i’m trying to learn how to install software on win10 machines using bigfix. using firefox, java and adobe reader as a test.
I created packages using “manage software distribution” the software will download to the client but it never installs. I successfully installed 7-zip the same way i did these.
Did you specify the right command for silent installation? The Manage Software Distribution dashboard provides a default command, but it might not necessarily be the proper command.
Also, you should check the logs to see if there’s anything that indicates why it failed. It’s available on the endpoint: <BES Client folder>/__BESData/__Global/SWDDeployData
Based on your log information I think @zevanty is correct, you need to customize your SWD tasks to use the correct unattended install command lines & parameters for each application. The parameters to use vary by each executable package installer, which is why BigFix can’t guess them correctly. You can usually find those by checking the vendor site or Google, searching for terms like “silent install” or “unattended install”. You need the command-line installer to work, silently, without presenting any “OK” or “Continue” dialog box before you even try to deploy it with BigFix (or SCCM, or any other deployment tool).
.MSI install packages, on the other hand, use basically the same set of unattended install parameters so it is much easier for the SWD dashboards to guess those command lines correctly. Example, msiexec /i <package name>.msi /qn ALLUSERS=1 REBOOT=ReallySuppress works for pretty much every MSI package I’ve seen.
I don’t generally use the SWD wizard to build fixlets, but I think there is a place in the wizard to insert the installation command line. If not, you could manually edit the generated Tasks and replace the installation command in the action script.