Friday, May 16, 2008

Failed VS 2008 SP1 Beta Installation Indicates Success

The first of my two VS 2008 SP1 installations (so far) failed to install designer and template files for Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services Framework.

However, the failed installation indicated success in the setup dialog and in the setup log files and the Help | About Microsoft Visual Studio dialog doesn't include the expected Version 9.0.30428.1 SP1Beta1 line.

The failed installation had the Silverlight 2 SDK and Tools, as well as the KB949325 update, removed per the Important: SP1 Beta Installation Notes topic of Scott Guthrie's Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta post of 3/12/2008.

Update 5/18/2008: Problem Solved

I decided, like Mike Taulty, to start over from scratch by removing my VS 2008 RTM installation and the entire Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0 folder. I also removed the previously unremovable KB949325 and KB945855 HotFixes manually by deleting all their Registry references. Reinstalling VS 2008 RTM and SP1 Beta proceeded without a hitch and ADO.NET Entity Data Model and ADO.NET Data Services templates and libraries appeared and worked as expected.

Bug Report, Forum Post, and Commentary

Details are in a Microsoft Connect bug report, Install Reports Success But Doesn't Install ADO.NET Entity Data Model or Data Service Designer Files (344080) and a duplicate Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Beta)forum post. The bug report and post list the files and assemblies that installed and those that didn't.

Three people have validated the bug report.

Neils Berglund says in BUG: New installation of SQL 2008 CTP 6 fails for client tools and SSIS after installation of VS2K8 sp1:

Title says it all; after having installed VS 2008 sp1 and then trying to install SQL 2008 CTP 6; the installation fails for client tools and SSIS. The actual database engine installs OK - but that's about that.

Guys, this is really a beta - it is a long time since I have seen so much go wrong during and after installation of some software. I hope it will be sorted out. Me, I'm back to regular VS 2008 and .NET 3.5.

I believe Neils meant to say "Guys, this is really a pre-alpha."

Judging from the number of posts and bug reports about installation failures, the SP1 team appears to have released uncooked setup bits.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its now August - I had the same experiences, regretfully because I really wanted to start working with sqlsvr 2008, and the vs2k8 sp1 is part of that - maybe someone at microsoft will notice and get something that at least installs out the door...