topic Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7 in Installation & Licensing Forum

Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 14:10:58 GMT

I am working on a deployment of Autocad LT 2020 to existing machines which may or may not already have Autocad 2019 installed. Our control script attempts to remove any older versions of Autocad LT but I have been unable to locate any information on how to silently uninstall Autodesk Licensing. I have used the installation commands and sequence recorded in the SCCM deployment information folder to manage the install, and this consistently fails on Windows 10 when running the command line:

"<path>\Img\x86\AdskLicensing\AdskLicensing-installer.exe" --mode unattended --unattendedmodeui none

The error code returned is 1. Unfortunately, this command line does not have any logging capability included, unlike all the MSI installation commands, so there is no useful clue as to what exactly is failing.

The test VMs are running the latest builds and updates for both Win 7 and Win 10, with Win 10 being on 1809 major build level.

What I need is the full list of command line switches for AdskLicensing-installer.exe including any silent uninstall switches in case the error is caused by a previous version being already installed.

Thanks in advance for any help in this matter!

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

pendean — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 14:26:21 GMT

Do your Win7 seats meet this specific Win7OS requirement listed here https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-lt/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirements-for-AutoCAD-LT-2020.html

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 14:33:27 GMT

My problem is with Win 10 and not Win 7, but the virtual machines I am testing on are identically configured, and Autocad LT 2019 runs on both without issue. Autocad LT 2020 runs on Win 7 without issue, but the licensing installer barfs on windows 10 and not Windows 7. If there is a way of logging the installation of this EXE then that might help determine the issue.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

fenton_webb — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 21:22:32 GMT

See if you can find a AdskLicensingService.log - it may reveal the problem at hand...

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 06:27:51 GMT

I do have exact the same problem on Windows 10. Is there a solution available?

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 13:22:59 GMT

So the AdskLicensing-install.log has a clue to the problem:

Script stderr:
You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation.

Error running cmd /C mklink /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files/Autodesk Shared/AdskLicensing/Current" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files/Autodesk Shared/AdskLicensing/9.0.1.1462": You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation.
Problem running post-install step. Installation may not complete correctly
Error running cmd /C mklink /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files/Autodesk Shared/AdskLicensing/Current" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files/Autodesk Shared/AdskLicensing/9.0.1.1462": You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation.
Problem running post-install step. Installation may not complete correctly
Error running cmd /C mklink /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files/Autodesk Shared/AdskLicensing/Current" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files/Autodesk Shared/AdskLicensing/9.0.1.1462": You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation.
Log finished 04/17/2019 at 12:18:11

This is a little unexpected as the installation is being run by a local service with rights at least equivalent to admin if not higher.

This may be due to an enhanced security level on Win 10 compared to Win 7, but clearly further investigation is called for.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 14:40:41 GMT

Just to add to the above - I ran the same command line from an elevated command prompt, and it completed without error. This may suggest a security or context issue, or a timing issue.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Wed, 08 May 2019 15:34:19 GMT

Did you make any progress on this?

I'm trying to do a test install of AutoCAD 2020 in a VM and it is failing each time on the licence manager step. The OS is Windows 10 x64 and I'm using the 64-bit installer of the standalone licence. This is the only forum post I've found that describes the issue I'm having.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Wed, 08 May 2019 16:03:31 GMT

I am working on this at the moment. What I have established, within our
environment, is that my Acad LT 2020 deployment works fine when
installed on a clean build of Windows 7 or Windows 10.
If ACad LT 2019 is installed, I have some code to uninstall the
different components of 2019 and then the 2020 install works fine on
Windows 7 but fails on Win 10.

The problem is clearly documented in the installation log for the
licensing manager, where an attempt by the installer to create a
junction directory fails, and the command it is trying to run is:

cmd /C mklink /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files/Autodesk
Shared/AdskLicensing/Current" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common
Files/Autodesk Shared/AdskLicensing/9.0.3.46"

Now the same command from an elevated command prompt works perfectly, so
it has to be something to do with the way that the command is run, or a
security setting.

The licensing command returns an exit code of 1 when it fails, so when I
detect this exit code, I try and run the mklink command directly. I've
tried with and without the cmd.exe bit and both fail.
I also went into the group policy settings, using GPEDIT.msc, and added
"System" to Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security
Settings/Local Policies/User Rights Assignment, where the default is
"Administrators".
That failed also, so I plan to try adding "Users" as a further test to
see if it is a policy setting or not.

One other thing I noticed - I had set up the junction point mapping
before running the install to see if it would allow the install to
proceed, but it fails once again, as the code appears to remove the
existing mapping before trying, and failing, to create the new junction
mapping. The other thing I may try is to add a delay in the code so
that when the license installer fails to create the junction point, I
impose a delay of several seconds before trying to run the MKLINK
program again.

So in summary, this is another piece of crap programming by Autodesk but
I doubt there will be any admission or action by them as they just
assume manual installation is always performed.

Hope this helps
Ed

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

fenton_webb — Wed, 08 May 2019 20:02:25 GMT

Can I confirm that you have all the latest sp's for 2020 installed? HINT: Use the Autodesk Desktop App

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Wed, 08 May 2019 21:04:31 GMT

I have downloaded and applied the latest version of the license manager
to no avail. Since the app install is broken it is not possible to use
the app manager

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

fenton_webb — Wed, 08 May 2019 22:02:12 GMT

Ah, sorry - the way to do it is from the AutoCAD setup - it should offer any available updates and allow you to download them to be included in the install... Does it offer any updates?

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2019 08:27:57 GMT

Hi Fenton.

When I create a deployment I get an error at the very end that says "Autodesk Application Manager is unable to complete a self-update request. Please retry". I can click OK and the deployment is created regardless but it doesn't work. There is an "Add updates" button but that does nothing other than close the installer window. I tried creating the deploymemt in a VM with the Windows firewall disabled and it still failed.

I then tried just doing a manual install to see what the problem was but it fails at the "Autodesk Licencing" step and rolls back. The installer says "Autodesk Licencing did not install (error code: 1)". The log says:

Installing Autodesk Licensing: "C:\Software\Extracted\AutoCAD_2020_English_win_64bit_dlm\x86\AdskLicensing\AdskLicensing-installer.exe" --mode unattended --unattendedmodeui none
Autodesk Licensing return code: 1
Install Autodesk Licensing Failed Installation aborted, Result=1
Installing Autodesk Licensing: "C:\Software\Extracted\AutoCAD_2020_English_win_64bit_dlm\x86\AdskLicensing\AdskLicensing-installer.exe" --mode unattended --unattendedmodeui none
Autodesk Licensing return code: 1
Install Autodesk Licensing Failed Installation aborted, Result=1

This is a VM with nothing but Office installed, built using our standard SCCM task sequence so it is representative of the PCs where AutoCAD will be installed.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2019 08:46:22 GMT

I believe that the clue to the issue may be connected to this thread:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/scriptcenter/en-US/fa51d7aa-5b21-4b51-94e1-6ccbc947544d/run-mklink-in-a-vbs-script-through-group-policy?forum=ITCG

Knowing Microsoft, they have not fixed this issue so that it can run reliably other than as Administrator. System context and user context have differences such as a lack of a user profile or insufficient permissions, but there also appears to be a bug beyond this.

So I believe that Autodesk need to review how they are coding the AdskLicensing-installer.exe as it is clear to me that the current solution is broken and does not work reliably in 100% of deployment scenarios.

As to whether I have the latest and greatest, the issue is explicitly with the AdskLicensing-Installer.exe program, and I have version 9.0.3.46 which was downloaded a few days ago from the Autodesk website. This exhibits the same issue as the one present in the "administrative install point" I created from the original installation download I was provided with, including any updates if offered.

The solution I am going to try next, is to run the AdskLicensing-installer.exe from a vbscript, so I can trap the Exit code of 1 which this reports when it fails, then create a physical folder instead of the symbolic link, and copy over the files from the folder that the symbolic link would point to.

For all experienced packagers out there - it looks as if Autodesk are trying to win Adobe's very long running crown for the Worst Untested Installer award. I say that with my 'rather limited' packaging experience of 30+ years.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2019 09:32:46 GMT

You might be onto something - I have the create symbolik links policy set here and I can create a symlink as a standard user but not as an admin. I've never noticed this before.

I wonder if removing that policy might allow admins to create symbolic links, which I presume is the standard behaviour? I'll do some testing.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2019 09:52:31 GMT

I've currently set the symbolic link policy, which has Administrators as
the only group by default, to include System, Users and Everyone groups.
This has not made any difference to the creation of a symbolic link by
the Autodesk Installer, so I am now testing a vbscript to do this
outside the Autodesk installer.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2019 10:59:22 GMT

On further testing, it would appear that symbolic links are only created when the command itself is run as administrator, at least on Windows 10 build 1809, so I am next going to scrap the symbolic link approach and just create the "Current" folder in vbscript and copy over the contents of the folder tree that would otherwise be linked via the symbolic link. This has to be done after the AdskLicense-installer.exe has errored out, as otherwise the folder gets deleted as part of the (failed) attempt to create a new symbolic link. It also has to be before the main Acad.msi install as this appears to check for the current folder.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2019 11:09:31 GMT

That's the same issue I get. It looks like an old bug you can find
discussed in Windows groups whereby the mklink command only works if you
run it as admin. System accounts or user accounts do not work. Changes
to group policy do not work either.

I've just remembered that there is also the "Junction" utility from MS
that I will try using instead.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2019 11:10:59 GMT

etippelt, you are a genius. I've finally got it to manually install so I assume the deployment will work too (I'll test that soon).

In my case it was indeed the policy "Create symbolic links" and seemingly a misunderstanding of it on my part. I had assumed that by adding users / groups to that policy that it would allow them to create symlinks as well as admins but that policy grants exclusive rights to only the defined users. All I had to do was add some relevant admin accounts and groups (the Administrator and SYSTEM user and a couple of our admin groups), logoff and logon for the policy to apply and the installer worked.

I never would have figured out the issue without some useful pointers from you so thank you very much.

As for Autodesk staff, it might be worth remembering that this policy can potentially cause issues with your installer if not configured correctly.

Re: Autocad LT 2020 installation errors on Win 10 but not Win 7

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2019 11:15:31 GMT

Let me know if you get it to work using SCCM or whatever system you use
for deployment, in which case can I double check the "path" of the
policy you modified, in case I was changing the policy in the wrong
location as this has not worked for me.