Install Crash of ODT 10.2.0.2.20 - Can't Find gacutil.exe

Question

Win XP SP2<br>
VS 2005 Pro<br>
<br>
Trying to install ODT 10.2.0.2.20 and the instal gets to about 96% complete when
it throws an error when trying to do the following operation:
<p>&quot;spawning 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\\bin\gacutil.exe
/I C:\oralce\product\10.2.0&quot;</p>
<p>The log reads:<br>
<br>
<b>
INFO: Calling Action SpawnActions10.1.0.2.0 Spawn<br>
installcommand = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\\bin\gacutil.exe
/I C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client_1\odp.net\bin\2.x\Oracle.DataAccess.dll<br>
deinstallcommand = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\\bin\gacutil.exe
/u Oracle.DataAccess,Version=2.102.2.20<br>
WaitForCompletion = true</b></p>
<p><b>INFO: Exception occured during spawning :CreateProcess: C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\\bin\gacutil.exe /I C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client_1\odp.net\bin\2.x\Oracle.DataAccess.dll
error=193<br>
INFO: Exception thrown from action: Spawn<br>
Exception Name: RuntimeException</b></p>
<p>The log file shows that it is trying to find the executable gacutil.exe in
the &quot;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\\Bin&quot; directory
- however the path has an extra &quot;\&quot; so its trying to look for a directory
with no name. The path should read &quot;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual
Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin&quot;.</p>
<p>Has anyone else had this issue and know how to fix this, or have any ideas
on what i can try to resolve this. I have not seen any other posts for this
same issue.</p>

Answer 1

I had this same problem today. I was installing ODP.NET 10.2 on a windows 2003 server without VS 2005 installed on it (hence there is not a gacutil.exe, since gacutil.exe is a developer tool that comes with the SDK and should not be used by installations).
I worked around this by copying from a machine that had VS 2005 the gacutil.exe and gacutil.exe.config files to the 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin' directory. Then I hit "retry" during my install and it worked.
Am I wrong in thinking that I need to install ODP.Net 10.2 on the server where my applications using ODP are running? This is my first time using ODP.Net, and maybe I am not understanding the big picture here. My servers typically do not have development tools installed on them.
Another solution would be just to skip the error and register the dll in the GAC later, although I have not tested the outcome of this.