I published this on the panagenda blog about a month ago (end of July), but given it keeps coming up I wanted to share it here too.
While upgrading several customers from Notes 12.0.2 (and older) to 14.5.1, we hit an issue where the MSI completes successfully, the return code looks clean, but the resulting client is missing optional Eclipse/RCP components. Embedded Sametime was the most visible casualty, but it’s not limited to Sametime.
The root cause is a stale rcpInstallerTemp.properties file left behind in the TEMP directory of the account running the installer (admin, deployment service, or Windows SYSTEM). Earlier installers (12.0.x, 14.0.x, 14.5.0) cleaned this file early in the installation process; 14.5.1 doesn’t, so it can consume outdated state and decide to remove optional components. That’s also why it often won’t reproduce on a clean lab machine, you need the “dirty” installation history of a real production endpoint.
Workaround:
Delete rcpInstallerTemp.properties from the TEMP directory of the executing security context before running the 14.5.1 install (mind the account context: deleting it from your own profile won’t help if SYSTEM or a service account runs the installer).
HCL has published an official defect article (KB0132505), and MarvelClient Upgrade 14.5.22+ already handles this automatically. Hoping for a permanent fix in 14.5.2.
Full details, diagnosis story, and the affected-environment checklist here:
https://www.panagenda.com/blog/hcl-notes-14-5-1-upgrades-can-remove-optional-plugins-even-when-the-installer-succeeds/