Dot.NET 3.5 installation - setup hangs on 100%

Customer Support Virtuozzo Windows VPS Hosting
1

I got a Dot.NET 3.5 framework installation issue.

Before I state my problem, note that I’ve installed ASP.NET 3.5 successfully on two WinVPS (Silver) machines, however I did it a year ago so I’m fuzzy on the details of my installation steps. Also these were purchased (for clients) in 2007 and 2008 so maybe these VPS/Windows server were configured differently.

I just bought a third WinVPS package this week (this a Value package, not Silver like before), and I wanted to install ASP.NET 3.5 on this new VPS. I downloaded Dot.NET 3.5 setup installer. I ran it and everything went fine as it downloaded the files and then proceeded to install. However the install progress bar has reached a 100% and it’s been stuck there for the past couple hours. Windows still works as I can run other apps, and move the installer window, but the installer just won’t finish.

Any advice? Should I reboot via Virtuozzo? I don’t want to corrupt my installation.

Since I’ve installed 3.5 previously on other VPS accounts here, I’m aware of the painfully slow installation times of 3.5, but I don’t remember how long I had to wait. So far it’s been at 100% for two hours now.

I read this thread on VPS 3.5 issues, but I did not get any abort errors so I don’t think it applies to me.
http://support.jodohost.com/showthread.php?t=19268

The only thing I can think of that I did differently is that I might have downloaded the entire dot.net 3.5 framework, rather than just use the setup tool which downloads the necessary components, which I did this time. I ran the dotnetfx35setup.exe application

Any advice?

2

It should be ok to reboot the VPS as long as it has been there. Never have heard of that. As long as it has the files in place, even if it forgot to do a mapping, I can give you the command line command to do mappings to IIS and the like if needed.

3

Thanks for replying.

So I decided to reboot the server, but before I did that I checked the temp folder and I found the log file for dotnet 3.5 installer. In the cmd console I went here “%temp%\dd_dotnetfx35install.txt”

Here are the last several lines of the dd_dotnetfx35install.txt so I figured it finished installing but just didn’t quit for some reason.

[11/13/06,04:31:27] Setup.exe: SetupManager::RunPostSetupLaunch() ending [11/13/06,04:31:27] Setup.exe: CSetupManager::RunInstall() - Finished launching Post Setup Runs [11/13/06,04:31:27] Setup.exe: Exiting RunInstall [11/13/06,04:31:27] Setup.exe: UnloadSuiteComponents() [11/13/06,04:31:27] UTILS::RunNGENAction: Started [11/13/06,04:31:27] UTILS::RunNGENAction: starting "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\ngen.exe queue continue" [11/13/06,04:31:27] UTILS::RunNGENAction: ngen.exe returned 0 [11/13/06,04:31:27] Setup.exe: SETUP EXIT CODE - 0 [11/13/06,04:31:27] End_Session:

I rebooted and the the VPS startup fine, however I tried uploading some aspx 3.5 pages to one of my hosted domains in IIS and I got an error message “Server Application Unavailable” when visiting the site in my browser. I tried regular aspx 2.0 files and still got the same error.

I checked my event logs and I see a "Failed to execute request because the App-Domain could not be created. Error: 0x80004005 Unspecified error
".

I googled and this looks like a permission error? This could be unrelated to the Dot.NET 3.5 install as people with Dot.NET 2.0 get the error as well.

I did not test aspx pages before install 3.5 so I don’t know if this error existed before pre-install.

Hmm…any further advice? This really odd as I never had this problem before on 3.5 installs on other VPSs.

4

make sure asp.net 3.5(2.0 configured) is in a separate application pool.

Also go to command prompt and change to this directory

c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727
then do: aspnet_regiis -i

this will redo the permissions and iis mappings.

then restart IIS and give a shot.

5

My solution:
I actually decided to reinstall.

I was looking through the temp directory again and noticed other additional log files and the one for dotnet20 look like it didn’t finish installing. I read that dot.net 3.5 sp1 installer also updates 2.0 to 2.0 SP2 so maybe it got hung up on configuring/updating the 2.0 files. Not sure, but I decided to reinstall.

Reinstalling wasn’t straightforward, as I couldn’t re-run the dot.net 3.5 installer as it gave me an message saying it could not install 3.5 and would quit. I tried repairing dotnet 2.0 and 3.0 via the control panel but the repair options gave me an error message.

What worked was using the dotnet cleanup tool.
Aaron Stebner's WebLog | Microsoft Learn

I ran it, selecting the option to remove all version of dotnet (1.1 to 3.5). It required a reboot to finish the cleaning. I rebooted manually via Virtuozzo. After I rebooted and I re-ran the clean tool and it finished cleaning.

Next, I then tried install dot.net 1.1 but it said it was already installed. I guess the cleanup tool didn’t uninstall or erase dot.net 1.1 even though I selected to uninstall all versions of dot net. I later read that the dotnet cleanup tool is a “smart” uninstaller as it won’t delete dotnet components it finds necessary for the operation of certain applications on your computer, so I guess 1.1 was not uninstalled for that reason.

After that, I chose not to use the 2.0 installer as I read that dot.net 3.5 sp1 installer would install 2.0 and 3.0.

3.5 install and progress bar weirdness again:

I ran the dot 3.5 installer and the progress bar moved a lot quicker this time, but you know what? Again it got stuck at a 100%, however this time I noticed in task bar that there was another microsoft window that had appearing during the installation process. I clicked on it and it was a warning message about something “terminated in an unusual” way and to click “ok”. i clicked the “ok” button and then the 3.5 installer progress bar moved back from a 100% to about 35% and proceeded installing again, and it actually completed this time as I got the message that 3.5 installed.

Very odd, but it works now. I tested a few asp applications and they work.

These sites really helped out, as apparently it’s not uncommon to get installation problems.

Unified .NET Framework Troubleshooting Guide
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/454956.aspx

Updated: what to do if other .NET Framework setup troubleshooting steps do not help
Aaron Stebner's WebLog | Microsoft Learn

The page, on step 5 (see “note” section) explains how dot.net 3.5 sp1 will uninstall 2.0 because it will install 2.0 SP2.

I found out about the dot.net cleanup tool from the advice given here to someone else who got the 100% progress bar hanging problem. Looks like I’m not the only one that this had happened. Anyway some good instructions on this page.

Issue installing .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 on several computers
Microsoft Q&A | Microsoft Learn

Anyway I hope that helps someone. That dotnet cleanup tool was a lifesaver. I still don’t know what process or application terminated in a unusual manner and caused that window to appear, but it will not let the installer continue if you don’t click “ok”.

Thanks Stephen for your advice. I filed away your note about iis mapping in case I need to do that. So far it looks ok.

6

wow sorry you had such a time, but yes the asp.net forums (all linked in and around that MS social site) are really good about helping and yes there are a huge number of problems that can occur, I have never heard of this one on a VPs or a Physical node before, but then again something like that seems to happen every few months.

It is very rewarding for myself, to do something like this and be successful, and it is largely what we have to do when we help people with an unknown problem.

Excellent post and summary you have put up!