This posting pertains to the INITIAL August 9th, 1997 post-ACEDB '97
release of WinAce97 (ACEDB for Windows). Subsequent releases (after
this date, i.e. August 15th and beyond) do not cause the installation
problem described in this advisory. NOTE: The NCBI mirror of the Sanger
ftp copy of winace97 was somewhat delayed in being updated. The newer
release had a README.WINDOWS file but is, unfortunately, the archive
name was not originally timestamped (except through the filing system,
with a later Sept 3, 1997 file date). This latter problem is now resolved:
the re-release is named "winace97_Aug15.zip".
The release (packaged as a .zip archive) is in a new "InstallShield" based
format which gives Windows users their familiar "setup.exe" functionality
seen with most commercial installations of programs.
Unfortunately, this initial installation was inadvertently designed to
generously provide winace users with (NT default) copies of certain MS
Windows dynamic linked libraries (DLL's):
wsock32.dll
ws2_32.dll
ws2help.dll
which are now known to be
standard upon (most) Windows systems. Since the InstallShield utility (at
least, the "Visual C/C++ 4.2 Express" version used to generate the
winace archive) does not complain about overwriting existing
files, users with non-default versions of the Windows DLL's would see
newer, non-default versions of the files quietly overwritten.
The overwriting of the ws2*.dll did not appear to be the problem.
The biggest culprit is wsock32.dll (found under the windows\system (for
Windows '95) or winnt\system32 (for NT) subdirectory) for which some users
have sophisticated enhanced versions for increased internet (e.g.
netscape, ping, ftp, etc.) service functionality.
IF YOU HAVE BEEN ENCOUNTERING INTERNET PROBLEMS SINCE INSTALLING WINACE,
THIS IS THE LIKELY (AND TO MY KNOWLEDGE, ONLY) CULPRIT.
First, if you are among this small (but important) group of winace
pioneers (with the arrows in your back), I offer my sincerest apologies
for the anguish caused by this installation bug.
Second, I offer the following bug fix advisory:
1. You DON'T need to download the August 15th version of Winace
because all it does is fix the installation so that the above bug does not
occur (wsock32.dll is not overwritten).
2a. If you have a copy of YOUR custom wsock32.dll (i.e. you backed up
windows\system (for Windows '95) or winnt\system32 after installing your
increased internet functionality but before installing winace) then just
restore that copy.
OR
2b. If you don't have a backup of wsock32.dll, then try reinstalling
your particular internet software (e.g. netscape, ping, ftp, etc.).
If none of the above works, please contact me (at
rbrusk at octogene.medgen.ubc.ca) with a description of your particular
operating configuration (OS, network items installed, etc.) so we can work
together to fix the problem.
Once again, my sincerest apologies for this unexpected installation
problem.
Richard M. Bruskiewich
Wood Lab, Dept. of Medical Genetics
Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia
318 - 6174 University Blvd
Vancouver, BC
V6T 1Z3
E-Mail: rbrusk at octogene.medgen.ubc.ca
WWW: http://mendel.medgen.ubc.ca/rbrusk/RichardB.html
Tel: (604) 822-6830
Fax: (604) 822-5348
