NMAS client installation fails to install resource DLLs

  • 3272873
  • 27-Mar-2008
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell Client for Windows 4.91 Support Pack 4
NMAS Client 3.4
Challenge Response Client 2.7.5

Situation

In some customer Windows configurations, the NMAS client and Challenge Response client included with the Novell Client 4.91 SP4 fails to install the translated resource-only DLLs necessary.

This results in NMAS_E_DLL_FAILED_LOADING (-1686) when trying to perform a NMAS client login or a Challenge Response login.

-1686 FFFFF96A NMAS E DLL FAILED LOADING
ERROR: -1686
Error: 1686
0xFFFFF96A

If the "Regional and Language Options" has been changed from the default, the the NMAS Client and Challenge Response Client fail to install the necessary dll's for those clients.

For example, if Windows was installed in English, however the"Regional and Language Options" has been changed to English (United Kingdom), or if Windows was installed in French, however the"Regional and Language Options" has been changed to French (Luxembourg) you will run into this issue.

Steps to duplicate:

1. Clean XP Professional SP2 English installation, no prior Novell Client or NMAS Client.

2. In the "Regional and Language Options" control panel of Windows, set both "Standards and formats" and also "Language for non-Unicode programs" to "English (United Kingdom)". Then select "Apply all settings to the current user account and to the default user profile in the "Default user account settings" section and select "OK".

3. Perform the reboot when prompted.

4. Log back in as the same user and install the Novell Client 4.91 SP4 using the all-languages installation set. The installation set will choose to install the Novell Client in English on the workstation. Proceed with the "Typical" install path which installs NMAS client and Challenge Response client.

5. At the end of the install, and confirmed after rebooting, the NMASMSG.DLL and CRRES.DLL files were never installed into the SYSTEM32 directory.

6. Running the NMASCLIENT_SETUP.EXE directly & interactively defaults to "English (United States)", and even after selecting that language item and having the installer perform a"Repair", the files are still not installed.

7. Using the "Add/Remove Programs" control panel to remove both NMAS and the Challenge/Response method, and then re-installing them directly and interactively again, choosing "English (United States)", fails to install the same files.

Apparently both cases selecting "English (United States)" from NMASCLIENT_INSTALL.EXE's own interactive language selection, the NMAS installer fails to lay down the English resource DLLs on Windows machines that are in the described locale configuration.

Note that if I repeat steps 1 through 4 on a clean image but select"French (Luxembourg)" in the Windows locale configurations instead of "English (United Kingdom)", all the same outcomes occur.

Resolution

Download and apply

NMAS Client 3.4.2 FTF
Challenge Response Client 2.7.6 FTF

Optional work around (without applying the Field Test Files)

Verify the "Regional and Language Options" has been set to default before installing the NMAS client, Challenge Response client, or the Novell Client 4.91 SP4 (which during a typical install, install the NMAS client and Challenge Response client.)

For example. For English, verify the "Regional and Language Options" have been set to English (United States) prior to the install of Novell Client 4.91 SP4.