Offline installer to have option to not connect to internet for checking hashes

[cy...]

Hi forum, I would like to propose NIPM offline installers to have an option to not connect to internet for checking hashes. I often work remotely due to the current circumstances, and was unable to install from the Package Manager due to some unmatched internet hash error (offline package hash matched on website). NI, please consider, especially during these times where remote work is inevitable.

[Hooovahh]

So I just ran into this this morning and I don't think that is what is happening here unless I'm wrong.

I have an offline install of LabVIEW 2020 SP1 which is 30+ gb.  I ran it on my computer connected to the internet and it failed to install ni-vipm (20.1.0.49152-0+f0) saying to check my internet connection.  I know this is just a generic catch all error when a package fails some kind of integrity check.  I thought maybe something got corrupted in a copy to my external drive so I went to the NIPM on my computer. 

NIPM shows no ne updates for VIPM.  So I go to the site and download the online installer.  It fails.  I download the offline installer for VIPM.  It also fails.  I then disconnect from the internet and try both of these again, and they all fail stating that I needed to check my internet connection and try again.  I'd suspect that it is possible that some kind of release got broken.  That or my computer is dying.

[CL_eisenwr]

If you have installed VIPM updates not from NIPM, I noticed the NI Package and JKI installers at times do like to play nicely.

[cy...]

in my case, the offline package that I have used earlier was the same package I used to install my LV2020 months ago. normally, I would disable my network adapter first for a faster installation (unsure if that was placebo though), which in some cases can potentially shave hours off. but now that I am working remotely, that option is no longer available to me for obvious reasons and when I need to install device drivers, the offline installer transformed into a block of 39.5GB unusable space in my hard drive.

I wonder: which is more sustainable, offline (or USB) installers and updates or GBs (and hours) of download per installation and deployment?

*sorry, the topic was originally intended for 'idea exchange'

[WesW]

To confirm - offline installers do not check online for package hashes, and they also do not look at any feeds that you might have configured. So, disabling your adapter shouldn't have any effect. The hash/checkum error in an offline installer is usually because the download is corrupted/incomplete, and the checksum recorded in the feed file included in the download does not match the actual checksum of the .nipkg file. For an offline installer, comparing the checksum of the downloaded .iso against what is published on the ni.com page will hopefully help minimize that.

Regards,

- Wes

[Hooovahh]

If it doesn't check the network, then the error text should be updated to be more indicative of what the issue is.  Can you give any other reasons for this error?

This is the offline installer which is 36GB, and has the MD5:

19f7af9ec25802c97bcf4bbbedea5af3 *ni-labview-2020-x86_20.6.0.49153-0+f1_offline.iso

Which according to this page is correct. 

I just ran Windows Memory Diagnostics and it detected no errors.

[cy...]

the iso package I used was MD5-checked again using certutil, which returns the correct checksum on the NI webpage I downloaded it from. and this package is the same package I used to install the current version of LV2020 in my computer last year, successfully without error.

note: reason for disabling my network adapter is because I noticed there are network spikes (task manager-network) when I am installing it into a disconnected system in the past (the connected installation failed midway, hours in after failing a file or two) 

@WesW: can you notify the moderator to move this thread to idea exchange? I intended to propose it as an idea initially

[WesW]

I think there are two different issues here 🙂

As I understood it, the question in the first post from Cy concerns network connections on offline installers. NIPM itself doesn't actually do that. The OS itself might, such as validating certificates on digitally signed binaries or anti-virus doing real-time checks. That's outside of NIPM's control, and would be expected of most any installation operation on Windows. I'm not quite following what aspect of this (or if the online vs offline is more efficient) is for Idea Exchange?

The second question from Hooovahh is why NIPM says "internet issue" when a particular package failed, even if from an offline installer. Unfortunately, that error message is somewhat of a catch-all, as the VIPM package likely failed for some reason unrelated to networking or a bad checksum. I definitely think an idea exchange request for a more helpful error message on package failure would be much appreciated feedback. To further debug this specific issue, looking at installation logs would be the next step. How to enable MSI logs and where to look for all NIPM logs is in this KB.

Regards,

- Wes

[Hooovahh]

Yeah sorry, I didn't mean to derail the topic.  But at the time I thought my issue could have been related to checking online for hashes on an offline installer.  I uninstalled the current VIPM from Windows, then the package installed just fine.  Not sure why but I probably won't be the only person that runs into this issue.  Maybe some background service was still running and the application couldn't be replaced while it was running.

[cy...]

I think you many have missed what I mentioned earlier. I encountered the error using the same exact offline installer downloaded from NI website with the MD5 rechecked, the same file was used to install the LV2020 in my PC last year. The error encountered mentioned mismatched hash when I am attempting to install the device driver remotely over the internet, which I cannot disable to verify if I can install it with the network adapter disabled. That said, that is not my intention to delve on this problem, my original intention is to post it in idea exchange 

I wanted to post the idea of having an option to disable all attempts to check and download offline installer files from the internet regardless whether a connection is present. an offline installer should be able to install its packages offline

efficient or not, is just a comment comparing an offline installation with the iso stored in an USB, instead of NIPM having to download the same files, over and over again, through a slow internet connection. another idea have been posted in the past to have the NIPM be able to be configured to download from a local repository instead.

I appreciate your help (or APena's) to ask the moderator to move this thread to idea exchange, please? I am not able to delete this thread minutes after I posted and realized it is in the wrong forum. please help 😁