Maven install:install-file seems not to work - maven

Question

I've created a Maven project with some dependencies on libraries (.jar files) which are not in Maven central. The internal repository that we had is being taken offline and we have not been authorized to make a new one, so I modified the POM to use install:install-file on each of those files when a certain profile is activated. It seemed to work on my machine, but it's possible it might not have worked because the .jars were already in my repository.
We had a new employee start this week and I was trying to help him install the dependencies by triggering the profile, and although the debug trace lists those goals as being on the plan (and mvn help:active-profiles shows the profile being activated), it doesn't work. The directories are created in the repository, but only a .lastupdated file for the .jar and the .pom are created.
The error we get is that POM could not be found for the given artifact. That's expected since we use <generatePom>true</generatePom> in the plugin's execution.
Any ideas on why this might not work?
Here's the relevant section of the POM:
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>self-contained</id>
<activation>
<property>
<name>installBundledJars</name>
</property>
</activation>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>installCaseControlUpdateAPI</id>
<phase>generate-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>install-file</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<file>${basedir}/lib/CaseControlUpdateAPI.jar</file>
<groupId>com.west.thomson.contech</groupId>
<artifactId>CaseControlUpdateAPI</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<generatePom>true</generatePom>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>installMQ</id>
<phase>generate-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>install-file</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<file>${basedir}/lib/com.ibm.mq-5.304.jar</file>
<groupId>com.ibm</groupId>
<artifactId>mq</artifactId>
<version>5.304</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<generatePom>true</generatePom>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>installMQJMS</id>
<phase>generate-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>install-file</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<file>${basedir}/lib/com.ibm.mqjms-5.304.jar</file>
<groupId>com.ibm</groupId>
<artifactId>mqjms</artifactId>
<version>5.304</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<generatePom>true</generatePom>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>installJADABAS</id>
<phase>generate-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>install-file</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<file>${basedir}/lib/jadabas.jar</file>
<groupId>com.softwareag</groupId>
<artifactId>jadabas</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<generatePom>true</generatePom>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>installOJDBC</id>
<phase>generate-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>install-file</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<file>${basedir}/lib/ojdbc14.jar</file>
<groupId>oracle</groupId>
<artifactId>ojdbc14</artifactId>
<version>10g</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<generatePom>true</generatePom>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
</profiles>

Answer 1

Two possible problems i can think of,
- check if you have the libs in the specified path.
- check permissions on the .m2 repo and the project location where you are running mvn cmd.