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Any streamlining of installations possible?

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October 3, 2011 - 4:58pm
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jbs
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Any streamlining of installations possible?

Admittedly it's been awhile since I installed PA last and as mentioned in my earlier post this is my first experience with the Platform. But my recollection is that the suite was more or less a single install. I love the concept of a custom suite, but I selected ~80 apps to include, and now it's going through 80 separate installation routines. Is that normal? Or did I do something wrong? So far I've selected the defaults on every single app, but it's still been something like 100 clicks and a few hours and I'm only half way through (to be clear, the few hours is because I'm not sitting waiting for it but instead need to keep coming back to it).

Thanks for any advice!

-Jason

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October 3, 2011 - 6:01pm
Aluísio A. S. G.
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IRC

This has been answered in IRC.

Previously known as kAlug.

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October 3, 2011 - 6:07pm
(Reply to #2)
jbs
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It has, and in case anyone

It has, and in case anyone else comes across the same issue, GordCaswell brilliantly identified the problem. The platform had been closed and apparently that's what manages the automation. Since reopening the platform the number of clicks and itneractions is about 1/20th of what it was. Thansk GordCaswell!

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October 3, 2011 - 6:10pm
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Why?

I'm curious why you closed the platform? I can't seem to figure out why a user would do that while a part of the platform (the updater/app directory) is running. I'm going to have to specifically prevent this from happening in future builds to stop users doing it and complaining when things don't work right as a result, of course Smile

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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October 3, 2011 - 7:26pm
(Reply to #4)
jbs
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Admittedly, I'm not a regular

Admittedly, I'm not a regular used of the app. The "eject" button doesn't have a label or tool tip and I mistook it for a shortcut to retract the onscreen menu. Once I'd clicked it I knew it had closed the app, but since the download was already running (and continued to run) it never occurred to me that closing the platform would allow the update to continue to run, but only in a crippled mode.

As to why a user *might* do this (had it been intentional) keep in mind that the norm with most software (i.e. Firefox, Evernote, Quicken, etc) is that it's *required* it to be closed in order to run updates. I'm not saying most people would do it -- as I said I didn't do it intentionally -- but I can see how it could happen.

All that said, even though it's now running more "unattended" than before, it's still taking hours. I've got 64 app folders in my directory so far and the last 40 (since relaunching the platform) span from 5:09 pm to 7:25pm, roughly 3+ minutes apiece. Is that about right?

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October 3, 2011 - 8:18pm
(Reply to #5)
Ken Herbert
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There are a number of factors

There are a number of factors involved, including which apps in particular you are installing, your internet speed, and the read/write speed of the device you are installing to.

If you are installing LibreOffice or OpenOffice (or both), these can take a significant amount of time to download and install, and there are some other largish apps in the list.

I just updated Firefox and Thunderbird (15Mb downloads each), and that took 3 minutes, with download speeds between 400 and 900Kb, writing to a portable hard drive (so write speeds much quicker than to a USB drive). If you are writing to a middle- or low-end USB drive over a slowish connection, the time it is taking is not really surprising.

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October 3, 2011 - 8:54pm
(Reply to #6)
jbs
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Thanks. I'm writing to a

Thanks. I'm writing to a Class 10 SD card and downloading via a 30mbps Fios connection. It just completed now after several hours so it's now ready to go. I suspect I'll just copy the folder to the other devices I want to use it on rather than do a reinstall. You raise a good point with the drive speed, though. Next time I might install it to the hard drive and then copy the files to the thumb/sd/etc.

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October 3, 2011 - 6:07pm
John T. Haller
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Installers Should Be Hidden

When you add apps via the Portable App Directory, installers should be hidden except when (1) you need to read and agree to an EULA you haven't yet agreed to, generally only certain freeware apps or (2) you need to select an option for a new app that the platform can't guess what you want. Other than that, all installers are hidden... UNLESS you exit the platform while the updater is running or you renamed the PortableApps\PortableApps.com directory... neither of which you should do.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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