Driver Station Update fails to install
 

I am trying to install the DS update FRCUpdate2015.1.0 which is supposed to display on the DS as version 08021500. I have run the update installer and rebooted but my DS still shows version 20121300. I have tried this on two different DS with the same result.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Did you download the newest update suite from https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-34731?

I downloaded from there last Tuesday and installed it on at least a dozen machines this past weekend without encountering an issue.

I unzipped it, ran setup.exe, deselected all install options but the driver station and then clicked through the installer.

Did you restart your computer after the install? I never needed to but it might fix the issue.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

That link takes you to a page where you select 2015 NI Update Suite which takes you to http://www.ni.com/download/first-rob...-2015/5112/en/ from which I downloaded FRCUpdate2015.1.0.zip then ran the setup.exe contained in that zip. Setup runs without incident and I reboot. Version still the old one. Been over this several times, can't see why I'm not getting updated DS.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Are you running the .exe from inside the zip file? Try extracting all the files first, as the installer needs files still captured by the compressed folder.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Funny thing. After my last post, extracting the zip and not running from inside the zip occurred to me so I did that and still no joy. I'm stumped but must be doing something wrong. Pls confirm that the file FRCUpdate2015.1.0.zip is the correct download. Need to make I'm starting from the right place.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Try deinstalling the old driver station first and then installing the latest. Use Add / Remove Programs.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

20121300? That's ridiculously old.

How are you running the Driver Station? If you're using a desktop shortcut that you didn't put there recently, you are probably not executing the new program. It's possible that you have successfully installed the new one multiple times.

(This year's program is named "Driver Station.exe" with a space. Last year's did not have a space. They can both exist in the same folder.)

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

I think that your install may have worked, but you were running the old version. The guidelines for NI installers has changed, and they do not include as many shortcuts and start menu items. That means that the old ones may not be replaced as you expect.

If you right click on a shortcut and go to Properties, it will show the real EXE.

Also, small correction, it is the new version without the space. The builds of these tools were modified to be more automated, and spaces_and_command_lines_do_not_get_along.

Greg McKaskle

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Also right click and run it as administrator.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Ok. Thanks all. Yes, the new version was installed alongside the old. And yes the desktop icon launches the correct program. However, we do a switch user and select the driver user and launch the DS that way. In that way, the old version is launched. Seems a problem with the installer that if you install according to the readme directions, it does not work correctly, apparently not changing which DS program is invoked when you switch to the DS user name. I have seen nothing to suggest any special treatment is needed...but that is where we are.

I am not familiar with how the driver user launches the DS as its "desktop" program. If someone could point me to where this is configured, then I think we will home free on this one.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

If you feel like fixing it, you will need to run regedit. Logged in as User, you locate the following key, and change its value from he DS name with the space to the one without.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\Shell

Be careful not to change anything else.

If this is awkward to do this as Driver, you would probably be able to change it in the HKEY_Users location more easily when logged in as Developer and changing for Driver.

Greg McKaskle

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Greg,
I found this info with web search and it makes sense, though I am reluctant to change the system wide default shell. I'd rather change it for the Driver user. Now given all this, I expected to find the registry key that causes the old DS program to launch as shell for the Driver user. But I could not find any key that would cause any shell to launch other than explorer.exe. What gives? How is the DS program launched as the shell for the driver user?

Now, I think I have a work around (try tomorrow), but I'd really like to understand what is going on here. This should not be nearly this much trouble assuming I have not made some mistake that is causing these problems with a simple DS update.

Additionally, if I run the updated DS as the developer user as a regular windows app, the DS appears with the title bar and window borders. The NI and our custom DS code that displays the upper area of the DS (camera, and indicators buttons etc) also displays but things are not sized right because of the title bar and borders on the lower part of the DS display. So I select the button on the lower DS that gets rid of the title bar and borders and the lower part of the DS displays correctly or at least as I expect it to and as I want it to. But, at the same time, the upper part of the DS display is trashed. The camera section remains but the tabbed area completely disappears. This happens with the NI version shipped with the DS and with our customized version. this is not helpful as it precludes just running the DS logged on as developer.

Is there an ini file setting that starts the DS without title bars and borders?

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Set your task bar to autohide. Right now, it's grabbing the bottom of the screen and forcing the windows upward. Start the DS and Dashboard with the task bar out of the way and they should dock where you want.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

folks, I have been down the rabbit hole on this and I am stumped as to the things that have happened during my DS update. I have observed things strange enough (yet repeatable) that I am not going to describe them here as I can't quite believe what I have seen and I don't want all of you thinking I am completely nuts...however:

I have the updated version of the DS running now, or at least maybe I do. Today an email from First stated the current DS version to be 08021500 or newer (why would would have a version newer than current?). On the web page for current versions, it states the correct version to be 08021500 but goes on to day that on most PCs it 'displays' as 09021500. Huh? Which is it?

Now here is the kicker, on my DS pc it is displaying 05031500 (and that is not the only variation I have seen).

I would really like someone from NI to explain what is going here.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

I'm not from NI, but I think I can help you understand. The format of the version ID is "DDMMYY00", and it shows the date of the .exe file. When the installer puts the file on your computer, Windows adjusts its date and time to reflect the current time zone. You'll see numbers representing February 8 or 9 based on how far east of Austin you are.

If you're seeing 05031500, something apparently modified the .exe file today. That's not normal.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

I suspected as much. I just couldn't believe anyone would implement a program version in such a ridiculous manner.

Ok, yes I copied the program and that explains the version.

I observed strange behavior with this update on my backup DS and now on my competition DS I have seen the same thing:

After install of update 1, I had two DS programs in the C:\program files\FRC Driver Station directory:
Driver Station.exe (this is the old version)
DriverStation.exe (this is the new version) if i run this program, I see the new version 09021500 as expected.

Since the Driver user would only launch Driver Station.exe, I decided I would rename Driver Station.exe to Driver Station-old.exe and rename DriverStation.exe to Driver Station.exe. This would make the Driver user launch the updated DS program.

However, after the rename (and a reboot), the Driver Station.exe is the old version. Seems impossible but it has happened on two systems. Driver Station.exe and Driver Station-old.exe are the same. I can't explain this and it seems impossible but there it is.

So, prior to all this, I had made a backup copy of the driver station directory. I went into the backup directory, did the same renames and then copied the renamed Driver Station.exe (now the updated version) to the real directory (thats how I got 03051500) and low and behold this time Driver Station.exe runs as the updated version and the Driver user runs the updated version.

I would say all this is insane of I had not seen it happen twice on different systems...

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

It's actually gnu make and spaces that didn't get along well and instigated the change.

That is only true of the old DS. The 2015 version and later implements it in a more sane way (baked into the EXE).

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Agreed. I changed it this year when I had the opportunity.

I tend to agree. No idea what may be happening to copy the old DS over the new one. The only thought I have is an "Install repair" of the old DS installer, but you didn't mention doing any such thing.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

I have been busy with other things for some days now but am back to this problem now. The last reply indicated the 2015 DS does not use the file date as part of its version number...but on my systems this is still happening. The key thing that I am seeing and may explain some of what I have been struggling with is this (which I am looking at on my DS PC right now):

I have two program files:
Driver Station.exe (renamed from DriverStation.exe, believed to be the current vesion)
Driver Station-upd-0.exe (renamed old version)

Now these two programs are both exactly the same size and both programs show the windows properties version of 15.0.0.49156. Yet when I run these programs I get different version numbers displayed:
Driver Station.exe = 05031500
Driver Station-upd-2015-0.exe = 20121300

How is this possible? One thought that keeps recurring is that I have used the wrong installer for the current version, but I followed the links on the current software version web page and installed from there...and version ending in 1500 is identified as the current version...so?

Also note that if the installer is installing a changed program name, Driver Station.exe -> DriverStation.exe, it is not updating the shell registry key that starts the DS program as the Driver users shell to reflect that change. That key still has Driver Station.exe as the alternate shell.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

I just tested with a recent build of the driver station by "touch"ing the executable and the version reported on the title bar did not change, and neither did the version on the diagnostics tab. Inspecting the code it appears that only the title bar version is the hard-coded version I added. The diagnostics tab uses the Creation Date of the executable, so a touch is not going to change it since that affects the Modification Date. Perhaps what you are attempting changes the Creation Date.

This clearly needs more improvement in the future.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

An update. I just did a repair of the NI install as was suggested. After repair there is a "new" program (different than the two mentioned in the last post) called DriverStation.exe. This is what we would expect. However, it is interesting to note it is the same size as the other two but the windows version is 15.0.0.49159. When I run this program it displays version 09021500. This is what we expect for the update. I then renamed it to driver station.exe and ran it again and it displayed 09021500. Switched to Driver user and the DS runs there and displays 09021500.

This all appears to be correct and what I expected on day 1 of this adventure. Program with 15.0.0.49156 would seem to be old version and 15.0.0.49159 would seem to be updated version and the version displayed by the 49159 exe seems to confirm that. We want version ending in 1500.

However, I still have a program file with windows v 15.0.0.49156 that displays its version number as 05031500. This does not seem to make sense, but the fact that this happens would seem to be a major factor in the confusion I have had.

Things seem headed in the right direction. Now to do this fix on our competition DS and see if all good there.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Joe,
Just read your post. I am an experienced Windows developer and I also showed the DS program to another one of our mentors, who happens to be a Microsoft employee and a lead on the Windows team. Some observations:

1) I caused the create date of the DS program to change by copying it, which I did while trying to figure out why I was not getting the updated program when I renamed driverstation.exe to driver station.exe. Still no explanation for that but I am willing to drop it since I seem to have the updated program in place now.

2) Windows programs should always use a hard coded version or version based on the internal assignment of the 4 part windows version number, major.minor.build.fix or as I like to do major.minor.fix.build. If you use visual studio, all this can be managed automatically and your program can display the version embedded in the exe. If you are using LabView, then you have to manage the hard coded version yourself.

3) This version should be displayed in the application title bar though many developers leave off the build in the title bar. The title bar version and the version displayed by the app should not be of different forms.

4) Using file dates is not at all a good idea since the user can "change" the program version number.

5) Don't forget about the Driver user shell program not getting renamed. After a successful install of the update, the Driver user still runs the old program (hence the renaming I am doing). Note that I could have tweaked the registry to the correct program name, but I have our DS PCs set up to allow switching between the 2015 and 2014 DS programs as we still run last years robots quite a bit for demos and having the DS program name the same facilitates this switching. I know the 2015 is supposed to let you switch protocols, but this did seem to work when we first installed 2015 so we did it ourselves. And doing it ourselves allows us to switch out the custom display program we have for the upper part of the DS display.

Sorry if I am stating the obvious but I felt bound to mention all this due to the time I have spent on this version numbering issue.

Thanks for responding to my posts.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

As I stated in my last post, the value shown there is the Windows Creation Date of the file, so if you did something that changed that, it would have this effect.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Joe,
Just read your post. I am an experienced Windows developer and I also showed the DS program to another one of our mentors, who happens to be a Microsoft employee and a lead on the Windows team. Some observations:

1) I caused the create date of the DS program to change by copying it, which I did while trying to figure out why I was not getting the updated program when I renamed driverstation.exe to driver station.exe. Still no explanation for that but I am willing to drop it since I seem to have the updated program in place now.

2) Windows programs should always use a hard coded version or version based on the internal assignment of the 4 part windows version number, major.minor.build.fix or as I like to do major.minor.fix.build. If you use visual studio, all this can be managed automatically and your program can display the version embedded in the exe. If you are using LabView, then you have to manage the hard coded version yourself.

3) This version should be displayed in the application title bar though many developers leave off the build in the title bar. The title bar version and the version displayed by the app should not be of different forms.

4) Using file dates is not at all a good idea since the user can "change" the program version number.

5) Don't forget about the Driver user shell program not getting renamed. After a successful install of the update, the Driver user still runs the old program (hence the renaming I am doing). Note that I could have tweaked the registry to the correct program name, but I have our DS PCs set up to allow switching between the 2015 and 2014 DS programs as we still run last years robots quite a bit for demos and having the DS program name the same facilitates this switching. I know the 2015 is supposed to let you switch protocols, but this did seem to work when we first installed 2015 so we did it ourselves. And doing it ourselves allows us to switch out the custom display program we have for the upper part of the DS display.

Sorry if I am stating the obvious but I felt bound to mention all this due to the time I have spent on this version numbering issue.

Thanks for responding to my posts.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Just to clarify, I was referring to the 1500 part of the version as I get the create date part of the version number. I thought it odd that two programs with the 49156 build would display 1300 and 1500 as the last 4 digits of the version. Is this odd or are you saying changing the create date has an effect on the last 4 digits as well as the first 4?

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

This is mostly correct, except that it is the Creation Date not the Modification Date.

I would expect the first 6 digits to change.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Ah...yes. I did not read carefully and thought it was just the first 4 related to create date and the last part was actually hard coded. Reading more carefully explains a lot.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

It makes sense that the creation date would change if you copied it.

I can't imagine what you were seeing either. Maybe a strange Windows installer thing? No idea.

Sure. I agree. The versions we generate in our build system have the form major.minor.updatePHASEbuild. E.g. "15.0.0f7".

This is the form I intend to have used in all utilities, however the display in the title bar will be the abbreviated version. There is a set of rules for abbreviating that we use. You may notice that the DS title bar shows "15.0". That's what the above build version is abbreviated to.

I agree that there should not be 2 different versions. The version generated by our build system is adapted to the Windows File Version that you were looking at in the properties. That 15.0.0.49159 is the same as 15.0.0f7. If you convert the 49159 to hex, you'll see it is 0xC007. The 2 most-significant bits indicate the phase. Options are d, a, b, f for development, alpha, beta, final respectively. The 14 least-significant bits are the build number.

As stated, I attempted to fix that, but didn't change it in both places. My bad.

I've reported this to our installer person.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

I think I may have confused all this by having a very incorrect view of the version number although I did see a case where running the installer did not place driverstation.exe on the PC. Enough has happened here I will just wear this one as me getting confused.

Seems that abbreviated version does not communicate anything useful if the last part does not change when the version of the program changes. ie, if 15.0 is the first ver of 2015, then update 1 should be 15.1 for the title bar display to have any value.

I'm not getting this completely. The C007 2 most significant bits are 11 or 3. How does that relate to the option letters (index?) or is the f truncated when converted to windows 16 bit version component?

Thanks for this info.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Actually it should have been 15.0.1 in the title bar, but due to my not paying attention to when a colleague was planning to upload the update, I had not yet bumped the version number, so the update accidentally went out as a higher build number of update 0 instead of how it should have gone out, which is as update 1. Any following update will be 15.0.2.

The 2 msb are an enum. Sorry I didn't make that more clear. With 'final' being the fourth entry in the enum, its value is 3.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

This all sounds good. Thanks again for clearing up all my questions. Things seem to be on track with our DS PCs now.

Re: Driver Station Update fails to install
 

Our installer apparently never set this key up. It was done in the classmate image only. There is nothing we can change here. It is the Classmate Images that need to be updated. Please file a tracker here for the classmate images to be fixed.