MySQL Bugs: #17083: Admin and QB integration: cannot find each other when running as user

Bug #17083	Admin and QB integration: cannot find each other when running as user
Submitted:	2 Feb 2006 21:17	Modified:	21 Nov 2006 14:27
Reporter:	Jason Winnebeck	Email Updates:
Status:	Closed	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Query Browser	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	1.1.19	OS:	Windows (Windows)
Assigned to:	Mike Lischke	CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	Generic

Description:
When running as admin, the application cannot read the HKLM\Software\MySQL AB Key and therefore the applications cannot cross integrate and find each other.  The reason that I guess is that the code is trying to open the key in write mode even though no writing takes place, and users have read-only status.

I discovered this using Sysinternals' Registry Monitor when trying to debug other problems in the software.

This code has prompted another, related problem:
http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=16469

It seems the same code that tries to open the keys for writing also has some wicked loop that searchs for versions from 10.30 to 1.0 (300 versions).

How to repeat:
Install MySQL Admin and MySQL Query Browser.  At any point in the program the tools menu is disabled from the tools being able to launch each other.

Suggested fix:
Workaround: Give users full control over the MySQL AB key in the HKLM tree.  This allows the apps to integrate.

Fix: change the code to allow it to read the HKLM key, since it never actually does any writes, the code should be able to be read it anyway.  I'm not an expert in Win32 programming but this is probably as simple as changing the flags on the function call.

I was unable to repeat that behavior on Windows XP. Which version of
Windows are you using. If you've installed both applications with an
user and try to use with another user you had setup the user account
to share the files?.

Thanks in advance.

Actually I am unable to install as user at all with the MySQL tools.  For a long time this has not even been possible.  By user I mean 

restricted user account, not power user, and not admin.  I am using Windows XP SP2.

To install now I give my own user admin rights temporarily.  If I try to install as a normal user, even when installing normally it fails 

when it tries to write to HKLM/Software/MySQL AB/MySQL Query Browser x.x, because only power user and admin have writes to write there.

In my case I installed as myself with admin perms then after I was restricted user again the program couldn't locate that key and therefore I cannot launch MySql Admin from QB or vice versa.  I realize that is an odd case but watching the program's registry access I could tell that it would have failed just the same way if I installed as admin account and then ran as a user.  So I tried it the normal way: if I install as the actual admin, then run as a user this still happens -- I just tested it.

It is very clear... if I go into regedit and remove write permissions to the key as the admin, then the programs can't find each other.  If I put the permissions there, it works.  I can repeat this as mant times as I want.

Ok in this case the bug report I think should be that the GUI tools
can't be installed without Administration privileges and to change
the severity to a feature request. Do you agree?

Thanks in advance.

Well the GUI tools cannot be installed w/o admin privileges, but this is not the issue I am submitting for now, so I disagree with making this bug a feature request.  If my earlier comment was confusing, I apologize.

What I am reporting is that when you install the program /even as adminstrator/, a normal user cannot use the tools menu integration to launch admin from QB or QB from admin, because the program tries to open the reg key for writing (for which the user does not have permission).  Since no write perm is actually needed, I believe this can be fixed simply by opening the key just for reading, since normal users are able to read HKLM keys.

Thanks for your bug report.  Your last comment makes everything clear.

Thank you for your bug report. This issue has been committed to our source repository of that product and will be incorporated into the next release.

If necessary, you can access the source repository and build the latest available version, including the bug fix. More information about accessing the source trees is available at

    http://dev.mysql.com/doc/en/installing-source.html