Troubleshoot: Software installation

The article will outline the needed steps for troubleshooting issues related to Software installation, for both Chocolatey and Homebrew.

Chocolatey

When Software installation fails on Windows devices, the following error message will appear in the snack bar.

The logs for Chocolatey in Atera can be found in the following folder:

For x64
"C:\Program Files\ATERA Networks\AteraAgent\Packages\AgentPackageProgramManagement\choco-logs"

For x86
"C:\Program Files (x86)\ATERANetworks\AteraAgent\Packages\AgentPackageProgramManagement\choco-logs"

Read the logs

Besides reading the logs for Chocolatey locally, you can also read them directly from Atera using CMD or Powershell.

1. On the affected agent, go to Manage and click on Command Prompt.

2. Once CMD is open, use the following command to access the folder that contains the logs.

For x64

cd "C:\Program Files\ATERA Networks\AteraAgent\Packages\AgentPackageProgramManagement\choco-logs"

For x86

cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\ATERANetworks\AteraAgent\Packages\AgentPackageProgramManagement\choco-logs"

3. Type in the display directory command to see all the files in the folder.

dir

Once you click on dir, you will see all the logs in the choco-logs folder.

4. To read the logs, copy the file name and use the type command to display the logs in Atera. Make sure to have the file name in quotation marks along with the file extension at the end.

Command
type "filename.txt"

Example
type "10-17-2022 10_32_24-log.txt"

The logs will be displayed in the CMD window.

Software already installed

One error that you might encounter is "*Software name* already installed." Even though the application is not installed on the machine, files from Chocolatey can prevent the installation.

Use the following commands to remove any files that might prevent the software installation.

rmdir "C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib" /q /s
rmdir "C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib-bad" /q /s

After running both commands attempt another software installation

ERROR: Checksum

In some cases, the package that is found in the Chocolatey repository is not updated properly, and it can return the following error:

ERROR: Checksum for 'xxxxxx' did not meet 'xxxxxx' for checksum type 'sha256'. Consider passing the actual checksums through with --checksum --checksum64 once you validate the checksums are appropriate. A less secure option is to pass --ignore-checksums if necessary.

In such cases, where software installation returns this error, you can attempt to use the --ignore-checksums, parameter, this will ignore the checksum and attempt the installation.

Note: For some packages, the --ignore-checksums parameter can fail, as long as there is no "Package parameters" section in the Software Installation description.

Script installation method

You can upload the software installer (.exe or .msi) to Atera as a script and run it directly from Atera. This way, you can install applications that are failing using Software installation, or that are not found in the Chocolatey repository. Please follow our article Create or Upload Scripts, for more details.

Homebrew

Software installation for Mac devices uses Homebrew for installing software.

Read logs

1. Use the Change directory command to access the folder where the logs for Homebrew are.

cd "/library/application support/com.atera.ateraagent/packages/AgentPackageProgramManagement/AgentPackageProgramManagementApp.app/Contents/MonoBundle"

2. To read the logs use the cat command

cat "brew-logs.txt"

The choco logs will show the issues with the installation itself. Like permission issues, folder access issues, etc.

One common error is sudo: a password is required. Some Homebrew software require password authentication or have other permission requirements, and therefore cannot be installed via Atera currently. If this is the case, a message will appear to inform you of this.

Still have a question? Contact us

Dragos Tulbure

August 30, 2023 13:25

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