[DCOM95] not installable: "a newer version had been installed"

[Mike Hearn]

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 12:09:29 +0200, Luca Capello wrote:
> This is the first test of two: 'Adobe Illustrator 10' doesn't install
> because a problem with the DCOM95 package

Yes, the InstallShield/DCOM problems are well known. Me and Rob have
started looking at this in the last few days, hopefully we'll have
progress to report soon.
 
> I downloaded the DCOM95 package [2], but when I tried to install it, I
> got the message window:
> 	"A newer version of DCOM95 or DCOM98 had been installed. To override,
> 	you must uninstall the current version first."

You have to run it like this:

WINEDLLOVERRIDES="ole32=n" wine DCOM95.exe

Yes, this is unintuitive, no there is nothing we can do with default
config files/registry entries to fix it as the first thing DCOM95.EXE does
it extract a file called "setup.exe" or some equally generic name and run
it. You have to love Windows installers.

> The same if I try to install DCOM98... and I can't install 'Adobe
> Illustrator 10' :-(
> 
> With the 'fake_windows' provided by the 'WineTools' [3], I can install
> the DCOM98 with no problem.

WineTools basically sets up a fake C drive (same as our own
wineprefixcreate) and then fills it with a ton of native DLLs. It's a
solution you can use if you like, though the real fix is just to nail DCOM
so it works out of the box.

> Is this the same problem reported as bug #1456 [4]? Or is it a problem
> of mine?

Yes, it's the same problem but that bug is old and can be closed. I
changed email addresses and no longer have full access rights to the
WineHQ bugzilla so I can't do this myself. Originally I thought by
modifying the ole32 DLL version we could make it install but that's a
catch-22 situation: modifying the version to allow it to be upgraded just
stops other apps working because the DLL appears too old. The environment
variable "fix" works, but isn't well known. It's in the #winehq FAQ but
that's it, AFAIK.

thanks -mike