sysadhater
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sysadhater, "wacky" stuff drives me crazy too. With the information provided, I can only suspect that you are running nLite more than once against the same source. Please make sure to always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders, do all your work in one nLite session and integrate only one SP. Picking one "wacky", I use Kurt_Aust's great guide for x64 and do not place *WindowsUpdate-30* into the hot fix fix section of nLite. I assume it does no integrate properly. It seems like to me that WUD asks me occasional (on my old host) to install the latest updater when I do a custom scan. This could explain the intermittent nature of your problem. Please chose a single "wacky", attach (not paste) your Last Session.ini and we'll see if we can figure it out. Enjoy, John.
John,
Right now my major problem is that when I create my slipstream with Windows 2003 Standard x64 R2 SP2 with all of the updates I notice the following:
Internet Explorer 7 is not set as the default browser (on the 32 bit ss, it is)
The 'Windows Update' icon in the start menu does not work until after I open Internet Explorer for the first time.
I know these are nit-picky things, but I can't really have a bunch of unexplainable things going on behind the scenes on my installs.
Just for your information:
I always use fresh media to do my slipstreams, as my media is already SP2 I don't integrate service packs.
I slipstream my 32bit os on a 32 bit machine and my 64 bit os on my 64 bit machine.
Attached is my config.
Thanks,
SYSAD
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Have you ever figured out just why certain machines take 3+ minutes to get past wpeinit while other machines do it almost instantly? it seems certain server machines such as Dells have problems with this while desktop machines that i use to test are immune.
very strange. I was thinking about trying to roll more drivers into my winpe image to see if maybe that would help.
SYSAD
Just change the registry key for wpeinit to cmd.exe. Copy procmon.exe to your WinPE image and launch procmon and set it to record registry and file monitoring. Then launch Wpeinit. That will usually point you to the culprit. I know with our HP servers it was really slow because of hardware enumeration. The amount of device ID's in the servers I was using just dwarfed your average desktop. I think it had some ~200 device ID's. This was a Proliant G5 370 (IIRC). If you install devcon.exe into your WinPE image you can verify that too.
Just in playing with various bios options i've been able to speed it up tremendously, now i have to figure out which specific BIOS option did it, hah!
SYSAD
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Hi there.
I have been using nLite to create slipstreamed installs of the Windows 2003 editions for awhile:
standard 32 sp2 r2
enterprise 32 sp2 r2
web 32 sp2 r2
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standard 64 sp2 r2
enterprise 64 sp2 r2
certain editions do "wacky" stuff that other editions don't do even though i'm slipstreaming the exact same thing into them.
Like for example:
Enterprise 32 bit with all updates slipstreamed including the latest version of WindowsUpdate still makes me install the latest version of WindowsUpdate when I go to updates.microsoft.com the standard and web versions of 32 bit don't. If I add a line into my winnt.sif that runs the *WindowsUpdate-30* update package on that particular one it doesn't ask me to update it but it is an anomaly, and I hate anomalies like that, they drive me crazy.
Another thing is on Enterprise 64 'show the clock' is unticked only for remote desktop. I didn't set it up this way anywhere, it just does it on its own and for some reason the 'Windows Update' Start menu item doesn't work until after I open Internet Explorer 7 for the first time. (I am guessing some registry keys are missing until after IE 7 runs???).
Does anyone know why there are these little anomalies between versions? I am slipstreaming the same drivers/updates into all of the versions (obviously not between x64 and x86).
Thanks,
SYSAD
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I dont use Metzen's approach because it just adds another step of complexity. And I like being able to slipstream hotfixes in to my source. In reality I don't care about the extra 5 minutes it would save. Once an install is started I'm off to the liquor store anyhow. When I get back the install is done. 20 minutes, 35 minutes, either way I end up with a beer.
Just make a script that does the following...
Imagex.exe /mountrw %PATH_TO_YOUR_SOURCE% C:\mount
%UPDATE_KB123456%.EXE /update C:\mount\$WIN_NT$.~LS
Or just update the source and remake the WIM from a virtual machine.
As always, you trade speed for complexity.
The more annoying delay for me has got to be the stupid 3 minutes winpeinit takes.SYSAD
You can use WinPE 2005 instead. Then you won't have to use bootsect.exe but this thread asked about PE2.1.
Hm, I appreciate the new idea for an approach I always feel like i am digging new tunnels etc when i'm doing stuff like this its nice to see someone else doing the same thing.So you're saying essentially I can make an image of the C: drive after the first 'graphical mode' where you give it the unattend file, etc.
You run winnt32.exe /switches, wait for it to finsih, then your back to your WinPE command-prompt. Now use ImageX.exe.
I get that part, so it would essentially make text-mode ready images (which is smart, i should do that once i'm 100% happy with everything).Microsoft has actually been recommending it to be done like that since NT.
In Windows 2000, the /syspart parameter for Winnt32.exe causes Windows 2000 Setup to copy all the necessary boot files and temporary Setup files to a drive and mark the partition as active. You can then install the drive in another computer, turn the computer on, and continue with Setup.The changes to this tech article is that instead of installing the drive into a another computer, we're taking an image of that drive and then applying that image to another computer.
The part I don't get is how do you use imagex without WinPE, etc? Are you using WDS?SYSAD
Just grab it out of the WinPE image. I believe that version works on XP. Or install the WAIK or the Windows OPK. They all contain ImageX among some other tools.
You don't need to use ImageX. Ghost will work as well.
The flexibility of being able to access the filesystem after applying with ImageX is nice though. We use a script that detects what type of machine you have and then it will copy over the appropriate OEMBIOS.BIN, OEMBIOS.SIG, OEMBIOS.CAT, etc. after applying the image.
We also use a script before applying the ImageX that asks a series of questions (eg What role does this machine have? X,Y or Z?) then takes those answers and modifies the hard drive afterwards (ie, copies over certain programs and sets them to auto-install, changes the unattend.txt [which is actually WINNT.SIF at this stage] for certain computer names, copies over appropriate drivers for $OEM$, etc.).
In this way, we actually modularize our install. We have the "base" which is kept pure, then a scripted layer for things that can't be auto-detected (ie, what role does the machine play?), and then add scripted layers on top which run silently. This allows us to completely image a machine in about ~15 minutes from WinPE boot to desktop.
Naturally, this didn't occur overnight but took about 5 years of evolution starting with WinPE from XPSP1. Though, I think I could implement a solution that matches it in functionality in about a week if I had to start from scratch.
Have you ever figured out just why certain machines take 3+ minutes to get past wpeinit while other machines do it almost instantly? it seems certain server machines such as Dells have problems with this while desktop machines that i use to test are immune.
very strange. I was thinking about trying to roll more drivers into my winpe image to see if maybe that would help.
SYSAD
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I dont use Metzen's approach because it just adds another step of complexity. And I like being able to slipstream hotfixes in to my source. In reality I don't care about the extra 5 minutes it would save. Once an install is started I'm off to the liquor store anyhow. When I get back the install is done. 20 minutes, 35 minutes, either way I end up with a beer.
The more annoying delay for me has got to be the stupid 3 minutes winpeinit takes.
SYSAD
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Use Winnt32 and "install" the OS onto the drive but don't reboot. Your harddisk should now be ready for text-mode setup so it's still hardware agnostic. Now using ImageX make an image of the drive back to the network.
Now change your flow like so:
1 Initializes net
2 network share
3 creates partitions/formats/bootsector
4 run imagex and restore the image.
If you wanted, what we would do is on step 3 we'd create two partitions, a 2GB one and one for the rest of the system. We'd copy the imagex image to the 2GB partition and expand it into the bigger partition. Then we'd use diskpart to delete the 2GB partition and expand the big partition to consume the smaller one. I think you need to re-bootsect after doing so. This would make installs lickty split quick as copying over a single large file over a network is consistently faster than lots of individual files. And copying to a HDD and expanding from there is even faster than trying to expand over the network (which is essentially reading a bunch of small files).
The advantage of the imagex image is you can mount the image and manipulate files without having to rebuild the whole thing from PE + winnt32. Adding additional drivers to $OEM$, editing the TXTSETUP.SIF files became a piece of cake.
Hm, I appreciate the new idea for an approach I always feel like i am digging new tunnels etc when i'm doing stuff like this its nice to see someone else doing the same thing.
So you're saying essentially I can make an image of the C: drive after the first 'graphical mode' where you give it the unattend file, etc.
I get that part, so it would essentially make text-mode ready images (which is smart, i should do that once i'm 100% happy with everything).
The part I don't get is how do you use imagex without WinPE, etc? Are you using WDS?
SYSAD
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I've gotten my deployment to the point where it is almost perfect, i've slipstreamed everything and it works great there are two annoyances that I haven't been able to eliminate on Windows 2003 yet.
When the server first starts up and I open Internet Explorer it always pauses for 10 seconds at "Detecting Proxy Settings..."
I have this in my winnt.sif:
[branding]
BrandIEUsingUnattended = Yes
[Proxy]
Proxy_Enable = 0
and i thought that meant that it wouldn't do that?
The other annoying thing is that I have to add windowsupdate.microsoft.com to the trusted site list.
Does anyone have any tips on how i can eliminate these final little annoyances?
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You don't need to copy any files over to your C: drive after you partition it. Simply run Winnt32.exe from your network share. Winnt32.exe will copy all the files over to the freshly formatted C: drive and presp the system to start the install after the next reboot.
Your command line should be:
WINNT32.EXE /S:<SOURCEDIR>\I386 /SYSPART:C /TEMPDRIVE:C /MAKELOCALSOURCE /COPYDIR:I386 /UNATTEND:<PATH_TO>\UNATTEND.TXT
well, what I have it doing now is copying the contents of $OEM$\$1 to c:\ which includes i386 and the R2 install files.
SYSAD
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Howdy,
I have built somewhat of a custom install system utilizing Windows PE 2.1 and doing installs using WINNT32, etc.
It currently takes about 20 minutes to install any edition of Windows 2003 using this system and I am trying to shave this.
Here is what the system currently does:
1 Initializes net
2 network share
3 creates partitions/formats/bootsector
4 copies files over network share
5 runs the installer (winnt32.exe via the network share) then it completes an automated install using an unattend file.
If i am not mistaken the installer copies the files across the network AND i am copying the files across the network (so i'm doing it twice).
But I am trying to figure out the best way to do it.
I figured it would be much faster to copy the installer/media to the C: drive and the run the winnt32.exe file from the c:\drive but it doesnt work for some reason.
Does anyone have a good way to speed the process up?
I'm getting complaints from folks who used to like the fact that ghost was quicker but you had to maintain a ghost image for every hardware type (which was tedious).
SYSAD
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sysadhater, there certainly is in the .exe you pointed to with your link. I have attached it (had to change the name to .txt due to forum). If you don't have this in your extracted folder, then DL another copy and make the changes BikinDutchman suggested. Enjoy, John.
You are of course correct, I was looking in the NLDRV\015 folder and obviously it wasnt there.
I found out that if you just use the default "integration" that NLite does with this particular driver and then just copy/paste:
PCI\VEN_1028&DEV_0015&SUBSYS_1F011028="percsas"
PCI\VEN_1028&DEV_0015&SUBSYS_1F021028="percsas"
PCI\VEN_1028&DEV_0015&SUBSYS_1F031028="percsas"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F0A1028="percsas"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F0B1028="percsas"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F0C1028="percsas"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F0D1028="percsas"
PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0060&SUBSYS_1F111028="percsas"
into the txtsetup.sif it works fine.
I'm going to hit up my guy at dell to see if they can figure out why this particular driver won't nLITE properly now that I have evidence that it is a problem with the driver.
SYSAD
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See here.
Hi,
thanks for the info, sorry if this is a dumb question but there is no such thing as a txtsetup.oem in the Dell Perc6/Perc5i driver set.
where do you edit these things?
SYSAD
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sysadhater, we need to see your Last Session.ini. Without it, we may not be able to help you. Did you extract the driver file DLed? John.
Well, I noticed that there are two INF files in the driver directory and that before it was using nodev.inf so i switched it to oemsetup.inf and it still didn't work, now i'm going to try and include both.
[Main]
Env = 1.4.9.1 - 2.0.50727.3053.Microsoft Windows NT 6.0.6000.0
Target = Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition SP1 - 5.2.3790.1830 - English (United States)
[Tasks]
Integrate Drivers
Create a Bootable ISO
[Components]
;# Compatibility #
[KeepFiles]
msconfig.exe
[RemoveFiles]
clock.avi
yahoo.bmp
swtchbrd.bmp
[Options]
ProfilesDir = "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings"
TargetPath = "WINDOWS"
temp_dir = %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp
[Patches]
[services2]
[Tweaks]
[unattended]
ComputerType = Automatic
MaximumDataStorePercentOfDisk = 12
RestorePointLife = 30
DesktopTheme = Default||
PerSeat
AutoUDay = 5
AutoUHour = 15
ProgFilesPath = "\Program Files"
[NetAdapter1]
connname = ""
macaddress = ""
ipaddress = "192.168.0.1"
subnetmask = "255.255.255.0"
defaultgateway = ""
dnsserver1 = ""
dnsserver2 = ""
winsserver = ""
netbiossetting = "0"
ipxnetworknumber = "00000000"
ipxnetworkframetype = "0xFF"
[GuiRunOnce]
[Drivers]
C:\Dell\Drivers\R194162\oemsetup.inf,PERC_64
[Hotfixes]
SYSAD
Yeah. doesn't seem to matter what I do it will not integrate this driver properly, it is kind of funny that if i simply copy the files from the driver folder to a floppy disk and hit f6 while its booting it works fine, but the integration doesnt seem to work, while the windows setup text mode is running i even see it say PERC 5 PERC 6 etc but after windows starts it says no disk drives were found, etc.
ugh, this is so wierd as the x86 one works fine and even the one for the SAS 6 works fine, its just this one driver.
SYSAD
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sysadhater, we need to see your Last Session.ini. Without it, we may not be able to help you. Did you extract the driver file DLed? John.
Well, I noticed that there are two INF files in the driver directory and that before it was using nodev.inf so i switched it to oemsetup.inf and it still didn't work, now i'm going to try and include both.
[Main]
Env = 1.4.9.1 - 2.0.50727.3053.Microsoft Windows NT 6.0.6000.0
Target = Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition SP1 - 5.2.3790.1830 - English (United States)
[Tasks]
Integrate Drivers
Create a Bootable ISO
[Components]
;# Compatibility #
[KeepFiles]
msconfig.exe
[RemoveFiles]
clock.avi
yahoo.bmp
swtchbrd.bmp
[Options]
ProfilesDir = "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings"
TargetPath = "WINDOWS"
temp_dir = %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp
[Patches]
[services2]
[Tweaks]
[unattended]
ComputerType = Automatic
MaximumDataStorePercentOfDisk = 12
RestorePointLife = 30
DesktopTheme = Default||
PerSeat
AutoUDay = 5
AutoUHour = 15
ProgFilesPath = "\Program Files"
[NetAdapter1]
connname = ""
macaddress = ""
ipaddress = "192.168.0.1"
subnetmask = "255.255.255.0"
defaultgateway = ""
dnsserver1 = ""
dnsserver2 = ""
winsserver = ""
netbiossetting = "0"
ipxnetworknumber = "00000000"
ipxnetworkframetype = "0xFF"
[GuiRunOnce]
[Drivers]
C:\Dell\Drivers\R194162\oemsetup.inf,PERC_64
[Hotfixes]
SYSAD
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sysadhater, how about attaching the driver, so we can take a look. What error do you get? Please make sure to always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders, do all your work in one nLite session and integrate only one SP. Enjoy, John.
EDIT: sysadhater, please attach (not paste) your Last Session.ini. Thanks, John.
Hi,
The Dell executable is http://support.dell.com/support/topics/glo...amp;file=268016
i installed nlite on a new server, put my Windows 2003 x64 Enterprise R2 disc in the drive, told nLite to use that disk, and to integrate the driver folder and then burnt the cd.
I didn't integrate any SP or anything.
SYSAD
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Hi there,
for some reason no matter what I do I cannot get this driver to slipstream, it works fine under x86, it also works okay if i hit f6 and load the driver from a floppy but it simply will not slipstream.
Has anyone had this issue before?
SYSAD
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Hey there.
I'm using WinPE 2 to automate all of my installs, essentially I boot into PE 2.0 then using startnet.cmd I run a series of commands...
I'm trying to tweak that series of commands to make it as fast as possible, does anyone have any tips for installing windows 2003/XP as fast as possible?
Currently I am installing Windows 2003 via a network share like this z:\i386\winnt32.exe /unattend:z:\i386\unattend.sif
would it be faster to first copy it to the hard disk and then install it from C?
It doesn't really take that long, but squeezing any additional ticks out of the clock is always a good thing.
Thanks,
SYSAD
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Hi there, I am banging my head; and not in a Dragonforce good kind of way either.
Basically i followed this guide: http://oss.netfarm.it/guides/ris-linux.php and got Windows 2003 x86 installing over the LAN without RIS or WDS and it was fantastic. i then decided that I wanted to be able to also install x64 the same way.
Some things I noticed:
On the x64 CD, the AMD64 directory does not have the NTLDR, startrom.com, setupldr.ex_, ntdetect.com files which are used to make this magic happen so I used the ones from the I386 directory, no big deal (I thought) anyway when the system boots up via PXE everything pretty much works normally except it is like the Windows installer doesn't know that it is supposed to be installing the x64 version of Windows.
here is what it does:
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15455]: RRQ from 10.1.1.200 filename linux-install/../2K36E.0
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15456]: RRQ from 10.1.1.200 filename 2K36E
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15457]: RRQ from 10.1.1.200 filename BOOTFONT.BIN
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15457]: sending NAK (1, File not found) to 10.1.1.200
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15458]: RRQ from 10.1.1.200 filename ntdetect.2k6
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15459]: RRQ from 10.1.1.200 filename 2k36e.sif
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15460]: RRQ from 10.1.1.200 filename \std64\i386\txtsetup.si_
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15460]: sending NAK (1, File not found) to 10.1.1.200
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15461]: RRQ from 10.1.1.200 filename \std64\i386\txtsetup.sif
Oct 7 14:46:41 c8 in.tftpd[15461]: sending NAK (1, File not found) to 10.1.1.200
So as you can see it downloads all of the files (NTLDR, ntdetect.com, setupldr.exe) and then the SIF file.
At this point it begins trying to copy the Windows installation files from completely the wrong location (i386 instead of AMD64).
Does anyone know if there are different files in the AMD64 directory i need to use instead of NTLDR, etc that I can use to tell it that its supposed to be installing x64 instead of x86?
thanks,
SYSAD
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Hi there.
I'm trying to integrate the latest version of the Intel chipset drivers.
in the Zip file intel has an All directory which is just INF files and CAT files.
During the unattended setup, one of the devices whose drivers is present in this chipset driver set is not installed (SMBUS) if I simply copy the contents of the All folder to a usb key and allow device manager to use that it installs the device after setup, but i'd really like to eliminate ALL "!" marks from device manager during the auto install.
Does anyone have any advice for me?
thanks,
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Hi there,
we have about 20-30 different possible hardware configurations that we need to make a single Windows 2003 install image for, the funny thing is I was finally able to create a CD that has all of the drivers I need using nLite ( i was so excited ). I'm running WDS 2008 for my deployment server.
So what i did was I installed Windows 2003 R2 SP2, updated it, changed all of the settings we need changed and then did sysprep, then I used the 'capture image' function of WDS 2008 to pull the Install image over to my WDS server.
When I try to deploy my new 'master image' it comes up and asks me for a CD-ROM (on a network install??)
Does anyone know where I went wrong? Do I need to copy files off of my master cd into the sysprep\i386 directory before running sysprep?
Any advice would be fantastic.
thanks,
SYSP
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I just found it weird because our Vista installs put the driver in automatically. We only have to script drivers for Broadcom and RTL8168/8111 nics.
Well, we are installing 2k8 on a Desktop board, after all :-)
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Are you sure they are the PRO 1000 drivers aka e1e5132?
Yeah, I actually was able to solve this I had to add the DriverPath to the WinPE portion of the install as well as the OfflineServicing porition for some reason even though when I had it only in offline servicing the entire install would go through over the network which obviously means it has the driver in WinPE ;-)
Sysad
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Hi there, I am trying to get a few machines here to auto install using Intel Motherboards, the odd thing is they install all the way through but then the network adapters are not detected. So I figured no big deal and downloaded provists32.exe from support.intel.com, extracted it and stuck it in my network driverpath (listed in my unattend file) much like I do with my Dell Servers, and et cetera and no matter how much work and pleading I do for whatever reason when these machines boot up they still dont see the network card. The funny (or not funny?) part is that the very annoying and complex broadcom BNX II from Dell works fine after i just added them to my \\driver share... ;-)
Does anyone know if there are any tricks or caveats for these particular drivers? I know i'm using the right distribution because if i put the drivers on a USB key and run the exe file it installs just fine, it just doesnt seem like the other stages of the install have the drivers no matter what i do. I even rolled the .inf files into my boot.wim(s) even though this shouldn't matter because obviously the drivers are in there if it installs all the way without me touching anything.
Any tips?
SYSAD
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Does anyone know if there is a way to set Local Security Options via any of the configuration passes in the Windows Deployment Services system?
Or if not, does anyone know of a way to do this via a VB script?
the specific settings i need to change are
Maximum Password Age - 0
Password must meet complexity requirement - no
Any advice?
SA
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Hi,
I built a network bootable WinPE 2.0 disk for the purpose of allowing us to recover machines that are acting up remotely.
Does anyone know of any ancient chinese secret way to enable remote desktop/terminal services in WinPE 2.0 or am I just dreaming? :-)
BMF
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Getting mixed results for no reason
in nLite
Posted
I figured out the problem but not the cause, internet explorer doesn't have its file associations until after i run it the first time, which is really odd.
sysad