greatshots has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

dear monks,

I downloaded the following file "ActivePerl-5.8.8.819-MSWin32-x86-267479.msi" to install perl in my system. I am using windows 2000 belongs to x86. That is the reason I downloaded that file. but when I double clicked the file to install it in my system, I got the following error message :-
This installation package could not be opened. Contact the applicateion vendor to verify that this ia a valid Windows Installer package.

expecting your ideas on this issue.

  • Comment on Perl binary - Perl Installer Issue in windows

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Re: Perl binary - Perl Installer Issue in windows
by bart (Canon) on Dec 01, 2006 at 12:37 UTC
    Occasionally I have this happen when trying to install Firefox extensions. The problem then usually is getting back a bad MIME type from the server: the browser thinks it's text, and it saves it as text, with line ends translated.

    A solution that works, most of the time, is downloading the file in another way, i.e. not using the browser. wget that you can get for example in UnxUtils, will most likely do. If you have perl already, a simple LWP::Simple script will do too: 

    perl -MLWP::Simple -e "print getstore('http://downloads.activestate.co
+m/.../ActivePerl-5.8.8.819-MSWin32-x64-267479.msi', 'ActivePerl-5.8.8
+.819-MSWin32-x86-267479.msi')"

    [download]
    which should print "200" and save the file on your filesystem, as binary. n.b. I blanked out the exact URL because ActiveState likes you to optionally enter your contact details before downloading, and I don't want them to be angry at me by bypassing that. Just proceed from http://www.activestate.com/store/activeperl/download to get the real URL.

    Of course, to download perl this way, you have a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, haven't you? :)

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      perl -MLWP::Simple -e "print getstore('http://downloads.activestate.co
+m/.../ActivePerl-5.8.8.819-MSWin32-x64-267479.msi', 'ActivePerl-5.8.8
+.819-MSWin32-x86-267479.msi')"

      [download]
      The above prints '500' what does that mean ? I executed the above in HP Unix Box.
[reply]
[d/l]
        The above prints '500' what does that mean ?

        I think it means that a server error was encountered. (I actually get '404' - which tells me the file wasn't found.)

        There's no such file as 'http://downloads.activestate.com/.../ActivePerl-5.8.8.819-MSWin32-x64-267479.msi'.
        Try ' http://downloads.activestate.com/ActivePerl/Windows/5.8/ActivePerl-5.8.8.819-MSWin32-x64-267479.msi'.

        Cheers,
        Rob
        Update:Fix the location specified to specify the 64-bit version (x64) instead of the 32-bit version (x86).
[reply]
Re: Perl binary - Perl Installer Issue in windows
by marto (Cardinal) on Dec 01, 2006 at 11:14 UTC
    greatshots,

    have you tried validating the file you downloaded against the MD5SUM? If there is a problem with the file then report it. There may be a mirror of this file elsewhere. Which version of MSI do you have installed? Are you installing this remotely?

    Hope this helps.

    Martin

    Update: Added two questions and fixed a spelling mistake
[reply]
Re: Perl binary - Perl Installer Issue in windows
by syphilis (Archbishop) on Dec 01, 2006 at 11:29 UTC
    You can alternatively download the '.zip' version (which is the one I always grab ... there's something about the msi packages that I dislike ... but I can no longer recall precisely what it is :-)
    Just unpack the zip archive, and run the 'Installer.bat' that comes with it, to install Perl to the location of your choice. (You can then remove the entire directory into which the zip archive was unpacked.)

    Cheers,
    Rob
[reply]

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