Win8 is not installing the client via any means whatsoever. This should be a very simple install since this system is a fresh build with hardly anything on it.
I'm using a saved setup.exe package from SEPM, that I havce manually copied to the Win8 machine and am running it locally. The account I'm logged in with is an admin, although even for the sake of doing it, I right clicked and choose that Run As Administraor option.
Side note: after all these years, I still never have no idea why people say you have to Run As Administrator, if you're already logged in as an admin. Never took the time to find out. Anybody know? :)
Application event log shows Event ID 10005, which states that the Symantec install detected pending system changes that require a reboot and to reboot and then re-run the install. I reboot, re-run setup, same routine over and over. About 6 reboots now with no change. Next I will try the full DVD install method instead of this setup.exe SEPM package stuff.
There are other Application log events but they are all extremeley generic, such as "installation failed" for SEP (ID 11708 I think). no cause, no reason, not even a hint but I suspect they all trace back to that 10005 above as the root cause. However, what those "pending system changes" are, I have no idea.
I have Office 2013, and SSR 2013 installed, and all have finished and hav ebeen running for over a week without errors of their own. The SSR instlal has finished it's post-reboot routine of configuring a backup job etc.
So this leaves me questioning the compatibiliuty of Win8 and SEP 12.1.2. And yes, I know, ofiically it is supported but since 12.1.2 is the first version to officially support Windows 8 means it's like having version 1.0 of the Win8/SEP12.1.2 duo, so there are likely bugs and other issues.
So are there perhaps any caveats for Win8 and SEP 12.1.2? For example for SEP 11, even though the installer itself never told you, you always had to disable Simple File Sharing. Maybe 12.1.2 has something like that that I don't know of? I will go find the release notes and read them again but I find it very helpful to ask those with real experiences to share.
Thank you.