CCS/TM4C129ENCPDT: CCS 9.2 dies at launch on Win7/64

Hi,

Can you try to run this as a regular user? I wonder if a flag on the shortcut is telling the OS to always run this as an Administrator. 

Also, Windows has some quirks regarding directories and network shares. I would try the following (if you haven't done so already):

- Close CCS and clear all temporary files under the following directories:  (some files there may have gotten "tainted" by Admin privileges)
    - C:\Users\user\ti
    - C:\Users\user\.ti
    - C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Texas Instruments\CCS

- Open a workspace at C:\Users\user\workspace or C:\Users\user\Documents\workspace 

- Right click on the CCS install directory (typically C:\ti\ccs920) and select Properties --> Security --> assign your username "Full Control" recursively. 

That should help removing the strange admin issue that you are seeing. 

By the way, do you remember if, after install, you left the box checked "Launch Code Composer Studio"? This could explain the problems with the Administrator privileges (the installer runs with elevated privileges and therefore may trickle down to the installation itself). 

Hope this helps,

Rafael

a) CCS did not have "Run as administrator" checked in its Advanced Properties. Launching CCS throws up the "Open File - Security WArning" message box every time.

b) I emptied C:\Users\[me]\ti. There was no C:\Users\[me]\.ti. There was a .lock file in C:\Users\[me]\AppData\Local\Texas Instruments\CCS\ along with a ccs920 directory. I deleted all of it.

c) At next CCS launch I tried to use a Workspace at C:\Users\[me]\workspace_v9_2 (I already had another Eclipse workspace at c:\Users\[me]\workspace and I didn't want to destroy it) and got the "Workspace Cannot Be Created" complaint.

d) I did the CCS properties->security dance for my domain user name and then for Authenticated Users to no avail.

e) I do not remember if I left that box checked. I didn't install CCS with admin privileges although when Windows asks for permission I granted it such.

However, for the hell of it, I opted to launch CCS with "Run As Administrator" and it did launch and it accepted the default workspace. It noticed some new stuff to install, did so, then asked for relaunch, which succeeded.

So the result is that if I do not run as administrator, it won't let me create a workspace on my local hard disk in my User directory. If I try to use a workspace on a network share, CCS crashes.

And in any case, the invalid-signature box pops up at launch.

Perhaps it's time to re-install? Oddly this all works like a champ on macOS Catalina.

I should also mention that I have WAY TOO MANY Eclipse installations on this machine. It's actually kind of silly. But the CCS variant is the only one that gives me these sorts of permissions problems.

I just uninstalled CCS, rebooted the machine, and then reinstalled it. At the end of the installation process I chose to not immediately launch CCS. I ran the installer as a standard user, not as Administrator.

Launching from the Start menu gave me the same complaint about unverified publisher and the same crap about not being able to create a workspace in my User directory.

Then I tried something: within the "Select Workspace Directory" file browser, I tried to create a workspace directory by right-clicking in my home directory and choosing New->Folder. And guess what? In the context menu, "Folder" had the shield next to it, meaning that to create the directory I had to elevate privileges.

I do not have to do this from the File Explorer!

So there's clearly something wrong with the CCS permissions after installation.

Changing permissions to "Full access" for all users on the entire C:\ti\ccs920 directory made no difference.

Changing permissions to "Full access" for all users on the entire c:\ti directory (which required admin authentication to do) made no difference.

This just doesn't work!

Andy,

I am sorry to hear you are having so many troubles. 

The "pure Eclipse" does not have an installer, therefore the permissions dance usually does not happen. 

Back to CCS: a few questions. 

When you say you uninstalled CCS, did you wipe the C:\ti\ccs920 directory entirely (Shift+Del) or went to the uninstaller program? The reason of my question is that, while the current CCSv9.2 uninstaller does a much better job than in previous releases, in your case it would be safer to use the old method (some other directories are mentioned here). By the way, the wiping is safe as CCS does not add anything to the Windows registry. 

Andy Peters said:

I ran the installer as a standard user, not as Administrator.

Interesting. CCS checks the privileges of the logged user and asks to elevate permissions if necessary. Are you a Standard User or a Privileged User in your host? The reason of my question is that I have a host where a Standard User cannot install without an admin user. 

This may be one of the reasons why CCS is acting a bit weird with regards to permissions. 

One additional detail: does your host have any custom user account types? I know there is third party software set up by IT departments that allows users only certain permissions that mimic what used to be known as a "Power User" (until Windows XP) - it allows the user to do several admin activities (including install software) but it blocks several other activities of the host. 

Apart from this, I am unsure what may be going on in your case. Would you mind attach the installation logs of CCS? Perhaps I can spot something out of the ordinary there. Details to get these logs are shown at:

https://software-dl.ti.com/ccs/esd/documents/ccs_diagnostic-logs.html 

Regards,

Rafael

Andy,

Thank you for reporting back your findings; I imagine that Windows 10 has been allowing IT departments to become quite creative these days, but that would be a talk for another hour. 

Good luck and thanks for the patience. 

Happy holidays,

Rafael

"I imagine that Windows 10 has been allowing ..."

Hi -- actually I'm on Windows 7 (see thread title).

And it's failing AGAIN.

I downloaded CCS 9.3 and installed it to the default location C:\ti\ccs930\ as my normal (administrator) user.

After the installation was complete, it asked if I want to launch and also to add a desktop shortcut. I said yes to both. CCS launched without issue. It asked about the workspace and offer the default C:\Users\me\workspace_v9\ and I OKed that too. The workspace came up. CCS asked to include some of the downloaded stuff like TI RTOS and TivaWare and I okayed them too. During (or perhaps separately but in parallel to) that, a message box popped up with a bunch ofcomplaints about download errors like such:

An internal error occurred during: "downloads.ti.com/.../compositeContent.jar".
Could not initialize class sun.security.ssl.SSLContextImpl$DefaultSSLContext

I added a few of the examples to the workspace and built a couple. All good.

Then the true test: I closed CCS, and reopened it from the desktop icon created by the installer. I got the nonsense dialog about "The publisher could not be verified. This file does not have a valid digital signature that verifies its publisher." OK, yeah, great, so I click "Run." I am asked about a workspace, and the default is the one I chose earlier. I click "Launch."

And then I get the "Workspace cannot be created" message box. "Could not launch the product because the specified workspace cannot be created. The specified workspace direction is either invalid or read-only."

And now I'm dead in the water.

Again, this is Windows 7 64-bit, not Windows 10. This machine runs other Eclipse instances without issues.

Hi,

Andy Peters said:

Hi -- actually I'm on Windows 7 (see thread title).

Thanks for pointing that out; I am on 10 but the newer user categories started with Vista, thus similar rules apply. 

Andy Peters said:

During (or perhaps separately but in parallel to) that, a message box popped up with a bunch ofcomplaints about download errors like such:

An internal error occurred during: "downloads.ti.com/.../compositeContent.jar".
Could not initialize class sun.security.ssl.SSLContextImpl$DefaultSSLContext

I searched around on the internet and found out several issues with buggy JDK previously installed on the systems. Since you are using other Eclipse installs, there is a chance that CCS is picking up one of the newer JDK versions.

CCS installs its own JDK (it is quite difficult to thoroughly test it against the plethora of Java versions) but, if environment variables such as  JAVA_OPTIONS and others are set, there is a chance they may be interfering with the regular operation of CCS. 

Also, since you just came from a very uncommon scenario with the previous install and its associated workspace, can you try to use a new one instead? There may be files still with the strange permissions/UID/GID of the prior installs. 

I will try to see if I can find additional scenarios or issues and report back to this thread if I find anything relevant. 

Hope this helps,

Rafael

"Also, since you just came from a very uncommon scenario with the previous install and its associated workspace, can you try to use a new one instead? There may be files still with the strange permissions/UID/GID of the prior installs."

Hi,

I've tried to create a new workspace with CCS in addition to using an existing workspace, and there is no difference.

The really odd thing is that CCS worked fine immediately after installation and with allowing it to be launched at the end of installation. But that was the only time. Launching it from the Start Menu or the shortcut always fails.

If I didn't need that Brand A PCB layout software, this machine would be running Linux.

Hi,

Andy Peters said:

allowing it to be launched at the end of installation

As I mentioned in my first reply, this may cause problems:

desouza said:

By the way, do you remember if, after install, you left the box checked "Launch Code Composer Studio"? This could explain the problems with the Administrator privileges (the installer runs with elevated privileges and therefore may trickle down to the installation itself). 

Could you completely wipe the previous install (including the temporary files I mentioned above), reinstall 9.3 but uncheck the option at the end? 

In the meantime, I am trying to setup a similar scenario on Windows 10 (install, leave the option checked, try to run with a regular user) and see what types of problems I have. 

Regards,

Rafael

"Could you completely wipe the previous install (including the temporary files I mentioned above), reinstall 9.3 but uncheck the option at the end? "

I did all of that. Upon launch I still get the "not signed" message box, and when trying to select or create a workspace I get the message box with "the specified workspace directory is either invalid or read-only."

By the way, the same thing happens with CCS 9.3, which is what i just installed.

Hi,

I tested a few variants on a Windows 10 host and the only problem I found was the initial launch of CCS when using the "Admin" workspace. At the end of this post I send a few additional details about my tests. 

Unfortunately I am running out of ideas to further investigate this. I will report back in case I find any additional relevant information.

Regards,

Rafael

All was tested with Windows 10 version 1909 (Build 18363.535)

The user's group is part of the "Authenticated Users" group. I don't have any specific configuration or permission for the User - i.e., to my knowledge, I am using all OS defaults.

- Install 9.3 as Admin, check the Run CCS at the end.
- Default workspace will be located in the Admin directory. C:\Users\<admin_user>\workspace_v9
- Subsequent "user" runs will use this workspace as default, which will cause permission errors. Manually setting this to any other directory with user access will prevent errors from happening.
- If the workspace is changed to the current logged user, it will be created with the Admin account but the user will still have Full Control. Launching this workspace (created by the Admin acct but at the user's home directory) will NOT cause permission errors.

I noticed after install that this "Authenticated Users" group has Modify and Write permissions to the CCS install directory. A regular "Users" group does not.

In this configuration (installed as Admin, running as Authenticated Users) I was able to perform the following:
- Install a SDK package from the TI Resource Explorer
- Import and build an example project from the SDK
- Create and build a new project for a Cortex A8 device using TI Compiler tools. One aspect: this configuration requires a separate build of the Runtime Support Library (this usually fails in Linux).
- Add a new Product (previously installed SDKs and components such as TI-RTOS or SYSBIOS, for example).
- Modify the global software preferences (menu Windows --> Preferences).

One detail that may fail:
- The ccstudio.ini has a hardcoded path for the error log file that is tied to the Admin area. That should throw an exception in case an error occurs.