Friday, August 24, 2007

MySQL Connector/Net 1.0.10.1 has been released.

MySQL Connector/Net 1.0.10.1 a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released.  This is a bug fix release for the current production branch of Connector/Net.  Version 1.0.10.1 is suitable for use with any MySQL version including MySQL-4.1, MySQL-5.0, MySQL-5.1 beta or the MySQL-6.0 Falcon "Preview".
It is now available in source and binary form from the Connector/Net download pages at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/1.0.html and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

You can find the release announcement in our forums with a complete change log here.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

No half installs. Sometimes...

One of the big reasons to use MSI-based installers, as the story goes, is that the entire install is handled inside a transaction.  Either the entire install succeeds or fails as a unit.  This prevents an installer from failing halfway through and leaving the product half-installed.  Well, no.  Not quite.

Recently I was testing a small change to our WiX-authored installer.  The change caused the installer to fail and the installer dutifully rolled back and declared that no changes had been made to my system.  One of the things that the installer was supposed to do was register a .NET assembly in the GAC and then run installutil on the assembly to execute it's Installer-based classes.  It was this installutil step that failed.

I made sure that the assembly that was headed to the GAC was not already registered before running the installer.  Guess what I found after the installer failed and notified me that 'no changes had been made to my system'?  Yup.  There was my assembly registered in the GAC. 

I asked about this on some lists and found out that MSI-based GAC installation happens after the InstallFinalize option and is therefore not part of the transaction.  Hmmm.  That's all well and good but when the installer clearly tells me that my system has not been changed, I would like to trust it.

Just another example of what we want not matching what happens, here in Microsoft world.  :)

*UPDATE*

Turns out this was caused by a problem in my WiX code.  I had mistakenly scheduled my CustomAction to execute after InstallFinalize.  Anything that happens after the install is finalized will most certainly not be rolled back. 

MySQL Connector/Net 5.0.8 has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 5.0.8 a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released.  This is a bug fix release for the current production branch of Connector/Net.  Version 5.0.8 is suitable for use with any MySQL version including MySQL-4.1, MySQL-5.0, MySQL-5.1 beta or the MySQL-6.0 Falcon "Preview".


It is now available in source and binary form from the Connector/Net download pages at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/5.0.html and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)


We moved to a new installer technology for this release.  Please let us know what, if any, problems you have with it.

The full release announcement with change log can be seen in our .NET forum here.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Where did my machines go?

I have an install of Windows Server 2003 setup under Virtual Server 2005.  I use this image for continuous integration of my Connector/Net products.  The host machine is running Vista x32 Ultimate. 

I'm not sure if its because it's on Vista but any virtual machines I add would disappear following a reboot.  Not only that but attempting to re-add the machine would give an error indicating that the machines configuration was already present and could not be added again.  Fun.

There's an easy solution though.  Just move your machine images into the default search path for Virtual Server.  On my machine that's C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines.  If you've already worked around this by renaming your .vmc file a few times, you can clean out those old configurations by deleting appropriately from C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Virtual Server\Virtual Machines.

[BTW, I'm using Virtual Server because VMWare Server doesn't support Vista.  And, yes, I know that some have got it to work but it's not supported.]

Monday, August 6, 2007

It lives! It lives!

My SMT 5600 died two week ago.  This is an awesome little phone.  Much better than the Cingular 2125, runs Windows Mobile, small and fast.  And two weeks ago mine had a lovely while LCD screen.  You could vaguely make out what was happening on screen which means the phone wasn't entirely dead.  You could still make and take phone calls.  Just don't try using the menus or looking up a contact.  And, yup, out of warranty.

So.....  off to eBay I go.  Picked up a non-working model on the hope that the LCD was still good.  Cost me $24 after shipping but turned out to be worth it.  I used these excellent directions for disassembling the phone and it took me all of about 30 minutes to swap out the screens.  Man was I happy to see color when I powered it on.