Unable to run Parallels 5 Installer

I have a nicely working installation of Parallels 5.0.9220.531002 on my MBP 5,2. However, in trying to update it to 5.0.9310.546799 the OS X Installer halts after doing nothing--even before running the little installation check program. There is no crash report. The following lines are written to the console log:

2/21/10 3:00:04 PM Installer[321] @(#)PROGRAM:Install PROJECT:Install-574
2/21/10 3:00:04 PM Installer[321] @(#)PROGRAM:Installer PROJECT:Installer-430.1
2/21/10 3:00:04 PM Installer[321] Hardware: MacBookPro5,2 @ 2.66 GHz (x 2), 4096 MB RAM
2/21/10 3:00:04 PM Installer[321] Running OS Build: Mac OS X 10.6.2 (10C540)

That’s it. Have tried all the tricks know--deleting caches, running the installer from a different user account, uninstalling the existing Parallels 5, repairing permissions, running from a Safe Boot, and running Disk Warrior. I have downloaded additional copies of the update DMG and tried them.

After removing Parallels 5, I was unable to reinstall it and had to restore from a cloned volume. The installer runs perfectly on a virgin 10.6.2 system.

The OS X Installer itself works with other software install packages. Any suggestions, short of nuking and paving the entire OS X installation? I am out of ideas.

 

Problem solver by brute force: I ended up reinstalling Snow Leopard and the Installer ran just fine. It's always frustrating when you "solve" a problem like this without finding the cause. However, with nothing in the logs, what a po' boy to do?