The last couple of times I installed Debian Etch, this warning message appeared after doing an apt-get update:

W: There are no public key available for the following IDs:
A70DAF536070D3A1
W: You might want to run apt-get update to correct these problems

There are no public key so all your base are now belong to us!

Bad grammar aside, the recommended action of typing apt-get update does not fix the problem. So here is a command which does:

apt-get install debian-archive-keyring

This will download the GPG key which is needed to verify the package repository so you know you have a genuine copy of Debian.

Just today I needed to update an InstallShield for a new release of a product but ever since I put InstallShield Express on my new PC, it has refused to open any of my old files so I need to create all my InstallShields again from scratch.

To create an installer which will upgrade from an older version of the same package, it is neccessary to provide the UpgradeCode.

This code takes the form of a GUID like this:

Upgrade Code: {DDEDA4AB-722F-43F6-89D5-A093644CD469}

Since I could not open my old .ISE file with InstallShield, all I had to work with was the SETUP.EXE I distributed with the last release of the product.

Enough of the back-story, here’s how you extract the upgrade code from an installer:

STEP 1 - Extract the MSI installer from SETUP.EXE

You can skip this step if you already have the MSI file.

First make sure the package is not installed on your PC then run the installer. When it gets past the first screen (it typically shows the license agreement at this point), it will have unpacked the MSI and placed it in a temporary folder.

The first time I tried this, it put the MSI in C:\Documents and Settings\Adam\Local Settings\Temp and the second time I tried it, the MSI ended up in C:\WINDOWS\Temp with a non-obvious file name so you may need to hunt for it a bit.

STEP 2 - Extract the UpgradeCode from the MSI file

For this, I have used a very excellent free utility called Less MSIérables which you can download from Scott Willeke’s website at http://blogs.pingpoet.com/overflow/archive/2005/06/02/2449.aspx.

After loading the MSI file into Less MSIérables, go to the Table View tab and then select Property from the drop-list. You will then see the properties for the installer, one of which is the UpgradeCode.

Unfortunately Less MSIérables does not have a cut and paste facility so you’ll have to actually write the code down on a piece of paper.

STEP 3 - Add the upgrade code to the new installer

Under General Information section in InstallShield, enter the Upgrade Code. You can then go to the Upgrade Paths section and create a new upgrade path based on the MSI file of the old installer.

Phew! we are done.

You can download Less MSIérables from Scott Willeke’s Website.
Please try there first but if it does not work, I have a local copy here which might or might not be up to date.

Guess what I found in the gutter in Erskineville. Yes the gutter. In the rain. I thought “now here’s a challenge!”

After dragging it home and powering it up, I saw that the panel would light up, the buttons seemed to work but there was no sound coming out so I opened it up. It was certainly a mess inside (and out). It was filthy with mud and it looked like some cockroaches had been breeding in it. Fortunately, there was very little corrosion on the circuitry so I felt I had a good chance of getting it going.

First thing I did was to take it completely apart and wash all the plastic parts such as the case, buttons and keys with lots of hot soapy water.

After reassembling it, I had a poke around. By connecting some headphones to a wire and probing around the circuit board, I could work out that the sound was being generated but didn’t make it past the main amplifier chip, an LA4558, it seemed to be blown. I had a look through some parts suppliers catalogues but could not locate a replacement for this chip.

No matter because I had a stereo amplifier module surplus from an old project. I got this amplifier ages ago from WES just down the road at Ashfield for about $12 from memory. It is a 5W RMS per side, class A stereo amp. Total overkill for this job but what the hey. I simply bypassed the blown-up chip and fed the signal through the amp module. It has a little hiss, no doubt due to my sloppy wiring or incorrect impedance matching but is really loud when you crank it up.

I screwed the amplifier module down to the metal keyboard frame which makes a handy-dandy heatsink and it is good to go. Not bad for a couple of hours work, a free Kawai MS710 keyboard/synth! Maybe I could circuit-bend it in the future, we’ll see but for now, it makes a great toy for my kids.

Am I too much of a nerd ? Or too much of an Amiga fan ? Well, whatever the case, I really got a laugh out of this car dealer with the boing balls everywhere.