ThinApp'ing Mathematica 8 - crash on app start

[RobVila]

Has anyone had any success with ThinApp'ing Mathematica 8?  If so, please chime in and share your experiences.

The problem that I am having is that the Thinapp'ed Mathematica program is crashing on startup - with no apparent reason why.

The capture and build process worked fine with no issues.  Built it from a clean VM using Win 7, 32 bit.  I have included the trace log files,  (had to compress them in a .zip)  but I didn't see anything worth mentioning except a "potential error detected" but it looked pretty obscure - perhaps someone else with more experience with reading the trace files could help.

Also - wanted to mention that I did see the startup graphic, and it began to load several different items.  The program crashed when the graphic showed that it was "Initialling Defaults Notebook"

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

Robert

[Squidly_Man]

I've been able to ThinApp Mathematica 8.0.0 on XP and get the package working on Win 7.  The weird thing about getting it to work on Win 7 is I could not leave the ThinApp package on the network share (a Server 2008 R2 share).  I had to copy the package local to the Win 7 32-bit local hard drive and then it would run.  The package would run fine on XP 32-bit from the Server 2008 R2 and would also run fine from a 32-bit share on the Win 7 OS so I'm guessing it's something specific to Mathematica 8, Win7, and the 64-bit share - but that's just a guess.

Above all, I would say it's absolutely a need to capture on a clean capture and build system (XP Pro, no IE updates - just IE6, no .NET, no Java, nothing except SP3 and VMware Tools - assuming it's a VM) and then follow the ThinApp Troubleshooting Methods for testing.

The only other thing I did was use ThinApp 4.6.1 to build the package and edit the PACKAGE.INI and add ProcessExternalNameBehavior=Original.

Hope this helps,

Dean F.

http://pubs.vmware.com/thinapp4/help/

[Squidly_Man]

i think i spoke too soon.  it appears a ThinApp package of Mathematica will only work on Win 7 when the ThinApp package (EXEs and DAT) is copied to the desktop (and by that I mean the actual user's Desktop folder) and executed directly from the desktop.

Troubleshooting continues...

-Dean F.

http://pubs.vmware.com/thinapp4/help/

[RobVila]

Thanks for the information Dean - I will try the steps you mentioned and let you know how it goes!

Robert

[RobVila]

Grrr...This is becoming quite a frustration.  I just captured a new install of Mathematica on the Win 7 computer, adding the additional line in the package.ini (althought that just changes the way the program is named in the task manager) AND copying the .dat and related files to the local machine .... and it is still crashing on startup - at the same place as before -  "Initializing Defaults Notebook".  I'm trying to find more information on the notebook and if I can specify a different default notebook - perhaps on a network share or the like.

<fingers crossed>

Robert

[RobVila]

I guess next I'll try capturing the software on a XP SP3 VM and coping it locally...now if only I could find that XP disk

I'll report back tomorrow with hopefully positive results.  Thanks again Dean for your suggestions.

Robert

[RobVila]

Success at last!  It looks like I was able to sucessfully make a thinapp in XP and Win 7 and both versions work on both OS types.  It looks like when I completed the origional installation of Mathematica, I did not create a notebook file upon startup, thus it was trying to create one from it's defaults when thinapp'ed, and that made it crash.

So...creating a new notebook file and saving it THEN thinapp'ing the program, should ensure the program will work correctly.

Robert