Posted December 10, 2019
After the last update to Galaxy (1.2.64.2), the Galaxy client would fail to start with a complaint about a required component not being properly installed and needing to reinstall it. Fun part of that message, it never says what "it" is.
Wasted hours...
- Re-installing every MS Redist package that I had installed.
- Re-installed Galaxy more times than I care to count.
- Update AV software
- Disable AV software
- Read through the built-in Microsoft application/event/security logs.
- Google for every aspect of the error I could to find nothing more useful than "uninstall/reinstall". Same unhelpful advice offered from the GOG support pages.
- Scoured the Windows Registry, removing every reference to GOG Galaxy (and various spellings thereof) hoping it was just a bad leftover setting.
My first hint at the problem was when I found a log file in a location that I the typical user won't go looking (hidden folder); %APP_DATA%\Local\Temp\Setup Log 2019-12-09 #001.txt
---
Executing X:\GOG Games\GOG Galaxy\GalaxyClient.exe /clientLanguage=en-US
Executing successful. Program exit code: -31
---
More Googling didn't help, but I did find more logs files under C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\logs (another hidden folder). Sadly, I can't copy/paste the error since now that I have Galaxy working, old log files were automatically deleted by the client. All I can say is there was something about failing to set DACL settings on Dependencies-Temp.
So what was the problem? I was installing to an exFAT partition which doesn't have security controls (it's totally unrestricted) and that broke the installer. I had to install GOG Galaxy onto an NTFS partition. Interesting how a partition type is considered a "component that needs to be reinstalled".
Yes, I'm salty, but I still felt I needed to report this crappy bug.
Wasted hours...
- Re-installing every MS Redist package that I had installed.
- Re-installed Galaxy more times than I care to count.
- Update AV software
- Disable AV software
- Read through the built-in Microsoft application/event/security logs.
- Google for every aspect of the error I could to find nothing more useful than "uninstall/reinstall". Same unhelpful advice offered from the GOG support pages.
- Scoured the Windows Registry, removing every reference to GOG Galaxy (and various spellings thereof) hoping it was just a bad leftover setting.
My first hint at the problem was when I found a log file in a location that I the typical user won't go looking (hidden folder); %APP_DATA%\Local\Temp\Setup Log 2019-12-09 #001.txt
---
Executing X:\GOG Games\GOG Galaxy\GalaxyClient.exe /clientLanguage=en-US
Executing successful. Program exit code: -31
---
More Googling didn't help, but I did find more logs files under C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\logs (another hidden folder). Sadly, I can't copy/paste the error since now that I have Galaxy working, old log files were automatically deleted by the client. All I can say is there was something about failing to set DACL settings on Dependencies-Temp.
So what was the problem? I was installing to an exFAT partition which doesn't have security controls (it's totally unrestricted) and that broke the installer. I had to install GOG Galaxy onto an NTFS partition. Interesting how a partition type is considered a "component that needs to be reinstalled".
Yes, I'm salty, but I still felt I needed to report this crappy bug.
