Updater fails if not run as admin, even on a user installation

[marczellm]

Bug report

My check list

• latest package versions are installed
• MiKTeX log files are attached
• the bug can be reproduced by anybody (necessary input files are attached)

What I tried to do

Update MiKTeX with the GUI updater

What I expected to happen

Update succeeds.

What happened instead

End of log:

2018-02-04 22:23:48,355+0100 INFO  FileCopyPage - extracting files from miktex-pdftex-bin-x64-2.9.tar.lzma...
2018-02-04 22:23:49,942+0100 ERROR update.core - The executed process did not succeed.
2018-02-04 22:23:49,942+0100 ERROR update.core - The executed process did not succeed.
2018-02-04 22:23:49,942+0100 ERROR update.core - Data: fileName="D:\Program Files\MiKTeX\miktex/bin/x64\initexmf.exe", exitCode="1"
2018-02-04 22:23:49,942+0100 ERROR update.core - Data: fileName="D:\Program Files\MiKTeX\miktex/bin/x64\initexmf.exe", exitCode="1"
2018-02-04 22:23:49,942+0100 ERROR update.core - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\Process\Process.cpp:166
2018-02-04 22:23:49,942+0100 ERROR update.core - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\Process\Process.cpp:166
2018-02-04 22:23:49,942+0100 INFO  FileCopyPage - 
2018-02-04 22:23:49,942+0100 INFO  FileCopyPage - Error: The executed process did not succeed.

Strangely if I run the updater as admin, it succeeds without error. This is weird because I don't have a system-wide MiKTeX installation, only a user installation.

The other weird thing is that no matter how many times I run the updater, it always finds these two "to be repaired" tasks:

[edocevoli]

"D:\Program Files\MiKTeX" indicates a shared installation. And besides that, modifying the "Program Files" folder usually requires admin privileges.

[marczellm]

Dear Christian,

"The" Program Files directory is located at C:\Program Files.

The D:\Program Files directory was created by me and it's a perfectly regular directory. No admin privileges required.

My installation is not a shared install.

[edocevoli]

You haven't attach the log files (the update log is not enough), so it's difficult to get an idea about your setup. All I can say at the moment is that I cannot reproduce your problem when going the standard setup route.

[marczellm]

Which log file should I be looking for and where? (The update log is the only one in the `C:\Users\Márton\AppData\Local\MiKTeX\2.9\miktex\log` folder that is changed when running the updater.)

[edocevoli]

The log files are in miktex\log (relative to the user root directory). Try %LOCALAPPDATA%\MiKTeX\2.9\miktex\log.

[marczellm]

Which log files do you need? All 41 of them?

[edocevoli]

I don't know yet. It's your system. You know when it happened. You are in the position to inspect the log files. You have all the information. I have: not enough information to work on this issue effectively.

[marczellm]

Here's a debug trace, I hope it's useful:

[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - going to unload file name database 4 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - accessing file C:\ProgramData\MiKTeX\2.9\miktex/data/le\1756f6ade37d5f870f23c05a7f81e257.fndb: NOK 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - accessing directory C:\ProgramData\MiKTeX\2.9\miktex/data/le: OK 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - opening file C:\ProgramData\MiKTeX\2.9\miktex/data/le\1756f6ade37d5f870f23c05a7f81e257.fndb (1 0x2 3 0) 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - accessing directory C:\ProgramData\MiKTeX\2.9\miktex\data\le: OK 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - fndb creation completed 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - accessing file C:\ProgramData\MiKTeX\2.9\miktex/config\miktex.ini: NOK 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - MIKTEX_INITEXMF_CORE_NOREGISTRY => null 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - MIKTEX_MIKTEX_CORE_NOREGISTRY => null 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - MIKTEX_CORE_NOREGISTRY => null 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - MIKTEX_NOREGISTRY => null 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - [Core]NoRegistry => null 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - RegCreateKeyExW (FFFFFFFF80000002, "Software\MiKTeX.org\MiKTeX\2.9\Core") 
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Access is denied. 
[4752]  
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Access is denied. 
[4752]  
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Function: RegCreateKeyExW 
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Function: RegCreateKeyExW 
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Result: 5 
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Result: 5 
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Data: path="Software\MiKTeX.org\MiKTeX\2.9\Core" 
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Data: path="Software\MiKTeX.org\MiKTeX\2.9\Core" 
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\win\winRegistry.cpp:186 
[4752] [MiKTeX] ERROR initexmf.core - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\win\winRegistry.cpp:186 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - MIKTEX_DEBUG_BREAK => null 
[4752] [MiKTeX] TRACE initexmf.core - uninitializing core library 
[4752] [MiKTeX] FATAL initexmf - Windows API error 5: Access is denied. 
[4752]  
[4752] [MiKTeX] FATAL initexmf - Info: path="Software\MiKTeX.org\MiKTeX\2.9\Core" 
[4752] [MiKTeX] FATAL initexmf - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\win\winRegistry.cpp 
[4752] [MiKTeX] FATAL initexmf - Line: 186 
[9484] [MiKTeX] TRACE update.core - read 690 bytes from the pipe 
[9484] [MiKTeX] ERROR update.core - The executed process did not succeed. 
[9484] [MiKTeX] ERROR update.core - The executed process did not succeed. 
[9484] [MiKTeX] ERROR update.core - Data: fileName="D:\Program Files\MiKTeX\miktex/bin/x64\initexmf.exe", exitCode="1" 
[9484] [MiKTeX] ERROR update.core - Data: fileName="D:\Program Files\MiKTeX\miktex/bin/x64\initexmf.exe", exitCode="1" 
[9484] [MiKTeX] ERROR update.core - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\Process\Process.cpp:166 
[9484] [MiKTeX] ERROR update.core - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\Process\Process.cpp:166 
[9484] [MiKTeX] INFO  FileCopyPage -  
[9484] [MiKTeX] INFO  FileCopyPage - Error: The executed process did not succeed. 

[edocevoli]

The updater tries to write into the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section of the registry. For that operation you need admin privileges, i.e,, you must run the updater as admin. I still don't know how to reproduce your setup and so can't give you more help here.

[marczellm]

Isn't there the bug right in clear view? "The updater should never attempt to write the registry when the installation is not a system-wide install."

[marczellm]

Indeed the only registry key in that location is "LastAdminMaintenance." Writing that is unnecessary when the updater is not performing admin maintenance. The updater of a user installation is never performing admin maintenance.