211694 - final 1.4 does not start after clean install on NT4!!!

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 195600

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Ivan Tarapcik]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 4.0; Q312461)
Build Identifier: 1.4 final

see bellow:

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. delete c:\program files\mozilla.org\mozilla
2. delete all mozilla and mozilla.org under HKLM\software an HKCU\software
3. install mozilla 1.4 final

Actual Results:  
when you try to lanuch mozilla, nothing happens

Expected Results:  
mozilla should start :)

no talkback, no stack trace, no error - process just exits immediately.

really shame when this happens to final version! :(((((

Comment 1

[Ivan Tarapcik]

after some monitoring of registry request of mozilla.exe i found, following key
was missing in my registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\mozilla.org\GRE\1.4f_2003062408]
"GreHome"="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\mozilla.org\\GRE\\1.4f_2003062408\\"

This happen since I remomed registry keys and \program files\mozilla.org, but
did not delete \program files\common files\mozilla.org.

Installer thus found GRE installed and did not check registry.

Anyway, I still think this is a bug in installer and should be fixed. (As an
ordinary user I should be able to reapair installation by reinstall any time, no
matter what dirty things I did to my files or registry.)

Lowering severity to 'Major'.

Comment 2

[Olivier Cahagne]

did you also delete your mozilla.org profile directory ? see where to find it
here (for NT):
http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla1.4/installation.html#files_profiles

Comment 3

[Ivan Tarapcik]

No, I did not delete profile (since i did not want to). I just wanted to be sure
I have no mixtrure of several mozilla versions on disk, since I used beta and RC
versions before.

Comment 4

[Olivier Cahagne]

does a fresh profile work ? "mozilla -profilemanager"

Comment 5

[Ivan Tarapcik]

Olivier did you read my commnet #1? I did not write it explicitely, but after I
inserted missing variable to registry (or deleted GRE and reinstalled - same
effect), mozilla works for me.

Comment 6

[Berend de Boer]

Had the same problem. Removing /Program Files/Common Files/mozilla.org did the 
trick. I now saw a message that Gecko was being installed, which I didn't see 
before I think.

Comment 7

[Federico Tello Gentile]

I have the same problem. If I unistall mozilla 1.3 and install 1.4, it shows the
slash screen and goes away.
The same after a windows98 reinstalation. Allways.

Only workaround is to install1 1.3, and use it for a  while (maybe restarting
windows?) and installinf 1.4 on top.

Comment 8

[Federico Tello Gentile]

More on this: This bug is a present in Windows NT, 98 and XP. Probably on all
Windows. I think cross platform bugs are marked with "All" (there's no "Windows
all" or anything).
It prevents new users from using Mozilla since it doesn't start if you don't
have it already installed. The priority should be the highest since it makes
Mozilla unusable and plain irrelevant to someone willing to try it for the first
time.
The problem probably is in the installer as suggested, but it affects the whole
application and I can't believe this got to 1.4 final, since I it was present in
1.4b.
At least we need a workaround or a patch.
Since it's a crash of Mozilla (although caused by the intaller) I think its
severiy is critical.
This must be fixed for the next beta (or sooner). I cannot stress more the
importance of this bug. There will be no new Mozilla users if they choose 1.4 to
as their first installation!
Sorry if I mischange something, but this bug seems needs attention.

Comment 9

[Patrick]

I think that some issues are mixed up here. 
I am quite sure that some of the people reporting here [for instance comment 6]
see bug 195600 : installation of 1.4 on top of 1.4-x fails. 

In a way, the Reporter sees the very same thing. He DID clear out the \program
files\mozilla.org folder, but he did so, w/o using the uninstaller. As a result
the \common files\mozilla.org wasn't cleared out. The result is a mismatch
between installation, already installed software and the registry.

So this is still bug 195600, but with a small twist to it.
DUPING -> bug 195600

As to comment 8: i don't think this happens to everyone. We would have received
a whole lot more reports than just what's reported here. Also your remark "It
prevents new users from using Mozilla since it doesn't start if you don't have
it already installed." conflicts with the remark of the initial reporter, who
states that he HAD Mozilla installed prior to installation of 1.4.

Federico : i strongly think that your issue is ANOTHER issue then the one
described by this report. I am not sure what is causing your problem, however i
think the fix for bug 210731 takes care of it for you. That patch [landed on the
trunk already, not on the branch therefore not officially marked FIXED yet]
nukes the program files & common files folder before installing.

I hope this helps.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 195600 ***

Comment 10

[Federico Tello Gentile]

I think bug http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=210731 is not my
problem, since it describes problems on installing 1.4 on top of 1.3. I'll try
installing mozilla in a different folder after unistalling and deletting all its
referencias and folders.
If I get the crash I'll file a new bug.
Thanks for taking care.

Comment 11

[Vilmos Koszper jr.]

*** Bug 212267 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***