5.8.2 extension installation error

KNIME Analytics Platform
1

After using the Self Extract LTs 5.8.2 and trying to install extensions, the following error is returned, can anyone shed a light please ? I think i have had python/conda errors on every single new release i add.

An error occurred while installing the items
session context was:(profile=KNIMEProfile, phase=org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.engine.phases.Install, operand=null → [R]org.knime.python.google_ads_ext.channel.bin.win32.x86_64 5.8.2.v202601161449, action=org.knime.conda.envinstall.action.InstallCondaEnvironment$InstallAction).
Running InstallCondaEnvironment action failed
Installing the Pixi environment failed: pixi install failed with exit code 1
STDOUT:

STDERR:
Error: × failed to fetch aiohappyeyeballs-2.6.1-pyhd8ed1ab_0.conda
├─▶ an io error occurred: failed to unpack \\?\D: │ \knime_5.8.2\bundling\.pixi-cache\pkgs\aiohappyeyeballs-2.6.1- │ pyhd8ed1ab_0\info\licenses\LICENSE
├─▶ failed to unpack \\?\D:\knime_5.8.2\bundling\.pixi- │ cache\pkgs\aiohappyeyeballs-2.6.1-pyhd8ed1ab_0\info\licenses\LICENSE
├─▶ failed to set mtime for \\?\D:\knime_5.8.2\bundling\.pixi- │ cache\pkgs\aiohappyeyeballs-2.6.1-pyhd8ed1ab_0\info\licenses\LICENSE
╰─▶ The parameter is incorrect. (os error 87)

2

Hello @mgirdwood

Thanks for the detailed report. We were able to reproduce this on Windows when KNIME (and/or Pixi’s cache/environment directories) are located on an external drive formatted as exFAT.

Root cause

During installation Pixi downloads and unpacks conda packages into its cache and tries to set file timestamps (“mtime”). On exFAT, Windows can return “The parameter is incorrect (os error 87)” for that timestamp operation, so the unpack step fails. Once that happens, follow-up panics (e.g., Tokio/runtime errors or metadata read errors) can occur because the install process ends up in a partially-written state.

You can see this in the error message where it fails while unpacking a package into the Pixi cache, e.g.:
…\pkgs\info\licenses\LICENSE
→ “failed to set mtime … (os error 87)”

Workarounds / recommended fix

  • Best option: Install/run KNIME from an NTFS location (typically your local C: drive) so Pixi can create environments reliably.
  • If you want to keep workflows/data on the external drive: that’s fine — just keep the Python environments / Pixi cache on NTFS. For this, you can set the environment variable KNIME_PYTHON_BUNDLING_PATH to a folder on an NTFS drive before starting KNIME, e.g.
$env:KNIME_PYTHON_BUNDLING_PATH="C:\knime_python_envs..."
  • If you must keep everything on the external drive for portability: consider reformatting the drive to NTFS, or use an NTFS “container” (e.g., a mounted VHD/VHDX stored on the external disk) to host the environments.

In short, exFAT is fine for storing KNIME workflows, but not a good place to build/manage Python environments with Pixi on Windows.

We will look into the underlying issue and check if we can improve the installation process for this special case.

Best,
Marc

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