Awesome effort Paul!
On 22/12/2010, at 9:56 AM, Paul Burba wrote: <snip> > Problem solved, finally! > > Using a second work-issued Win7 box to build Subversion, I experienced > the same svnsync and svnrdump test failures I saw on my primary dev > box. So I was able to replicate the problem, but was not closer to > solving it. I took a third box and did a clean install of the 8/6/09 > release of Win 7 Pro x64 (because I was pretty sure a Windows Update > in the past 4 months was to blame, so I wanted to start with an OB > build prior to that). > > I turned off auto updates during the install process and once up and > running, I tested the binaries I built on one of my "broken" Win7 > boxes. The svnsync and svnrdump tests passed. Then I spent a long > boring slog building up this third box to be as similar as possible to > my two "broken" Win 7 boxes. > > The most painful part was installing every Windows Update since 8/6/09 > one at a time* (usually requiring a reboot) in an effort to find the > offending update. The slog paid off though, eventually I found the > problem update: The optional Windows Live Essentials** published > 10/26/2010 (which is very roughly around the time I started noticing > test failures): > > [[[ > Windows Live Essentials 2011 (KB2434419) > Download size: 1.2 MB > You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect. > Update type: Optional > Do more with Windows on your PC with free programs from Microsoft for > photos, movies, instant messaging, email, social networking, and more. > Get it all in one simple download. > Windows Live Essentials includes Messenger, Photo Gallery, > Mail, Movie Maker, Writer, Family Safety, and Windows Live Mesh, plus > Bing Bar, Messenger Companion, Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector, > Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider for Windows Live > Messenger, and Microsoft Silverlight. > Installing this update will replace your Windows Live > Toolbar with Bing Bar. > More information: > http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials > http://explore.live.com/microsoft-service-agreement > http://privacy.microsoft.com/ > http://explore.live.com/windows-live-2011-system-requirements > Help and Support: > http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-help-center > ]]] > > This hardly seems an obvious culprit, but after uninstalling it on > both my problematic boxes, all the svnsync and svnrdump tests passed. > > Being somewhat incredulous that this was the problem, I reinstalled > WLE2011 and sure enough the tests failed again. After uninstalling, > the tests again worked. > > So WLE2011 is the problem. Why is it a problem? I don't know, and > since I don't really require these apps, I'm not going to spend any > more time at the moment trying to figure it out...I'm retiring from > the "mysterious Windows failure game" for the rest of 2010 ;-) > > Paul > > * I did group some together that I thought couldn't possibly be the > culprit (a potentially bad plan seeing what was ultimately to blame!) > > ** WLE2001 is actually 7 different products: Messenger, Photo Gallery > and Movie Maker, Windows Live Mesh, Messenger Companion, Mail, Writer, > and Family Safety.
