jetman

Thanx, but you've misunderstood. I already have a BartPE disc. Been making those for over two yeas. I'm trying to make a better tool disc by coming up w/ a multi-boot disc. Yeah, I'd like something similar to UBCD4W, to cook up a multi-boot disc, but I'll settle for anything that has decent docs and has an endorsement from someone on the forum who's done this already....Jet

I spent a day and a half masterbating w/ BCDW 2.0 and need to find an alternative. 1st, the docs are from 1.50z and are out-of-sync. Once I finally figured that out, I eventually got a simple menu w/ BartPE and **** Small Linux (DSL) 3.0 working. Had to install DSL on the menu from it's ISO, which would've been cool, except when I tried to wrap up the project by adding a couple of other small Linuxes, using exactly the same procedure, they wouldn't work ! I'm hoping someone can suggest an alternative that they've used. All I want is something flexible w/ decent documentation. The time killer is Googling for web pages that explain the quirks of the pkg, instead simply reading the program's docs. A nice graphical menu backdrop and scripting would be nice, but are both optional. TIA....Jet

I spent last Saturday trying to test another unattended setup and had the same prob again and again. The setup worked fine except that it wouldn't install the optional sware (ie. Acrobat, Firefox, etc.) Tried it again and again, but it wouldn't work. After setting up the initial user, SETUP would always report it couldn't find the RUNONCE script every time. I'd seen this problem bef, but never really fixed it. I just found it ! Every time I edit the answer file w/ SETUPMGR, it always turns off "OEMPreinstall" I tried it w/ a file that I KNOW had the correct setting and sure enuf, upon writing a fresh answer file, OEMPreinstall is set to NO ! The SETUPMGR executable is version: 5.1.2600.1106. Perhaps I have a buggy copy of the util ? Regardless, I thought I'd post something about this, since I didn't see a specific ref to it in the MSFN Unattended PDF. It mentions that it's nec to enable OEMPreinstall, but not that SETUPMGR potentially breaks an answer file. One hopes this warning will help a newbie from chasing his/her tail. Later....Jet

I've figured out how to setup my BOOTP server, found a PXE boot image and adapted it, have my PC-under-test talking to my server, so today I was successful in blasting a GHOST image to a diskless PC. YAY !!!! I tried to launch the DOS WINNT installer and it seemed to work as expected. Unfortunately, after the obligatory reboot, XP SETUP resumed normally, but XP SETUP didn't see the XP installation from the GHOST image. Normally (that is, when I install via CD/DVD), one reboots from the XP CD and SETUP detects the existing installation and offers to REPAIR the existing installation. (Before proceeding, a caveat: one must use a std XP disc, NOT an unattended XP DISC, ie. w/o the WINNT.SIF answer file, otherwise NO repair is possible.) When things are working correctly, at the Welcome screen, one presses Enter, then F8 (accepting the EULA), then R to repair the existing installation. Not today. I'm wondering if ANYONE does installs like this and so may have figured this out. *IF* I could get Windows into Safe mode, I'd be home free, since I could boot the Win32-hosted SETUP (WINNT32) and that would probably do the trick. So far, no joy, but it's the end of the day (in NYC), so I'll try again bright-and-early tomorrow. Worst case scenario: I can always install from a server-based unattended image, but REPAIRing a GHOST is by far much faster and efficient. TIA....Jet

Correct. You would have to Hack it to change it. Some advice... Change all your hard coded drive letter values to %SYSTEMDRIVE% instead. Then you never have to worry about it. Chris Actually, I was just about to start a topic on this very subj. As I read the msgs in the thread, it suddenly dawned on me how to do this. One needs a batch script to boot the WINNT32 installer and in the batch script, one needs to change the SYSTEMDRIVE environment variable to the drive where the XP installation directory is. I'm not sure if this will work (probably will have to redefine SYSTEMDRIVE prior to booting WINNT32 and put it back to its original def after WINNT32 exits.) However, you'd have to change the SYSTEMDRIVE def via the registry, bec trying to change it using a simple scripted env variable (via the SET cmd) won't work. HTH....Jet

I've had working unattended CDs/DVDs for over a year and a half. This forum has been HUGE resource ! However, I have two probs I can't get past: 1) For those PCs that don't have DVDs, I've copied my unattended setup into a sub-dir called \Unattended-4 on my USB hdrive, that is, the sub-dir has .\I386 and .\I386\$OEM$ inside it. When I invoke 'WINNT32 /unattend:WINNT.SIF' from the cmd line, via my BartPE system, I always get a msg box indicating WINNT.SIF is invalid or inaccessible. The file is definitely there, bec I open the cmd window on the I386 sub-dir and I can read the file w/ NOTEPAD. What gives ? Oh yeah, if I invoke WINNT32 w/o the /unattend switch, it immed comes back and reports the embedded product key in WINNT.SIF is invalid, even though I successfully use the same WINNT.SIF file when booting normally from one of my unattended CD/DVDs. 2) Once out of every ten or so installs, my unattended DVD setup goes thru the entire setup until the GUI user creation phase, then skips the new user setup, and offers to log in as Administrator. For example, I just repaired three PCs this weekend, using my curr unattended DVD. The 1st and 3rd time (coincidentatlly, two PCs w/ the same motherboard), it skipped past the GUI user creation phase and ran the RUNONCE script as admin, but the 2nd install worked normally (ie. XP prompted to create a user, then ran the RUNONCE script in the new user's context, as expected.) Whet gives ? TIA....Jet

Been there many times. Try again. I'm looking for an idea that's non-obvious....Jet

Yes. Because I'm a reactionary old fart ! Actually, I tried it once and still prefer V5 over V6. But maybe a re-eval is worthwhile....

I have a working unattended XP system. It has one remaining imperfection, that I haven't been able to resolve in the months I've been working on this. At this point, unless someone else has figured out a solution, I'm going to give up and move on. I invoke Nero 5.5.10.56 in my GuiRunOnce script: REGEDIT /S %DATAROOT%\NERO5.REG START /WAIT %PGMROOT%\NERO551056.EXE /SILENT /NOCANCEL /NOLICENSE /NO_UI /SFX Nero goes in fine, exc that one of the supporting executables underneath NERO551056 seems to break out of the GuiRunOnce script, which causes the Cleanup script to fire PRIOR to end of Nero's processing. The imperfection is that the INSTALL folder can't be deleted automagically, since the entire Nero Installer hasn't terminated. Worst case: I can explicitly invoke a script to install Nero (and the Send To Power Toy, which also breaks the GuiRunOnce script), from my UXP CD. FWIW, here's how I install the Send To Power Toy: START /WAIT RUNDLL32 SETUPAPI,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 128 %DATAROOT%\SENDTOX.INF Someone must've seen this kind of behavior and have figured it out, bec I've long since ceased making headway on this. TIA....Jet

Thanx a bunch !

That ShortCut util mite be very helpful; thanx. Perhaps you can answer another question. I'd like to put some sort of shortcut on all desktops, for documentation of my customizations. I know I can place a shortcut in All Users\Desktop and it'll appear on all desktops. However, the 1st person to delete that link, deletes it for everyone. I don't know if we're talking about a conventional shortcut or some other kind of shell link. Any ideas ? TIA....Jet

Evilvoice: Appreciate the heads up, but I still don't understand enuf of the actual process to know what I need. My orig req was just to find out how the 1st link in the chain works. Only after looking at some code, will I have some meaningful questions/contributions/suggestions. Later....Jet

Thanx for the tip about BartPE, but I've already that to my arsenal. GOSH has a site here on MSFN, describing his technique for making all-in-one CDs/DVDs and he does indeed patch a couple of files. But thanx for the link and for your hacking and documenting the unattended install process....Jet

This is a curiousity question. In looking at the different multi-boot CD projects around here and elsewhere, I was wondering if there is an open-source CD bootstrap, which would (theoretically) obviate some of the requirements to patch OS files. Anyway that's the theory and I mite be way off base. TIA....Jet

One MUST include a Nero Burning ROM section in the HKCU tree in addition to the HKLM tree: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\Info] @="" "User"="Unattended" "Company"="Install" "Serial5"="xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx" "HaveReadSNFromFile"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\Info] @="" "User"="Unattended" "Company"="Install" "Serial5"="xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx" "HaveReadSNFromFile"=dword:00000000

I've searched every way I can imagine to find a forum post for this. I've absolutely seen the page, but forgot to bookmark or save it. Tried what I found for the Nero 6 registry file: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\Info] "User"="Basic-XP-Workstation" "Company"="None" "Serial5"="XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX" Also tried specifying the SN on the cmd-line in my RUNONCE.CMD script, but no joy: START /WAIT %PGMROOT%\NERO551056.EXE /SILENT /SN=XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX /WRITE_SN /NOCANCEL /NOLICENSE /NO_UI /SFX One other thing, the Nero installer seems to break the cmd processing of the batch file. That is, nothing in RUNONCE, is executed after the Nero installer completes. Tried moving it to a separate batch script (w/ the same results) and will probably move this to a RunOnce registry key. But has anyone else seen this kind of behavior ? It's not a big deal, but I am curious. TIA.....Jet

This is a quick-n-dirty utility that I slapped together, to add a little extra control to an unattended XP/2K/2K3 installation. For most of us, that's all that's needed. Essentially, all one needs to do is to put MBQ onto the disk, then modify your batch scripts to display a MessageBox prompt, then deal w/ the ERRORLEVEL as shown in the attached archive. If you have something to say, reply/quote this message, as I get e-mail notification from the forum. Enjoy....Jet MBQ_0.1.ZIP MBQ_0.1.ZIP

Alan: AHA ! MSOFT didn't mention the SETUPAPI.DLL in their instuctions ! That was the ciritical omission ! DefaultInstall works fine. Thank you ! Jet

It's been a slow process (three days), but I have a great unattended XP CD. Now I'd like to add one more goodie. I've searched high-and-low and can't find out how to automagically install the SendTo PowerToy. I found a single webpage on the microsoft.com website: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/ie/6/all/reskit/en-us/part4/c17ie6rk.mspx But the syntax of their cmds don't work for this file. Normally, one simply right-clicks the SENDTOX.INF to install it. These basic instructions are all over the 'Net, but nothing on doing this programatically. Has anyone mastered this syntax ? TIA....Jet