v8.4 Windows XP install problem

Hello,

I have never used PostgreSQL before but I am very impressed with its features so I am thinking about making it our main database. But I am not able to install the latest version: "Error reading the ... Data/postgresql.conf". After my first unsuccessful install attempts several weeks back I have installed v8.3. Later I tried running its uninstaller, but it may have never got properly uninstalled, v8.3 services are still listed among the services. So there maybe some garbage left from previous unsuccessful install/uninstall attempts for v8.3 & v8.4. Still I would expect the installer to be able to run with some sort of override everything switch regardless what it can or cannot find on the target computer. PostgreSQL seems a well managed mature product, but the installer for v8.4 seems very shaky, which is beginning to scare me away. We need to install the engine to lots of computers. I need some good experiences soon.

The log file is attached, hope it helps.

Hello,

The log suggest, that initdb failed.

1) Which verison of installer you are using?
2) Can you please delete the existing data directory. i.e. D:\PostgreSQL\8.4\data and try again.
3) Did you have postgres user installed before you ran the installer.

We have seen such issues mainly due to the user not having proper privileges to read/write the directories in question.

Sachin_S,

1. First time when it failed probably postgresql-8.4.1-windows.exe, this time postgresql-8.4.1-1-windows.exe
Before asking for help I have searched the web and read this forum. so the log in he previouspost was created -->
2 with the Data dir having deleted.
3. one of the previous install attempts created the postgres user, but I have changed it to administrator.

Although the previous installs has been supposedly undone and the target dir is empty the installer starts assuming it is upgrading.

After manually removing PostgreSQL references from the registry, install starts as new install, but it still stops with the missing .conf file.

New log:

Hello,

Can you do the following steps:

1) Uninstall the existing installation using the uninstaller.

2) Delete the D:\PostgreSQL\8.4 directory.

3) Delete the postgres user. (net user postgres /delete)

4) Download the latest version installer from:
http://uploads.enterprisedb.com/download.php?file=4c7b9e77a185463ded4718e0a2de1f87

5) Install it with a user which has administrative privileges.

If this also fails, please post the installation log which has name "install-postgresql.log" found in your temp directory.

Sachin_S,

The problem remains the same.

1. Uninstall does not remove registry keys --> Reinstall always starts as upgrade.
2. it cannot locate the .conf file

3. Plus the new installer cannot be run twice: "A service (postgresql-8.4) already exists"

Hello,

If you have noticed the logs, the problem is not the same now:

initdb: could not open file "D:\DOCUME~1\USER~1.DEL\LOCALS~1\Temp\rad71D96.tmp" for reading: Permission denied

initdb: removing contents of data directory "D:/PostgreSQL/8.4/data"

Also from the log:
[15:32:33] Existing base directory: D:\PostgreSQL\8.4

[15:32:33] Existing data directory: D:\PostgreSQL\8.4\data

which suggest you are using an existing base and data directory, Please try to delete those or try to install in a new location.
Also after uninstallation, please try to reboot your system as some of the files are locked by the system and they get only deleted after a reboot.

Sorry for all the hassles here, as i cannot reproduce the issue here, its working fine on my WinXP 64 bit and 32 bit as well.

Well, I was pretty sure that I have removed the target dir before starting the install. Maybe the dir was locked and I did not realized it.

After clearing everything again and rebooting, went through the steps you have suggested again very carefully. This time there is no question that the target dir and the postgres user are completely removed.

1. On the surface it is still the same: missing .conf.

I have noticed that the path had "/" delimiters in the error message. Windows normally uses "\". Though this may be normal.

2. In the log file:
[20:41:11] Existing data directory: D:\Program Files/PostgreSQL/8.4/data

I am certain that the data dir was set to D:\PostgreSQL\8.4\data in the install. Notice the mixing of "\" and "/" again.

3. In the log file:
...
creating configuration files ... ok
creating template1 database in D:/PostgreSQL/8.4/data/base/1 ... The current directory is invalid.
child process exited with exit code 1

"/" again.
...

After the uninstallation, it seems the registry entries are not properly removed. Can you remove this entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PostgreSQL\Installations\postgresql-8.4

The installer picks the base and data directory values from it.

After this point, make sure, there is no directory as " D:\PostgreSQL" . (As i see, in one of the attempts initdb went a step further so that prompts me to start from absolutely clean state.)

Also in that attempt it fails due to permission issues of one file %TEMP%. So if possible clean that also.

I see no issues with 'postgres' user, so we can leave that as it is.

At this point, your system will not have anything installed by the installer except the 'postgres' user.

The mixing of '/' and '\' doesn't make any difference for the installer.

Now please run the installer again, from an user with administrative rights.
I would say this time please choose installation directory as "D:\pgsql" and data directory as "D:\pgsql\data" so that from logs we can confirm everything starts a fresh.

The problem in your case is that the initialization of cluster fails, and after that the rest of the installation just falls apart.
Unfortunately if the above steps also dint produce anything good, we have to try to create the cluster manually..

we are really sorry for the inconvenience...

Sachin_S,

Still no change.

I guess the problem starts here, but the log does not seem to be detailed enough to help to pinpoint the problem.

Can you make a list with the possible causes of failure at this point? We could try to walk this list to identify what is unique in my system that the installer is not able to handle yet.

Is this OK, should it not be owned by user "postgres"?

Forgot the log:

Try this command:

does this ends in the same error.

Sachin_S,

It did the trick, it is working now. Can you pinpoint the problem now based on the success of this command? It would be very useful for me to understand this, because as I have said before we will have to install the engine to lots of machines so we should be able to integrate a "silent" PG installer into our installer.

I appreciate your help, Thank You!

Hello,

Its really great that it worked out for you.

Can you send us details about your system windows version, hardware and any thing extra you did before installation.. also information about the user from which you are running the installer.
It can be possible, that there exist some cases which you just uncovered in the installer.

After knowing this, i can pinpoint what exactly was the problem..

We normally test in a environment which is very clean. i,e, a fresh installation of OS.

I am having the exact same problem.
I am also new and require postgreSQL for OpenBravoERP.

The installer did not appear to work. It presented the same error.
The uninstaller did not seem to work.
I tried the same steps and it seems to be working now.
There is a bug in both the installer and the uninstaller.
Just wanting to let you know this is not just one person affected.

Hello,

Can you give us a description of the machine and OS versions like any special User permissions, machine being part of any domain etc.?

Its really hard to rectify the issues specially when we cant reproduce the same on our end.

XPPro with the latest service pack and all updates.
Hardware is intel p4 2.8gig processor with 2 gig ram. 2 hard drives with 32 gig free space.
The user has full admin rights.
The first error I saw was when installing postgresql (pgs)-8.4.1-1-windows.exe.
During that install it initially seemed to create a postgres user but did not accept my entered password.
I had to go "manage" the user and reset the password to get past the page that asked for a password.
It then had an error at the end indicating it may not have installed correctly.
I then looked around and thought that it may have been my antivirus running. (Kaspirsky KIS 2010.
During the first install I was prompted many times to see if I wanted to allow PostgreSQL install to do something.
I allowed it each time.)

So then I looked to see if i could start and stop the service, login as the user. It seemed ok.
I then tried to install OpenBravoERP and it hangs on the last step creating ERP database. It sat there for 6 hours before I stopped it.

I then tried to uninstall both OpenBravoERP and this appeared to work, and then pgs but this did not seem to work. It claimed it was uninstalled yet there were still services running. Stopped the services, renamed the directory, restarted the system. Then ran a ccleaner and wiped out old files and invalid registry entries. Only one looked related to pgs.

I then found this thread and deleted the user, and downloaded the latest pgs installer version, and the little command (using English, Canada, and my install directory). This seemed to work as far as pgs. Just now running the OpenBravo install and it is at the same point as when it failed before but it appears to be still running so I am not sure if this has solved it or not.

What could I give you in the way of logs or debug information that will help you with this?

Here is the last section of an installation log (04war.log) for Openbravo.
The date on the file is 2:13pm so the installation was active at least until then.

buildAD:
[java] 0 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - strFileProperties: E:\OpenbravoERP\AppsOpenbravo\config/Openbravo.properties
[java] 31 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - javaDateFormat: dd-MM-yyyy
[java] 31 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - directory source: ../srcAD
[java] 31 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - directory destiny: E:\OpenbravoERP\AppsOpenbravo\build\javasqlc/src
[java] 31 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - file termination: .xsql
[java] 31 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - file connection: E:\OpenbravoERP\AppsOpenbravo\config/Openbravo.properties
[java] 31 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - Write TXT Files: false
[java] 31 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - Loading driver: org.postgresql.Driver
[java] 47 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - Driver loaded
[java] 531 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - connect made
[java] 593 [main] INFO org.openbravo.data.Sqlc - File: ..\srcAD\org\openbravo\erpCommon\reference\ActionButton_data.xsql processed

compileSqlc:
[javac] Compiling 1 source file to E:\OpenbravoERP\AppsOpenbravo\build\classes