Why am I getting an InvalidCastException error while creating the configuration database?

Question

I am getting an error while creating the configuration database in SharePoint 2010. It fails at step 3 with the following message.

Also attaching the error from event viewer

Failed to create the configuration database.
An exception of type System.InvalidCastException was thrown.  Additional exception information: Unable to cast object of type 'Microsoft.IdentityModel.Configuration.MicrosoftIdentityModelSection' to type 'Microsoft.IdentityModel.Configuration.MicrosoftIdentityModelSection'.
System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'Microsoft.IdentityModel.Configuration.MicrosoftIdentityModelSection' to type 'Microsoft.IdentityModel.Configuration.MicrosoftIdentityModelSection'.
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPIisWebServiceSettings.ProvisionWebSiteSettings()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPIisWebServiceInstance.Provision()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Join()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.CreateOrConnectConfigDb()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.Run()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

Can someone help me?

Answer 1

There is a knowledgebase article about this, which suggests that you might have a beta of the Windows Idenity Framework installed, but SharePoint requires the release version. Does that help?