Errors in updates logfiles.

[TeeCee]

Win XP Pro SP.3 Corporate Edition.

Clean install. I d/l and manually installed 73 updates since SP.3. Many of the update logfiles show errors. Then I enabled automatic updates which installed five more updates, again some with errors. Add/Remove programs show all updates installed and the short report from MS when using auto updates showed the five updates successfully installed. So why the errors and can they be ignored?

Logfile example attached with errors underlined.

KB892130.txt

[cluberti]

You're getting crypt32 errors when validating the signatures on the catalog files with the updates (error is 0x80092004, CRYPT_E_NOT_FOUND). Sounds like perhaps your catroot is screwed up.

1. Open a command prompt and execute the following commands:

net stop cryptsvc
ren %systemroot%\System32\Catroot2 oldcatroot2

2. Delete all files in %systemroot%\System32\CatRoot\<subfolder> (there can be quite a few) that begin with tmp*.cat to remove temporary catalog files.

3. Back in the command prompt from step 1, execute the following command:

net start cryptsvc

Reboot, and see what happens.

[TeeCee]

Thanks for that Cluberti. I followed your instructions but did not find any file tmp*.cat in Catroot\<subfolder>, what was there was a Security Catalog file for each update. They were named using the KB******. So I deleted the lot, rebooted then reinstalled one of the MS updates. This produced the logfile attached which still shows errors..

kb978706.txt

[cluberti]

Now that the logs are clean and useful, you're hitting this, specifically.

[TeeCee]

Thank you for the link, lotsa reading there.

Before embarking on the info in the link I removed all updates/hotfixes and re-installed them without the /q or /z switches, a long tedious process. With one exception the update utility wizard displayed the message "You have successfully completed the KB****** setup wizard.", Add/Remove lists the update as installed today, the $UninstallKB******$ files are created as are logfiles with errors displayed. Had I not viewed the logfiles I would have been adamant that the updates were correctly installed. The one exception is KB946648, update to Messenger, due to Msgsc.dll not being present in the Program files\messenger\ folder, no big deal.

The OS is the Corporate version and is currently running on 10 pcs all of which show the same errors in logfiles although all are reported to be performing without problem.

Perhaps I'll take the easy way out, delete all the logfiles and not try to fix something which isn't broken. Gee, I'd still like to know why the errors are listed in the logfiles if everything is as it should be.

Thanks for your interest.

[cluberti]

Perhaps I'll take the easy way out, delete all the logfiles and not try to fix something which isn't broken. Gee, I'd still like to know why the errors are listed in the logfiles if everything is as it should be.

Thanks for your interest.

No problem, although I think you misunderstood - everything is most definitely NOT as it should be. Specifically, you probably have a busted image (which you used to build those 10 machines on), so you've replicated the fact that the catroot is broken, and updates are probably not installing 100% properly. The files are updated, yes, but catroot is still broken. Given there isn't going to be an SP4 for Windows XP, you *probably* won't run into any errors leaving things as-is, but I wouldn't be comfortable with it in a corporate environment. I'd be recreating a new image and reloading it on those PCs (once I'm sure it's working) as soon as possible. You just never know when an update *will* actually fail to install (service packs are going to fail if catroot is broken, although individual updates are probably not going to fail). Also, your logs indicate your machines have no clue whether they're supposed to be installing QFE or GDR bits, which is probably the more pressing problem (if you run into an update that requires you to install the QFE bits, for example, to fix a problem, but the machine installs GDR... then what?). Again, I'd be fixing this ASAP, honestly.