Problem with services

[djmob]

I am very new to .NET and Windows programming in general so please bare with
me...

I created a Windows service by deriving a class from ServiceBase and
installing it via the 'sc create' commands as follows:

sc create <name> binPath= <path>

Where path is the fully qualified path name. The new service appeared in the
Services GUI and I was able to start and stop it without problems. Next I
recreated the service via the 'sc create' command where binPath used a mapped
drive letter via the subst command i.e. 'subst x: c:\actual\path\ name' The
service is created but it does not start and I get the following error
message:

Could not start the <name> service on Local Computer. Error 3: The system
cannot find the path specified.

Unfortunately it is a requirement of my project to be able to used a mapped
driver letter. It appears that when the service is started it has no
knowledge of the drive mappings in my environment. After some research it
also appears that using the subst command is discouraged in later versions of
Windows and the preferred method is to use net commands. I have not been
entirely successful with the net commands and hope there is another approach
to solving this problem. Any suggestions???

[Michael Nemtsev]

AFAIK, threre is a problem with .NET apps to work from mapped drive, because
system can't work (use metadata) from that drive.

I reckon u need to write unmanaged service (C++/VB), and it should work

"djmob" wrote:

I am very new to .NET and Windows programming in general so please bare with
me...

I created a Windows service by deriving a class from ServiceBase and
installing it via the 'sc create' commands as follows:

sc create <name> binPath= <path>

Where path is the fully qualified path name. The new service appeared in the
Services GUI and I was able to start and stop it without problems. Next I
recreated the service via the 'sc create' command where binPath used a mapped
drive letter via the subst command i.e. 'subst x: c:\actual\path\ name' The
service is created but it does not start and I get the following error
message:

Could not start the <name> service on Local Computer. Error 3: The system
cannot find the path specified.

Unfortunately it is a requirement of my project to be able to used a mapped
driver letter. It appears that when the service is started it has no
knowledge of the drive mappings in my environment. After some research it
also appears that using the subst command is discouraged in later versions of
Windows and the preferred method is to use net commands. I have not been
entirely successful with the net commands and hope there is another approach
to solving this problem. Any suggestions???

--
WBR,
Michael Nemtsev :: blog: http://spaces.msn.com/laflour

"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not
cease to be insipid." (c) Friedrich Nietzsche

[Amir_Hasan]

The cause of this is you have to remember that the Service has to be
running under a certain context.
Whenever any process is run on windows it is run within a Context. (A
context being things like user credentials, current working directory
etc)

When the service starts the CWD will be system32 since it was invoked
by the SCM eg c:\windows\syst em32

You must change the working directory to the directory of where your
executable in your OnStart or in your Main() of your service
implementation you can do this by doing the following:

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{

//EventLog.WriteE ntry("Current working Directory Before
Assignment:"+En vironment.Curre ntDirectory);

Environment.Cur rentDirectory =
System.AppDomai n.CurrentDomain .BaseDirectory;

//EventLog.WriteE ntry("Current working Directory
is:"+Environmen t.CurrentDirect ory);

//rest of OnStart Code here...
}


djmob wrote:

I am very new to .NET and Windows programming in general so please bare with
me...

I created a Windows service by deriving a class from ServiceBase and
installing it via the 'sc create' commands as follows:

sc create <name> binPath= <path>

Where path is the fully qualified path name. The new service appeared in the
Services GUI and I was able to start and stop it without problems. Next I
recreated the service via the 'sc create' command where binPath used a mapped
drive letter via the subst command i.e. 'subst x: c:\actual\path\ name' The
service is created but it does not start and I get the following error
message:

Could not start the <name> service on Local Computer. Error 3: The system
cannot find the path specified.

Unfortunately it is a requirement of my project to be able to used a mapped
driver letter. It appears that when the service is started it has no
knowledge of the drive mappings in my environment. After some research it
also appears that using the subst command is discouraged in later versions of
Windows and the preferred method is to use net commands. I have not been
entirely successful with the net commands and hope there is another approach
to solving this problem. Any suggestions???

[Arran Pearce]

Are mapped drives not only mapped when a user logs in? Thus how would the
service start when the computer was restarted and the mapped drives does not
exist?
"djmob" <u19229@uwe> wrote in message news:5c9b5a53c8 9d9@uwe...

I am very new to .NET and Windows programming in general so please bare
with
me...

I created a Windows service by deriving a class from ServiceBase and
installing it via the 'sc create' commands as follows:

sc create <name> binPath= <path>

Where path is the fully qualified path name. The new service appeared in
the
Services GUI and I was able to start and stop it without problems. Next I
recreated the service via the 'sc create' command where binPath used a
mapped
drive letter via the subst command i.e. 'subst x: c:\actual\path\ name'
The
service is created but it does not start and I get the following error
message:

Could not start the <name> service on Local Computer. Error 3: The system
cannot find the path specified.

Unfortunately it is a requirement of my project to be able to used a
mapped
driver letter. It appears that when the service is started it has no
knowledge of the drive mappings in my environment. After some research it
also appears that using the subst command is discouraged in later versions
of
Windows and the preferred method is to use net commands. I have not been
entirely successful with the net commands and hope there is another
approach
to solving this problem. Any suggestions???

[djmob]

Thanks alot for the help. I will give it a shot and see what happens.

Amir_Hasan wrote:

The cause of this is you have to remember that the Service has to be
running under a certain context.
Whenever any process is run on windows it is run within a Context. (A
context being things like user credentials, current working directory
etc)

When the service starts the CWD will be system32 since it was invoked
by the SCM eg c:\windows\syst em32

You must change the working directory to the directory of where your
executable in your OnStart or in your Main() of your service
implementati on you can do this by doing the following:

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{

//EventLog.WriteE ntry("Current working Directory Before
Assignment:"+E nvironment.Curr entDirectory);

Environment.Cu rrentDirectory =
System.AppDoma in.CurrentDomai n.BaseDirectory ;

//EventLog.WriteE ntry("Current working Directory
is:"+Environme nt.CurrentDirec tory);

//rest of OnStart Code here...

}

I am very new to .NET and Windows programming in general so please bare with
me...

[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]

entirely successful with the net commands and hope there is another approach
to solving this problem. Any suggestions???

[Willy Denoyette [MVP]]

"djmob" <u19229@uwe> wrote in message news:5c9b5a53c8 9d9@uwe...
|I am very new to .NET and Windows programming in general so please bare
with
| me...
|
| I created a Windows service by deriving a class from ServiceBase and
| installing it via the 'sc create' commands as follows:
|
| sc create <name> binPath= <path>
|
| Where path is the fully qualified path name. The new service appeared in
the
| Services GUI and I was able to start and stop it without problems. Next I
| recreated the service via the 'sc create' command where binPath used a
mapped
| drive letter via the subst command i.e. 'subst x: c:\actual\path\ name'
The
| service is created but it does not start and I get the following error
| message:
|
| Could not start the <name> service on Local Computer. Error 3: The system
| cannot find the path specified.
|
| Unfortunately it is a requirement of my project to be able to used a
mapped
| driver letter. It appears that when the service is started it has no
| knowledge of the drive mappings in my environment. After some research it
| also appears that using the subst command is discouraged in later versions
of
| Windows and the preferred method is to use net commands. I have not been
| entirely successful with the net commands and hope there is another
approach
| to solving this problem. Any suggestions???
Service executables should be stored on local drives, what you are trying is
not a supported scenario. The SCM can not start a service that is located on
a remote server, the reason is that SCM (Service.exe) runs as SYSTEM
(localsystem) which is a local security account that has no network access
token. Note that it's possible for SYSTEM to access remote resources from
domain members running in a W2K Active Directory domain, provided that the
"server" starting the service is granted access to the remote share (the
server name is used to authenticate over the network in this case), but even
then there is in guarantee that the service will get loaded, for instance
what if the remote server is not up?
Honestly, I don't see any reason why you need to load a service from a
remote share, I'm I missing something?.

Willy.

[Amir_Hasan]

Drive mappings are associated with a User who is logged in. a user maps
drives in Explorer. Services are run in general under a system account.
You can change a service user to use a specific account but I believe
that this is so that the Context the service is running in can get
specific priviliges.
I don't think this will work altough you can try it

1) using explorer Create a permenant drive mapping to a network
Location
2) using explorer create a txt file with some test data on that network
drive
3) Write a .NET service that will read that file using the drive
mapping file path and write the context it to a local folder
c:\documents and settings\user\m y documents\testf ile.txt
4) Register the service account details to be that user
5) Set the service to be automatic startup
6) Restart the machine
Logon to the machine as someone else eg local administrator etc who
does not have the drive mapping to see if the file created. (ie was it
able to read the drive mapping)

I believe you won't be able to do it. You can try.

[Willy Denoyette [MVP]]

"Amir_Hasan " <ah****@gmail.c om> wrote in message
news:11******** **************@ i39g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .
| The cause of this is you have to remember that the Service has to be
| running under a certain context.
| Whenever any process is run on windows it is run within a Context. (A
| context being things like user credentials, current working directory
| etc)
|
| When the service starts the CWD will be system32 since it was invoked
| by the SCM eg c:\windows\syst em32
|
| You must change the working directory to the directory of where your
| executable in your OnStart or in your Main() of your service
| implementation you can do this by doing the following:
|
| protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
| {
|
| //EventLog.WriteE ntry("Current working Directory Before
| Assignment:"+En vironment.Curre ntDirectory);
|
| Environment.Cur rentDirectory =
| System.AppDomai n.CurrentDomain .BaseDirectory;
|
| //EventLog.WriteE ntry("Current working Directory
| is:"+Environmen t.CurrentDirect ory);
|
| //rest of OnStart Code here...
|
|
| }
|
|
This makes no sense, sorry, the problem is that the service cannot be loaded
so certainly not be started, how would this solve the problem?
Willy.

[Willy Denoyette [MVP]]

No, drives can be mapped as long as the 'Workstation' service runs, and they
can be mapped in any logon session.

Willy.

"Arran Pearce" <ar*********@ce llhire.com> wrote in message
news:%2******** *******@TK2MSFT NGP10.phx.gbl.. .
| Are mapped drives not only mapped when a user logs in? Thus how would the
| service start when the computer was restarted and the mapped drives does
not
| exist?
|
|
| "djmob" <u19229@uwe> wrote in message news:5c9b5a53c8 9d9@uwe...
| >I am very new to .NET and Windows programming in general so please bare
| >with
| > me...
| >
| > I created a Windows service by deriving a class from ServiceBase and
| > installing it via the 'sc create' commands as follows:
| >
| > sc create <name> binPath= <path>
| >
| > Where path is the fully qualified path name. The new service appeared
in
| > the
| > Services GUI and I was able to start and stop it without problems. Next
I
| > recreated the service via the 'sc create' command where binPath used a
| > mapped
| > drive letter via the subst command i.e. 'subst x: c:\actual\path\ name'
| > The
| > service is created but it does not start and I get the following error
| > message:
| >
| > Could not start the <name> service on Local Computer. Error 3: The
system
| > cannot find the path specified.
| >
| > Unfortunately it is a requirement of my project to be able to used a
| > mapped
| > driver letter. It appears that when the service is started it has no
| > knowledge of the drive mappings in my environment. After some research
it
| > also appears that using the subst command is discouraged in later
versions
| > of
| > Windows and the preferred method is to use net commands. I have not
been
| > entirely successful with the net commands and hope there is another
| > approach
| > to solving this problem. Any suggestions???
|
|

[djmob]

Yes that is correct. The problem is with the service being loaded from a
locally mapped drive. Currently the drive is mapped using the subst command
i.e. 'subst x: c:\pathToServic e'.

Willy Denoyette [MVP] wrote:

| The cause of this is you have to remember that the Service has to be
| running under a certain context.
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
|
| }

This makes no sense, sorry, the problem is that the service cannot be loaded
so certainly not be started, how would this solve the problem?

Willy.