Do what Icon, not what I say, aka MUI is still making me bipolar

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/08/14 07:01 -07:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2007/08/14/4384041.aspx


Now it is no secret that I have a MacBook Pro.

And it is also no secret that I installed the latest version of Boot Camp on it (currently that means 1.4).

And again no secret that I deleted the partition Boot Camp created for Windows (after being careful to make it is unique, easy to remember size) and then replaced in with two partitions.

And I pretty sure it is no secret that I installed 32-bit Vista in one partition and 64-bit Vista in the other.

Finally, it is no secret that I am ornery.

Consider that all review. :-)

I don't recall if I mentioned that I bought the copy of Vista Ultimate from the Microsoft Company Store. I did that, too.

And I installed all updates on both partitions.

(As an aside, I'll tell you one thing -- I like the Microsoft patch story better than the Mac one -- instead of the monthly Patch Tuesday (which is today, by the way), every time the Mac partition checks for patches (once a week) it finds a whole bunch, and so far every time at least one has required a reboot. Though on the plus side, the reboot is faster than in Windows)

Anyway, after installing all the updates I decided to look at the Ultimate Extras. And look, I had a whole bunch!

Cool! Let's MUI-ify this bad boy. I was booted into the 32-bit Vista so I decided to do that one first.

I hit that Install button in the bottom right hand corner, and then fifteen times I saw the hopeful language install dialog (once per language):

Unfortunately, fifteen times that hope ends in despair. :-(

The text does say "Installation is complete" but I know a negative icon when I see it, and that icon next to the language name is not happy about whatever happened.

A definite case of "do what Icon, not what I say" on Vista's part. :-)

I decide to stick it out -- which is how I got to witness this fifteen times....

Ok, eventually it is all over and my fears are realized -- fifteen failures:

Damn.

Well, there is a Get help link next ti the the Code 2 error.

Maybe it will help:

Or maybe not. I had not canceled and I had rebooted.

For good measure I try rebooting and then trying to install them again.

Same failure.

With dread, I boot into the 64-bit Vista and try there.

Predictably, everything works!

I get a nice, beautiful list of user interface languages in Regional and Language Options on the Keyboards and Languages tab:

For good measure I try the 32-bit again, but still no luck.

Then just for the hell of it I tried installing fewer at a time, and even just one.

No dice.

I have no idea what is going on, and no one I have asked so far does either.

It is not like this directly affects me, but a simple "Install Vista Ultimate and install one or more Language Packs" would affect a bunch of people.

So I am hoping someone has some thoughts on this one. Anyone out there getting "Error 2", ever?

Maybe Mike does (he tells me that he understands MUI now!), I'll ask him today if he has any thoughts or if he wants to debug this or something. :-)

Mike is lucky -- with an unsupported 64-bit install without all of the drivers available working perfectly while a supported 32-bit install with every driver found at zero for fifteen, MUI continues to make me bipolar....

Although I have a post (promised to Scott Hanselman and many others) that is almost one coming on the MUI SKU story -- maybe tonight or tomorrow. Or at least before the end of the week (this has been a very long week -- and it is only Tuesday morning!).

 

This post brought to you by (U+156f, a.k.a. CANADIAN SYLLABICS TTH, and yes it really does look like two asterisks!)


# Aaron Ballman on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 10:11 AM:

That's a truly odd error!  I just installed the MUI packs on my desktop (also running Vista Ultimate, 32-bit) and had no issues at all.  Could it be the fact that you're running a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit machine?  More likely, it's some goofy issue with parallels, which I've seen have some very hard times with very easy concepts that don't happen on "real" machines.

# Michael S. Kaplan on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 10:16 AM:

This isn't Parallels, this is Boot Camp, and it is a genuine partition and install. There could be a bug here, though it is worth figuring out what that bug is and getting it fixed. :-)

I have my other machine (that Dell Precision Mobile workstation) which is also 64-bit and when I had 32-bit Vista on it there was no trouble installing languages.

The answer lies elsewhere....

# Mihai on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 12:26 PM:

It is not Parallels, Boot Camp, or Apple.

A while ago I had the same problem on a "pure" PC, 32bit, nothing fancy.

# Michael S. Kaplan on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 1:52 PM:

Looking at the search hits on the error, I am inclined to agree with you, Mihai.

I just didn't want the issue dismissed on such a basis, because even if it was a Mac-only issue, it still should be found and fixed!

# Christian H on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 2:37 PM:

Well, I'm getting that on a 32bit English (UK? Sold in Europe) Vista Ultimate (DSP) too, at least while trying to install the German langpack, haven't tried the others. Gave up after a few reboot-retry cycles...

-c

# Björn on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 3:14 PM:

I had the same experience as Christian H on the very same Vista version  (English 32bit DSP). I didn't have the patience to do a few reboot-retry cycles, as I planned to use the English anyway - reports tell that the German l10n is sub-optimal :)

# jon on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 4:26 PM:

They all failed for me as well, I didn't try again though since I don't actually need any of them (although it might be good for improving my French I guess...)

# Igor on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 12:40 AM:

This is not the only thing that doesn't work in Vista 32-bit.

I cannot for the life of me install the monitor driver for my Viewsonic VP930b. Vista offers it and then it fails to install it. Every single time I tried it failed. .Net framework security updates are also failing.

# Rosyna on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 2:52 AM:

" every time the Mac partition checks for patches (once a week) it finds a whole bunch, and so far every time at least one has required a reboot."

It's checking for updates (we don't call them patches on this side). Apple tends to have update "seasons" where there is a huge smattering of updates.  And the more often you check, the more likely it is for you to have an update, as apple will quickly roll updates into newer ones (cumulative updates). And finally, you'll never have to do more than two reboots to get to the latest update. For example, after you install 10.4.0 and check for updates the first time, it'll only do a max of two updates to get to 10.4.10 with QT 7.2 and the latest security updates. Granted, this should be no more than 1 (or zero, if it downloaded updates while it installed...)

# Michal Řeháček on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 9:14 AM:

I installed English Vista Ultimate 32-bit on my computer a few days ago and I tried to install most of the language packs too. Not knowing that they should be installed one at a time, I tried to install most of them along with the other updates, but all of them failed. Swedish failed with Error code 2, all others failed with Error code 1.

Then I tried installing a few at a time, and this mostly helped. All packs installed except Swedish. Swedish was continuing to fail. I tried several times; once Swedish failed with code 800706BE, the rest of the attempts failed with Code 2.

I tried many reboots, I tried not to run any programs between the reboot and Windows Udpdate, but nothing helped to get Swedish on my computer. I even tried to run the Swedish Language pack installer outside manually of Windows Update, but nothing worked. I pretty much gave up.

Then I tried to see the Event log. There were A LOT of errors that were apparently connected to the Swedish language pack installation. The events look like these ones:

Log Name: System
Source: Servicing
Event ID: 4385
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
Text: Windows Servicing failed to complete the process of changing update X from package LanguaghePack(Language Pack) into Staging(Staging) state
Log Name: System
Source: Servicing
Event ID: 4375
Level: Error
User: System
Keywords: Classic
Text: Windows Servicing failed to complete the process of setting package X (Language Pack) into Default(Default) state

X here stands for many different names, including "Microsoft-Windows-RDC-Package_sv_SE" and probably hundreds more.

Between these errors, there are a few more:

Source: LanguagePackSetup
Event ID: 1003
Task category: Language Pack Setup CbsClient functionality
Text: CBS error 0x80070002 reported while operating on UI Language Pack for sv-SE

The "Event log online help" link contains no useful information about these events.

So I'm completely lost too. No idea what to do or even where to look what could possibly be wrong.

# Björn on Monday, August 20, 2007 3:48 AM:

I need to change my previous comment: This time the installation of the German language pack succeeded.

# Michael S. Kaplan on Monday, August 20, 2007 4:14 AM:

Hey Björn, congrats!

I just tried German again after I saw your comment; it still fails for me with that Error 2. :-(

Well, at least some people aren't being blocked by this....

# Michal Řeháček on Monday, August 27, 2007 11:25 AM:

After I made the previous comment, I was trying a few more things, because the IT guys took away the old 32-bit Vista machine away and gave me a new 64-bit one. So I tried to install 64-bit Vista including all language packs. Unfortunately, I had even worse luck than with the 32-bit version (where I was able to install all languages except Swedish).

During my first attempt on the 64-bit system, I installed all important updates (including Microsoft Update) first, then I was able to install French language pack successfully, but then all other languages failed with Error code 2. Reboots were not helping. Selecting either one, or two, or all was not helping either.

Then I reformatted the drive and tried again from scratch. I didn't upgrade from Windows Update to Microsoft Update. The plan was to install all language packs before any other update, but it didn't work anyway. All language packs failed to install with the red icon, but Windows Update then listed them as Some Updated were not installed because they were Not Needed. Event log contained a lot of messages with Source: Servicing and ID: 4373 and Text: "Windows Servicing identified that package BRCplBasic_da-DK(Language Pack) is not applicable to this system" (replace package name with many more similar items). When I tried again, I got Error Code 2.

The next day I reformatted the PC yet again and now tried to install a 32-bit Vista. This time I installed all important updated first including Microsoft Update and then started to install language packs. I installed French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian in one go successfully. Then I tried to add more languages, but I got Error Code 2 again. I restored the system from a restore point created just before the first successfull language pack and I was able to install all language packs in one go. So, the 32-bit system works with all language packs, although I fear I will get Error 2 again if there are new language packs made available in the future.

Then I went to install a 64-bit Vista on a different partition on the same computer. I installed Vista and went to Windows update... only to see that there are no language packs available. I could see the other Ultimate Extras like Bitlocker, but no language packs. I double-checked that I booted to the correct x64 version (because the boot manager shows two exactly the same entries "Microsoft Windows Vista" so it's pretty difficult to know which one if x64 and which one is x86), but it didn't help. I tried to log on as a different user - nothing. I tried to reboot a few times - still nothing. Weird.

I reinstalled the 64-bit version and it didn't show any language packs again. I gave up. But at least I have a 32-bit Vista with all the languages I need for testing the game Mindware Studios are working on. Hurrah!

The only thing that kind of "worked" for me was installing all language packs in one go early after the OS is installed. If the language packs installation is failing, reverting back to a point where at least one of them worked and then trying again might help. Although I understand this kind of solution is not very useful most of the time, because reverting the whole system to the point where it was installed isn't often possible.

# zwirwel on Monday, August 27, 2007 7:12 PM:

I found that installing each language pack individually on 32 bit worked, but more than once failed with code 2.

On 64bit I haven't had problems installing several at once.

# Jimmy on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:19 PM:

I also can no longer install any language pack on my ultimate vista 64bits. This is very frustating.

# Lasse on Thursday, August 30, 2007 2:35 AM:

I got the same prob here on a ergular 32 bit Vista. Any news on this isuue?

//Lasse

# Slam on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 2:29 PM:

I have the same error for both running the MUI exe or update.

You guys can try :

MUI's in order -

Chinese (PRC)

Chinese (Hong Kong SAR)

English

Spanish

Swedish

Japanese

Portuguese (Brazil)

Norwegian

Dutch

Finnish

French-

Russian

German

Danish

Korean

Italian

16 32 bit packs:

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...b774eb61ecfa7a45.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...4f64068882d97d2d.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...3998808fa5229875.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...ef86a54bf5f117ab.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...f8861f0fa3d8a76d.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...4147e14e11daa3b5.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...dc25cde8856dc251.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...ce40309a3141a9e3.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...27fbcdeb4efc841a.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...10912ae6e4ca804a.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...e59b51fbccdc5169.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...87a6f02856bb697c.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...72636b58744b1d3b.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...49c31a6d9ea0a231.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...2e5fab630302a921.exe

http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update...024c0ffb847853d0.exe

16 64 bit packs:

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...fc4005672360b7e8.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...d146d637aafeb1a7.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...276b71a1279b785a.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...79f11097b0474b05.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...016964263b649223.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...76fe627e2f9017b0.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...ebf6cf493ba389c2.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...4319b009078e9d7b.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...75831ca8b7cef3f3.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...f6db63dd7cc67048.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...30b435aa7b3e2c37.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...b3cd63a269e9a352.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...e2dc077c3a2f8bd1.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...29f67a75500a6f2f.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...a33bee4f36f4a21f.exe

http://www..windowsupdate.com/ms/update/v3-19990518/cab...7a22aec1c3deb09c.exe


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referenced by

2007/11/05 23 Oct 2007: Nothing important happened today (other than the release of a huge horking bug fix, that is!)

2007/09/01 We're confusing internationalization and localization, AGAIN

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