Having trouble with Uninstalling software using Bigfix

(imported topic written by mike.armstrong91)

Hey Folks,

I have tried several things. Ben Kus had in another thread a management task that you just copy and paste the name of the software from a really neat list below, and it would remove it. That would not work, I tried creating my own fixlets that would help me to uninstall it. They all fail. I run this command in dos and it works fine

msiexec.exe REBOOT=ReallySuppress /X{5F123354-AC45-442A-8E00-B1A7A3FC4161}

The Bigfix action I have tried is:

waithidden msiexec.exe /x{5F123354-AC45-442A-8E00-B1A7A3FC4161}

I will try to increase the switches in this once it is working, but I want to understand what I am doing wrong here that doesn’t allow me to uninstall this software.

I think there is something fundamentally wrong with these computers. The uninstaller always reports back as failed now matter what. I have also tried running this as a dos command instead of waithidden. That also did not work.

This is from the client logs. It mentions Relevance substitution failed.

At 16:51:39 -0400 -

GatherActionMV command received. Version difference, gathering action site.

At 16:51:40 -0400 - actionsite (http://shr-p-bigfix.innovapost.ca:52611/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite)

Download ‘http://SHR-P-BFR2.innovapost.ca:52611/bfmirror/bfsites/manydirlists_1/__diffsite_6fad1cd39ddb57e3278c909511a309fb4e07073e_to_b904417dd60da69ea226f55fcd6b5519037717c7’ as ‘__TempUpdateFilename’

At 16:51:40 -0400 -

Gather merging new file C:\Program Files\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client__BESData\actionsite\Action 23520.fxf

At 16:51:40 -0400 - actionsite (http://shr-p-bigfix.innovapost.ca:52611/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite)

Successful Synchronization with FixSite (version 29377) - ‘http://SHR-P-BFR2.innovapost.ca:52611/cgi-bin/bfenterprise/BESGatherMirror.exe?url=http://shr-p-bigfix.innovapost.ca:52611/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite

Relevant - Software Uninstall: Project 2003 (fixlet:23520)

At 16:51:40 -0400 -

ActionLogMessage: (action 23520 ) Action signature verified

ActionLogMessage: (action 23520 ) starting action

At 16:51:41 -0400 - actionsite (http://shr-p-bigfix.innovapost.ca:52611/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite)

Command failed (Relevance substitution failed) dos “msiexec.exe” /x{5F123354-AC45-442A-8E00-B1A7A3FC4161} (fixlet 23520)

At 16:51:41 -0400 -

ActionLogMessage: (action 23520 ) ending action

I don’t know why relevance would fail as it is set to true. (if it was a relevance issue after the uninstall was completed, the software would not be seen on the client computer).

I just want to get this working before I buff it up with relevance and other switches.

Please give me a hand!

(imported comment written by NoahSalzman)

You need to escape your {.

http://support.bigfix.com/cgi-bin/kbdirect.pl?id=1230

(imported comment written by mike.armstrong91)

If I understand the link you provided, I should have done it as follows:

waithidden msiexec.exe /x{{5F123354-AC45-442A-8E00-B1A7A3FC4161}

I attempted this combination and it reported as failed, however, since my relevance is set to true, that does not suprise me. I changed it to say dos msiexec.exe /x{{5F123354-AC45-442A-8E00-B1A7A3FC4161} to bring it down to its most fundamental level and it was successful. YAY! At least its working in some sense.

So I beefed up the relevance to

(name of it = “WinXP” OR (name of it = “WinVista” and product type of it = nt workstation product type) OR (name of it = “Win7”) AND (exists regapp “besclient.exe” whose (version of it >= “7.2.4.60”))) of operating system AND (exists file “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINPROJ.EXE”)

and the action script to:

waithidden msiexec.exe /QN REBOOT=ReallySuppressed /x{{5F123354-AC45-442A-8E00-B1A7A3FC4161}

STATUS OF FIXED!!! and the software was uninstalled!!

Thanks for the help Noah! Now I will have to figure out why the task that Ben Kus posted wasn’t working and I’ll be all set.

(There is a reason I became a computer technician instead of a programmer :P… stupid semi-colons and sqwiggly brackets!!!)

(imported comment written by mike.armstrong91)

I looked over the task that Ben Kus posted, and realized there was an inconsistency with his action variable. It asks for input and was named variable “name”. Inside the script, it references variable “Name” which I corrected to be the same as previous. It now is working!

I just wanted to let everyone know my process so they might have better luck with their scripts. I hope that is alright.

Have a great night everyone!!

(imported comment written by NoahSalzman)

Nice catch… case sensitive errors are always hard to track down.