toonetown
Posts: 37
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Update existing aip to be ARM64

Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:16 pm

We have compiled our application for ARM64, and would like to use the same (as much as possible) aip file for creating ARM64 installers. Can you just point a working x64 aip file to the new binaries and build an installer for ARM64, or is there some sort of conversion that is needed to be done?

Catalin
Posts: 6537
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:42 pm

Hello,

Yes, that is possible through our "Save as template" option.

For more information about this, please refer to the following article:

Using the "Save as template" option

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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toonetown
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Joined: Wed May 16, 2018 3:46 pm

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:48 pm

Thank you - this functionality is what I would be looking for in a final implementation...but my main question is how I can migrate that template to be an ARM64 installer? Is there anything special that needs to happen, or any option that needs to be changed? Or, can I just save my existing project as a template and use it with the new binaries?

Catalin
Posts: 6537
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Thu Apr 15, 2021 6:04 pm

Hello,

You are always welcome!

If you need to build a setup that is ARM64 compatible, you can do so from the "Install Parameters" page by changing the "Package Type" to "Arm64 package".

You can find more information about this in our "Advanced Installer Package Types" article.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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toonetown
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Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Thu Apr 15, 2021 6:22 pm

Thank you again!

Is there a page which documents the folder locations for ARM64 packages? The link you provided only shows those for intel/x86 packages.

Catalin
Posts: 6537
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Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:02 pm

You are always welcome!

Unfortunately, it looks like we do not have that documented.

Additionally, I'm afraid I did not "play around" with this package type as I do not own such machine (with an ARM processor), therefore I am not quite sure what the install location would be on that machine.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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toonetown
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Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:05 pm

OK - I will play around with it, and I can report back here what I find.

I also was able to modify my aip file to just have a separate build configuration - one for x64 and one for ARM64...and then I can just select which one I want to build from the command line as a part of my build scripts. So - no need to copy/template the aip.

Thank you again for all the pointers today!

Catalin
Posts: 6537
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:10 pm

You are always welcome!

If you could report back, that would be really great, indeed!

The "Multiple Builds" support can indeed be a solution for your request.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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toonetown
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Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:35 pm

One other question that came up - what supported operating systems do we choose for ARM64 installers? It only shows the x64 and x86 versions of windows when we are trying to build the ARM64 version.
Screen Shot 2021-04-15 at 2.34.49 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-04-15 at 2.34.49 PM.png (62.79KiB)Viewed 9157 times

Catalin
Posts: 6537
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Fri Apr 16, 2021 4:39 pm

Hello,

That list only applies to "normal" versions of Windows, not to the ones running on an ARM processor.

With that being said, modifying that list should not affect your ARM build.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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toonetown
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Joined: Wed May 16, 2018 3:46 pm

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Fri Apr 16, 2021 4:41 pm

Is there a way to limit the versions of Windows on ARM that the installer will install onto?

Catalin
Posts: 6537
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Fri Apr 16, 2021 5:37 pm

Hello,

I'm afraid we do not have out of the box support for this.

For the supported OS support, we use either the VersionNT or VersionNT64 property.

As per the documentation:
For compatibility reasons, the property is also undefined if the Template Summary property indicates the package is for 32-bit Intel systems and the operating system is a 64-bit architecture that is not Intel64 or x64 (such as ARM64).
From the above, it looks like there is a property which can do that (not quite sure it does fulfills your entire request, though) - namely "Template Summary".

As per the "Template Summary" article:
The following examples are valid values for the Template Summary property:

x64;1033
Intel;1033
Intel64;1033
;1033
Intel ;1033,2046
Intel64;1033,2046
Intel;0
Arm;1033,2046
Arm;0
Arm64;1033,2046
Arm64;0
We can see that it simply specifies the platform and the language ID, though, so there doesn't seem to be much configuration to be done.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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toonetown
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Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Fri Apr 16, 2021 7:06 pm

OK - thank you for the confirmation. That is enough information to get me looking into it further. I appreciate the pointers and help!

toonetown
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed May 16, 2018 3:46 pm

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Fri Apr 16, 2021 11:54 pm

Actually, in reading that quote, I think that for ARM64, the VersionNT64 would be set...
For compatibility reasons, the property is also undefined if the Template Summary property indicates the package is for 32-bit Intel systems and the operating system is a 64-bit architecture that is not Intel64 or x64 (such as ARM64).
I don't see where the Template Summary would indicate it's for 32-bit intel...I'm guessing that this value is probably defined and set for ARM64 as well as x64. Given that, I'm thinking that it will probably work for me to specify the x64 values. I'll give it a shot and report back how it worked.

Catalin
Posts: 6537
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Update existing aip to be ARM64

Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:21 pm

Hello,

Indeed, as I have also mentioned, the VersionNT property will not work for ARM-based systems.

Regarding the values, as per my understanding from the article I have provided, the values of the property would either be Arm or Arm64.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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