an "Error 0x80072: No internet connection"

Note that, despite the error message's suggestion, I have a reliable, high-bandwidth internet connection and do not experience any other internet problems.

Additional information

Unrelated to the problem, but I had to install the latest Powershell and tweak the Powershell version in install_tools.bat as described in #33140 in order to run the Chocolatey install. That worked before on my other Windows machine which has Windows 8.1 installed.

[bzoz]

What is your exact windows version (you can run winver to get it)

[svdHero]

winver says Microsoft Windows Server Version 6.3 (Build 9600) and Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter.

[bzoz]

Could you run the tools install script again (it should be in the start menu)? This might be just a temporary issue with choco.

[svdHero]

I had already run it five or six times throughout the day, before posting this issue here. No improvements.

[bzoz]

Tried it, works on my Windows Server 2012 R2 VM. I did get that big JSON error message about connection reliability, but VS2017 was installed anyway.

Could you try running from an elevated prompt:

choco upgrade -y visualstudio2017-workload-vctools

Also, could you check if your system is up-to-date? No pending updates, etc.?

[svdHero]

Thanks for your ongoing help. I tried your update command from a cmd run as admin. I still get the same error message:
Choco_Output.txt

I will check for pending updates later and report back to you.

[svdHero]

There were 2 updates and 5 optional updates pending. I installed them an run again. No improvement. Still the same error message.
This is my chocolatey log file from C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\logs\chocolatey.log:
chocolatey.log

Any ideas what to try next? I am kind of desperate to find a solution. This machine is our local build server and I am supposed to set up the build pipeline for future web development projects.

[svdHero]

@bzoz Do you happen to know how the file C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\visualstudio2017-workload-vctools\tools\ChocolateyInstall.ps1 looks like?
Maybe this could be related to #33140 and the above file also uses the wrong Powershell version swallowing some sort of TLS error?

[bzoz]

Hm.. now when I look at the log I see this:

2020-07-22T13:15:26 : Error : Failed to get product summaries. [installerId: SetupEngine, error: Please update Visual St
udio Installer before proceeding. at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.UpdateRequiredException: https://download.visualstudio
.microsoft.com/download/pr/067fd8d0-753e-4161-8780-dfa3e577839e/a40b395007864ee750dcc529f537c21c20488629236b01750526dece
23505319/vs_Setup.exe
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.ProductsProviderService.GetProductSummaries()]

2020-07-22T13:15:26 : Error : An installed product matching the following parameters cannot be found: installPath:  C:\P
rogram Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools

Do you have maybe other VS products installed? Maybe try running VS Installer - it should be in the start menu or in

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vs_installer.exe"

If this fails you can try manually installing VS2017.

[svdHero]

We have certainly Visual Studio 2019 installed and (maybe) Visual Studio 2013. I have to check the latter one, though...

[svdHero]

We certainly do not have Visual Studio 2017 installed. But I assume not everybody who wants to use nodejs should need a Visual Studio 2017 license, right?

[bzoz]

There is a free community edition.

You might not have VS2017 installed, but it shares the installation tool with other products. The error message looks like the installer complaining it is not up-to-date. Please check if you don't have anything in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer or some other VS product in the start menu.

[svdHero]

Okay, so there was Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools installed already. I have no idea why choco did not find it or what was wrong with it.
However, following your suggestion, I launched the VS Installer and installed Visual Studio C++ build tools manually.
Thankfully, this resulted in:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>choco upgrade -y visualstudio2017-workload-vctools
Chocolatey v0.10.15
Upgrading the following packages:
visualstudio2017-workload-vctools
By upgrading you accept licenses for the packages.
visualstudio2017-workload-vctools v1.3.2 is the latest version available based on your source(s).

Chocolatey upgraded 0/1 packages.
 See the log for details (C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\logs\chocolatey.log).

So in a nutshell: The original problem is still a mystery to me, but the manual installation did the job.
@bzoz: Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction.