Re: "1-Click" installer problems

Nikhil G. Daddikar wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have been trying to install 8.4 on my Vista without success. Earlier
> I'd tried to install 8.3 and that failed too.

"Failed" how?

Installer logs?

Details?

> I tried installing these
> on other Vista machines and they failed too. I searched for google and
> enterprisedb forums and there are innumerable requests like mine.

... many of which will be completely unrelated to each other and
describe different issues, but be hard to differentiate because they
lack the detail required to tell what's actually going on.

I *have* seen odd Windows install issues mentioned here, but most of
them turn out to be:

- Installing on unsupported windows like WinXP Embedded
- Pre-existing postgres service accounts with lost passwords
- Damaged installers
- Damaged systems
- Braindead add-on software running on the system, like broken
antivirus or search/indexing tools.

There are also some unexplained issues. People often fail to follow them
up with the level of detail that'd be needed to track down what might be
going on.

I have seen issues get lost or peter out as the back-and-forth of
debugging info doens't achieve anything. Someone dedicated to win32
installer troubleshooting would certainly help - are you volunteering?

Part of the trouble is, frankly, that many people just don't like
working with Windows, particularly with messy things like Windows
installers. EDB is handy because it's hard to get people who'll
volunteer to work on this sort of thing.

> Same
> with Windows 7. It seems enterprisedb has no clue on what the problem is
> and how to fix it. There is not even a guide on how to install
> postgresql on Vista or Windows 7. Their 'guide' is only for MacOS. The
> "one click" feels like a scam. Search for other threads on their forums
> or on google. Their support staff want to be helpful but I think they
> just lack the necessary expertise in solving such issues.

They'd need psychic powers to help with the amount of detail you've
provided :-P

> I was able to install 8.3 from postgresql.org download site and now I
> see 8.4 is no longer supported.

eh? 8.4 no longer supported? That's absolutely not the case. Did you
mean 8.1 ?

> I have nothing against enterprisedb but the decision to 'leave out'
> windows from postgresql.org download site seems political and will
> simply alienate more people from postgresql.

The issue is that many people here don't use Windows and don't have the
expertise required to maintain a win32 installer. The EnterpriseDB folks
do. They were doing it anyway, and it seems pointless to duplicate the
effort producing another installer for the same product, so the old Pg
win32 installer was dropped.

Perhaps it'd be nice to mirror the EDB installer on the main pg site,
but that's a trivial issue.

> We advocate pgsql to all
> our customers and help them in installation and training at no cost
> because we believe that is some way of giving back. With the new
> "1-click" we are not sure any more. I strongly recommend that you start
> supporting the win32 binary on postgresql.org site again because that
> used to work till 8.3 and enterprisedb is failing for a long time.

OK, so let's look into WHY and figure out what's causing that failure.
It works for me on all my win32 systems, and it clearly works for a
significant majority (though I'm sure there are issues) so we need to
find out what makes your setup different and why it's breaking.

--
Craig Ringer