RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: BUG #18528: Installer displays error when installing

I have some more information to share on the installation issue.
I was able to find a partial work-around for the installation issue on the surface Pro 9 system running windows 10. (As a side note, the installation worked without issue on a laptop running windows 11.)

Once I started the installer, I waited for the first error message box to pop up that had the “Retry, Ignore, Cancel” option on it (while watching the user/appdata/local/temp folder.) Once the folder appeared, I ran the following command from an administrator command prompt window: takeown /F c:\users\USER\appdata\local\temp\postgresql_installer_XXXXXXXXXX (where XXXXXXXXXX is the hex value the installer used). After the command was run (choosing ‘y’ to accept), I clicked on the ‘Retry’ button of the message box. The installation was then able to proceed. I didn’t have any other issues until the end of the installer when I received a message box about a problem running post-install step, screen shot attached.
I also noticed several more postgresql_installer_xxxxxxxxxx folders were created, all with the same permissions problem.

It almost seems like the installer doesn’t recognize the hardware or something and not applying permissions correctly. I have Cygwin installed on the system and using it to get a listing of the folders that have the permission problem it lists the folder as owned by Administrators and the group of Domain Users. The actual permissions seen are “d---rwx---+” which is no permissions for user, read, write and execute for group, and no permissions for other.

I don’t know why the installer would put incorrect permissions on the folders it creates. I’m also assuming that the attached screen shot of the last error received is due to the same permissions problem for later steps in the install process that creates the additional folders.

One other piece of information is that looking at the permissions of the folder after I ran the takeown command on it, cygwin shows “drwxr-x---” with an “Unknown+User” and “Unknown+Group” but apparently it doesn’t care about who the user is, just the permissions that the OS has to follow.

I have also attached the log files generated during this partial work-around attempt.

Thanks,
Chris

From: Ware, Christopher M. (LARC-D318)[RSES]
Sent: Wednesday, July 3, 2024 8:12 AM
To: Sandeep Thakkar <sandeep(dot)thakkar(at)enterprisedb(dot)com>; pgsql-bugs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: BUG #18528: Installer displays error when installing

This is a newly purchased system. This is the first time I’ve tried to install PostgreSQL on it.
I initially tried to install 15.7 and when that failed I tried the 14 and 16 version installers. Both had the same behavior. I even tried the version 12 installer, but it also gave the same errors.

I had deleted all the previous directories that were created, so I had to run the install again this morning. Log file for this run is attached and the results for the icacls command is below.
I will add that in order to delete the directory/folder that the installer creates I have to double click the folder at which time it says I don’t have permissions and asks if I want to permanently grant permissions.

Output of the icacls command:
C:\Windows\system32>icacls c:\Users\cmware\AppData\Local\Temp\postgresql_installer_a879bd9971
c:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\postgresql_installer_a879bd9971 LA-3544-SPRO9-1\username:(F)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

C:\Windows\system32>

Thank you,
Chris

From: Sandeep Thakkar <sandeep(dot)thakkar(at)enterprisedb(dot)com<mailto:sandeep(dot)thakkar(at)enterprisedb(dot)com>>
Sent: Tuesday, July 2, 2024 10:42 PM
To: Ware, Christopher M. (LARC-D318)[RSES] <christopher(dot)m(dot)ware(at)nasa(dot)gov<mailto:christopher(dot)m(dot)ware(at)nasa(dot)gov>>; pgsql-bugs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org<mailto:pgsql-bugs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: BUG #18528: Installer displays error when installing

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Hi,

Thanks for the report. Can you please confirm if the earlier versions (<=15.6) were installed fine on this server?

The forward slashes usually work on windows as well. Could you please share the installation log which must have been created in the system temp with either the name installbuilder or install-postgresql?

Also, on the command line if you can please get the output of:
> icacls C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/Temp/postgresql_installer_f34465eff3

On Wed, Jul 3, 2024 at 1:13 AM PG Bug reporting form <noreply(at)postgresql(dot)org<mailto:noreply(at)postgresql(dot)org>> wrote:
The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference: 18528
Logged by: Chris Ware
Email address: christopher(dot)m(dot)ware(at)nasa(dot)gov<mailto:christopher(dot)m(dot)ware(at)nasa(dot)gov>
PostgreSQL version: 15.7
Operating system: Windows 11
Description:

This probably isn't the right place to submit this finding, but I couldn't
find any other place to submit it.
If this is not the correct forum for this kind of support, can you please
redirect me to the correct place?
I'm trying to install the PostgreSQL 15.7 installer onto a Microsoft Surface
Pro 9 running Windows 10.
I'm running as an administrator, and I've also clicked "Run as
Administrator" as well. I receive the following two errors:
1: "Error copying from packed archive
c:/Install/folder/postgresql-15.7.2-windows-x64.exe to
C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/Temp/postgresql_installer_f34465eff3/prerun_checks.vbs:Destination
not writable"
2. "There has been an error. system's temp folder is not writable by the
current user."

The error messages have forward slashes '/' instead of back slashes '\'.
Not sure it that makes a difference or not.
The installer does appear to work on Desktop type computers.
Since I am an administrator on the system and the installer is trying to
write files to the directory owned by this user, it seems to be a problem
with the installer on this type of hardware.

Any assistance is appreciated.
Chris

--
Sandeep Thakkar