Install/uninstall issue with SafeGuard 8 client

Hi Chris, 

I believe the encryption has not started yet, could you please share the screenshot of the services.

Hi Haridoss

Correct, the encryption has not started.  And the issue just happened on another new install.  To be clear, this is on new installs.  I will give you a little more background on this.

First, I install the 3 components: preinstall, client and then client settings.  Everything installs without an issue.  I reboot the laptop.  It comes up and says something to the effect of "Sophos SafeGuard Authentication Service is not running, no further action possible!".  We can log in no problem, but many of the Sophos services do not start.  In particular, the Drive Encryption Controller does not start and errors out.  I think the other services don't start because of this one service.

Next I try to uninstall the software.  I remove the software in reverse order of which it is installed.  The client settings uninstalls fine.  When I try to uninstall the client it fails with a message that i must be the administrator to uninstall the software.  I am running it as administrator.  If I try to repair it then I am notified the cache is corrupt.  This fails as it is trying to start the Drive Encryption Controller service.  So it appears that this service not starting is what is causing the uninstall failure.

This is now the 4th laptop out of 50 or so installation attempts that has had this problem.  The first time I ran into the issue I found an article about fixing the Authentication service.  That allowed the service to start but then since there was no policy received I became locked out of the system with no way to get past POA.  I recovered the first one by using a windows recovery disk to get to a command prompt and then running "bootrec /fixboot".  I was then able to start in safe mode and uninstall the software.  I rebooted normally and reinstalled the software without issue.  These other systems are all remote so I don't have access to them to attempt a safe mode uninstall or to attempt to break the POA with a bootrec /fixboot.

I am afraid this is going to happen to more.  I have about 20 more laptops to encrypt and no idea how many of these may fail as I have no clue what is causing the problem.  I took screen shot of the state of the Sophos SafeGuard services and pasted it below.  

I put a ticket in with tech support and was told I would just have to reimage the laptop.  If this were a single issue I would be fine with that.  But this is the 4th instance and there may be more.  I would love to get to the bottom of this so I can prevent or recover from future issues.  So if you can offer help with this I would greatly appreciate it.

Chris Heiert

NetGain Technologies

Hi Chris, 

Are you using the same installer package to install on the client machines? If so when and how was this installer package created?

I have two installers packages.  The first was generated using sophos transport for internal machines.  I generated a new installer for remote clients that do not have direct network or vpn access.  I have had the problem with both packages on different machines.  I did not try to run multiple installers on any machine.  Each time I had the problem it was the first attempt to install the software.

Chris

Hi Chris,

What is the antivirus installed on these machines?

The AV on these systems is WebRoot SecureAnywhere Endpoint Protection.

Chris.

Hi Chris,

Is it possible to disable the AV and try installing Safeguard, so that we could rule out the possibility of issue due to AV.

I will see about disabling the AV and trying the remaining installs.

As for the installs that went bad, is there  a way to force the removal of the software since the encryption did not take place?

Chris

Was there a resolution to this? I'm having the exact same problem. Brand new HP desktops, imaged 6 of them, 1 had this problem. We are using a script written by Sophos Professional Services and are using Sophos AV. Have seen the issue before but, just imaged the machine a considered it a fluke. Now it's happening again and need a resolution to this issue. 

Thanks,

Chad

Hi Chad,

What type of encryption is used?

1. Volume-based

2. File-based