Deploy Keyman with a GPO

[DonAgnew]

we are trying to push Keyman with four different keyboards (fv_gitsenimx.kmp, v_hlgaagilda_xaayda_kil.kmp, fv_nisgaa.kmp, fv_smalgyax.kmp, fv_xaislakala.kmp), we have tried to do the embedded zip (https://help.keyman.com/knowledge-base/35) unfortunately this seems to not deploy properly, it will put different pieces in the temp folder but never all the files needed. Help please

[Marc]

@DonAgnew,

Welcome to the community! We’ll need a bit more detail on the issue to help diagnose it:

• Have you tried running your embedded zip installer version directly, i.e. not with the GPO deployment? Does that work?
• Can you share a copy of the setup log files from the attempted install (%localappdata%\Keyman\Diag)?
• What is the content of the setup.inf file in your embedded zip?
• How are you configuring the GPO deployment of the executable?

[DonAgnew]

• we have been running the embedded zip installer directly

• “INFO: Install finished successfully” is all i am getting in the log - but the installer is showing no keyboards and it wants to download Keyman

• the setup .inf
  [Setup]
  MSIFileName=keymandesktop.msi

[Packages]
fv_gitsenimx.kmp
fv_hlgaagilda_xaayda_kil.kmp
fv_nisgaa.kmp
fv_smalgyax.kmp
fv_xaislakala.kmp

*and we haven’t tried to configure the GPO as the installer is not working yet

[Marc]

Okay, I’ve just tried following the information on KB35 here and it worked without trouble with Keyman for Windows 14.0.290. I am guessing that the problem may be that you are not using setup.exe from Keyman for Windows downloads but rather the full keyman-14.0.290.exe?

Note that the keyman-14.0.290.exe download already includes an embedded .zip file (with keymandesktop.msi) so adding another zip file to that will just be ignored.

Content of my setup.inf:

[Setup]
MSIFileName=keymandesktop.msi

[Packages]
fv_gitsenimx.kmp
fv_hlgaagilda_xaayda_kil.kmp
fv_nisgaa.kmp
fv_smalgyax.kmp
fv_xaislakala.kmp

Content of my zip file – no subfolders allowed:

C:\Users\mcdurdin\Downloads\setup>dir /b
fv_gitsenimx.kmp
fv_hlgaagilda_xaayda_kil.kmp
fv_nisgaa.kmp
fv_smalgyax.kmp
fv_xaislakala.kmp
keymandesktop.msi
setup.inf

[DonAgnew]

trying to figure out what i am doing wrong, using the setup.exe , my setup.inf is the same, and I have tried creating it on three different computers and i keep getting the same result, it wants to download Keyman without any keyboards

[Marc]

Can you zip up and share what you have with me (you may need to share on Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox or similar) and I can review and give feedback?

[DonAgnew]

did the last link work?

[Marc]

I haven’t yet had an opportunity to look at it.

[Marc]

Link works, now investigating.

[Marc]

OK, I found the problem.

This was a little murkier than I expected, and it’s really my fault for having misleading instructions, sorry! (I will update the instructions in the KB article in a moment.)

Root cause

The setup.exe file that is downloadable from https://downloads.keyman.com/windows/14.0.290/ includes a code signature (generally speaking, a Good Thing). However, when there is a signature on setup.exe before you append the zip file, that breaks the self-extracting zip code.

(It is okay to sign the final combined exe+zip file – that works, which is why keyman-14.0.290.exe from that same site works.)

Solution

Use the unsigned setup.exe to combine the setup bootstrap and zip file.

This unsigned setup.exe is available in the installation for Keyman Developer under %ProgramFiles(x86%)\Keyman\Keyman Developer\Redist\Setup.

The same unsigned setup.exe is also available in debug-14.0.290.zip, in desktop/setup.zip, within the debug-14.0.290.zip file (saving you from having to install Keyman Developer, if you don’t need it).