Lightwave7.0 > 7.0b > 7.5 Grief

[Blubone]

HI all,

After my fifth or sixth attempt, I am finally starting to lose my patience with the installers......

I have installed 7.0 (thought the install shield mentions 7.0b) from the CD using the auto start from when the CD is inserted... Everything is fine...

I then try to install 7.0b web update, and here is where it goes wrong... If I choose 'modify' then I lose some of the contents of the programs folder, and if I choose 'repair' then I lose the whole Lightwave directory from my hard disk...

If I just try to install 7.5 over the top of the 'modify' 7.0b update then I get this error:

"Error 1706.No valid source could be found for product Lightwave 3D....." - Obviously due to the destruction from the 7.0b installer....

Any help here would be helpful. I took a look through the message board for the answer, but I couldn't find an answer to this specific question... but it does seem that people going from 7.5 to 7.5c have had this same wierdness...

Regards,
Aaron

[Aegis]

Dude, you don't have to do all that - just install 7.0 then 7.5c :)

[Blubone]

Hi Aegis,

I uninstalled what I had before so I was starting from scratch again, and then (for speed's sake) installed the compact version from the CD installer. (Assuming that it only leaves the 'content' directory out...)

But still the same error - "Error 1706.No valid source could be found for product Lightwave 3D....." I just dont get it.

Sure I can still use just 7.0, but on another 2K PC, and my OSX G4, I am running 7.5....

...walks off thinking what's wrong with his PC.....

[Blubone]

OK, somehow it seemed to install... I think it had something to do with starting up LW, then quitting, then quitting the hub....

Really strange, because I know I wasn't running the hub before when I tried to install - i.e: straight after a reboot...

So now that I have installed the app, shouldn't it say 7.5 in the title bar?

But at least it seemed to install, which is more positive. :)

[gjjackson]

When an install doesn't fully complete there may be setup files left in your temporary directory. If you quit or don't complete an install you should check that directory e.g. C:\temp. If some other applications are running they may have files there so be careful with it. Once Lightwave is running it uses the user's folder to store temp variables. I haven't checked but the Lightwave installer is the common installer I believe and will use then use the temp folder.

[Blubone]

Hi gjjackson,

Thanks for the reply. At the risk of sounding like an idiot (I'm more of a Mac head than a PC head at present...) - what do you mean? I looked in the temp folder and it didn't seem like there was anything pertaining to LW.... And after I installed the update that seemed to work, I did a restart to put everything as fresh as possible....

[gjjackson]

Originally posted by Blubone
Hi gjjackson,

Thanks for the reply. At the risk of sounding like an idiot (I'm more of a Mac head than a PC head at present...) - what do you mean? I looked in the temp folder and it didn't seem like there was anything pertaining to LW....

That very may well be. If software is written with a windows installer it will use the temp directory to store setup files while installing. These can be cab files, inf, ini files etc. As far as the MAC is concerned I wouldn't have the foggiest idea.

[ChrisS]

As you noted, lightwave/modeler need to be started and closed for updates and changes to be made to the config files.

I gotta admit though, the 7 series of updates and installs are very touchy with lost content etc...

Maybe that has more to do with the newer Windows installer than NewTek.

[Blubone]

Well as it stands, I might _maybe_ give it one more try... But 7.0 is better than nothing. But I would like to be consistent with the other computers on site...

ah well... we'll see :)

Thanks guys...

[Stewpot]

Hi Bluebone,

One thing I found happening with the 7.5c installer was that, it created a new Lightwave 7.0 directory, which meant I wasn't getting 7.5c working.

This meant I had the original Lightwave_3D_7.0 directory as per the disk installer, and a further Lightwave directory.

The way to overcome this is during the install process of 7.5c. Make sure it targets your Lightwave_3D_7.0 directory when given the option to choose. Don't just assume it will find it on its own.

Hope this helps.

[follejf]

I'm having the same install problems. I am writing this as I attack the problem, so bear with me. I launched the 7.5c intaller and lost all the content in my 7.5 folders. I haven't figured out what the heck is up with it either. Previously I got it working by uninstalling 7.5 then running the auto installer with a fresh 7.5. Next I loaded 7.5c, then configured my license.key file, then reinstalled all my plugins, etc. This worked for weeks, until I tried to load the 7.5c updated docs. When I checked the docs, they appeared unaffected, like there was no update, and I noticed my content was erased again.

So, without uninstalling Lightwave I renamed the Lightwave folder and started from the 7.5 cd. After the auto installer finished I had a new Lightwave directory. The LW docs won't open. I ran the 7.5c installer, then ran the 7.5c docs installer. My directories were empty again.

(insert grinding teeth sound here)
John

[mrunion]

Maybe I'm halucinating (sp?) here, but didn't someone say it might have something to do with selecting the options during an install?

I seem to remember that if you do a custom install and only select the "program" and not the content and extras, it actually erases anything that is already there and not selected. You have to pick the same options you installed 7.0 with (or just pick EVERYTHING) to make sure it all stays.

At least I *think* that is what's going on. The installer is more like a maintenance tool rather than just an installer.

[Blubone]

Hi again guys...

follejf: When I spoke to newtek europe's tech support regarding a licence key issue, he suggested NOT to go to 7.5c unless I specifially needed the features on offer... So I told myself that wouldn't go that direction... the way he said it sounded to me like there was something awry (sp?) with the installer... Other than that I cant help at all... but it seems like there is no hard and fast rule to the installs other than you have to open up the app so the the Hub goes online as ChrisS mentioned.

mrunion: Yeah I think I also read that in an older thread. but I am (at least I think I am) doing the right thing. Either just selecting the program or everything. niether seem to work too well. Also interestingly, I dont get the opportunity to choose what directory to install in for some reason... If it cant see the program by default, then it asks me to find it (but of course the directory is empty...) other than that it carries on as happy as Larry deleting files here and there...

Cheers.
BB

...still scratching head....

[follejf]

I'm using Windows XP, and I think I know how the system tripped me up. When I used the executeable installer file to update the docs, XP knew that it had already been installed. So it showed me 3 options: Modify, repair, or remove. The repair option verifies the files are where they should be and fixes accordingly (or so it should). Remove allows you to uninstall, and modify provides you with something like the custom choose list. The only way I could get the installs to work was to completely remove 7.5c, the 7.5c help files, and then remove 7.5. When I next ran the 7.5 cd install I saw the list change to: typical, compact, and custom (or something like that). I ran custom and installed all options. I repeated this for the 7.5c update, and the 7.5c help files and all is well.

I think that re-running the auto installer goofs us up when it sees that we have the files already installed. When I previously used the modify feature, I couldn't get at all the check boxes for all the options to set them, only the one file was visible. I think the auto installer leaves all the other hidden files unchecked and automatically removes them during the rest of the install process. This seems like an installer/modifier glitch that should be addressed by NewTek

Give 7.5c a try, it has a few nice features that may be useful to you.
John

[Blubone]

Out of interest - are you currently able to download the update?

I'm getting FTP refusals in both IE and Mozilla. The 7.5 update is OK, but the 7.5c update wont download to my neck of the woods....