Using LabWindows 8 and the full runtime engine, I get a "Can not find RTE directory" error at rutime on some Windows PCs. PCs with the problem have it persistently, PCs without the problem never fail.Can not fine RTE directory

[hlouck]

Using LabWindows 8 and the full runtime engine, I get a "Can not find RTE directory" error at rutime on some Windows PCs.  PCs with the problem have it persistently, PCs without the problem never fail.

[JonathanN]

Hi hlouck,

It sounds like the CVI Run-Time Engine didn't install properly. Did you include the Run-Time Engine in a distribution or download the CVI RTE off the web? 

My guess is that you don't have the C:\Windows\system32\cvirte directory on your system. That directory contains message, resource and font files needed by the CVI RTE.

Have you tried reparing the CVI RTE? Technically you could copy that directory from your source machine to your target machines but I would rather have you either repair or reinstall to be safe.

Best Regards,

[hlouck]

Thanks for the reply.

It's in the distribution.  I can install on a PC which has never had our application installed on it and I see c:\program files\system32\cvirte.dll installed and all is well.

This application is meant to be fully self installing so it's not acceptable to download the runtime engine to fix failed installations.

As luck would have it, the only failing PC is at a customer site over seas.  This same PC has had our previous versions of our application installed ok.  The user has tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times with no luck.

So what's differant now?  Wish I knew.  That's why I'm fishing for information that might help me understand the situation.

I would appriciate any background or possible investigation clues you might have to offer.

[Mert_A.]

Again, it would be helpful to confirm what exactly is missing on your customer's machine.  Do they have c:\WINDOWS\system32\cvirte.dll as well as the c:\WINDOWS\system32\cvirte directory and its bin and fonts subdirectories?  I'm guessing the answer is no.

Confirm that when you go to Build>>Distributions>>Edit <name>... and go to the Drivers & Components tab, you see one or more of the items under "LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine" checked.  If so, do you have all of the subitems checked, or just Standard Run-Time? (This may be significant for diagnosing the problem.)  Also, check the Advanced tab and see if "Install LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine in the application directory" is checked.

Just to clarify, did this problem first start occurring as a result of upgrading an installation of your application that was built with an older version of CVI?  If so, which version of CVI had you previously been using to build/distribute your application?  Can you reproduce the problem on one of your computers if you do the same upgrade?

If you can investigate some of these points, it might help us home in on the issue.

Thanks.

Mert A.
National Instuments

[JonathanN]

Hi hlouck,

Did you check for the cvirte folder in the C:\Windows\system32\ directory? The main CVI Run-Time Engine files are probably there (i.e. cvirte) which is what I believe you are telling me. However, what about that folder?  The error is occurring because we cannot find that cvirte folder.  Can you please check and see if that folder exists?

Also, I assume your statement of "C:\program files\system32\.." you actually meant "C:\Windows\system32\" right?

If you were missing CVI RTE DLLs, you would be getting different errors (i.e. DLL initialization failed, procedure entry point cannot be found, etc)

If that folder is not there and the distribution is not installing it, then we have some issues to address and figure out.

Best Regards,

[hlouck]

Thanks for your responses.  I have gotten some good info from our customer site.

The target PC is a laptop running Window 2000 service pack 2.

After the installation, our application displays two pop up windows with this text:

Unable to open c:\program files\mals\bin\cvirte.rsc

Can not find RTE directory: c:\WINNT\System32\cvirte

Note that our installation target dir is C:\program files\mals and does not have a bin subfolder.

The directory c:\WINNT\System32\cvirte does not exist on the failing PC but does on all others I've tried.

The file cvirte.dll does exist along with a few other cvi* files in c:\WINNT\System32.

We are installing a new version of our application after uninstalling the previous using Windows Add/Remove Programs.

I have not been able to reproduce this problem locally - the only failing PC is over seas.

Yes, in my previous message I meant to say "C:\WINNT" and not "C:|Program Files".

In Drivers and Components I have "Standard Run-Time" and "Low-Level Support Driver" checked and no others.

In Target Settings under Run-time support I have Full run-time engine selected with "Embeded project .UIR", "Generate map file" and "Create console application" unchecked.

Thanks again.

[hlouck]

More info:

If I delete the cvirte directory from System32 on a working installation I see exactly the same two error messages as reported from the failing PC.

It all seems to come down to this: the cvirte directory is not always created on installation.

I've also observed that this directory is usually, but not always removed on uninstall.

Can you explain why the cvirte directory fail to be created?

[jlaney]

Hello,

It sounds like you have an incomplete uninstall, that is messing up your subsequent installation.

Can you provide me with this information after you have uninstalled your application:

- Is the cvirte folder removed?
- Are there any cvi*.dll files in the system folder?
- If so what versions are they?

Also, can you let me know what version of CVI you are using to create this distribution kit?  That will let me know what to track down if the following does not work.

Finally, if you uninstall all things CVI, including your application, and still have cvi*.dll files in your system folder, you should delete them.  Then try and reinstall your application and see if it works. This usually solves this type of issue where something has made the reference count on certain files too high so that way they never get removed, but these files are version and control the installation of other files that are not versioned.

-Jeff
NI

[hlouck]

The cvirte never exists, before or after install/uninstall.

C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32>dir cvi*.*
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 07D3-0A1E

 Directory of C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32

15/01/1999  11:39              236,032 cviinet.dll
18/10/2005  10:00               98,304 cvintwrk.dll
18/10/2005  10:00               94,208 cviUSI.dll
10/04/2006  10:00               45,056 cvirt.dll
10/04/2006  10:00              352,256 cviauto.dll
10/04/2006  10:00            2,572,288 cvirte.dll
               6 File(s)      3,398,144 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  17,869,881,344 bytes free

[hlouck]

I'm using:

LabWindows 8.0.0 (273)

(Microsoft Windows 2000/XT)