FIX: Error 1906 When Installing a Windows Installer Package

ID: Q236874

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows Installer, version 1.0

SYMPTOMS

When installing a Windows Installer 1.0 .msi package that has been created from 10 or more embedded cabinet files, you might encounter the following error during the installation:

Error 1906: Failed to cache package. C:\WINNT\Installer\xxxxx.msi. Error -2147286788. Contact your support personnel.

This may happen either silently or with the error during the process when the Installer is attempting to cache the .msi package locally.

This error usually occurs when 10 or more merge modules are used.

CAUSE

This error is caused by reaching a limit associated with the total number of characters in the cabinet file names.

This error will occur if the number below is greater than 260:

ANSI:


(# of embedded cabinets + 1) * 4 + total # of characters in the cabinet names + 1

UNICODE:


(# of embedded cabinets + 1) * 2 + total # of characters in the cabinet names + 1

RESOLUTION

Use one of the following steps to work around this problem in Windows Installer version 1.0:

Combine the cabinet files from the merge modules into a single cabinet file for the product.

Decompress the files and use them loose/flat on the source image.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

This problem was corrected in Windows 2000.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbsetup kbAppSetup kbWinOS2000fix kbMSI kbDSupport kbGrpDSTools
Version : WINDOWS:1.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug