Quartus Prime Standard 20.4 silent installation with SCCM

[ThomasH]

When deploying Intel FPGA 20.4 standard we run into an issue when attempting to install the software as required. The install will just hang up with no error message while running the Quartus installer. When we set the deployment to available it is able to successfully install.

Install commands
QuartusSetup-20.1.1.720-windows.exe --mode unattended --unattendedmodeui none --installdir C:/intelFPGA/20.1 --accept_eula 1

We saw that this issue was also reported in 19.1, but it doesn't look like a resolution was found.
https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-FPGA-Software-Installation/Quartus-Prime-Standard-19-1-silent-installation-with-SCCM/m-p/719876/highlight/true#M1660

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

Do you see anything like C:\intelFPGA\20.1\quatus\common\help ?

The help folder directory is the one that is being installed. 

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[ThomasH]

Oh okay,  I do see the help folder, would the next step be to move back to the full installer?

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

@ThomasH Sorry, the files should be installed in the <installdir>/quartus/common/help/webhelp/?

Just to be sure, do you see any files in the /webhelp folder? 

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

@ThomasH Sorry, the files should be installed in the <installdir>/quartus/common/help/webhelp/?

Just to be sure, do you see any files in the /webhelp folder? 

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

[ThomasH]

I do, 118 folders and 20,841 files

[DougBarry · Accepted solution]

Hi Thomas,

I've spent 2 months fighting this myself and had a breakthrough. It seems that the Quartus installer uses 'Bitrock', and installer technology I have also been fighting when trying to install Microchip's MPLAB X IDE 5.5.

Long story short, this forum post helped: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/397336/different-behaviour-required-vs-available-applicat.html

Use the checkbox on the Programs tab of the Deployment Type, to 'Run installation and uninstallation as 32bit on 64 bit clients'. Once I ticked that, my script actually managed to install quartus on a couple of machines last night.

I've written a long winded powershell script that pre-installs the usb blaster drivers (and puts their certs in machine trusted), installs quartus, then modelsim, then the patch for 20.1, and finally does the firewall entries for the right bits.

The command line that now works as 32 bit process is:

...

23/09/2021 05:43:43 Started Step2 Install
Executing 'C:\WINDOWS\ccmcache\36\app\QuartusSetup-20.1.1.720-windows.exe --mode unattended --unattendedmodeui none --installdir "C:\Program Files\IntelQuartusV20" --accept_eula 1' at 23/09/2021 05:43:43
23/09/2021 05:49:35 finished Step2 Install

...

Have a go with that, hope it helps. It's been driving me up the wall for years since Intel took this over.

Doug.

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

Hi @ThomasH ,

Could you try @DougBarry solution and validate whether it works for you? 

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[ThomasH]

Thank you Doug and Richard,

The fix Doug recommended worked and I'm seeing successful installs. Thank you Richard for your continued diligence in troubleshooting this issue I really appreciated it.

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

Hi @ThomasH 

I am glad that the workaround works for you. 

Before I close this case, could I get your help to try to install Quartus Pro v21.3, without the  'Run installation and uninstallation as 32bit on 64 bit clients' enabled?  The Quartus Pro 21.3 is scheduled to release by next week.  

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[ThomasH]

Of course, once I see the new release I'll test it out.

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

Hi @ThomasH 

Quartus Pro 21.3 software has been released today. Please help to test it out whether it still stuck during the silent installation, without the 'Run installation and uninstallation as 32bit on 64 bit clients' enabled.

Thanks. 

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

Hi @ThomasH 

Do you able to install the Quartus Pro 21.3? 

If the installation hang/fail, please help to share the installation log and debug log so we could look into this.

QuartusSetup-21.3.0.170-windows.exe --mode unattended --unattendedmodeui none --installdir C:/intelFPGA/21.3 --accept_eula 1 --parallel-decompression-cores 1 --syncdebugtrace debug-1-core.txt

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

Hi @ThomasH 

Any update on this? 

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[ThomasH]

Hi Richard, unfortunately we're running into other issues with the new installer. This may be because we've used the standard install in the past and 21.3 currently only has the pro version available.

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

Hi @ThomasH 

May I know what is the issue about? 

Is the Quartus Pro 21.3 installed successfully? 

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[RichardTanSY_Intel]

Hi @ThomasH 

May I know what is the issue that you face with the new installer?

Is the Quartus Pro 21.3 software able to installed successfully? 

Best Regards,
Richard Tan

p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel support are helpful, please feel free to give Kudos. 

[ThomasH]

Sorry it took a while to find the time to test it out. It's no longer a problem with the newest installer.

[Canarello]

Based on your install commands, it looks like you've set up the unattended mode correctly. However, since it's hanging up without any error messages, it might be challenging to pinpoint the exact issue.
One thing you could try is to enable logging during the installation process. Adding the --logfile <path_to_log_file> option to your install command will create a log file that might provide more details about what's going wrong.
For more detailed guidance on troubleshooting silent installations with SCCM, you might find this article useful: https://learnmesccm.com/ts/deploy-sccm-task-sequence.html. They often provide step-by-step instructions and best practices for deploying software with SCCM.