Solution
The Select Source dialog box appears when required installer source files for selected components are missing. When building an installer that includes additional software, LabVIEW Application Builder requires access to the original installation media for those components. For example, including NI‑DAQmx may prompt for the device driver media that contains NI‑DAQmx.
Note: Before fixing the dependency issue for the installer the program is asking about, please check if the installers being included in the distribution file are necessary for running your application. In some cases, you might be including additional software that is not being used in your application and might include a dependency that is not installed in your computer.
The solution to these dependency errors depends on how the software was originally installed, please verify which one applies to your case:
- If the installer was downloaded from ni.com/downloads and the extracted source files were deleted:
- It will be necessary to download the same version and unzip it again before the build and point the Select Source dialog to the directory in which setup.exe was extracted.
- For IVI drivers and self-extracting executables (.exe), the WinZip Self-Extractor extracts files to C:\National Instruments Downloads\. If the download came as a .zip file, extract the files, then point it to where the extracted setup.exe is located.
- If the software was installed from a CD or USB device:
- It will be necessary to put CD or USB into the drive before building the installer.
- If you no longer have the media from where it was installed, it is recommended that you uninstall the component and reinstall it using an installer from the NI website.
- If the software was installed from a network location:
- Make sure access to the files on the network drive or one of the two above options is still possible.
- If the software was installed using a LabVIEW-built installer:
- The "Select Source" dialog may reference that LabVIEW-built installer, so it will be necessary to point to that installer.
- If the previous step didn't work, repair or force reinstall the same software stack as the computer that built the original installer to have fresh installs of the software with the setup files.
- It is also possible to upgrade to a newer version of the software by downloading it from the NI website.
- If updates are pending in NI Package Manager:
- If there are any pending updates shown in the NI Package Manager related to the software component the error message is asking about, please update the component and after the process is finished try rebuilding the installer.
If none of the above steps solve the issue and you recently build an installer and then deleted it, this issue may be occurring because there is a reference to a previously built installer in the Operating System Registry that LabVIEW is trying to use when building a new installer. Therefore, to solve the problem you have to delete the key registry that is associated with that installer. To complete this task, you have to follow the steps listed below.
Note: Proceed with extreme caution with the following steps. Modifying the Windows registry can affect system stability. Ensure the correct key is selected before making changes.
1. Type Regedit in the Windows search bar and run the Registry Editor Application as administrator.
2. Once in the Registry Editor Window, navigate to the next path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\National Instruments\Common\Installer\Distributions
3. Once you are on the Distributions folder, look for the key registry that is associated with that installer and delete it by right-clicking on it. To know exactly which key corresponds to your installer, select the key and look at the right side of the window for more information. Here you will find the Title, as well as the Distribution Root (DistRoot).
To avoid this dialog box in the future, make sure the following settings are selected when building an installer:
- When using LabVIEW 2013 or Newer, selecting the Copy all future installers to this computer when you run them checkbox will cause all future installers to run on the system to automatically copy their products into the local cache during the install. This will prevent future prompts for the location of those installers from within the Installer Builder utility.
- When using LabVIEW 2010 - 2012, this dialogue can be avoided by selecting the Copy selected installers to this computer before building option in the Additional Installers window in the Installer Build Specifications.
